Ode To Angst

Today as I walked to the grocery store, I continued to mope over another unfortunate calculus grade. I had earlier calculated that unless I get 100s on the next three tests, there is no way I can get even an A- in the class.

Which caused me to start thinking about a story from Chicken Soup for the Kids Soul. It was called "What's Wrong With a B+?"

Well, I'll tell you what's wrong with a B+. The girl in the story's friend was crying at soccer practice because she got a B+. The girl asked the million dollar question, "What's wrong with a B+?" and the other girl told her that her dad beat her with a belt whenever she got anything less than an A.

From there I forgot about by calc grades completely and reminisced about some other Chicken Soup for the Now Traumatized Kid's Soul. Like "Hero of the Hood," about a young man named Mike who took care of his crack baby siblings while his mother continued to do crack, or the one about how the girl sang the song from the Lion King at her best freind's funeral, or the one about the kid who didn't have his karate belt because he put it in his sister's grave.

I then laughed when I remembered that I was 9 when I read most of those. I remembered how I was always riveted after yet another story of death and gloom from the writers of Chicken Soup.

Thank you writers of Chicken Soup for the Kids Soul, for reminding me that, even if I get a B+, at least my brother isn't dead from AIDS and my dad didn't steal our family's money for meth and booze.