Category: potpourri

Honor’s Ski TRIP

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UGH! My mittens were filled with snow…again. I dusted my jacket off as I strained and struggled to get on my two feet. My poles dug deep into the white, icy powder and my body pushed itself up. Finally, I was standing and all I could think was “I need to get back to the cabin.”

Cross country skiing was not what I thought it would be. I jumped at the opportunity of going on the Honor’s Ski Trip, thinking it would be a breeze, especially because of my love for downhill skiing. Little did I know that cross country skiing had nothing in common with downhill skiing…except for maybe the poles.

I struggled to keep up with the rest of the group my first day. I was falling here and there, into deep pits of powdery snow. Even when I was standing up, I would somehow manage to fall over.

However, I had a lot of time to contemplate life, just as a I do every camping trip. It’s something about being isolated from technology and being beset in nature that makes the mind flow so clearly. Letting the mind flow was very refreshing and well needed, although now quite the opposite is happening with all of the backed up school work that is calling me. Regardless, for the time being, the trip allowed me to unwind and have some quality thinking time.

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Finally, my train is here

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With the window to my next four years open and the endless possibility flows in like the rays of sun through a dark room, I ask myself, “what do I make of the previous three?”

Like many of my colleagues in their final year of high school, I too have had the fortune of anxiously tearing open a letter to read the words dedicated students wait to see since they began the process oh so many months before, “congratulations, you have been accepted.” At this moment, one may experience a leaping sensation in their heart as the rate increases.

Some may not be able to breathe or speak with excitement. The eyes may start to smart as tears of joy flow freely like persistent waterfalls and some may reveal a small grin while feeling their own sense of great emotion. Maybe you’ll jump maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll scream, maybe you’ll break into random song. Maybe you’ll hug the first person you see. For those of us in boarding school, the cell phone on your dresser drawer rings continuously for hours as family members and friends congratulate your impressive accomplishment. You try to take the moment in while at the same time you try to express yourself, and as you celebrate, you know that for the moment, the weight of the world has been lifted off your shoulders.

Today I’m another one of those lucky people. I’m a person who an institution of great prestige said “yes” to. 14,000 other hopeful applicants completed the process with me and the fact that I made it makes it that much sweeter. Did I mention that it’s my #1?

I came back from the Honors Ski Trip in Yosemite National Park to find an email telling me of my good fortune. The email was from the University of San Francisco. I can yammer on and on and on about each and every detail of the process and the story behind it like I usually do but however, this is not my prerogative.

The significance of this to me is that the chapter of my life lingers as I am about to turn the page. It is the feeling that you get when you’re waiting in a train station you hear your train coming down the tracks, and you think to yourself, “could it be? finally, in this moment, MY train has arrived.” Now it seems that all I have to do is step on. It is a new beginning taking me to destinations not yet treaded and not yet known and not just to San Francisco.

Times like now only add the incentive for me to count down the days until we as a senior class commence under the hot sun of an early June day to accept our diplomas. Yet I can’t help but think back on the past three years and question them, reminisce on them, ponder them, and to contemplate my exact emotions. I can’t say that I approve of all that’s gone down since I came to OVS as a 15-year-old, but for now, I try to stay away from senioritis, keep the grades up, and think about all the future holds while trying to live in the present. Still, it’s hard to keep your head in the moment when your mind’s a million miles away, or in this case, just up the state.

How much of God?

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I am hypocritical, ironic, and incomplete. Thus, I speak humbly. How much of God should influence our lives?

My family is devoted to extreme buddhist practices. However, I attended Catholic elementary school for five years. When I moved to America in fifth grade and Rome in tenth grade, I was also strongly recommended to attend a Christian church.

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THIS IS WAR!

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02-10-2011;War has been declared in the Upper wings of the girls dorm in Ojai Valley School. All girl dormers, take note.

I am currently engaged in a war. A video war that is.

Last night, my friend Madisen Demery and her roommate Joanna Degroof pulled my roommate and I out of our room after study hall into their room. They opened their laptops to show us a video of them dancing to Hannah Montana‘s Party in the U.S.A (click to watch the actual music video). My roommate and I were not impressed. However, they were smiling, enjoying themselves. What they didn’t know was that they had informally declared war with their amateur video.

