If I leave home, these are a few things I will miss about it:
My sister. It is scary knowing that she will keep growing and changing as a person, and I won’t be able to see her everyday to see that happen.
The weather. 40s and 50s is cold enough for me. I can’t imagine going about your day when it’s any colder than that; the image of walking around outside, going places, while your face and hands hurt from the cold is kind of sad.
Friends. There are still so many things to do together, and it feels there will never be enough time.
The food.
The mountains. When I first came here, my parents oohed and ahhed at the scenery, but I never saw what the big deal was. Now, I feel there is something comforting and familiar to feel wrapped up in the hilly earth. The places where everything is flat feels so lonely; in even large cities built in flat middle-of-nowhere desserts, you can look out on the horizon and see nothing. It almost feels cut off from the world. However, I imagine those cities are more closely knit internally.
Advancements in technology are terrifying sometimes. Over the holiday break, my brother and I were shopping for Christmas presents when our mum told us that her friend was going to pick us up. What we didn’t know was that he ordered a self- driving car. I had never seen one of these in real life, but once the car started moving I actually felt scared. What if it had like a malfunction and didn’t stop for other cars or something??? My brother wasn’t scared by it whatsoever. As the car was driving us, people were staring, and were just as confused as I was. I’m very glad that we got to our destination quickly, but it was also cool to experience this.
It is a very human thing for us to always be waiting for something to happen, or to be better. For example, if there is New Years Day coming up, people tend to say that they will change their habits, and become an entirely “new” person, but only once the year starts. We hold off on using that special perfume we were gifted, or wearing that outfit that we are saving for the “right” event. We wait our entire weeks for the days of work or school to end so that we can have those two days of freedom. We repeat this cycle over and over again of waiting for the satisfaction of the next “big thing” because that is what keeps many of us going. Sometimes this is just naturally something that can help motivate us, but there is a line drawn when it consumes your daily life to the point that you are hoping and wishing for a day to end. It is difficult, but its good to remind yourself that you must appreciate every day that you are living even if you are doing something simple. Waiting for the next great thing to celebrate might never come, so celebrate the things that you have in your life in the present moment.
To be honest, I felt depressed because the final round started this Monday. Monday’s subjects were English and Journalism. It’s been a little over two years since I came to America, but my English ability is still a long way off. This final was difficult compared to the previous year. I finished most of the finals by Wednesday and started packing to go back to Japan on the night. I was really looking forward to seeing my family for the first time in three months. I have many plans after returning home, but the most exciting thing is to go skiing with my family. After Friday’s test, I went to eat Asai Ball with my roommate. I will miss it while I am in Japan. I want to find delicious acai balls even when I go back. We also went shopping. I bought a souvenir for my friend whom I was a classmate with them when I was in junior high school. I bought a body scrub and a face pack. I hope they like it. In the evening, I went to have an early Christmas dinner with my roommate and her family. We ate lobster and sea urchins. It was very delicious and we could all have a good time together. After that, I left for Japan. I will see my family in 12 hours!!!!!
Hey, it’s a holiday break already. It has been 109 days since the beginning of the school year. Or 2616 hours. Or 156960 minutes. Or 9417600 seconds. Wait, no, 9417605 seconds. Nope, 9417611 already. Crazy, ha? There is a 3 week break now. Then, a month of school and a Winter break. Then, again, a month of school and another break. Afterwards there 56 days of school and that’s about it. All the seniors are off on the road. Then, college(if that’s your plan), career(or living in a forest?), whatever you will do with your life, and the FULL STOP. At least, that’s what Oxford dictionary calls the dot in the end of the sentence. It’s going be quick. So, if you get another day, make it count.
It is absolutely unbelievable, but this year is almost over. I am writing this 30 minutes away from November 30th, and I still feel like November just started. So many amazing things have happened this year that I will never forget. I have been able to be roommates with my best friend for a second year now, which has brought so much happiness to my life. I am so thankful for everything she does for me, as well as her loving heart, sense of humor, and our constant singing together everywhere we go with songs that will not get out of our head. I am surrounded by so many beautiful friends, and I have continued to make new ones as well in this past year. I have gone on very memorable camping trips. Even though I really was thinking the entire time how much I would love to take a shower right in that moment, looking back I am really happy I had gone and made memories, and met new people. I am thankful that I have such an amazing family, and that they are in great health. I had a really fun sixteenth birthday with my family and friends from inside and outside of school, where we all decorated cakes (which didn’t all turn out looking so good…) I traveled to Japan for the first time with my best friend. I passed my permit test! I went to a concert with my friend which was really fun! I’ve had a really amazing year, and I can’t believe that just in a month, it will be a new one.
Almost everything from Trader Joes is scrumptious to me. Through this blog, and after looking up the products I have come to find that they have removed some of their best items. Anyways, it has been my favorite supermarket for my entire life, so I would like to share with you my all time favorites. These are not in any particular order. I also had to cut out quite a few because there are too many.
