What Am I Doing? – Life Update #2

A. Final Activities 

Okay, these aren’t really final, but here’s basically what I’m doing this year.

Mock Trial, Fall Play, Model UN, Tutoring (I’m a tutor), Gymnastics, Gymnastics Coaching, Dance, and the Winter Play.

Trust me, I’m busy this year. But, I like it. Though, it gives me less time to watch Stranger Things 2.

B. SCHOOL and Grades 

I don’t know my quarter* grades yet, but, I know I have an A / almost -A in Chemistry, and an A in Algebra II. I’m pretty sure I have an A in History as well as English. I probably have a B+ in Spanish, I’d be lucky to have an -A. Dance is an easy A, and my elective is pass or fail. I’m passing, by the way.

Okay, so grades don’t matter that much, but I really need to do better in Spanish. I did get an A on my last presentation, so that’s good! Still, I hate the way they teach Spanish at my school, *cough* My Opinion on School’s Teaching Languages *cough*.

*Half a semester for those who don’t know, these don’t go on the official transcript, but they’re a good indication of how you’re doing.

C. Online Classes 

I’ve been pretty busy lately and I haven’t had a chance to take all (any) of the courses I wanted to take online. But, I have started to take a Mandarin Class, (I started yesterday), and I’m also going to have my friend who’s fluent in Mandarin to help me. I’m scared to learn characters. I really am.

Why?

Well, why not?

D. Movie of the Month 

Since this is basically a monthly thing, I’ll share the best movie I’ve watched in the past month. Don’t judge me, please.

Confessions (2010). Yes, it’s Japanese. I just finished watching it and it was so good. It’s kind of a psychological thriller, and there is a lot of blood in it, but no gore or anything. It was really entertaining and kept my focus the whole time.

I definitely recommend it if you don’t mind subtitles or if you understand Japanese.

E. That’s… It. 

I really don’t have much to say, I mean, I’m being a Spider-Witch thing for Halloween? I’m currently reading 1984 in my English Class and I love it. Big Brother Is Watching and my next post may be in Newspeak.

Sincerely, 

-V

The Problem with Teaching Languages

So here goes, my rant on the way we learn Spanish in schools today. I know, I know, I talk about school WAY too much, but considering it’s supposed to be our main focus, it only seems natural. 

However, I’m never going to stop ranting about it until something is fixed. So… forever. 

In Spanish class, we are forced into classrooms and lectured by teachers mostly in Spanish about grammar and pronouns and such. Most of the time, we sit in silence. So really, I spend about 10% of Spanish class actually speaking Spanish. What kind of a way to learn is that? Instead, we should immerse ourselves in the language. I guarantee we’d waste fewer years, and we could all probably be fluent after learning the basics in a month or so. 

I’m in a high-level Spanish Class. *hairflip*, I know. Still, we don’t talk very much and still use a textbook. Textbooks are terrible, expensive, and unhelpful for us to learn. We’ve all known this for years, so why hasn’t anything changed?! 

Somehow, over the summer, my Spanish accent magically become good. I’m not sure how, and I’m not sure why, but it did. I went from sounding awful when speaking I was scared to speak in class, to being kind of okay at it. Yay me. Still, I can’t help but think this could’ve been solved years ago if I’d been taught the right way. 

I hate the way language is taught at my school but I love learning languages. Spanish… isn’t really one of them. I’d love to take Japanese, Mandarin, French, Arabic, or even Tagalog (so I can understand what people say at large family dinners). But, my school is so limiting in that we have to take the same language for three years. So, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Next year, I’ll take Spanish IV or IV (H) depending on if I fail Spanish III (H) this year, take the AP test, hopefully, get a 4 or a 5, drop Spanish, and never see my school’s terrible teaching method again. 

