I used to hate listening to music while doing homework because I swore I could never focus with music playing. Over the summer, I was traveling a lot, and all I did was listen to music. I almost always had an Airpod in, which made my trip so much better. My family is very loud and chaotic especially when traveling. I often get travel anxiety as I always feel like I forgot something and worry about being on time as my mom is notoriously late. Music became my escape whenever my family would get too loud or I would feel overwhelmed. I would put on my noise-canceling headphones and turn on some music. I often make a new playlist as I get bored and my music taste constantly evolves. I’ve been listening to a lot of Drake, Taylor Swift, Frank Ocean, SZA, Travis Scott, Alex G, Future, Cigarettes After Sex, and Olivia Rodrigo. My music taste isn’t very original but I enjoy it and stay tuned for a blog on my Spotify wrapped.
I’ve always struggled with science but chemistry is extremely humbling. Last year I did really well in biology getting a 96% on my final and having a 93 in the class. I was very confident going into chemistry but I have yet to succeed in anything so far. I have failed every test or quiz and struggled badly every night on the homework. I have taken time to watch videos explaining the topics but I still need help understanding. Chemistry is a notoriously hard class and I believe I could do it but I truly can’t. I have a test on Monday and I plan on spending my weekend studying although I am certain that I am going to fail. Today I have a review session during class and we are taking a practice test I have a feeling I’m going to fail that as well. I hope this test goes well.
After a long discussion in class today, I’ve decided to write my blog on trends. Personally, I am an extremely influenceable person. I buy most “trending” things and participate in many other “trends’ ‘. Trends are sometimes long-term and other times they only last a week. I have many old trend items that sit in the back of my closet collecting dust now. When VSCO was a trend I was very VSCO and I was very alt/indie when it was trending. Many of the clothes I wore during those times now sit in the back of my closet. I have been wanting money recently so I have been selling a lot of old clothes and buying clothes second hand at thrift stores and on depop. Trends truly do fascinate me, stores will be completely sold out for months and companies will create new lines just based on trends. The power social media has over what people buy and wear shocks me. One example of this is the well known green and navy brandy striped sweater. This sweater was extremely sought after and was very “trendy”, it was rare to find at in-person brandy locations and it was sold out online too. People who owned the sweater started selling it for much more on Depop and Poshmark and people spent way too much money on a simple striped sweater. Aerie also came out with a “dupe” for this sweater and it sold extremely well. To some it up trends fascinate me and the power of something being “trendy” also shocks me.
The past week, I have been catching up on all the work I missed when I was sick. I realize I can’t take another sick day as I finish my work. I am missing so much work it’s not even comedic. We are in chapter 4 of AP World, and I haven’t done notes on 3.1 yet. I have two SARs and a whole essay to write, as well as the outline. All of this is from a book I did not read. I tried to read the book but I have a short attention span, and this is the worst book too. My brothers were doubting how actually sick I was and this deeply angered me. I was literally on my deathbed. I had a 104 fever for 3 days and slept around 3 hours a night. I couldn’t lie down because I would get so congested I felt like i couldn’t breathe. I went to the ER to get tested for strep throat and the flu and they both came back negative as well as my covid test. The other people in the ER looked rough like i felt on my deathbed but these people made me feel better. One girl had like no hair and said she had been feeling sick to her stomach and wanted to get tested for E. coli and salmonella. In this waiting room while my mom filled out endless paperwork I listened to the stories of the people in their and am grateful for being healthy now.
I went into this year believing I was going to be an academic weapon, but little did I know I would be an academic victim. My friends always get annoyed when after I test, I say, “Omg, I definitely just failed that.” They get annoyed because I usually don’t actually fail; I generally score between an A and a high b, but recently, I actually have been failing. This year, here are some test/quiz scores.
ALG 2 8/30 26%
ALG 2 7/20 35%
Spanish 2 12/21 60%
Spanish 2 7/20 35%
English 7/13 53%
These are just some of the humbling scores I have received this year. Grades came out for the quarter, and I know how this sounds, but I got my first-ever c, which was humbling. The moral of this blog is that this year is hugely humbling, and I would love to make the honor roll and go on the honors trip, but I am trying to be realistic, and I just don’t think that’s happening.
Last night, I talked to my mom about how I used to be an academic weapon, and now I’m an academic victim. This is due to procrastination. I can make up the best excuses for not doing my homework. I used to just go on my phone, clean my room, or maybe make food. But recently, I have been getting advanced in my procrastination strategies. Now, instead of that, I will do an assignment from a different class instead of the one I need to do. I tell myself it’s not procrastinating because I’m getting work done. I actually need to stop doing this, especially with world notes, because it has caused me to do poorly on SAQs, and I also still haven’t done notes from like 2 weeks ago. Overall I’m pretty behind in all my classes, but at the end of the day, I usually get things in on time, but it’s extremely stressful. Last week we had a notebook check, and I was up till 3 a.m. doing notes. Anyway, it’s Thursday and this isn’t due until Friday so technically, I didn’t procrastinate this one.
