Goodbye Summer

olivemartinisforeverLeave a comment

I never felt like I would miss summer this much. I was always the type of person who would be excited to start school again, just to see my friends, of course, but this year was different. I’m going into my final year, and I just have never wanted to be done more. I feel like I’ve grown out of this point in life and that I’m ready for that step forward: college. I finally got my license this summer, which allowed me to do so many things I never could have thought I would do before. I spent endless days with my friends laughing and making memories I’ll never forget. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate school, but I just wish I could have those 3 months back. That freedom of not having homework every night and having last-minute plans to go anywhere and do anything. I want to be back in Hawaii, Yosemite, re-live Girls State, Disney, and even just be on the beach again. I felt I finally got the opportunity to live my life without most of the restraints from my parents. I’ll forever remember the summer before my senior year and never forget the people and experiences that made it so special. So, even though I have to say goodbye, I hope that once it rolls back around again next year, it will be just as amazing.

Ventura County Beaches – Coastal Living & Local Guide | Realty ONE Group Summit
PC: Google

All School Camping

FrenchFriesForeverLeave a comment

This year, for my all school camping trip me and a few other students went to Santa Cruz Island. I was not exited to go one this trip, in reality I’m never very exited to go on camping trips. I also am not a fan of boat rides because I get a little sea sick so I was not looking forward to the trip. I still went because I would rather go on that trip than any other one. We got to the island and it started raining after a few hours of being there. We hadn’t set up camp yet so we all had to do it in the rain. The second day we went on a hike and then got to hang out in the water the rest of the day, it was nice. The rest of the trip consisted of us all hanging out in the water, snorkeling, sea kayaking, and jumping off the pier. I would say that it was definitely one of my favorite trips I’ve been on with school, even though I wasn’t exited about it in the beginning.

PC: National Park Service

TikTok AI Fruit Videos

frenchfriesssssLeave a comment

P.C – Google “TikTok Fruit video”

Like every normal person, I would like to doomscroll on TikTok, but every once in a while, I just have to see those AI fruit videos. I have no interest in watching them, but it just comes up every single time I open that app.

I don’t care about the strawberry and banana and their relationship drama; I just want to doomscroll in peace, and I see no crime in that. 

I have said not interested so many times when they come up, but it doesn’t matter; those AI fruit videos just keep swarming my For You page. I’ve reported it one time, and literally the next thing on my For You page is the same video, but the part two version.

Now I must admit I have watched a few of them when they came up, and sure, I had a little giggle, but that is no excuse for it to come back five times in a row. 

Now I can’t show people my For You page because it’s just so embarrassing when it comes up.  Fix your app, TikTok    

PC- Google

French Toast Everyday

frenchfriesssssLeave a comment

For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all I eat is school food. Eating school food isn’t exciting anymore because it’s all the same boring, repetitive food. 

I feel like at some point the food served should be mixed up. For example, why is Monday always French toast and Wednesday always waffles? At some point, eating the same food on the same day every day gets boring, and it sucks out the fun of eating breakfast entirely. Maybe if every Monday wasn’t French toast, I would make the effort to get out of bed and be happy, but it’s not.

One of these days I’ll stop going to breakfast entirely and just eat some snacks in my room for breakfast because, honestly, that’s better than French toast. I’m not asking for an entirely new breakfast food; I’m just asking for Mondays not to be French toast. I would gladly have pancakes on Monday instead of French toast for breakfast.   

Delicious French Toast Sticks for School Lunch

P.C – Google “School French Toast”

Mixed

glittersparkleprincess67Leave a comment

Growing up mixed meant never fitting into a box. I was too white for the Latino kids and too Latina for the white kids. On standardized tests, it felt like a betrayal to pick a box identifying my ethnicity, like I was picking sides. Even with my family, I felt out of place; my white side never understood why I was offended by certain “jokes”, and they could never understand certain struggles I would have to face. My Latino side always criticized me for being no sabo and disconnected from my culture. I felt so isolated and alienated from everyone and everything that should have given me a sense of community and belonging. As I got older, though, I realized that my identity, both racially and culturally, is mine to define and should not be dictated by others and their comments. I am so proud of my Salvadoran roots and work every day to grow closer to my culture, whether through language, food, or dance. I am also proud of my French roots and often try to learn more about them through my grandfather. I feel so blessed to be able to experience multiple amazing cultures all within my family. If I could go back and give my younger self a hug and tell her she is enough for both her Latina and white side I would. I am mixed and I am proud to be mixed.

