Tag: high school

Ten Things Curently I hate

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Credit: Google

I feel like I don’t hate a lot of things, but I do have random things I just don’t like right now.

  1. College Applications (they make my pockets hurt)
  2. College Writing (It makes me feel like over sharing to a randome person )
  3. Homework (I just don’t like homework, and the senioritis is getting harder to resist)
  4. Math (I miss when there wasnt letters in math problems)
  5. Not having money to spend (I’m just broke)
  6. Taking out my hair after having braids (It’s disappointing to think my hair grew a bunch, only to find out it grew like a centimeter)
  7. Having to take care of my hair (Spending 4+ hours gets aannoyinng really quick)
  8. Not having superpowers (I wish I could fly, so I wouldn’t need to spend money on a ticket)
  9. Having only twenty-four hours in a day ( I wish nighttime were longer)
  10. Having to completely grow up ( Taxes, bills, and other things, also just how much money goes into being able to live, and just finding a job in the current market)

Sick

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I hate being sick. When I’m sick, everything sucks. From the never-ending headache all the way to the sore throat. It’s that one minute when you might feel fine, and the next you feel like your body is made of lead and weighs 3,000 pounds. The thing I hate most of all is the sore throat. It makes me feel like you have just swallowed a million glass shards, and each one is getting stuck in my esophagus.

The pain feels never-ending, even when I find a way to relieve it, it quickly returns. My solution to this is usually to drink the hottest thing I can get my hands on, from just regular hot water to tea with honey. It isn’t just the symptoms that make getting sick horrible; it is also the days you miss.

When you’re sick, you miss out on a lot of things, too, from homework to current events. When you do get better, you realise you still have to make up for the work you missed and hear everything that happened second-hand.

Spring Soccer Season

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The spring soccer season just ended, and my team got first place. We went undefeated throughout the entire season, scoring 53 goals and conceding only 9 goals in 10 games. Every one of my teammates tried their best, and they never gave up. We did have some bad games, but even when we did, we still never gave up, and we either came out with a win or with a tie. Now that my team won, we go up a level for next season, and we’re going to be NPL. NPL is a big deal, especially for a Ventura team. Now that the league is over, we go on to the College Cup in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving break. But after that college cup, our team stops practicing, and we all go play for our high school teams. This win means a lot to us and our coach, and I’m excited to see how my team does next season. 

Finally Landed: Bishop Carroll culminates more than decade of final 4 finishes with 1st state championship, Golden Eagles earn 2-1 win over St. James Academy in 5A girls soccer final - Kansas

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First Semester Senior Year

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I can’t believe it —they were right; it really does creep up. I swear it was only like yesterday that I had been dreading coming back for the final time. The drive, as excited as I was to see my friends, signaled my first step to the end of my high school career. Back then, it seemed I had eternity before the second semester even approached my vicinity. That time would move as slowly as a snail trying to get from one side of the garden to the other. 

But as time seemed to pass me by these couple of months, I realized I’d kept myself busy enough not to notice the approach of the end. As I wrap up my final season of volleyball, I remember this is it. Next year, I will be off to college, and all these fantastic people I know will be spread out either across the US or even the world.  

It baffles me that not that long ago, it was summer and I was dreading the long wait until the second semester, but now the saying “time waits for no one” really has meaning. I want time to wait, so I can continue to enjoy these little moments I have with my friend. The moments where we do nothing and everything, and still find ways to end up on the floor laughing. To the point where my side hurts and I have to yell, “Shut up, it actually hurts,” only to continue. It’s those moments that have made the first semester so memorable and have made me melancholic about the second semester.

AP Lit.

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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. 