1.PB & J Bars
These unfortunately are the ones that I cannot find online, so I suspect that they have been removed. I remember eating these all the time in middle school and elementary school. I was able to finish a whole box of these in on sitting. They are so scrumptious.
I cannot explain enough how much these were my favorites. I had been eating these forever. I miss them so much. One day, I think a couple of years ago, I went to Trader Joes, and found that they had remade the mini chicken tacos. Bring the old ones back please.
These are actually a very recent discovery for me. I learned about them this summer when my friend Rory and I were dragged in by a Trader Joes salesperson. We tried them and we looked at each other and realized we had to buy them. We were victims of their marketing. I want more. I just looked them up… they have also been removed from Trader Joes, I am not happy. Rory just told me she thinks they are summer limited edition which makes sense actually.
My dad actually bought this for me for the first time after online school during covid for lunch. I highly recommend.
5. Vegan Vanilla Cookie and Creme Bonbons
My mum showed these to me when I asked her to get some ice cream on our way back from school, and she told me that we had dessert at home. I’m so thankful that I tried these. I’m not even vegan but I would choose these over the non vegan ones any day. 1200/10.
There are many things I would like to write about in this journal, but the reality is that not all of it is the kind of content that I would honestly show to the public. Every Friday comes around and I spend all day trying to wrap my head around what to write about, and the name of the blog. I can honestly say that I feel like I have already written most of it down.
Today I want to write about something I’ve been into lately. Before I came to this school, I had barely touched a computer. The computer I am using now is the first one I got in my life. To be honest, I feel like it is about to reach the end of its useful life, so I would like to get a new computer this winter break. Something that my roommate and I have been into lately is playing typing games. You get points for typing for 5 minutes. Before I came to this school, my highest score on that test was 32. But the other day, after a long time, I got 78 points. I think it is a big improvement for me. This skill will help me in many things in my life, both in my work and in my studies. I am now looking forward to my score going up a little bit at a time. My goal is to be able to do blind touching perfectly by the time I graduate.
It was actually the best experience I’ve ever had. If you don’t know what SLDC is I’ll explain it.
It’s the student leadership and diversity conference, otherwise known as the POCC (people of color conference) At the conference we talk about things that normally aren’t addressed at our PWI’s (Primarily white institutions) We talk about microaggressions, inappropriate comments, or jokes, codesiwtching, and being proud of our culture. We have amazing inspirational strong guest speakers, who talk about their experiences as people of color. We have family groups that intermingle everybody of all races, cultures, sexualities, and ethnicities. They are huge groups of about 70 people. Home groups are smaller groups in our family groups where we can talk about topics more in-depth. We address things like abortion laws, cancel culture, and socioeconomic status. It is safe to say all these people were on a totally different level of maturity that isn’t in most teenagers. Not only that but they understood what it was like being in a PWI and related to the problems we went through. When I thought I was the only person going through this stuff at least 20 other people spoke up about similar if not the same experiences.
It wasn’t all serious talks and guest speeches. We didn’t sit for hours listening to one guy speak over and over. we would joke around, laugh, rap, dance, and party. The guest speakers would rap their speeches reaching into the depths of your soul.
It was life-changing.
I met the most amazing people ever. I got a whole new familia. My affinity group, the Latinx group, the loudest best most fun group, was probably the highlight of my trip. I met the most amazing people, I came out of my shell and was dancing with everyone. we had our own dance party at dinner which continued into our affinity group time right after. I have never felt so at home. I never wanted it to end.
alas it did, I cried a lot. The closing ceremony was a lot. One of the main speakers had us do an exercise where we found people we love, people who changed our lives, and people who made our experience. I didn’t last two seconds without crying. People came up to me thanking me for dragging them into the dance circle and teaching them to dance. I cried while hugging people I literally met two days ago. i probably cried for hours that day, my friends all made fun of me. I miss them.
I plan on using what I learned there to make OVS better. Making people aware, it’s hard but I’m working on it.
The title doesn’t lie. School seems to get harder and harder, with college, student government, and planning things for our affinity group. Although academics aren’t a lot of pressure, I sure did give myself many extracurricular things to do. Balancing everything is a lot of work. I’m pretty sure every senior can agree with that. The work is like a tapeworm. They find their way into you and eat all the nutrients you eat, and once they are done with that, they move on from you.
You’re left drained
If I’m being honest, I’m not sure what I’m writing. All I know is that I have a lot to do, but I’m not even sure where to start. I also feel like time is just moving on and I’m so busy doing everything that I’m not enjoying it. But I do have the most beautiful memories, I have some of the best people surrounding me. I’m looking forward to break but that’s also the halfway mark of my whole senior year. I also have to turn everything in for college.
Very scary stuff
I just hope I get to finish everything soon as I can finally look up and enjoy senior year.
OVS Journalism Blog 
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