I’m tired. Like really tired.

I’ve been really tired recently. With the stress of applying to colleges and school, I really need a break. There are a lot of tests and I did pretty bad at them while I needed to finish my college application. There is just too much stuff I need to do, and I really don’t have time for myself to review for all the tests. One of the most annoying things recently is that I need to retake the test for English Language Proficiency. I’ve taken this test more than ten times, and I just couldn’t get to the minimum score. I’m really tired of this. At the same time, every senior already gets into some good college except me. I haven’t got any acceptance and I’m so worried about whether I am able to get accepted by any college. Every day started to feel the same and I’m tired of it. Wake up, breakfast, school, and sleep. It’s just so boring that I couldn’t do anything more than that. I just don’t know how people wake up and get so excited for their day or have so much fun in school. I just don’t know-how. I only eat less, even skip lunch or dinner, and get tired every other day. How can people look so normal, and be happy every day?

Photo Credit: HuffPost UK

Avoiding Politics

Photo Credit: http://www.khou.com

I was shocked when my friend told me that she thought I was really into politics because I never considered myself a political person.

She also said she has always been told by her parents never to mention politics with friends.

Why is politics such a taboo?

We all have come from different backgrounds, received different education, and read different books. Even within the same country, there are left-wing and right-wing, communist and green parties. Of course, people will have disagreements.

While it is true that many people don’t care about politics at all, we are given the right to believe in what we believe.

Another friend of mine met her ex-boyfriend online, my friend is from China and the ex-boyfriend is German. They argue constantly over political issues. Eventually, they broke up, and neither side changed their beliefs.

Does that mean we should try to not mention it in daily conversation? I, at least, believe that gives us more reason to talk openly about it and learn from different perspectives.

James Webb update

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has finally reached its orbit at Lagrange point 2. There it will stay in the shadow of Earth to take pictures. Now these won’t be ordinary pictures, while the Hubble Space Telescope has been taking photos in the visible light spectrum, the light we can see, the JWST will be taking photos in the ultraviolet spectrum. This will allow us to effectively see through any sort of cosmic clouds which have previously blocked our view. The photos will be taken in the ultraviolet, translated into black and white, and then colorized to give us some of the most incredible pictures we have ever seen. The telescope can’t take photos right away though, it will take about six months to cool (it needs to be -233 C to detect ultraviolet light) calibrate, and undergo incredible amounts of testing. When photos begin to be taken and released our understanding of our universe as we know it may very well be flipped on its head.

James Webb Space Telescope: How does it work and what will it see? - BBC  Science Focus Magazine
Photo credit: NASA

Do You Remember That Time… 2020…

Photo Credit: Tuscaloosa News

Do you remember when we got an alert about the new virus, the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and we were all so scared about it in 2020? People die every day, plus, we know nothing about this new virus. We stayed home and used Rubbing alcohol to spray everywhere when we got home right away. We began to lose the ability to connect with the other person. Sometimes we call our family or friends saying Hi to them and talk about how they are doing recently just to try to imagine we were talking to a “real” person. After a year in online class or work, we lost the motivation to do anything, we only have that little energy left to keep scrolling on our phones. Watching the public prank videos on Youtube from years before, and started to imagine when am I going to talk and meet new friends after the pandemic. At last, we all laughed and cried to celebrate the 2021 new year at home.

It’s only been two years but feels like it happened a long time ago.

When Omicron came up almost at the end of  2021, it didn’t scare anyone much. I noticed that people started to see this type of virus as a common cold. People don’t wear masks around, even gather with another person in the same room. People tell others that they have COVID, but they don’t care about it as long as they know they are fully vaccinated. Time has changed the way we see or think about the virus. The Covid deaths have begun to spike quickly after people gathered to celebrate the 2022 new year without putting their masks on. However, I wish we could go back to “normal” life when we all go to school or the amusement park without having our masks on.

Photo Credit: ABC News (2021)

Application Deadline Is Closer Than It Appears

This month is the season for seniors to apply to college if they want to apply for Early Action (EA) or Early Decision (ED). In fact, I was planning to apply to Early action, but everything wasn’t going the way I want to be. My plan was to finish all the essays for every college one day before the deadline. The deadline is closer than it appears. I always thought I have time, so I do a little every day and sometimes I don’t even do it. Without a doubt, I couldn’t finish it and doesn’t have enough time to send it to my counselor and correct it. Two days left before the EA deadline! I just can’t believe how fast the deadline has shown up. I spent two nights burning the midnight oil, trying to finish it all. Of course, I still can’t finish the application, and I have to give up on EA for this time.

Yes, I took my lesson, I should be taking this seriously. Once it passes the deadline, there is no way back to regret it. I started to feel the “Real” stress from college applications. “College deadlines are no joke.” My college counselor always tells me that, and now I understand that it’s really not a joke.

Photo Credit: College Application Deadline

Improvement is Intoxicating

“Practice makes perfect” but nobody cares about practice, they care about applying said practice. When I go up and down a basketball court practicing my jump shot, I don’t like tirelessly throwing the ball straight up and down, I like watching my jump shot clearly improve when I start shooting. My jump shot in the past struggled, it struggled to even hit the backboard. My jump shot would consistently sky the backboard by a cool 6 inches, I sucked. Perfect. The worse I am at something, the more I can improve. The worse I am, the faster I can get better. Liking something to improve is not the best quality however, because when I attain a goal I had been striving for, I become intoxicated by my achievement, but I feel nothing for the sport. I find joy in reaching a goal that once felt unreachable. This has lead me to succeed at many thing and then quickly quit, wether it be certain video games, skateboarding, lacrosse, or basketball. I don’t count this as quitting, I just count it as losing interest.

