living in deep mountain

The meaning of life is to try everything that you have not tried yet.

Maybe this is the reason why I am here right now.

I grew up in a big, big city that has numerous tall, tall buildings with lots and lots of people.

Somehow, I decided to come here, the Ojai Valley, a year ago. And I got into a school where there are no buildings that have a second floor with less than two hundred people in total.

photo credit: kcet.org

After living here for days, I am starting to feel that I am part of nature. What a weird thought this is, and I have never had such an idea before. 

Especially on the camping trip, we just slept in sleeping bags, and considered the sky as the quilt with the ground as the bed. 

And with fewer people, there are fewer distractions. I have plenty of quiet time to sit outside in nature, to be deep or lost or sunk in reverie.

Also, I have had the chance to watch the sunset since we have some free time after dinner. This is a really incredible experience to enjoy the sight of clouds and sky change their color and shapes slowly and fast. 

The Old, The New, The Better

After attending Catholic preparatory school for the past two and a half years with a number of my closest friends, I never imagined I would have transferred to a quite liberal, low-key school with such a relaxed environment.

Because of the many negative experiences I had at such a strict and old-fashioned school, I decided that it was necessary to make a change in my academic life.

One of my best friends and her older brother advocated highly for the school they went to; Ojai Valley School. Sounds like some tiny, boring school in the middle of nowhere.

Boy was I wrong.

Photo Credit: thelavenderinn.files.wordpress.com

The second I arrived on campus for an interview with admissions, I was taken aback by the breathless view from the top of campus.

Not only can you see a majority of the Ojai Valley, but as I looked around I noticed the extent of beauty around and on campus. Horses grazing among the green, lush hills, the large and obviously eco-friendly solar panels that consume the top of a hillside, and the relaxed social environment.

Boring? Too small?

Absolutely not.

Intuitive, environmentally aware, fresh, clean, warm, friendly.

These are the words I would use to describe this new school I call home.

 

Relay for Life

As the school year comes to an end, OVS is taking part in one last community effort. Relay for Life of the Ojai Valley is less than a month away. The event will take place on May 31, and the campus is abuzz with fundraising efforts.

OVS has many cancer survivors amongst its faculty and within the families of the students. Last year, the school managed to raise about $10,000 because of this. For a school of about 100 students, this is a remarkable achievement.

So far, we have exceeded our goal of $1000 by $700. The students continue to join the effort of fundraising cancer research. When the day of the event is finally here, we will have students, faculty, and family members walking for 24 hours.

For such an important event, OVS is throwing their all into it. Though we are a small school, we can make a valiant effort. To help our effort, or join our team, click here.

2012 Youth Filmmakers Competition

This is it folks!

All of the entries for the 2012 Youth Filmmakers Competition in Ojai have been judged and the winners have been decided.

The films range from from zombie-thrillers to real life documentaries about citizens in Ojai.

For the last several months students from junior-high and up have been working on films to be submitted to the competition, all hoping to win one of the three cash prizes ($500, $400 and $300).

The films are being shown on the 9th of December at the Ojai Playhouse. All of the films submitted will be screened, and the winners will be announced on the same day. Along with the three cash prizes, an audience choice award will also be given.

This is a great opportunity to see the works of the young people of Ojai. I suggest everyone comes down and checks it out!

Moving Forward

After the OVS football team came home with an outstanding victory in Lee Vining, that winning streak did not continue this past Saturday.

After our return we had a week to prepare for our next game against Hillcrest Christian of Thousand  Oaks, California. During this week practice seemed to be filled with not only focused faces and hard work, but excitement and laughter after the team had just broken a new Ojai Valley School record of being the first team to win a varsity football game.

It seemed that the win may have gotten to the heads of some players, myself included, and that if we beat that team, that we would probably be able to carry that win into the next game.

Although the game did not put another W on the Ojai Valley School’s standings it did teach the team a valuable lesson, a lesson our coaches were trying to instill in us all week.

Yes we won, but that is just one game, and that while we should be happy we won, there was still plenty of work. In practice Coach D said that yes we did play well, but we need to be better, the word better was repeated over, and over, and over, but apparently in this game our opponent ended up with the better score, which means, they won.

While many of us wanted to walk off of the field with our heads down, we had to keep them up, and come back to our next game playing even better than the first and second.

This past loss has given the team a reality check that while we did play well the first game, and this is not to say we did not play well on Saturday, that we do indeed need to be better.

Our next game is Saturday night against the Maricopa Indians.

This game will be very special for the team because we get to play in the Indian’s stadium arena at night under the lights.

This next coming week of practice is going to be tough, but it will only give us more time to sharpen our minds, and sharpen our plays, because come Saturday it will hopefully be time to put another win up on the boards for this team of new records.

Hopefully we can show everyone that we do deserve to play, and shatter the harsh words that some put on OVS football, like the program should be cancelled because “we aren’t good.”

To all of the people who doubt our team or speak I’ll of us, I ask you to come out and try to do what we do everyday, and see after that what you think about the fact that we aren’t good or that we don’t deserve to play.

If you have to win all the time to be worth it, than sports would not be what they are, nobody would ever win because everyone would be just as good as the other. And if we are to follow in this thought that winning is the only reason to play, than nobody would be able to play because winning would become impossible.

Empty Stadium

If any of you would like to know what it is like to go through what a football team goes through together, I beg you to come out on to the field everyday, put on your helmet and pads, run around in the heat, get beaten and battered, and then return from a loss, and hear, “wow who could have seen that coming,” in a sarcastic tone.

Hopefully we can better ourselves from this game and have the season of all seasons. If you can come out and support at any of our games it would be greatly appreciated. And to all of you who doubt us I really hope we can change your minds at some point, and if not try and keep it to yourself.

The End of the Cross Country Season

Yesterday, the Ojai Valley School cross country team had the last meet, the league final, at Midland. We drove down for about 2 and a half hours.
Also participating were Thacher, Cate, Midland, Dunn, Besant Hill, Laguna Blanca and Providence Hall.

The birls’ race started at 3 and the boys’ at 3:30. We all ran our best and gave everything. The course is very flat and there were tiny hills but I wouldn’t call them hills. I didn’t really like the course because flat courses just give me constant pain and is not fun compared to hilly course.

Me and my roommate are about to run, listening to the instruction and course overview.

Intense,right?

My coach and I were talking about how I should run that course in the bus on the way to Midland. My strategy is always to stay maybe behind 4 or 5 girls and let them lead the race until the very end. It is then that my body tells me, “Now, sprint! It’s time to out run these girls.” The worst thing to do is to rush so I tell myself not to go in front of anyone!

The entire Ojai Valley School cross country team improved a lot and it’s sad that we can’t practice together anymore…

Good times…

I would just like to thank my coach (thebrownguy) for coaching me I couldn’t have won without him!

AWESOME CROSS COUNTRY SEASON!!!

IS IT TRACK SEASON YET?