I was talking to my friend Jane on AOL a while ago, and we were talking about turtles cuz she had just been on a turtle catching type trip with her school.  It got me thinkin about turtles, and I decided that it would definately suck to be one.  Think about it... First of all, you'd have to carry your house around on your back.  Now in a way this would be cool because it goes along with the whole "simplicity" "the things you own end up owning you" message.  If we carried our house on our back, and that was all we owned, we would be free to go anywhere we wanted and not have to worry about anything.  However, could you imagine never being able to get rid of it?  I bet it would feel heavy after a while.. Plus you couldn't invite anyone over to visit because you'd be the only one that could fit inside your house.  Not to mention the fact that when you walked around, you'd hear the ground scraping against your shell all the time.. You can't possibly tell me that wouldn't be annoying.  I'd go crazy!
Plus, you'd have to sleep in the same position all the time.  I think that would suck, cuz personally, I like to sleep on my side.  That would be impossible if I were a turtle.  Then there's the whole defensive system.  The only way you'd be able to defend yourself against a bigger animal (humans included) would be to scratch or bite at them.  When people pick turtles up a certain way it's impossible for the turtle to get at them.  So the only thing the turtle could do in that situation is hide.  How pathetic!
Oh, and let's not forget dogs... Upon catching themselves face to face with a dog, the only thing the turtles can do is hide inside their shell.  Now, sure, they're safe from the bitings or smackings or clawings of the dog, however, when a dog loses interest in anything idle and outside, it pees on it.  That may not seem like THAT big of a deal, but imagine how bad it would smell... and turtles have no way of cleaning themselves unless they're near a lake or pond or stream or something and even then all they can do is rinse off.. And turtles can't move all that fast so it could take hours of walking around smelling like that before they even find a place to rinse off.  So in conclusion, I would have to say that life as a turtle would suck.