PC: Sports Illustrated

Origin of the basketball term 'swish' | RSN

Squid Games > my homework

Last night I got home and figured I’d watch a single episode of Squid Games before I did my homework.

6 hours later, it was 12:22 and I had finished the series. I knew I had homework. Homework I wanted to do. I knew it would take an hour or two, but I just kept watching. I ended up going to sleep at 1:30, throwing to the wayside the two supplemental essays I had planned to draft.

This morning, I absolutely mashed snooze on my alarm. I woke up at 7:30, the time that I need to leave my house to make it to school. I showered and ended up leaving at 7:45 getting here decently late.

The show was so good. I think because of the language barrier, some of the cues that would have made the storyline more obvious didn’t hit me, or the millions of others watching the show right now. I asked a Korean friend about his take on it and he said it was super obvious the whole time, but all of the twists didn’t hit me.

The binge I got caught in was not so good. I wanted to stop watching but I just didn’t. I still got the truly necessary work done but as usual, my head was barely above the water that is missing homework and B’s.

This is something I want to gain more control over, but can’t seem to achieve. I think it might be because I tend to be able to do work very well at the last moment. I have operated this way my whole life with a lot of things, but with certain things, like projects and papers, I know I should be starting earlier.

Especially heading into college, I want to be able to get things done early. I say early, but this definition of early refers to what I would imagine is everyone else’s regular.

I am slowly getting better at managing my time, some days go fine, but oftentimes, say once a week, I push things to the side and get LAZY.

Do you do this?

PC: deadline.com

I would rather die than pick one of the choices

There is no right or wrong answer for every decision in life except the test in school, and that’s the problem. Every time I need to decide between two things, it can really take me forever. I just have no idea what to pick. I am really worried about myself at this point. My friends give me some advice that is to analyze the details in the choices, and picking one is beneficial for me. This is interesting. I know drinking too much boba isn’t good for my health, at the same time I can’t live without boba. You might think if I can’t live without boba then why not just buy it? The only concern I have is money. I don’t want to spend too much money. Now, I have to decide whether I should spend money on boba or not. My head is running a political election every time this happens. I just need someone to guide me on what I should do. Why is life so hard for me!

Here is a list of what I hate when someone ask me:

  1. What do you want to eat for dinner?
  2. Is the answer B or C?
  3. Did you like your mom more or your dad?
  4. What should we do next?
  5. What college do you really want to go to?
  6. Do you like Dr. Pepper or Root Beer?
  7. What is your favorite subject?
  8. If me and your mom fall into the water, who would you save first?
  9. Do you want to hangout?
  10. How are you?

Nerdy Fun Fact of why you shouldn’t drink too much boba

The fructose in boba will be converted into “purines” during metabolism , and uric acid will be produced after decomposition. Under normal circumstances, uric acid will be excreted in urine. Once the drainage problem occurs, the crystallization will accumulate in the joints and bone tissue, causing inflammation, swelling pain. The more sugar intake and more , the level of uric acid can also be increased accordingly.

Photo Credit: The Good Place from Netflix

Lyrics i’m working on

I’m Stress out

What I do will never workout

What I chose ain’t gonna workout

I just wanna scream out loud

I’m running out of air in this empty space

believe someone will save my life

I just wanna see the light

I’m all alone

Everything I have now is gone

Thought this feeling will never be long

Always believe I will find my goldstone

Tears drop

Cry out

Fall down

Break apart

I just want to be normal, not the way you see me

The voices in my head

The voices in my head

The voices in my head

The voices in my head

Photo Credit: Lofi Aesthetic

Fidgeting

I have ADHD, and a stereotypical symptom I experience is fidgeting.

The earliest ADHD symptom I can remember is fidgeting. Ever since kindergarten, I’ve bounced my legs under my desk. Sometimes it’s accompanied by finger-tapping. I remember having trouble doing mindfulness activities because I felt like I needed to move somehow.

In the past four years, I’ve started cracking my fingers. Every joint in my hand can pop because of the countless hours I’ve spent absentmindedly pulling and pushing on my knuckles. Sometimes, I do it so much that my hands are in horrible pain and I can barely move them.

I’ve been told various times that it’s annoying, that it’s disrespectful, or that I need to stop doing it. If I had a nickel for every time someone’s told me I’m going to have arthritis when I’m older, I would be rich.

However, I’ve never stopped. It’s not because I lack the ability to break bad habits, or because I hold a grudge against people who commented on it. It’s because most of the time, it doesn’t hurt me, but rather comforts me.

For people with ADHD, fidgeting is a way to expel the energy that our brain exponentially puts out. Fidgeting, while sometimes annoying to other people, is not something that should be repressed. It helps people with ADHD to cope with what happens in their brains.

Not fidgeting can make people with ADHD feel overwhelmed, and it makes us more prone to meltdowns. Fidgeting, when done in a non-harmful way, is a healthy behavior for people with ADHD.

I hope that this article helps people understand ADHD and its symptoms better. Remember to look out for your friends or family who have ADHD to make sure they’re taking care of themselves.

3 Ways to Help Fidgety Kids Sit Still - wikiHow
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