Category: school

Finals got you down?

stayhappy1231 Comment

Here are ten ways to cope with your impending doom!

1.) Dig a hole. I mean, a really deep hole. Once you have dug said hole, lay in it. I’m not telling you to die there or anything, that’s entirely optional. If you need some motivation, think about your math final, and how you have literally never taken any notes at all.

(Click here for more info. on digging a proper grave.)

2.) Scream really, really loudly. Freak out your neighbors. Go ahead. You know you hate them. Do you even know their names? Of course not.

3.) Lay on the floor for a little bit and relive every embarrassing thing you’ve ever done. Come on. You know you want to. (At least more than you want to worry about finals.)

4.) Take a shower and maybe lay on the floor for a little bit. Might as well.

5.) Draw a chalk box on the concrete and sit in it. Everything around you is lava, except what’s inside that box. Don’t believe me? Your finals are located outside of that box.

6.) Get in a fight with someone who cares about you. It will 100% take away all focus from your finals. Unless you are really underprepared, like yours truly, in which case there is no hope.

7.) Go for a run. Plan to run to the nearby Starbucks. Run further. Run too far. Run way too far. Let the sun set, go somewhere creepy, and wait to be kidnapped. Foolproof. You think being kidnapped is too scary? FINALS.

8.) Do you have any allergies? Now is the time to thank whatever forces blessed you with them. Allergic to cats? Go lick one. Hug it. Rub it on your face. Peanut butter? Really dig into a nice jar of Jif and thank me later.

9.) Find a trustworthy friend, and kindly ask them to push you down some stairs.  If they are skeptical, here is a note from a trustworthy source (me) on why this is a good idea:

Dear friend, don’t hold back. It’s for their own good. Don’t believe me? Check their notes. Yes, that is a sketch of Justin Bieber pre-Gomez. No, there are no notes on the Aeneid in there. Keep looking, I promise.

10.) Or you could, like, study or something.

F.I.N.A.L.S.
Photo credit: memegenerator.net

Becoming Bilingual

1998sakuraLeave a comment

When school starts back up after Christmas break, it will mark two years of living in the U.S. for me. I’m from Japan and went to a Japanese-speaking school most of my life. Since my father is an English speaker, my English listening skills were perfect when I came to America, but I couldn’t express myself verbally.

I came to the U.S. when I was 16, and I knew it was my last chance to become truly bilingual, since 16 is the age you start losing the natural ability to learn a second language. So I made a strict rule for myself: I couldn’t speak any Japanese to anyone at my school (since there are Japanese students.) It was very difficult to stop using my first language all of a sudden. When a Japanese student would start speaking to me in the language, I would ignore them. It felt awful. At first it was very difficult both emotionally and physically, but because of my strict rule, my English improved very quickly. For four months I followed this rule, until the school nurse reached out and told me to relax, and not to be so strict with myself. I took her advice and started speaking Japanese and making Japanese friends.

There was a period of time when I felt I couldn’t speak any language, since I was trying to improve my English but at the same time was losing my Japanese. After getting through that, I finally can say I can speak both Japanese and English. It was worth the struggle.

Photo Credit: i.huffpost.com

Sunday Nights

stayhappy123Leave a comment

What’s worse than Sunday?

The impending doom of Monday morning lurking around the corner, homework piling up by the minute.

How about waking up on Sunday and thinking it’s Saturday? The stomach drop when your phone blinks with “Sunday” is the equivalent of reading the saddest book ever, twice.

And, even though Sunday mornings are bad, nothing is worse than Sunday night.

Sweet Dreams Please!
Photo Credit: EduinReview.com

And don’t even get me started on Monday mornings.

Aubrie and Daisy

mariethearistocatLeave a comment

Every month, Netflix updates its movie collection, and ever since 2013, it has put out some new shows with each batch. Recently released was Audrie and Daisy, a documentary that caught my attention.

Released to Netflix on September 23rd, Audrie and Daisy tells the stories of two high school girls’ experiences with sexual assault.

The first girl, 16-year-old Audrie Pott, had gone to a high school party. She was black-out drunk when a group of three teenage boys sexually assaulted her. When she woke up the next morning, she was berated with hateful comments at school and online. It was only nine days later that she hung herself.

The second girl, Daisy Coleman, had a similar story. When she was fourteen, she and her best friend snuck out and went to a “party” in the basement of seventeen-year-old Matthew Barnett, grandson of a former state legislator. There, Coleman was pressured by Barnett and his friends to drink until she was in a coma-like state. When she was immobile and asleep, the boys continuously raped her for hours. She woke up frozen on her front lawn and was immediately rushed to the hospital. Even for almost 12 hours after, her blood alcohol level was a striking 0.1349 (the legal limit for Missouri adults is 0.08.) Immediately following her recovery, she was harassed online by kids at her school and even adults online.

When I heard their stories I was appalled by our society, even though these events happened nearly four years ago. I feel ashamed to live in a world where people who sexually assault others can walk away from a victim they just took something from, and not face any severe consequences. I feel ashamed to live in a society where victims are driven to suicide just so people will stop making their terrible memories even worse. I’m ashamed that grown adults join in on the childish gossiping and bullying.

News stories of these two rapes held a certain air to them. When Matthew Barnett was put on trial, the news anchors refused to say that Coleman had been raped. They would talk about how Barnett’s grandfather was a state legislator and how he would simply apologize to Coleman and be granted two years’ probation. He would walk free, while Coleman would always have to live with what he did to her. She would have to live with the constant criticism in her home town.