PC- Google

A Lesson Learned

olivemartinisforeverLeave a comment

Recently I relearned the value of friendship and how to deal with the estrangement of someone. It’s not something you really think of till it’s gone.  It’s so weird to go from being so close to someone and their life to being complete strangers. You still see them every day but can’t talk to them, spend hours together like you used to, or even just complain about your class, they are just there. All of your inside jokes become a memory that slowly drifts away. I realized how easy it is for your judgment to get clouded and for mistakes to get made. You never truly understand the effect you can have on people. Whether it seems different to you, others can see it as so much more. I made this mistake, and now I have to live with this consequence. I can’t complain or be mad at the person, as it truly was my wrongdoing. All you can do in the end is hope that maybe one day the other person can find it in their heart to overlook your mistake and forgive you. In the end, we are all humans, we’re going to make mistakes. You can’t dredge up the past, but look towards the future. While I do hope that one day we can go back to even just a fraction of how it was before, I know I have to be realistic and leave time and space for maybe one day an ounce of forgiveness.

830+ Paper People Chain Stock Photos and Royalty-Free Pictures - iStock
PC: Google, IStock

Writing

FrenchFriesForeverLeave a comment

I find writing to be a hard thing. It’s hard when you have to write about something that you have no interest in. It’s also hard to write about something that you are interested in because then you have so much to write about that the story tends to become a bit jumbled. In school, there is a lot of writing, and most of it tends to be about things that are not that interesting. So to me it’s pretty hard. One year of an English class, for a final, we had a prompt that allowed us to write about anything we wanted. I wrote about getting and training my wild horse. The comments that I got back were that I had a very interesting story, but I had too many grammatical errors. That is another hard part of writing, going back and checking over the formation and grammar of it all. When I finish writing something, I’m usually over it and don’t want to go back to check it over. 

PC- theguardian.com

“It’s never the horse’s fault”

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Riding horses is a strange sport. You are not with a team, but you are still working with a sentient being. Except they can’t talk or communicate with us in a way that is easy to understand. In order to have a successful experience with a horse you need to learn to give up the ego of being superior to them and stoop down to their level. Working with horses, especially wild ones, is crucial to go to their level. They know nothing other than their instincts. There is a saying that every rider has heard “ it’s never the horse’s fault”. In other words, it’s always your fault. It makes things less complicated to know that you really are the problem, and that there is no one else to blame. Other times  it can be hard mentally, especially when you know that you can do better and that you are the reason that things are going sideways.

PC: instagram

The Mind of A Cat

frenchfriesssssLeave a comment

Cats are such interesting animals to be around. They do what they want, and we just happen to exist next to them.

I never really knew what cats were like until about four years ago. They seem to only eat, sleep, and lick themselves, but occasionally play. It’s funny to think that they make their own choices and have their own feelings.  

What goes through their heads is something that I always find fascinating. How do they choose what to do, who to go with, and how do they determine who to trust? They’re very curious creatures and always try to know what’s happening like humans.

They can be very affectionate at times, but sometimes they like to keep their distance from people they don’t know or distrust. 

For solitary animals, they are quite social when you really get to know them. It depends on which cat it is, but it’s still fascinating to know about them and what they think. 

Gray Tabby Cat: 5 Patterns, Breeds & Personality

P.C – Google “Tabby cat”

Work

SonnyAngel100Leave a comment

Having a job has always scared me. I was scared of doing something wrong and getting fired, or not liking the people I worked with, but now that I have been working at Ojai Ice Cream for over a year, I’ve made more friends than I could have ever expected. I’m friends with most of my coworkers, and there are very few that I don’t like working with. With some of my coworkers, I’m friends outside of school and hang out with them after work, and a lot of the time we end up getting in n out. One of my best friends I met through work as well, and I hang out with her very often, and I’ve made new friends through being friends with her. My bosses are also the best, and they have me go through resumes and tell them who should and shouldn’t get hired. I’m very thankful to work at the ice cream shop, and I couldn’t imagine what I would be like if I didn’t start working there. 

Ojai Ice Cream (@ojaiicecream) · Ojai, CA · Instagram photos and videos

Pc- google