Author: ojaipizza

Talking About Confidence

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I’m not a very confident person, but I can say I’m pretty humble. I started to realize that the people around me always show off something they feel so proud of. There is nothing wrong to show others your success, but how they show their success will affect me looking at this person’s personality. I always don’t like the person who always thinks they are so cool or they just think how good they are at some area. I always feel so disgusted. For example, one of my friends from Taiwan he keep doing some gang signs because he watched some people doing it on TikTok. He just keeps doing it even he doesn’t know what that means. He just thinks he is so cool doing that, and keep doing the same thing over and over again. I mean I also do gang signs as a joke with my friends sometimes but I don’t know how he can do that every day. Speaking of being humble, I’m good at swimming and I also do it for my previous school team. At the swim races in Taiwan, I also broke the record, and be the fastest swimmer in the race. However, I never tell others how good I am at swimming or do some actions to get the attention of others just to get respect or admiration. I still respect those people who are overconfident, but I just don’t like it that’s all. What do you think?

Photo Credit: Overconfidence

Catalina Island, My Favorite Corner of the Earth

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This is my second time going to Catalina Island for a camping trip at the little harbor, the first time was two years ago before the pandemic really affect the travel policy. It was a little stressful before I went on the trip because I will be miss a lot of class. After I come back from the trip there will be two days of school and then Winter breaks will begin. In this case, every teacher decided to give a student test before the break started. I just took the AP Statistics test in class today, and I barely study. I mean I am already done applying to colleges, so I don’t think the rest of my grades will affect their decision.

I feel like I went back home when I went back to Catalina Island again. To be honest, there are not many fun activities can do on Catalina Island. We only do hiking and some activities at the beach. However, the place was just so quiet and beautiful which is why I love it so much. It might be boring if you go there by yourself, but going there with your best friends will be a totally different story. I love the places where I can hang out with my friends where no one is around interrupting us and we can truly be ourselves. It’s so nice I can come back again with my friends, and it probably still be one of my favorite places on Earth.

Photo Credit: Catalina Island

I’m tired. Like really tired.

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I’ve been really tired recently. With the stress of applying to colleges and school, I really need a break. There are a lot of tests and I did pretty bad at them while I needed to finish my college application. There is just too much stuff I need to do, and I really don’t have time for myself to review for all the tests. One of the most annoying things recently is that I need to retake the test for English Language Proficiency. I’ve taken this test more than ten times, and I just couldn’t get to the minimum score. I’m really tired of this. At the same time, every senior already gets into some good college except me. I haven’t got any acceptance and I’m so worried about whether I am able to get accepted by any college. Every day started to feel the same and I’m tired of it. Wake up, breakfast, school, and sleep. It’s just so boring that I couldn’t do anything more than that. I just don’t know how people wake up and get so excited for their day or have so much fun in school. I just don’t know-how. I only eat less, even skip lunch or dinner, and get tired every other day. How can people look so normal, and be happy every day?

Photo Credit: HuffPost UK

I Did Not Expect That Mr. Harry Potter

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Spoiler Alert!

I had watched some clips of Harry Potter before, but I just never got interested in it. It’s kind of boring watching them passing that weird shape of the ball, I don’t know, I was just not enjoying it at all. However, this Christmas break changed me, I have found my favorite movie now. It all started with my older brother, he watched the first 4 Harry Potter films with his friends already. Then, my little brother and I decided to give it a try so we could watch it with him during the break. After finishing the first two films of Harry Potter, we are so addicted to it.

Meanwhile, we went to Universal Studios and bought the Harry Potter robes. I know it’s kinda stupid and childish, but I enjoy wearing the robes while watching the rest of the series. We were just so obsessed with Harry Potter. Nevertheless, we always got so hype when Dobby came out because he is the strongest in the Wizarding World. The film hit me so hard when Albus Dumbledore and Dobby died, especially Dobby. Dobby is the king of these movies. Before he died, Dobby said: “Such a beautiful place, Dobby is happy to be with his friends.” I can still remember what he said even now. It’s a pity that the ending was not so surprising. However, the story and the plotting in those movies were just perfect. I never felt the movie is too long and never felt boring.

