AP Lit.

Bl@ckBe@nsLeave a comment

Photo Credit: Google

I’m not sure why I chose to take AP Literature and Composition. Yes, I do like English, but not enough to torture myself. Yes, it’s just the beginning of the class, but I’m not meant for the timed writing lifestyle. It gives me too much anxiety and makes it hard to focus on the task and hand. I’m not going to sit here and lie, but I thought I would be doing better. I currently have a grade in the B range, which I’m usually ok with, but recently B’s have been looking awful to me. 
I should have had this mindset in my Junior year. If I had, I would have had higher hopes of getting accepted into better colleges.


I digress. Every time we do timed writing in class, I always end up reading the prompt way too many times, and even then, I might still not fully grasp what’s needed. 

When I get to the writing segment, I often find myself forgetting what I was thinking about and having to go back and read through it.  By the time I’ve gotten started and have set a rhythm, I have like 5 minutes left. Once I hear “you guys have five more minutes,” the rhythm I had disappears into thin air, and I’m trying to type whatever comes to my head, but yet again, my brain has nothing to write. 

Nights

LetsGetSendyy6767Leave a comment

From the moment I wake up to the time I sleep, I spend every moment active. That may be because I procrastinate and hold off until the last minute on a lot of things.

My day is kick-started at 7:30 when I spring out of bed to throw a hoodie on and make it to breakfast, and check in by 7:35. After that, the majority of the school day is spent working hard in class and focusing on doing the best I can.

The few breaks are still spent actively as I socialize with my friends all throughout the day. After school is sports. After sports is the gym, then I shower and go to dinner. After dinner is the study hall, and finally, after all of the rush, it is 8:59. My mind goes blank and fuzzy during study hall as I wait one last minute to enjoy the finale of my day.

Once it is 9:00, I am free from all the responsibilities of the day. I blast the best music with my roommate and make TikToks just for fun. I lie down and put on a show and absorb it effortlessly. I take too much joy in my free nights and end up staying out late. I never realize the consequence until it’s 7:30 and my body is numb as I jog to make breakfast.

A full moon seen through some trees at night photo – Free Moon Image on Unsplash

P.C. Google

The Duality of Being Sick

StrawberryMushroomLeave a comment

I wake up to the stinging sensation in my throat every time I swallow. Getting out of my bed seems so taxing. Even when I eventually manage to get myself up, my head feels as though it has grown twice as heavy overnight.

In my case, it is evident what caused my sickness: I spent the week stressed due to excessive amounts of homework and SAT studying, I had consumed unhealthy foods and drinks, and both the overworking and sugar consumption contributed to insufficient amounts of sleep.

No one likes feeling drained or hurt every time they take a step or swallow. And yet, I doubt that every day we are healthy, we think to ourselves, “I’m glad I am healthy today,” or “I’m glad my throat isn’t hurting.”

Our bodies are an entity of their own, systematically designed to communicate their needs to us. On the surface, it is telling me today that I haven’t been taking care of my body, exhausting it to its limit with poor nutrition and inadequate rest. But furthermore, it serves as a reminder to appreciate every day I wake up feeling healthy.

Person blowing nose, surrounded by medicines and home remedies

Picture Credit: Google

Halloween

Soccer11Leave a comment

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and every year my family has a party at my grandparents’ house where my parents invite a bunch of their friends and we all eat dinner, and then we go trick-or-treating. But this year I’m too old for trick or treating, and I don’t want to hang out with my parents’ friends and their kids, so I’m going to my friend’s house. I’m probably going to go over to her house and get ready and redo my makeup and do my hair and then take pictures, and hopefully I’ll get to stay the night at my friend’s house because we’re probably going to be out pretty late. For my costume, I’m going to be an FBI agent, and my friends are going to be a firefighter. I’m hoping that this year’s the best Halloween yet because every other year has been boring, and I’m excited to not just be trick-or-treating.

This may contain: a sidewalk lined with lots of leaves next to a house covered in lights and pumpkins

pc: pintrest

Halloweekend

uwucutiepatootieLeave a comment

Halloween is one of the most fun and stressful moments of life. This year it’s terrible because I have to balance out celebrating Halloween and also finishing up college work. The most difficult part of Halloween is figuring out outfits. Whenever I open TikTok or Pinterest to find inspiration, they are either over worn outfits, ugly, or too much. All the excellent ones are always worn a million times, but I also don’t want to wear something that no one would understand. Another obstacle is wanting to wear the same costume as your friend. I always tell myself that I will have my outfits planned and bought before summer ends, but this never happens. I’ve already used one of my costumes, but I have three other ones that are ready. This is genuinely shocking because usually I just figure things out really last minute, but I had to stop worrying about it and get it done, just like I need to do with college work.

“Halloween Pumpkin” by Skitter Photo/ CC0 1.0

Grades

myfatcats2Leave a comment

My grades right now are not an accurate representation of who I want to be as a student. My APES grade is not good at all. That test that everyone in my class took was so confusing. Other than APES, my grades aren’t terrible, a couple of A’s, some B’s, but I wish they were all A’s. College is not as far as it was last year, and I really need to start doing better if I even want a chance at getting into a good college. Not only is there stuff inside of school, but there’s stuff outside of school as well. I really need to spend more time focusing on school than worrying about other things. The annoying part is that there is no opportunity for me to even improve my grade in APES because the only things that change it are the tests. So, moving forward, I really, really, really need to study and focus because this path I’m headed down is not a good one.

