Things That Make Me Happy

In a time full of uncertainty, I think it is important to remember all the things that make me happy!

  1. Oaxacan Food, specifically Tlayudas
  2. My friends!!! I love them so much
  3. My sister. She’s kind of weird, but so am I.
  4. My limited edition “Western” Hydroflask, I like to think the bronze flowers are Aztec Marigolds, and that the water bottle is a limited edition Day of the Dead water bottle.
  5. WATER! I love ice-cold water even if it is bad for me.
  6. Lip gloss. I don’t think I could live with perpetually chapped lips
  7. Music. It feeds my soul and helps me feel connected to my culture from thousands of miles away.
  8. AirPods! They help me get immersed in the scene of my music.
  9. Day 1 Curls. Having freshly washed hair with the perfect curls is the best feeling ever.
  10. Tortilla House! Whenever I am having a bad week, I make sure to go to Tortilla House and get the most loaded burrito bowl.

I am just happy to be alive with a full belly and a roof over my head.

credit: Pinterest

Drivers License

I’ve been waiting to get my license since before I can even remember. As soon as I turned 15 and a half, I immediately got my permit. When I failed the first time, it was really discouraging. But a week later, I retook the test and passed. As soon as I got my permit, I wanted to drive right away. I wasn’t aware that you were supposed to have lessons first to legally be able to drive. As soon as I got my lessons I begged my mom to drive everywhere.

My permit had been stolen from my mom’s car, and I had to do driver’s ed twice. So it hasn’t been the most positive journey, but I have gotten through all of the tough parts. The part that I am most stressed about is taking my actual license test and failing. Though more than half of people fail their first time I’m eager to drive and be on my own. I don’t know what it is about driving that I love so much, I just love doing it. The feeling of being free and being able to drive yourself to and from school feels so nice.

As soon as I get my license, I’m never going to stop driving. At least until I get sick of it, but I know that won’t happen for a while. I just believe that whatever happens is meant to happen and I’m grateful for that. I just want to be able to go see my friends and go places without worrying about rides. Ever since I was little, I have always been friends with older people. But my freshmen year is when I got friends who could drive. Which influenced me way more. Luckily my birthday is in 3 days so the time is coming closer. I couldn’t be more nervous or excited.

Drive Car” by Humphrey Muleba/ CC0 1.0

November 1st

Credit: Google

It’s getting closer every day. The more time passes, the closer it looms, like someone watching over your shoulder.  Although you can’t see them,  you can constantly feel their presence. It makes it somewhat challenging to focus on the present when the future keeps moving forward.  Once November 1st arrives, people will be applying and waiting to hear back from colleges, marking the beginning of our future.

After that happens, the floodgates will open. People will be either delighted or disappointed with their response from their colleges. It makes me think of all previous seniors, were they this stressed, yet excited?  Were some of them sure of their likelihood of getting in, only to be rejected, or were they correct? 

The more I think about it,  the thought that almost constantly remains the same is that after November 1st, what will happen to my friends? Where will they go? Will we be as close as we are now after departing?  Or will we slowly begin to fade from each other’s lives? As these thoughts sometimes consume me, it is those exact friends that pull me back in and remind me to enjoy now.

dang

The end is nearing to junior year and I could not be more stressed. I’m honestly staying afloat because thinking about summer makes me want to keep pushing through. I’m going to be a senior which is wild. This school year has been so eventful. I’m really hoping that next year will be much easier because I don’t know if I can handle another year of stress lol. I’m trying to not have as many things on my plate, for example: I am not doing student council next year, I’ve chose easier classes, and I’m praying that my new math teacher can actually help me despite my slow brain. Although its been tough during some parts of high school, I am so happy that this past year has taught me so many personal lessons. I love my friends and I couldn’t get through it without them. Just one more AP exam to go though! 🙏

pc:https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-img/img/2023/06/07/1600×900/best_friends_thumb_1686119145871_1686119157973.jpg

I love my advisory

This week I went to dinner with my advisory, which has been long anticipated. We have been trying to have an advisory dinner since the beginning of the school year, but someone is always somewhere so it doesn’t work out. We went out to eat and had boba, then to the supermarket. There, my teacher told me that he wanted help cutting up his flowers he bought for his daughter, so we were finally able to visit his house. He has two cats which are so cute and I am so jealous of where he lives. There is so much land and the sun was almost going down so it was such beautiful lighting. I really had a great time and hopefully we will get to do some more dinners soon. We are lying to ourselves, though, that we can squeeze in three more in one month but who knows!

