Eugene, Oregon

It was 11:00 am on Thursday, I got the text from my Dad he was at school to pick me up and we were on our way. We picked up our friends, went to the store and hit the Santa Barbara airport. We landed in San Francisco then walked to our gate for Oregon. Then we grabbed dinner and went to bed. When we woke up and drove to PK Park my mind was blown. The size of every sports complex blew my mind, and I had a great first day of my showcase. Hitting my personal best 95 mph exit velocity to becoming friends with 3 kids from Hawaii, today was very blessed.

Tomorrow I play my first game of the weekend at the University of Oregon against my best friends team and I’m very excited. From the soccer field to the baseball field and the football stadium, I fell in love with Eugene, Oregon.

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Blank Mind: A Christmas Tribute

I sat down to write this blog, but absolutely nothing came to mind. Instead, I procrastinated until the last minute… and still had nothing to write about. I tried brainstorming ideas, but everything felt too cliché or uninteresting.

So, I guess this post isn’t exceptionally exciting, but it’s all I’ve got right now.

That said, I’m really excited for Christmas. I love Christmas music—it’s so nostalgic. If I could listen to it all year, I would. (And honestly, sometimes I do.)

Well, now this post has somehow turned into being about Christmas, but I’ve run out of things to say about that, too. Hopefully, I’ll have better luck next week.

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Dorms

Living in the dorms is an entirely new experience for me. I have always enjoyed the privilege of living in the small town where I went to school, but that has all changed for me. My family moved away while I had one last year of high school to complete. I made the decision to finish high school where I started, becoming a dormer to do so.

My first week was a lot of adjusting. Living on a campus in the town where I had grown up was the biggest challenge. Wanting to go out and do what I had always done before left me feeling incredibly bored.

Additionally, I felt lonely. My lifelong friends, family, and others were all gone. I still have people I enjoy talking to, but the dynamic of my life has changed completely.

I have noticed that changing my personal life to adapt to the dorms has become the best help when adjusting. I try to maintain a schedule and focus on both school work and personal growth.

While the changes are challenging, they are temporary and are a good preparation for college and life beyond high school.

Residential Housing | Carolina University

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Routines

I am obsessed with routine. I love having a set schedule and planning everything out. Over the course of my life I have become more and more obsessed with the little details about my life. The way my bed is made, the placement of shoes on the floor and the feeling of my sheets. I am highly compulsive when it comes to my room, cleaning and taking care of myself. Therefore my routine is highly important to me. I get home from work or school and immediately shower and change into a clean comfortable outfit. I go along with the rest of my night doing homework or hanging out with friends and then I prepare myself for bed. I wash my face, brush my teeth and put on my skincare. I then make myself tea or get myself water and gently pull my blankets back so that I dont mess up how it looks. I turn on my show for the night and lay down. After about 30 minutes of that I turn on a podcast or music and fall asleep. I have realized that if I dont follow my own routine perfectly I am unable to go to sleep. I love my routines.

Attention span

I think that scrolling on my phone and watching short videos that I can scroll past, is slowly reducing my attention span in class. Its getting hard to pay attention for a full class. When i’m taking notes I can pay attention well because i’m writing, but when the whole lesson is the teacher talking, I get distracted easily and lose my track of thought. Its not only in class that this happens, its also whenever I should be focusing on something but my mind goes anywhere than what i’m doing. TikTok’s algorithm is endless scrolling that is supposed to keep you hooked and it can make you lose time perception. When my mind wonders, its not just TikTok’s fault because the world has many distractions, but its also made it a way where it requires no mental effort. Ive noticed when I try and read a book or do homework, I cant concentrate and I catch myself reaching for my phone. Going from watching entertaining videos to reading a book is obviously gonna alter your brain to make your mind unable to focus, but it would help to be mindful about using TikTok and not over-watching. I think finding a balance will help to stay connected without losing ourselves in an endless scroll.