My roommate and I split from the two girls, and two crews had formed. A music video battle had begun. We ran into the rooms, dressed up as ridiculously as we could with huge necklaces, matching white hats, and nerd glasses, and danced to the song, I believe in Miracles by Hot Chocolate (click on link to watch the video).

We tore apart our dresser and found matching white tee’s (cuz we are so G dawg) and wrote on them. At this moment, I believe that we will win. We will make the best music videos and win this war.

Watch out Maddie and Joanna.

To Tailor or Not to Tailor

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I am writing this blog about a situation.

Let me tell you, I am stuck. I’ve been stuck and I don’t know where to go with this situation.

I am writing this blog about a situation. A situation that involves an upcoming event. The situation.

Prom.

I’ve found a dress. A perfect dress studded with black sequins. Long sleeve, high, padded shoulders, v-neck. The French Connection Samantha Dress. However, this dress is sold out in America. It is gone. I emailed French Connection and they replied to me, giving me a phone number to a store on the east coast that they thought would have the dress in stock. They didn’t.

I’ve emailed and emailed but still I have not received a single reply. I have found the dress at a size 8 (but I am a size 2 or 4). Should I buy the dress and tailor it? Or should I buy it off of the UK site in my size for 3 times as much?

Who are you?

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When looked upon, the average person makes a quick judgment; their eyes, their hair, their teeth, the way they walk. In a matter of seconds a person can be perceived as everything that they are, and a person can be perceived as something completely opposite of who they really are. All of the observations made over time create a deep pool in which the person can only skim the surface of, where the strange and memorable rise up.

A single glance, a slight observation, can create the greatest of labels and accusations. It is simply because of human nature that we do this, but is it avoidable?

Recently there have been some strange accusations made by both students and faculty of the school that involve students. I have been aware of the situation since freshman year, as has everyone who has attended this school within those years. Never once has anyone spoken out claiming to feel uncomfortable about it. Why would they?

As adolescents, we don’t know who we are. Throughout high school we all partake in a trial and error style of determining and hardening who we are and who we want to be. Body-type, personality, and sexuality are somethings that don’t even come to a stand-still until further into life, if ever. Who are the faculty and students to determine who we are for us?

It’s not far to say that making judgements isn’t a part of living. In order to survive we need to come to conclusions about people and situations, literally. As a person who has also been a victim in being told who I am because of my behaviors, I know that it really isn’t fair to those who are in that place now.

I really shouldn’t and won’t get into specifics, but I just hope that those who think they are so correct in their accusations second check their facts, because last time I checked there weren’t any. It’s strange to see adults target students, stereotyping them, but here’s an awesome article on what could happen. Link.

Valentine’s Day Dessert

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Last Valentine’s Day, I attempted to be a really cute girlfriend and make him desserts from scratch (after all, the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach). My plan was to make him two desserts. Dessert #1: chocolate dipped strawberries. Dessert #2: heart-shaped sugar cookies with royal frosting.

I had made the desserts the morning of Valentine’s Day and I had all my ingredients laid out. I melted the chocolate, dipped the strawberries, and laid them out to harden. Yum, maybe I’ll taste one (or two…or three) to make sure they are alright. Next were the sugar cookies. I made the dough, flattened it out with a wooden roller into even sheets, and cut out heart shaped cookies. Aww, these are so cute! He’s gonna love these! I placed them on a buttered metal pan and waited. BUT WAIT! TODAY’S OUR SOCCER GAME! I ran up the stairs into my room to dig my uniform out of the abyss of my laundry basket…

The smell of burnt cookies filled the kitchen. I arrived to the scene of the crime and removed the hard, browned cookies from the oven. I sighed. These are ruined! I pulled out the other two pans of cookies. They were just perfect! Yes!! I quickly iced them and set them in the fridge to harden. I’ll get back to those later.