We should learn how to help victims of any crime, especially ones as sensitive as rape. We should learn to teach our children not to rape people. We should teach our children not to say things without thinking of the consequences.

Click here to read an interview with Daisy Coleman.

School Dress Code

paris22Leave a comment

 

Photo Credit: Twitter User @Harika101

School Dress Code. It’s quite a hot topic at pretty much any school that has a dress code. The most frustrating aspect of most school’s dress codes is the attitude taken toward female students.

The restrictions placed on girls’ outfits can be numerous. There are restrictions on girls tops, in case their shoulders are too inappropriate to show in broad daylight, or, god forbid, her bra strap shows. Because the fact that many females wear bras is a secret that the female population must keep under wraps for the protection of adolescent teenage boys. Or, even worse, girls don’t wear a bra. Because male nipples are okay, but female nipples are a crime?

There is also the problem of shorts, skirts, and dresses. Too much of the thigh can’t show, because, as everybody knows, the skin on ones upper thigh is completely different than the skin on the knee, calf, or arm. Even butt cheeks! Everyone has them, crazy right?

All jokes aside, no one is expecting the school system to allow students to wear whatever they want, be it their birthday suit or a pant suit. But schools do need to recognize that modern fashion does not fit into what many school’s dress codes allow, and if they’re expecting female students to dress in Bermuda Shorts (YUCK) and long sleeves as to not “distract” the other students from learning, here’s a tip: stop sexualizing female bodies and treating them as a distraction, because a girl attending school should not be thought of as a “distraction” for dressing in modern clothing.

This is the end

raining17Leave a comment

Today is Thursday, May 26th, 2016. Today is the last academic day of school. Today is the last day of my junior year.

Tomorrow is the first final. One week later is graduation.

Three months later, the next school year will begin. I’ll be a senior. Time is ticking, and we are nearing the end. Everything is coming to a close.

Photo Credit: az616578.vo.msecnd.net

It’s surreal. All the seniors will be gone, replaced by my class. We’ll be the oldest. The top of the top.

I’m aware of all that is happening, but it hasn’t really hit me yet. I’m waiting for that day.

Technically, this is the last blog I ever need to write. Next year will be so different.

I’m only a junior now – the middle child – neither the oldest nor the youngest. But this is the end, and soon I will be the older child.

It’s so close, I can almost touch it.

End of the year fun

raining17Leave a comment

I hate to be one of those people complaining about the hardship that is junior year, or all the work piling up as finals approach and the year comes to an end.

Yet here I am.

I am beyond stressed out, to put it frankly. As finals are getting closer, teachers are assigning huge projects and cramming in tests, which are piling up and overlapping. There are two weeks until finals start, and I think it’s safe to say that for me, they will be the busiest weeks of the school year.

Photo Credit: http://www.character.org

I know that everyone is complaining about the amount of work that has been assigned, as well as the chaos surrounding the end of the year, but I have legitimate reason to complain – I have so much going on.

Everyone says that junior year is the hardest year. I’ve always been told that this year brings about the most work, and is the most stressful. Well the proof is in the pudding – I have so much to do, and am a little ball of stress. I can’t wait for the year to be over!

We need nap time!

raining17Leave a comment

When I was in kindergarten, we had nap time every day. We would come back inside after recess each day, and without fail there would be mats laid out all over the classroom floor. We would each have to pick a mat, and once we laid down, that was where we had to stay for an hour without getting up.

I hated nap time. All the kids did. But now, I would give anything for it.

During that hour, we had to lay on our mats quietly – we could read if we didn’t want to sleep, but we couldn’t visit with friends. We were always so restless, watching the clock and counting down the minutes until the hour was over.

Now in high school, having an hour of nap time during the school day would be luxurious. I am constantly sleep deprived after staying up into the small hours of the morning working on homework, and I can say definitively that I would take FULL advantage of an allotted nap time.

All I can say is that as high schoolers, I think we deserve nap time.

Photo Credit: s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com

The Infamous Gap Year

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Image Credit: gapyear.com

Currently I’m writing an article about a senior who is taking the path less travelled. Rather than jumping straight from high school to college, she’s taking a year in between. Before I started writing this articles I knew what gap years were, but I associated them with partying and messing around. That is not the case. Students who take gap years get to travel, do charity work, take a break from the competitive atmosphere of high school before going into even more rigorous college academics, work, and discover themselves out in the world on their own. Even Harvard recommends gap years. Just look at Malia Obama. Gap years are finally starting to drift away from the notion that they are filled with parties and are starting to be recognized as beneficial. I’m grateful I was given this article to write, because now I am aware all the benefits gap years can yield, and who knows, maybe I’ll take one now.

Awkward. Physical. Contact.

whynotstayinLeave a comment

Otherwise known as hugs. Or even worse prolonged hugs.

Almost everyone I know is in love with this activity. They say to me:

“It’s a great way to display love.”

“It’s a way of showing you care.”

“It’s a way of connecting with a person.”

“It is a way of comforting people.”

Hugs just make me uncomfortable. I find issue with being in that much contact with a person.

This is a particular issue when in a situation that includes re-meeting people, saying goodbye to people, and expressing excess emotion.

I do kind of wish I was better with the whole “come here and give me a nice big hug” thing, but then again it’s just not who I am.

Many a time I have been asked why I don’t like hugs or in fact most prolonged physical contact.

I have set out to answer this (and maybe this is true for more people than just me).