Senior Recognition Night = 3 hours

Oh, the joy of long and boring award ceremonies. Senior Recognition Night is always the first week of May and is notorious for being "the longest night" next to graduation. As it is explained in the title of the ceremony, almost every senior is recognized for their achievements and are given scholarships, awards, and medals. The counselors, principals, AD, and some teachers attend to present us these awards. Though it was painfully hot and stuffy, it was actually not that bad.

Looking at the program for the night was a little overwhelming because our high school offers so many awards, scholarships, and opportunities to win medals so all we heard most of the night was clanking of metal. Our parents were so proud watching us walk across stage like 50 times, snapping tons of pictures throughout the night.

The funniest and most unexpected part of the night was that we had to stand on stage for what seemed like a really long time underneath the hot stage lights. It did make it easier, however, to recieve awards because all you had to do was step down the risers and walk across stage as opposed to coming up from the audience. Everyone looked so cute with their dresses and nice shirts and ties, but here's some advice to upcoming seniors. WEAR COMFY SHOES and something cool. Don't wear a sweater, those people were pitting out by the end of the night...hardcore.

So even though Senior Recognition Night was supposed to be 10 hours long, stifling hot, and ridiculously boring...it was not that long, just as hot, and sort of boring. It was fun to see what your classmates have achieved and don't forget, it's a special night for the parentals! :)

First Time Fake-Baking..

Have you ever seen Final Destination 4? I sure hope you remember the scene where the two girls completely fry themselves in tanning beds because they were locked in. Okay, so that couldn't really happen, well maybe it could, but that's besides the point. Even before seeing that movie, I've always been against tanning. I'm an athlete and I'm outside all the time anyways, so I've never really felt the need to indulge in the light bulb experience. But the other day I had a minor meltdown about how I will look at prom.

Playing tennis gives you the worst tan lines in the world. First there is the infamous one, on the feet, because we wear tennis shoes when we play. Then we have a shorts/skirt tan line on the thighs. Then depending on what kind of dress/top you wear, there's always a racerback line or in our case this year, a turtle-neck (not really) line because our dress is conservatively cut on the top. This creates problems especially since the weather hasn't been as nice as it should be. There hasn't been many opportunities to soak up the rays/even out tan lines so I figured what is the easiest and quickest fix? That's right, I'm giving in.

I promised myself that I'm not going to get addicted. I don't want to be some of those people that like to go every other day. Ewwww. I'm looking into going a few-five times just to even out and look my best for prom. I'm pretty scared because I've never gone, but I'm hoping to bring some friends along to make sure that Final Destination 4 will not happen to me.

Facebook Addiction

Yes. I admit I have a problem. With Facebook becoming one of the most popular social networks on the internet, I can't help but say that I've been sucked in as well. I first got a Facebook when I was a freshman or sophomore and I thought it was the sweetest thing ever. It was definitely an upgrade from Xanga (a blog website) where you posted things about your daily life, then had friends comment on the crazy middle school drama you wrote. Facebook started out as a social network only for college students, but later opened up to high school students, and NOW everyone can join and it's free (as it says on the login page). Creepy right? Facebook is nick- named stalkerbook for a reason here, folks.

Though it has some down sides, it's definitely a great past time and way to procrastinate. I often find myself playing Scrabulous or looking through pictures when I really should be doing that AP biology essay due tomorrow. Now there are so many applications such as Bumper Sticker, Jetman, Pieces of Flair, and "What's your stripper name?" that it's hard for most people to get away. They've even opened up a new tab system and have added a chat which is very similar to AOL Instant Messenger. I'm sure Mark Zuckerberg is making the big bucks now, but why shouldn't he? He's created a way for college students, high school students, families, friends, etc. to come together and be able to communicate in endless ways.

One of the most beneficial things that Facebook has done for me is someone made a group from the college I will be attending this fall and it has allowed hundreds of accepted students to be able to chat, have a discussion board about various college topics, find roomies, and make friends. It's been really great to chat with future classmates and will be fun to meet the people at orientation and in the fall. Even though Facebook is a ridiculous addiction, it's a good addiction...maybe.