Sincerely, 

-V

Life Update #1 – Don’t Remind Me About School

A. Homework, Activities, Classes, etc.

School is now in full swing and my life has become a purposeless void again. Kidding. Well, not completely. There are a few things to look forward to, right? In my Science elective class (which is kind of like an intro to independent science study), we get to go to a nearby lab and check it out, I guess. I’m also going to the local observatory/planetarium for that class sometime soon. Astronomy’s pretty cool if you ask me.

I am finally beginning to understand Dimensional Analysis in Chemistry, and although this isn’t school school, I’m finally starting to get good at my online programming class. It’s taken a while.

B. My Cat May Be Dying….

She keeps making this strange hacking sound. She acts normal, but every once in a while she’ll start making that sound again. Any Veterinarian’s or knowledgeable cat owners care to help me out? If it is a hairball, she’s going to cough it up sometime, and it better not be on my bed.

C. Gymnastics Developments

As you may know, (probably not though), I have recently become a Gymnastics Coach for six-year-olds. They’re really cute, but one of them has this terrible habit of screaming whenever she slightly messes up. She could be upside down in a handstand and be screaming so that the whole gym can hear. Luckily, I’ve been able to tempt her into cooperating through the threat of conditioning. Specifically, push ups. So far, it’s working and she hasn’t had to do any yet.

D. School Clubs

You knew I was coming back to the topic of school, didn’t you? I just can’t seem to find anything else to complain talk about. Anyway,  my school’s Science Club is hosting a meeting this week involving Liquid Nitrogen made Ice Cream. I’m going. I

My school also lacks in interesting clubs. Other people have Robotics clubs, Entrepreneurship clubs, School newspapers, Improv Clubs, Movie Clubs,  and some Hobby-ish clubs.

However, my school has…

Harry Potter Club?

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good leviosa, not leviosah. But, where are all the good clubs!! I currently attend Community Action, Model UN, and I’m going to go to Science Club.

My school’s yearbook is a joke, and my school’s only newspaper is an actual joke. It’s a satirical newspaper if you didn’t get the awful joke I made. It wasn’t even a joke.

E. Fall Bucket Lists

So, my friends and I made a huge list of things we want to do this fall. Are half of them going to get done? No. Do I care? Absolutely not.

Don’t rain on my parade, okay?

*cue Barbra Streisand*

Also, I really want a white cropped cable knit sweater. Someone find one ASAP.

F. The Strange Conundrum of the Sudden Views.

I checked my stats page today, thinking I’d see the usual couple of views and likes I get when I publish a new post. Instead, I found 32 new views on my blog. 31 of which were from the United Arab Emirates. I think that’s pretty cool. Someone must’ve spread the word around, right? I’m always surprised at how diverse the countries that read this blog are. So, thank you, readers, from the UAE, I appreciate it. I really do, as well as the one person from Ukraine who read that post. Love you all.

Also, I recently changed my theme, and don’t worry, I’m going to keep changing it until I’m satisfied. So, don’t get used to anything… yet.

 

Sincerely, 

-V

 

 

R.I.P Summer 2017 – A Retrospective Funeral

Now that summer is 100% officially over and school has gotten into full swing, I feel like I needed a kind of funeral for summer. So, here it is, in blog form… Enjoy?

Summer 2017 was always a quiet one. They weren’t too loud, they never screamed, “I’M THE BEST” or “BEST SUMMER EVER”. No, they were always quieter. But, as time passed, Summer became more and more adventurous, taking me to so many new places. Summer took me to New York, Boston, Maine, Washington D.C, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, and Los Angeles.

I was more alone than usual with Summer, I didn’t hang out with my friends as much because I wasn’t at home for most of the time. But, when I did, it was filled with laughs and ice tea.

Summer also taught me some lessons about Time Management. I took a Programming Course this summer, and I hated it. No, I despised it. School has never really been hard for me, and I never understood what it was like to be completely confused. Summer challenged me to learn something new. They challenged me to challenge myself, and that the best way to learn is pushing through the confusion and trying your best. Summer’s lesson was definitely cheesy, but true nonetheless.