Here is my favorite part

Video Credit: DutchDfan1992

My “Student” Character is ending…

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Starting from my 9th grade, I can feel the time passing so fast. Every year passed with a blink. I kept complaining about school and life until recently I noticed that I only have a couple of years left being a student. I started to like being a student actually, the only struggle is homework every night. Otherwise, I can just have fun and do anything I want with my family and friends. With my work experience before, I imagine in the future, I will need to wake up so early and do my work until 9 pm. When I get home it’s probably 10 pm, plus, doing some stuff and taking a shower will be at 11 pm; Afterwards, I need to sleep at least before 12 am so I won’t be tired from tomorrow’s work. I also imagine that every day will feel the same. Nothing surprising will happen to me. It all just feels so complicated.

In this case, I want to give myself a goal. Although I might be busy working in the future, I still want to do something that I always wanted to do, which is to become a Youtuber. I’m not sure about when I am going to start, maybe from college or maybe after college. I love taking videos and editing them. Some of the successful jobs started from interest, and my interest is editing videos, so I give myself a goal to start the action and share those videos I made with everyone. I’m thinking the content of the video I will be posting is about a vlog or some prank video with my friends. To be honest, I haven’t started yet so I don’t know what the content will be. However, I wish I could do or even try anything I want to do before I get old and couldn’t move my body anymore.

Photo Credit: BBC News

The City So Nice They Named It Twice

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I thought New York was such a mess all around. I thought New York has so many crimes happening every day. I thought New York only had cloudy days. I thought New York had nothing that attracted me. I thought I knew all the facts about New York. 

My parents told me so much why they didn’t like New York. 

I watch the news on television about how terrible New York is.

However, It’s really different from what I expected. 

My parents are right about the environment. It is a little messy all around the street, plus, there are lots of homeless people who come to me asking for money. Although there is trash all around the city, New York City is still attractive to me. After all, the people, the city, and the weather make it impossible for me to not see how perfect NYC is. 

The best part that I will never forget is when I went to Time Squares for the first time. That night, right after dinner, my friends took me to Time Squares. The city looked vivid with the colorful LED lights and screens shining all over the city. As I walk towards the center of the street, listening to some random people playing the song, Empire State of Mind by JAY- Z, I feel alive again for the first time. At that moment I knew I became a New Yorker and I wanted to be a New Yorker. Watching people walking pass by with smiles on their faces. Don’t tell me it’s not paradise while everyone can be whoever they want to be and enjoy the night with their loved ones. It’s difficult to describe with words as there are so many beautiful and exciting moments happening every second.

Do You Remember That Time… 2020…

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Photo Credit: Tuscaloosa News

Do you remember when we got an alert about the new virus, the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and we were all so scared about it in 2020? People die every day, plus, we know nothing about this new virus. We stayed home and used Rubbing alcohol to spray everywhere when we got home right away. We began to lose the ability to connect with the other person. Sometimes we call our family or friends saying Hi to them and talk about how they are doing recently just to try to imagine we were talking to a “real” person. After a year in online class or work, we lost the motivation to do anything, we only have that little energy left to keep scrolling on our phones. Watching the public prank videos on Youtube from years before, and started to imagine when am I going to talk and meet new friends after the pandemic. At last, we all laughed and cried to celebrate the 2021 new year at home.

It’s only been two years but feels like it happened a long time ago.

When Omicron came up almost at the end of  2021, it didn’t scare anyone much. I noticed that people started to see this type of virus as a common cold. People don’t wear masks around, even gather with another person in the same room. People tell others that they have COVID, but they don’t care about it as long as they know they are fully vaccinated. Time has changed the way we see or think about the virus. The Covid deaths have begun to spike quickly after people gathered to celebrate the 2022 new year without putting their masks on. However, I wish we could go back to “normal” life when we all go to school or the amusement park without having our masks on.