The College Application Process

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I feel like the system of college applications is so interesting. It’s crazy how much time, effort, money, and well-being people put into working towards the standard of what is considered a “solid” application. There are so many aspects of one’s application, too, that require so much of everything listed above. First, of course, are the grades. GPA, AP Test scores, and SAT/ACT scores are all big factors in how a student is portrayed academically, which I think is such a lame system. Basically, even if a student performs well in an in-class environment and puts in a bunch of effort in their homework and learning the material, ultimately, a lot of it depends on whether or not they are a good test taker. If not, because so many of the massive assessments of one’s grade are based on how well they perform on tests, a good student may seem on the outside to be one who barely puts in time and doesn’t care about their academic standing. Next is the college essay. I have heard too many horror stories about how the best writers come out with pretty awful essays that do not represent them well as writers or even as a person, just because of the stress the system puts one under to come out with such a magnificent piece of writing. On top of the grades and essays, you have all of the many extracurriculars. If you weren’t already burnt out trying to put in effort for school as well as lead a normal social life and give yourself time to rest, there are a million other things that “good and successful” students that want to get into a top-notch college should be doing with their time. Some of those include being in Student Council, a part of school programs such as Student Leadership or Dorm Prefects, participating in in-school programs such as Journalism or Yearbook, varsity or club sports, community service hours, and even holding a stable part-time job on top of it all. In my mind, it just seems like so much pressure to put on teenagers, half of them are not even sure what they want to do the rest of their lives. So now, they are putting in everything they have just to get accepted into the best university or college they possibly can. And the thing is, half of those top-notch places are not even worth the hype, at least in my opinion. So many people are striving to get in just because of the name or the reputation that barely holds any weight in the long run. I feel like I could talk about this process for actual hours, but it is something I am passionate about just considering it is such a big part of my and a lot of people’s lives around me.

College Applications: The Plight of Senior Year

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School

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I am not sure if I have ever been as stressed about school as I am now. The combination of APs and finals is going to kill me in about a week if I do not start feeling better about any of it. My first AP test is next Friday, followed by three more next week, two of which happen to be on the same day. Following that, there is a single week until finals, which makes me want to die. Half of my AP teachers don’t even care that we just took the AP exam and are still going to give out final exams for the class. I want to take extra time to put in extra review for my exams coming up, but I am just so burnt out from all of the regular work my classes are assigning that I do not physically have time to do that if I want to maintain a decent status of my mental well-being. I miss being a freshman. I miss my biggest concern being my humanities reading journals. I miss barely studying for tests and still receiving good grades. Now, school is just about tough exams and how that affects college, which only puts millions of tons of pressure on the students. It’s all so stupid and annoying.

7,560 Stressed Student Cartoon Images, Stock Photos, 3D objects, & Vectors | Shutterstock

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My Updated Thoughts On Blogs

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I think one of my first ever blogs was on how much I really don’t like them. I talked for a decent-sized paragraph about how they are annoying, a waste of time, and how I wish we did not have to do them. However, recently, I have had a little bit of a relapse of judgment regarding blogs. I still think it is hard sometimes to come up with a prompt. This week is an example of that, as I could think of nothing else to write about but a topic I have done before. It’s not very original also in the sense that I am writing about what I am writing, if that makes sense. Anyway, although I still feel like coming up with prompts is difficult sometimes, I am starting to enjoy the blog-writing process more. More often, ideas will come to me immediately that actually seem fun and interesting to talk about, and I don’t feel like I am forcing anything when writing about them. Additionally, I have started at least brainstorming and, most of the time, writing my blogs a week in advance. That way, they feel like less of a chore and struggle to get them submitted on time before the Friday midnight deadline. I feel like I kinda see the point of them more in the past. They are a creative outlet – a place where we can write without feeling confined to a story idea that we don’t have any interest or passion regarding. In conclusion, I have less hatred than I have had in the past on the subject of blog writing but don’t try to make me admit that out loud.

Cartoons about Blogging and Bloggers | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

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I’m So Tired

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It’s literally only been like a week since we started school after the Holiday Break, and I am already so exhausted. A grand combination of horrible classes, ungodly homework, extracurriculars that take up too much time, and aggressive and long-lasting sports games have contributed to me feeling like I have zero time again and literally am hanging on by a thread. All I want to do is just sleep and lie down in my bed. But, the issue is that if I relax and do that, a massive part of my brain is telling me that I am not being productive enough and could be doing other things with my time that would be better for me. I am trying so hard to not be behind on work, and I did a decent job of that, but is the effort that it took to get there even worth it? I guess we will only know as soon as I get accepted into my dream college or something.

Grumpy and tired student sits by the table with homework at night. Funny vector illustration of comic displeased character. Boy weary and don't want to do work. Stock Vector | Adobe Stock

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Thoughts on Starting a New School

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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.