Summer also taught me to look back. To look back where I was last year, to see how far I’ve come. Let me tell you, it’s been a long journey. In 2016, following June, I felt free. I no longer had the chains that bound me to my old peers. There were no tearful goodbyes that summer like I had expected. I left my past behind this summer. I was coming off of one of the best years in a long time.

Maybe, just maybe, I’d found my place.

Summer and I were doing so well. Just when they started to gain more courage and more spirit, we returned home. We returned to have just one week left together. One week before we’d be ripped apart for another year again. Mostly, I just sat around in my room, waiting for the inevitable to happen. Then came Orientation, and it was like I was already wishing Summer goodbye. I saw all my friends again, took my Student I.D photo, and met my advisory. I didn’t want to say goodbye, but I wouldn’t have a choice.

And then that weekend passed.

The night before school started, I wish Summer a tearful goodbye. I would miss them, I would miss them until we could be reunited again. Until then, I had 9 months to suffer through, waiting for the day we could see each other again.

R.I.P. Summer 2017, you will always be missed.

-V

 

The Admissions Paradox: Activities

I’m not even applying to colleges, and I’m not old enough so that I should even think about applying and preparing for college. I should be enjoying high school (I know) and be doing whatever I want.

Instead, we are supposed to do activities to make our applications more appealing. We are also supposed to take hard classes and succeed in them.

But- why? Why can’t we just pursue what we’re intersted in doing whether it’s good for our applications or not?

But also, do I really want to pursue all these activities because I love them or want to try them, or is that just what I’m telling myself?

 

And, on every day I get assigned more homework, more quizzes, and more tests.

So why is it that we’re expected to be defined by our activities? Maybe it does make up some of who we are, but not everything we are interested in can be typed up into 150 characters, listed under one of ten slots under the activities sections.

But, I don’t think I’m just doing these activities to put on my application, I genuinely love doing all of these things.

I do love doing them though, so why do people keep trying to tell me that I do it for my college application?

Why is it so rare that students do activities simply because they love them? Shouldn’t that be expected?

Sincerely, 

-V

How to Actually Survive Going Back to School – Tips and Advice

I’m already in school, but I think we all see those back to school videos with really unhelpful tips we’ve all heard before. (Also, these can save you so money too!)

So, I’m here to give you tips you might actually need and use this Back to School season with my:

How to Actually Survive Going Back to School – Tips and Advice™

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Tip #1: Get a Smaller Backpack

Last year, I carried around a huge backpack the whole time and I overstuffed it the whole time. It hurt my back, and I only used a couple things out of it anyway.

So, get a bag that fits everything you need.

For me, that’s a binder, two notebooks, a pencil case, and my laptop. That’s it. Now, I’m happier, my back’s happier, and I’m sure I’ll be happier years in the future when I haven’t become a hunchback or have to pay thousands so I can walk normally.

Tip #2: Buy a lot of Supplies all at once. 

Last year, instead of buying one pack of pencils and then periodically buying more as the year goes on because they either disappear or get stolen (by those snakes that ask to borrow your pencil and never return it!) I bought enough supplies to last me the whole year.

So… buy your supplies in bulk. I bought 30 of the BIC mechanical pencils for $11.99 off Amazon (prime), instead of paying much more for nicer pencils that you’ll lose anyway. I also never ran out. Yay me!

Tip #3: DIY your school supplies. 

I’m sure I sound like a youtuber now! Instead of trying to explain why this is economical, even though sometimes DIYs aren’t, I’ll just tell you a little story.

I found a backpack on Amazon, I was looking for a backpack last minute since I procrastinate for just about everything, including the homework that’s due tomorrow. I found one that was cute and had one of those trendy rose patches. However, it was thirty dollars and after reading the reviews seemed like one of those mini-backpacks rather than something you could actually use for school. I searched for another one like it, but I never found one.