Cirque du Soleil

If you want to see something amazing and unbelieveable, go see Cirque du Soleil. I went on Friday night with my boyfriend and his family and it was honestly the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my entire life. This is no circus folks. As much as it sounds like, "oh there's going to be sweet animals there and stuff"....heck no. This is nothing like what we saw as little kids. Plus, clowns are scary anyways.

With tons of vibrant colors, singing (that's in a completely different language!), dancing, trapeze artists, acrobats, everyone in spandex suits, it's one of the best performances I've seen. I believe that each show is pretty different but for the most part the show goes through sort of a story plot. I got to see the Saltimbanco show which is Italian. It literally means "to jump on a bench". Believe me, they did much more than just jump on a bench. The show is inspired by the hustle and bustle of big cities and has sort of an urban feel to it. Saltimbanco presented an interesting and fun way to look at an imaginary city.

The show went through several acts, all in a two and a half hour show. There were Chinese poles in which acrobats would climb up with no support or harness holding them up. The trapeze artists were ridculous and were literally flinging each other around and catching the other with their feet. The artistic bicycle was pretty cool, where one guy rode a bicycle in every way imaginable. The Russian swing was literally a human catapult and they would increase their height and fly off into the air doing back flips and twists then landing on a mat. I can't describe how high they flew in the air, it was probably to the point where they almost hit the ceiling. From the picture you can see that people stacked up on top of each other and did flips from that high in the air.

I could go on and on forever about what else the show had, but that would ruin it for those who haven't seen Cirque du Soleil. It doesn't even sound that great from me describing it. It's one of those things you won't believe until you see. I sat there half the time with my hand over my mouth in amazement and actually feeling nervous that someone could actually fall to their death. The people that participate in this show have unbelieveable strength and flexibility. I can't imagine doing that as a career. So whenever you get the chance, go see Cirque du Soleil! You won't regret it.

Beating West

The most anticipated tennis meet of the year was on Saturday when the girls tennis team took on West. We played City High in the morning and beat them 9-0. We couldn't wait any longer until we had to play West.

Ever since I can remember we have always had a rivalry with West. They've traditionally had ridiculously good tennis and an amazing coach. When I was a freshmen, we were still battling with them to see who could go to state and who could win the state championship in the end. Though we didn't make it to state my freshmen year, it's still always come down to us and West. That's all we ever really think about, is this particular meet.

The history goes further back though. Sophomore year we lost to West in the state championship final in tough tiebreakers and close matches. That was one of the toughest losses I've ever endured as an individual and as a team. The next year (last year) we beat them in an 8 hour battle that had to be moved indoors due to the rainy weather. I've never experienced a greater win such as that. Winning the state championship over three-time state champs is the greatest feeling in the world.

Saturday was an important meet because we both had something to prove. We have to defend out title, they have to fight back to earn their reputation back. We beat them for the third consecutive time 6-3, and oh, it felt so good. People have really underestimated our team this year because we lost three seniors who were all in the top spots last year. But what people don't know is that there's more to our team than a few decent tennis players. We have a deep team full of competitiors and that's essentially what tennis is all about.

I couldn't be happier with the way we played on Saturday and I hope the season continues to be successful. I can't wait until we make it to state and meet West again!

True Love <33

There's something I always think about when I see shows that are trying to help two people find true love. Oh let's see here...a Shot at Love, the Bachelor, I Love New York, Flava of Love, etc. the list goes on and on. Something I can never understand is why in the heck people are trying to find their soulmate on TV. I'm sorry that I talk about reality TV all the time, but come on, you know it's interesting.

Alright, so let's be honest. I love watching a hunky bachelor go on these romantic dates with all of these women, and treating them all with the utmost respect and care on this major adventure trying to find a girl he wants to spend the rest of his life with. That's adorable and all, but not realistic whatsoever. Come on. Like everyone finds their soulmate in freaking London or on these amazing trips with the somehow "perfect" romantic atmosphere. As for the trashy Shot at Love, I Love NY, etc. etc. oh geez. They are oh-so-entertaining, but oh-so-staged as well.