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Positives of this year

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.

pc:me

Santa Rosa Island

I just arrived back at school from our 3-day camping trip to Santa Rosa Island. It was my second time going to Santa Rosa, but this time was even better. The best part for me was that my best friend was on my trip, as well as my mum. We did a lot of hiking, which was a little difficult, but games and stories along the way made the journey easier. I feel like I got closer to a couple of my friends, which I am really happy about. I learned how to play so many card games, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. We also saw many whales and dolphins during both boat rides and saw the whales’ incredible breaching. I also really liked the fact that the camping trip was not too long, I don’t think I could go another day without showering. Overall, it was a beautiful trip, and I highly recommend that you visit Santa Rosa Island if you get the chance to.

pc:https://visitventuraca.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/35308159650_73711e9983_o-1.jpg

Comfort Zone

I have never been that good at getting myself out of my comfort zone. As a child, this was extremely tough for me. My mum would encourage me to do things, but I would shy away from actually trying. Looking back, I really do wish I had pushed myself to try different things. Once I turned 16, I decided that I wanted to try and push myself out of this comfort zone more. Even starting with the little things, such as making myself go on rollercoasters, which I have always been afraid of. I now really love rollercoasters! (Except for the ones that go upside down like whaaat.) My best friend is a huge reason as to why I push myself to do things I am afraid of. She always helps me to have more confidence, which I am forever thankful for. Today I sang for the first time in front of people. I was really nervous, but the support from my friends and family helped me feel so much better. I hope that I can continue to do things that scare me, because so far, I haven’t regretted doing that.

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Best friends

All my life, I’ve considered many different people to be my best friend, and these people have come and gone. During my freshman orientation, my eye caught a girl wearing the same outfit I was planning on wearing. After an hour of name games and icebreakers, I decided I was going to talk to her. The first thing I said, which we still joke about today, is “To be honest you look like the only normal person here.” She brought me to her room and then we went to lunch together, little did I know she was going to be my best friend. On the first day of classes, I realized she was in my history and we quickly got close. The next weekend I had an argument and fell out with my school friends from the previous year. I started only hanging out with her and I learned to love her so much, we found out we had so much more in common then we could’ve imagined. As the year continued we just grew closer and closer, we ended up going to a concert together and hanging out outside of school. In April i got very close with two other girls and subliminally pushed her away. I didn’t stop being friends with her, I just started hanging out with these other girls more. As summer neared I worried our friendship would fade as she lives in LA and we both were traveling a lot. The exact opposite happened, we talked every day and got way closer we only saw each other once which was sad but we enjoyed our day together. In the middle of the summer, I had a falling out with the two girls I mentioned earlier and I was crying in the car with my mom when we passed her mom’s house and saw her mom outside. As our moms talked she came out and hugged me and held me as I cried in her arms. At that moment I realized she was more than just another best friend she was like a sister. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love her I genuinely don’t know what I would do without her. Sometimes we make jokes about being platonic soulmates and that may or may not be true but one thing is for sure she’s my best friend. She isn’t like any other “best friend” I’ve had before and I know she’s going to read this. I was thinking about what I was gonna write my post about this week and someone said write about something you really love and other than Taylor Swift, I truly love her. This year we have almost every class together and nothing could make me more happy than spending my whole day with her.

Pc mododeolhar on Pexels.com

Thoughts on Starting a New School

Friends, family, neighbors, and peers often ask me how my new school is going. Again and again, I tell them: “It’s a big transition.”

Coming in as a junior is challenging because everyone is already familiar with the teachers and classes. I finally feel I’ve adjusted to the academic side, but it took at least a quarter of the school year.

Socially, it’s also been difficult, as everyone already has friend groups that have formed over the length of two years. It’s not that I don’t have friends at school – I have people to talk to in class, people to sit with at lunch – but outside of OVS, I tend to see people from my old school.

I miss them so much. I miss sitting next to Ula in every class and laughing with Siya in the lunch line. I miss my favorite teacher, Marie, and our advisories out on the soccer field. I miss hugging Danielle and Estrella each morning, working with Tomoki on math homework, and all the other mundane activities that, in reality, meant so much to me.

I spend every weekend catching up with these incredible people, but for the other five days of the week, it feels like a piece of my life or even of myself, is missing. “It will take time to adjust,” I tell people. Eventually, I will find a balance between these two parts of my life. But for now, I’m trapped in the space between.

PC: https://www.archpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/S8C_OVS-Buildings-twilight-Aug-2021_01.jpg

^^ Our beautiful campus here at OVS.