Instead, I found a light pink backpack for about twenty dollars and some three dollar iron on rose patches that looks much better than the original anyway. Plus, it was at least ten dollars cheaper and I got to choose exactly what patch I wanted and where I wanted it to be.

Tip #4: Don’t Buy Your Textbooks off the site they give you!! 

This one is very important. Talk to people in higher grades than you and buy their textbooks from them. New textbooks are a. expensive, and b. no better than used textbooks (as long as they’re in good condition). Most students will be willing to sell their textbooks to you because they get money, and the textbooks would just sit around if they didn’t sell them anyway.

Even the programs with “book buybacks” are total rip offs. I bought two books because they were the same price online, and I thought I’d be able to sell them back. Wrong. These ten dollar books were now worth three dollars (rounded up) in the company’s eyes. So, I saved all my books and sold them to a freshman for 5 dollars a book and 20-30 for each textbook.

Tip #5: Take Every Opportunity

This is much more life advice than a skill or ‘life hack’, but it’s equally important. I didn’t do much in school last year. I did a play or two, thought about joining some stuff, but I never did. And, I regretted that. I regretted not even trying out some things because I was too afraid that no one else would do it.

Don’t follow what other people are doing just so you won’t be alone. Follow what you love to do.
I wish I tried more, I wish I took advantage of the opportunities I had last year. But, I didn’t, and I can’t change what I did in the past, I can only tell others what to do in the future. Don’t learn from your own mistakes on this one, learn from mine.

Don’t take that too far though, don’t try everything even if it doesn’t interest you. Like my History teacher said on the first day of school: ‘if you’re reading (research in my case) and you don’t think to yourself, “Wow, this is so interesting”, you’re wasting your time.’ But in your case, it isn’t researching, it’s life.

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In conclusion, I hope you all have a wonderful school year, whether you use these five tips to start you off, or not.

Sincerely, 

-V

American Horror Story: School

Nobody likes going back to school.

Nobody.

I mean, why would you, when you give up your full 12 hours of free time to spend six of them stuck in a classroom being fed information?

You know, dreading math homework and tests, dealing with stress. All of these are classic things that you just get used to during the school year. But, you’ll still complain about all of them.

The truth is, it shouldn’t be this way.

I like hanging out with my friends at school, but no one likes having to deal with always being stressed and overworked.

This year, I am forced to take:

English II, World History II (H), Chemistry, and Algebra II.

I have a “choice’ to take Dance III and Spanish III (H). The point is, we’re forced to take classes, if you’re going to make us take subjects we’re not strong in, we should at least be able to choose what focus we want in these. Thank god for college, right? Oh wait, never mind, General Ed. requirements.

Unlike most people, I believe High School is better than middle school.

-No more uneducated peers giving their irrelevant opinions when it has nothing to do with the discussion.

-No more drama and fake friends 

-Less pointless work

Wait, hold on. High School is actually a lot better than Middle school. Of course, that’s all my perspective and my experiences. My high school does not force us into dress code requirements or force religion onto us. They trust us to be in a room alone and have actually good food. The people, in general, are nicer and just better people overall.

And, I’m sure you really care about all this.

Point is, school sucks and I love complaining about it.

I will continue to complain about school until the system changes and makes learning enjoyable for all of us students.

I love to learn, I love education.

But, I hate the way we’re taught. I hate that we’re taught how to think. I hate that we’re taught that there’s only one type of person who can be successful.

So maybe this post was going to turn into some inspiring letter to our generation to fix the system, but I’m not that optimistic. If anything, the whole thing has gotten way out of hand. Not every job requires a bachelors degree, now I find out my cousin, who is perfectly qualified for work, now has to go to graduate school to even be considered for a job. It’s insane, and it’s also a completely different topic altogether.

In short, the education system sucks. It probably won’t change anytime soon, but I’ll continue complaining about it until it gets fixed.

Sincerely,

V.

PS. I just really liked the title, I’ve only watched one season.