riding

I have been riding since I was basically 2 years old. My first show was with OVS around 4th grade, I’m guessing. It was at Canada Larga on Jackie. She bucked me off like 2 times before it was my turn. I went into the ring nervous I would forget my course, and I almost did. In the end I completed it successfully. After the next few people took their turns the results were decided… I scoured 4th. I of course would have prefered a higher score but I was still pretty happy with that. Last year I went to Nationals for IEA in North Carolina. I flew all the way there for one ride. I placed 4th. I was very happy with that because I never even thought I would make it to regionals. When I was riding at regionals in Oregon I wasn’t even nervous because I never thought I would make it, which I think is why I ended up qualifying. Riding has been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember and I’m so grateful I’ve gotten the opportunity to do this.

photo credit – https://www.britannica.com/animal/horse

Journaling

My favorite journal lines:

I keep sucking air but it can’t fill my lungs. I feel like there’s no more air in the world.

When she tried to watch the board, her eyes would fog.

My mind likes to wander away to its own world far from reality.

She fought a silent battle behind a smile, not so much to hide her pain from others, but to hide it from herself.

She lay in bed trying to untangle her thoughts most of the time, or just to make them go away completely. Peace and quiet are foreign in her mind. She would try to read but the words would dance off the page like they were trying to run away.

She was afraid people wouldn’t understand her because she didn’t understand herself.

He noticed the tremble in her voice and the way she played with her bracelet. He could tell she was struggling. 

PC: manos_de_pietro

Fall

This morning I got my first pumpkin spice chai tea from Starbucks. The moment I took a sip I felt fall in the air. Don’t get me wrong I love summer more then anything, but there is something about fall that I find calming. After a long hot summer, the temperature starts to go down, Friday night football starts up, and most importantly Halloween and Homecoming. Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons I can finally start wearing comfy hoodies and sweats and get a hot chai before school. It’s not super cold yet but the summer heat is coming to an end. I associate a lot of things with fall but the most important one has to be pumpkins. I love pumpkins whether it’s carving them or having a pumpkin pie. There is something about Fall that is just comforting and I am so happy it finally cools down.

PC:”Orange Pumpkins” by Corey Blaz/ CC0 1.0

Football

The flag football team has started the season with 3 loses. We were not playing our best in the first 2 games. We always start trying in second half instead of trying our best with 100% effort in the beginning of the game. Which causes us giving the opponents picks and interceptions. We will have to start the next games with a good attitude. We have not been prepared before the game. We need to get our head in the game before the game even starts. In the third game we played against a really good school, which it was a tough game. We only have three games left in the season. We need to win all three games in order to get into CIF. During this week until the next game, we will need to be working hard since there is still a lot of work to work to put into both defense and offense. Coach has made some changes in the starting roster and game plans hopefully it will work and we will get 3 wins.

pc: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fsports%2Fhighschool%2Fstory%2F2024-09-27%2Fla-times-top-25-high-school-football-teams-fared-week-5&psig=AOvVaw0UxOeH5Xs63thQ9hckgmsv&ust=1727808364830000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBQQjRxqFwoTCIDhzfGp64gDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

DJ mix

Mixing music can be fun once you start to learn it but before figuring out the controllers and all the techniques in mixing music, it can be stressful. It all started in the winter of my freshman year. I got my first ever DJ controller, Pioneer DDJ Rev1 It took me a long time to finally figure out how to get the sound out from my speaker and how to put songs in the software. That’s when I decided to start this new hobby. I start mixing songs with friends when hanging out with them and messing around. However, I stopped playing with it in sophomore year because I started losing interest in it. Now that I just got another new controller and mixer I have decided to start playing with it again. There are lots of things to be careful about. For example the most important thing starts with the BPM of the song. Usually if songs are different in between 0-5 bpm then it should fit just fine. Secondly, is the transition. It is not easy as it seems. It takes practices to make good transitions in between songs or from one song to another. Lastly is it requires basic music theory to be able to create good mixes and transitions. Anyways, mixing music has became a big part in my hobbies it helps me relax and just have fun messing with the music. It’s also one of the ways to hang out with friends for me which is why I love it now.

pc: https://www.google.com/imgres?q=dj%20mix&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.optoproductions.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F03%2F10-Tips-To-Craft-The-Best-DJ-Mix.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.optoproductions.com%2F10-tips-to-craft-the-best-dj-mix%2F&docid=LlGmsl4nsOdnIM&tbnid=liJC6cN16XT_yM&vet=12ahUKEwjouc7zpeuIAxUqL0QIHdxwOp8QM3oECFYQAA..i&w=640&h=426&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwjouc7zpeuIAxUqL0QIHdxwOp8QM3oECFYQAA