After the game, I wrapped the strawberries in little bags and placed them in a glass jar that I bought from Rain’s specifically for that purpose. Ohmigosh I’m the cutest! Then the cookies. OH NO…oh no…oh. no. The cookies had come out and baked into triangles. I had forgotten that cookies expanded in the oven. The hearts expanded into triangles. I gave them to him anyway, telling him that they were love triangles.


This year, I will send him cupcakes from Cupcake and Cookie. They are based in Thousand Oaks and they won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars so I know they are tasty. Plus! They deliver! But, I will attempt to make him a treat that is made from scratch this year. I they will come out great. I hope.

The Time Is Coming

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The pending graduation, this upcoming, tear evoking, sad-faced, sour event, has been on my mind since day one. No, I’m not talking about my graduation. I am not there yet-it still hasn’t hit me that I am a junior.

I am talking about the graduation that will herald the final, graduating class of 2011, the great, centennial generation of students. I am talking about that day that will mark the conclusion of the school year with a note heavily sodden with grey.  I am talking about that gloomy yet happy moment. That walk down the cobblestone aisle, that luminescent moment, that commencement of a new life for the graduating seniors.


The time is coming, the time is near. All I can say is that on June 4, tears of sadness and tears of joy will be streaming, salty down my cheeks. Already, I have learned to thank God for bringing me to this school, allowing me to meet my friends, friends to have for a lifetime. Already, I have realized that it will be a happy moment, giving my friends and loved ones yet another opportunity to grow. (However, it is hard to grasp any other emotions than the ones evoked by the fact that they will be leaving.) Already, here I am today, past the halfway mark of the year. The time for this year’s seniors is coming, and so will mine.

The Return of the Lin.

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Best friends never grow apart, no matter the distance between them.

Wendy Lin has been a part of my life ever since my first year at OVS. Wendy was a prefect in my wing-she lived right across from me. Living in such close proximity, it was just a matter of time before a friendship blossomed. I was new, scared, and excited to come to this new school but Wendy let me feel just at home. She showed me around, and explained boarding school life to me. With her kindness, living away from home was easy and my life at Ojai Valley School began.

I don’t remember really fighting with Wendy. We have gotten mad, annoyed, or overwhelmed with each other at times, but we’ve never raised our voices at each other. Wendy and I generally agree on everything, or settle on things. We have a lot of things in common and a lot of things that make us individual people. I think that is a key factor to our friendship. We both look out for each other’s benefits, we make sure we don’t make stupid mistakes (and tell each other when we are being stupid), and we are sisters.

For the first half of the school year, Wendy decided to take her life in a new direction. She went to Santa Barbara High School for one semester and that was her first public school experience. She loved it, but she realized that this year, her junior year, was an integral part of her high school curriculum and her future college acceptances. Wendy, now, is back and we don’t feel any strange awkwardness or distance between us. I love her, and I am glad to have her back.

Four years strong, our friendship has only grown from the young, naive eighth grade girls that we were. Four years strong, and we can boast that we have never fought before. Four years strong, Wendy Lin has left and grown up in the public school’s eye. Four years strong, and she has returned to the school we had first met and next year, we will be five years strong, graduating on the same stage together, just as we had our 8th grade year.

Terror on Moscow Airport Leaves 31 Dead and 168 Wounded.

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Today, in Moscow, families are mourning for their loved ones that never made it home. Children are waiting without a purpose for their mom or dad, brother or sister. Innocent lives were taken, stolen, by a suitcase carrying explosives. A suicide bomber entered the Domodedovo Airport earlier this day and murdered 31, and injured 168.

People saw things that weren’t ever meant to be seen. Severed legs, fingers, arms, and even heads were flying across the airport due to the power of the impact.

Artyom Zhilenkov witnessed this gruesome sight firsthand stating, “The guy standing next to me was torn to pieces.”

President Obama has offered American assistance whenever needed by the Russians. However, this bombing raises many questions on the Russian‘s ability to safe keep their public from terror attacks. Just a few years back, an explosion erupted inside the airport. Last year, a suicide bomber killed 40 people and wounded around 100. Does Russia really need to turn to America for national safety issues? Will this lack of security, will they be disqualified from hosting the 2014 Olympics? Only time will tell.