Photo Credit: ABC News (2021)

PLEASE! I Just Want a Good Gym…

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I understand that the school gym is not perfect like the gym from other schools because of Thomas Fire. Part of our campus has been burned, therefore, our gym has to move out to the small place behind the bathroom so we have enough room for classes. The mud covers all the equipment in the gym and the smell of the rusted dumbbell makes the atmosphere in the gym more like a “real” gym. However, the maintenance is really bad, the number of people and the direct sun cause all the equipment to rust and break. Last week, one of my friends went to the gym and he literally got hurt when doing the bench press; the bracket of the bench broke. Although weightlifting is not a competitive sport like basketball and soccer, the school should be still taking the weight lifter seriously. Not many students want to become a bodybuilder, but there are a few who are serious about fitness. 

The purpose of doing fitness is not only want to have a good body shape but also to build a good lifestyle; a healthy lifestyle. It’s important to have a regular routine of eating, sleeping, and working out. Eating too much protein powder and meat will only break your body, therefore, finding the balance of eating vegetables and meat is really important to become healthier and stronger. The only way to get stronger is to keep working out, and the use of having a long good sleep is to let the muscle rest and let it rebuild to a stronger muscle.

If you are curious about my workout routine here it is:

MONDAY – ARM EXERCISE (BICEP/ TRICEP)

TUESDAY – LEGS (GLUTES/ HAMSTRING)

WEDNESDAY – CHEST 

THURSDAY – BACK, SHOULDERS (TERES MAJOR/ TRAPEZIUS)

FRIDAY – ABS

Photo Credit: Zac Efron

Application Deadline Is Closer Than It Appears

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This month is the season for seniors to apply to college if they want to apply for Early Action (EA) or Early Decision (ED). In fact, I was planning to apply to Early action, but everything wasn’t going the way I want to be. My plan was to finish all the essays for every college one day before the deadline. The deadline is closer than it appears. I always thought I have time, so I do a little every day and sometimes I don’t even do it. Without a doubt, I couldn’t finish it and doesn’t have enough time to send it to my counselor and correct it. Two days left before the EA deadline! I just can’t believe how fast the deadline has shown up. I spent two nights burning the midnight oil, trying to finish it all. Of course, I still can’t finish the application, and I have to give up on EA for this time.

Yes, I took my lesson, I should be taking this seriously. Once it passes the deadline, there is no way back to regret it. I started to feel the “Real” stress from college applications. “College deadlines are no joke.” My college counselor always tells me that, and now I understand that it’s really not a joke.

Photo Credit: College Application Deadline

Top 5 Favorite Genre of Music & Singer

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I probably listen to every type of music, but I still have my own favorite genre and singer. I usually listen to music that is not too popular because they will still have their own style of music. For example, HONNE was one of my favorite bands, it still is, I just didn’t like them much as usual. If you listen to their oldest song, you will find the difference between the oldest and their newest album. I found that when musicians get famous they start to change their music style to music that is similar to others. However, here is the list of my favorite genres or singers that you should listen to.

Top 5 Favorite singer:

  1. Julia wu

2. Ariana Grande

3. Sirup

4. Hoody

5. Keshi

Photo Credit: Julia Wu

Top 5 Favorite Electronic Music Producer:

  1. San Holo

2. Goth Babe

3. Popeska

4. Attom

5. ODESZA

Photo Credit: San Holo

Top 5 Favorite Rapper:

  1. E.SO

2. Juice WRLD

3. A$AP Rocky

4. Lil Uzi Vert

5. Young Thug

Photo Credit: E.SO

Top 5 Favorite Mandopop:

  1. Jinbo

2. 9M88

3. TroutFresh

4. Shi Shi

5. Soft Lipa

Photo Credit: Jinbo

Top 5 Favorite Alternative Band:

  1. The 1975

2. HONNE

3. The Killers

4. The Millennial Club

5. COIN

Photo Credit: The 1975