Journalism

Obviously I am in Journalism. I joined because I like the teacher and I thought it would be a fun class where I had a lot of control over what I do. After the first day I thought this is going to be so easy. And so far it has been pretty calm but it is easy to forget due dates and blog posts because there no teacher yelling at you about assignments and things like that… well sometimes there is but most of the time you have to be on top of yourself. Clearly I’m not. I came into to journalism thinking all I really needed to do is Interview Mr. Kuelling and start on my story, then with 30 minutes left in class I realized I have a blog post to do. Overall I’m happy in Journalism and I think it’ going to be a fun but challenging class.

photo credit – https://ubuntunarratives.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/on-writing-from-anger/

Golf

Golf is a fun activity for hanging out with your friends and relaxing but not when you flipped the cart accidentally. I went golfing with a friend last Sunday. We played 18 holes at the Ojai Valley Inn. He shot 91 and I shot 98. I was happy with my score since I finally broke 100 within only 7 months of playing golf. We had a took a little break after the front 9. We had lunch with another friend and his family. It was the first time meeting them. They were all really nice and all. They even invited us to visit their house on one of the weekends. Anyways, after the lunch and the back 9 we realized I left my jacket at the 9th hole. Therefore we drove the golf cart back and grabbed it. After finding my jacket we started heading back to return the cart to get ready to get back on campus. Unfortunately, when we were making a U turn to get back on the road we went flying off a little bump on the ground that we didn’t notice. The cart flipped and he got hurt badly. I didn’t get hurt, just a few scratches. I gave him my golf towel to try stop the bleeding. I flipped the golf cart back and drove us to go seek help. After noticing the head of school, he sent teachers down here to pick us up to go Emergency room. In the end he is all good now, waiting for him to recover fully. In conclusion always look out on what is on the road.

pc: https://golf-pass.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/80a975e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1440×929+0+15/resize/930×600!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgolf-pass-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3e%2F30%2Fceacab56f04d8a2a0d3c36edf24d%2F122154.jpg

License

I have been wanting my license since I before I can remember, and I was confident I was going to get it. I passed my permit test first try and I barely studied so I felt confident in the fact I could get my license. From both my friends and family I have received compliments for my good driving. I went to the DMV confident in my abilities but then I failed. I failed because I didn’t look over my shoulder when making a right turn into the DMV. I was, to say the least extremely upset when I failed because the driving instructor literally told me to make this right turn very suddenly and I was not prepared. When you fail your test you have to wait 15 days to wait before you can retake it. So I’m taking my test again on September 26 and I will definitely look over my shoulder this time.

Cars Traffic” by Nabeel Syed/ CC0 1.0

Collage applications

I must be missing something. I feel like I have finished my college applications. I mean I have all of my writing done and it’s all final drafts. I’m proud of my work and feel like I’m ready to submit it all. I finished all of my questions and input my grades. I did extra stuff that I didn’t have to and I looked over and revised it all. I even toured almost every college on my list. Everyone said that applying was the most stressful part of high school but I think I must have over prepared for the stress this summer. I’m joining the volleyball team because I have so much extra time. I love it don’t get me wrong, but I’m just confused. I even wrote all of the Personal Insight essays before I realized there were only four. I don’t feel myself getting senioritis like everyone says. I must have just not had as many supplemental essays as anyone else. who knows. At least I get to do volleyball though.

PC: College Flags and Banners Co.

Humanities

Humanities is a freshman class at OVS taught by the wonderful terrifying Mr. Alvarez. I was the only student in the whole class to have all tens on all of my reading journals in both semesters. I had a love-hate relationship with that class, but now that I’m a Sophomore and I’m not in the class anymore I’ve started to miss it. Luckily I still get my weekly fill of Mr. Alvarez because I’ve joined journalism.  I like how we have jumped straight into writing, but i’ve never really done any writing like this so it’s a little confusing. So far journalism has been pretty good. Clearly I like the teacher, but I also like the students. I’m the only Sophomore in journalism which is a bit intimidating. So this is my first blog post and there is still so much I don’t know. I just turned in my first story and I’m already starting on my second. Hopefully I’m doing this right… 

Photo credit https://www.ovs.org/academics/high-school/high-school-faculty/