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The Perfect Month

zombiegxrlLeave a comment

Living in such a small town has its benefits, but sadly limits my options for weekend activities. Weekends become monotonous for me, so I assume small town life must be affecting at least one other person in the same way. Luckily, I’ve found that in October, the options for how to plan out your weekend are endless. To help others who may struggle to get out and do things during the weekends, I’ve compiled a list of activities to fill the time. The obvious option is pumpkin carving. During the month of October, it’s an unwritten law that you MUST carve pumpkins. You could also bake pumpkin or banana bread. The changing weather makes baking the perfect relaxing activity with a delicious reward. Visiting Halloween stores is crucial. Since stores like Spirit Halloween are only open during October, you have to go while it’s around. Besides browsing the overpriced costumes, there is creepy decor that will elevate your room, especially for the holiday. Now for those who have the money, visiting a theme park during October is a peak experience. Theme parks really go all-out with scare actors and decorations. If you don’t like roller coasters, experiencing the Halloween vibes is still a great reason to visit. For locals, visiting the haunted hayride at Boccali’s Pizza & Pasta is almost like a tradition. It may seem silly now that we’re all grown up, but it’s always fun to get dinner, visit their pumpkin patch, and get nostalgic with the hayride. Not to mention October 18th is Ojai Day! Ojai Day celebrates our small town with booths, activities, and socialization. Everyone seems to show up for Ojai Day, so you should too. Finally, there are parties! October brings with it a rush of costume parties almost every weekend. If you’re sick of sitting inside and not able to find things to do, October is definitely the perfect month to fix that.

Picture Credit- Google

Horseback Riding

ackley4167Leave a comment

I have been riding horses since I was six years old. When I lived in Uruguay, we would go ride these wild horses in a place called the campo. That’s where I found my love for riding. As soon as we returned back I begged my mom to start lessons, and that’s where my journey began. I would go to summer camps, ride 4 to 5 times a week, and completely devote myself. When I was about 12 years old, I had taken a little break, but I knew how much I missed it. I had switched from English to Western, but I knew I liked riding English way more. When I started my new school in Ojai, I did the riding program and loved it so much. Moving on to my freshman year is where my passion started drifting away. I would dread having to go and ride. I didn’t understand it though, because I had always been so excited whenever I got to ride. To this day, I still don’t understand what unmotivated me so much. I ended up quitting riding a quarter into my freshman year, and I still miss it so much. Luckily, horseback riding is a skill that just ingrains into you as soon as you learn it. It’s like something you will never forget. Maybe you will forget the little things, like putting on a saddle or a bridle. But I will never forget my love for those horses and for the sport.

“Animals Horses” by Omar Prestwich/ CC0 1.0

Holy.. Cold.

Halos_击Leave a comment

Today marks Tuesday, October 14th, 2025. It’s pretty much the first rain of the school year, since I don’t really count the one at the beginning because I wasn’t there that day. I woke up at 3:32 AM because I had a dream where I stuck my hand into a vat of… what seemed like ink(?), and woke up extremely nauseous. I lay in bed until it was 4:30 AM, where I heard my mom wake up.

My room was frigid whenever I woke up at that stupidly early hour, but thankfully, I ended up going back to sleep. I woke up again at my normal time of 6 AM, since I live an hour away from school. Mid getting dressed, I hear my mom call out, “Percy! We have to leave early!” Since I didn’t wanna communicate with her from my room to the kitchen, which was a long way away, I got my hoodie and the things I needed for the day.

Running out of the house, the cold as heck air hits my face, wakes me up. I wanted it to be sweater weather, not full-on parka weather. I hope it rains again where it isn’t stupidly cold.

I.C. – Pinterest

Work

unicorn123Leave a comment

I have a love-hate relationship with my work. I love making money. But I absolutely hate dealing with customers. For example it was a busy Friday afternoon, I was doing my regular work routine. All of a sudden a old customer calls me over. Mid bite of her arugula salad she starts explaining how terrible the chicken is. She starts telling me its disgusting and dry. I apologize but she continues complaining. I Leave to get her a new side of chicken. I bring the new chicken to her and she makes me wait so that she can try it to see if it’s up to her standard. She tells me it’s terrible dry and not edible. I apologize again and explain we roast our chicken early in the morning and warm it up to be served so it must be a dry chicken or something. All of a sudden she screams at me and explains how terrible of a waitress I am and instead of explaining why its dry I should go give the kitchen the feedback. I assure her that I will and we will fix the problems. Apparently that’s not good enough so she continues to tell me how her family used to be in the restaurant buisness and so she knows everything. She tells me she’s never coming back. When I walked away me and my favorite coworker talked about how we would rather have customers never come back or just dont come in the first place rather than yell at us. My paycheck doesn’t get affected if we have one less customer comes it doesnt even change if 10 customers dont come back. I am sick of working.

Credits: Google