I don’t think I could live without my phone. It’s genuinely so motivating. The first thing I do in the morning is check my phone, and the last thing I do is check my phone. There is nothing I spend more time on throughout the day than my phone. My mom is making me turn in my phone at 10:30 now because she says I’m a “screenager,” what she doesn’t understand is why I use it so much. I honestly don’t like people at my school very much there are a few good ones, but overall, most of my friends are out of school, and a lot live in Ventura. The people at OVS are just not similar to me, and I’ve never had a large group of school friends. I go to school and do my work and then go home, and that’s it. This is besides the point, my screen time, my most used application is Snapchat. I use Snapchat seven hours a day on average. The majority of my time on snap, I am communicating with my friends, and this is something that is extremely important to me. As a person who lives in Ojai and has no weekday free time, texting is what keeps my outside-of-school friendships alive. My weekly screen time average is 13 hours, and that’s probably an issue, but I love my phone. I can not live without music, and my Spotify screen time is one hour. My phone keeps me going, and I don’t know what I would do without it. I hope my mom forgets to take my phone.
Following up on my last blog although I may not be good at sports I sure do have fun with them. Basketball is the sport I’ve played for the longest and probably am the best at out of all my past sports. Basketball season is two weeks away and i couldn’t be more excited. Over the last weekend me and my brother played basketball together for fun and it reminded me if basketball season coming soon. This is the last good season for our team as our two best players are seinors and are graduating. It’s not the sport I enjoy but more the game. Leaving school early, doing my hair in the bus, talking in the locker room before the game. If theres one thing I am it’s a team player, I derive all my joy from the sport from my team. The bonds i have formed and the memories i have created through basketball have lasted. Many people need a form of validation in their lives wether its athletic, acedemic or for some male its something many crave. I myself used to want athletic validation but once I relized i was very bad at sports and started to play for fun I rediscovered my love for the sport. I’m extremely excited for what this year holds for our team.
Throughout my 15 years of life, I have tried countless sports. My siblings are athletic, and sports have always come easy to them, but it hasn’t been easy for me. To be honest, I’m pretty unathletic. I have tried countless sports and continue to be mediocre at all of them. Both of my brothers have dedicated their lives to basketball, and both are successful; they have both played club and competitively. My parents put me in a basketball league when I was younger, and I wasn’t that bad, but I was definitely not great. I watched a soccer movie and begged my parents to sign me up for soccer, so they did but they also signed up my brothers. My brother ended up starting on his team and being the lead team scorer while I spent my time on the bench. I then picked up surfing as a hobby during quarantine. I struggled a lot at first but after months of practice, I was ok. The thing about surfing is I truly enjoyed it and I continued to surf for months. One day I decided to bring my brother with me and it came so naturally to him. He stood up like it was nothing on his 3rd wave ever. Growing up I never liked to lose. I was raised in a competitive household, to say the least, everything was always a contest to who could be in the car first to who could finish dinner first. Growing up my parents emphasized the importance of being academically smart and my whole life till covid I was always a straight-A student. During covid my parents homeschooled me and I began to fall behind. The lack of social interaction was hard for me, as I am a very social person. When I returned to OVS in 8th grade I fell far behind getting my first ever C and failing Spanish which had come easy to me my whole life. As always I was listening to Taylor Swift and I began to relate to the lyrics of “This Is Me Trying”. If you haven’t listened to the song I highly suggest you do. I used to struggle watching my brothers quickly and easily succeed at things that took me so long to become mediocre at but after hours of reflection and of course Taylor Swift I soon realized everyone has something they’re good at. Mine may not be school or sports but one day I will find it and till then I’ll cheer my brothers on and continue to be mediocre at sports and okay at school.
All my life, I’ve considered many different people to be my best friend, and these people have come and gone. During my freshman orientation, my eye caught a girl wearing the same outfit I was planning on wearing. After an hour of name games and icebreakers, I decided I was going to talk to her. The first thing I said, which we still joke about today, is “To be honest you look like the only normal person here.” She brought me to her room and then we went to lunch together, little did I know she was going to be my best friend. On the first day of classes, I realized she was in my history and we quickly got close. The next weekend I had an argument and fell out with my school friends from the previous year. I started only hanging out with her and I learned to love her so much, we found out we had so much more in common then we could’ve imagined. As the year continued we just grew closer and closer, we ended up going to a concert together and hanging out outside of school. In April i got very close with two other girls and subliminally pushed her away. I didn’t stop being friends with her, I just started hanging out with these other girls more. As summer neared I worried our friendship would fade as she lives in LA and we both were traveling a lot. The exact opposite happened, we talked every day and got way closer we only saw each other once which was sad but we enjoyed our day together. In the middle of the summer, I had a falling out with the two girls I mentioned earlier and I was crying in the car with my mom when we passed her mom’s house and saw her mom outside. As our moms talked she came out and hugged me and held me as I cried in her arms. At that moment I realized she was more than just another best friend she was like a sister. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love her I genuinely don’t know what I would do without her. Sometimes we make jokes about being platonic soulmates and that may or may not be true but one thing is for sure she’s my best friend. She isn’t like any other “best friend” I’ve had before and I know she’s going to read this. I was thinking about what I was gonna write my post about this week and someone said write about something you really love and other than Taylor Swift, I truly love her. This year we have almost every class together and nothing could make me more happy than spending my whole day with her.
OVS Journalism Blog 
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