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Life

The thought of college is the only thing giving me the will to live, but actually doing the work to go to college is doing the exact opposite. I feel like the amount of work that students need to do to go to college is obscene. We have basically dedicated the past eighteen years of our lives just to get into college. Life feels like a never-ending cycle of doing work to be rewarded with even more work and responsibilities. After I finish college then I have to find an even harder job. I feel like I’m just not really a person who wants to have to do that. I’m sure that some people like their job, but I swear that the majority of people feel like it’s a little torturous. The world wasn’t made for people to be stuck in a strict daily schedule, but to live spontaneously and be free. Jobs definitely make people grow, but they also make people close-minded, a little brainwashed. I’m excited to finish high school, but really scared of the rest of my life.

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Hollow Immitations: Live-Action Remakes

Within the last 10 years, there has been a trend of live-action remakes of animated classic films or series. The most prominent example of this shift is displayed by The Walt Disney Studios, adapting their beloved works for the modern age with updated technology and real-life actors, but telling virtually the same story. Examples include Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Pinocchio, and many more.

Live-action film adaptations of pre-existing animated stories produce exceedingly high box office results, demonstrating undeniable commercial success. However, they are typically not well-received by audiences and critics, with many perceiving these films as a sign of desperation and lack of creativity. And yet, they continue to be produced and continue to make hundreds of millions of dollars, capitalizing on nostalgia for profit rather than telling creative stories.

Conversely, films containing original stories recieve less recognition and tend to flop at the box office, further incentivising the continuation of live action remakes.

While they are lucrative, live-action remakes of animated stories lack the soul and passion of their original counterparts. Most of the stories told, particularly classic Disney films, were told in animated format to enhance the whimsical and expressive nature of their respective narratives and characters. When that core element is stripped away, all that is left is a mere imitation of a beloved story that a live-action adaptation could never recapture, let alone surpass.

Disney Live Action Remakes: Do They Have a Future? - Wright State Guardian

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Stress

I’m done. This life is too stressful. I’m tired of literally everyone. I don’t want to have to explain anything to anyone. I don’t want anything to change. Why can’t I just leave it the way it is? Why does it have to become complicated? Let’s just leave it. But then you’ll start asking questions, why, how come, but why? I don’t know. You’ll have a better idea than I do, and it’s an issue that I have, so that should tell you something if you have a better understanding than I do. Part of me doesn’t even wanna do this thing anymore, but she said that change is good and I need to adjust and just go for it, but I just don’t want to. I can’t lol. This stresses me out, and I’d rather not than do. No one gets it, but whatever. That’s life, lowkey. So, yeah.

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Sophomore Slump

As a freshman, I would always hear all my friends talking about the sophomore slump. And how it happens to everyone. I thought I would be immune to it and devote myself to all my classes. But this year has been tough, and school is barely a month in. It feels like I’m overloaded with homework, and whenever I get it all done, I somehow still have more. As stressful as it is, I’m attempting to push through. But it’s almost like the sophomore slump is creeping up on me. Every time I check my grades it feels like my heart drops to my stomach. It’s not that they’re bad, but they aren’t the best. It’s frustrating because I feel like I have been devoting myself to school and aiming towards good grades. Every night I dread waking up in the morning and having to go straight to class. My classes are a lot harder because I decided to take all of the hard classes last year. Not thinking about the consequences, I was excited to be in these classes and to try something new. But everyday it seems like I regret taking them more and more. As tough as it is, I’m going to try and commit myself and try to focus more on school.

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Curly Hair

As a kid, my hair was straight. I don’t know if it was naturally straight or if it was because my hair was always brushed out. But, since puberty, my hair has become unruly and curly.

No one tells you how hard it is to care for hair that no one else in your family has. When I was younger, my mom would spend a lot of time brushing and detangling my hair to put it into intricate hairstyles to tame it. I would hate having my hair done. It was always too tight and too stiff. But my hair was so long that it went past my waist.

Then, I started experimenting with my hair, I dyed it many colors and had it at many lengths. It was here when my hair started to curl and frizz. I didn’t know how to deal with curls or waves, so I would brush them out and hope for the best. But, slowly, I started to do research and experiment with things until I settled on a routine that works and gives me what I want. Finding the right products took forever! I would buy one thing and hope that it worked, and if it didn’t, I had to finish the product before I could buy something new.

If you go back through the yearbooks, you’ll find me and my brushed-out hair from freshman year. But you’ll also be able to see how much I’ve learned and grown. My hair and I as a person.

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