Who would have thought to put a bi-sexual bachelorette on TV with a bunch of women and a bunch of guys and let America sit back and see what happens. Yes these shows are entertaining and I am not bashing them because they aren't the most tasteful, but because they aren't reality TV. They are simply not realistic at all. The houses are cool and the date locations aren't that bad either, but don't make up stupid challenges to see who wants to "fight for my love the most". How dumb. I wouldn't really like having a camera follow me around for a few months/years or however long it takes to get my whole love story on film. Let alone would I want America watching me make some decision breaking 1209381203 people's hearts along the way.

Regardless of how entertaining these reality tv shows where people try to find their true love for life, I'm not buying into it. Do you realize that most/all people never stay together? "Things didn't work out with Bobby, so I'm back again, watch me now break 31 more peoples' hearts". Seriously? I just don't understand how people think they can find someone they are truly happy with and truly in love with when they have a camera following them around 24/7, the person is kissing like 10 other people at the same time as you, and no matter what someone always gets hurt. Wow, what a thing love is.

THE PAPER!

Who would have thought MTV would come out with a show other than Tila Tequila's "a Shot at Love" or "the Real World"? Last week a brand-spanking new series came out about a high school paper called "The Circuit" from a high school located in California. It's just like any other high school newspaper production, right? No, it's even better! With all of the paper's staff and drama-rama to go along with it, this is probably the funniest show to watch as a newspaper staff member myself.

Apparently in California it's a really big deal to be editor-in-chief. "I'm the big cheese, I'm the big cheese" as Amanda, the ever-so-hopeful future editor, would say. She dances around the kitchen with her Easy Mac and spends all hours of the night on a weekend to work on her essay in order to get the title of editor. As she spends hours slaving away at her computer on a Friday night, all of the other staff members are shown to be out partying and enjoying themselves. Then it goes on to show everyone else stressing out later about their papers, as she's out basking away in the sun by the pool. This girl is crazy.

The staff members are slightly harsh and somewhat cruel to our friend Amanda. Many find her hard to listen to, to take orders from, and simply just to be around in the first place. With a demanding, in-your-face type of personality, the other members find her hard to get along with. She falls ill and stays home from school the day the essays were supposed to be turned in, and her mom had to run in and hand it in for her. The staff goes out to eat later that night, and call her and ask her how she's doing with several bursts of laughter and muttered comments that she could plainly hear.

The funniest part of this show to me was not only how staged it all is, but also the couple that is on staff. As they are making out trying to finish their essays last minute, we also get into their "texting lives" and watch as they text each other IMMEDIATELY after they find Amanda is the new editor-in-chief. I can tell you now, the only reason I'm watching this show is because it's so dumb, it's entertaining. Torch is nothing like this show!

Advice to younger class officers....

I know when I was a freshman class officer I was always in the dark about what to expect for the upcoming years, how to raise money, when to prepare for what, etc. So this is an entry dedicated to the young leaders at school so they can better prepare themselves for the fun years ahead. :)

First things first, try to get the entire class involved in everything. Whether it's a car wash, bake sale, garage sale, ANYTHING make sure to have your classmates lend a hand. It's the toughest thing to feel like you're alone in all the fundraising and working to get the class money to spend later on. So ask around, ask friends and tell them that if having a good prom is worth it to them, they better help you out NOW instead of later.

Second, make sure to raise more money than you'll think you'll need for prom. It's better to have too much money to know what to do with as opposed to running out and running into the red. Be creative and think about as many fundraising opportunities that you can think of. You'll be surprised at the new ideas and different things that will draw people in and make them want to get involved.

Third, always plan ahead. Plan earlier than you need to. In the long run, you won't feel as rushed and crunched for time to do things. Allow yourself plenty of time to get things done and make sure to communicate with each other. It's important to have meetings often as well, so that everyone can come together and share ideas and brainstorm together as a team.

My best three tips I can offer to the young ones. After I graduate this year, I'll be expecting people to step it up!

The Prom Break-Down

From previous blog posts, you can see that I have a lot going on. I've been organizing our senior prom since the spring/summer of last year. I've been pretty high-strung lately, and right now this blog is serving as a place to vent. You don't have to talk to me to know that I'm stressed out. It's evident on my face with all of my stress pimples. : D

Problem numero uno, we could not find a place to have prom to save us. A Touch of Class is wayy out there on the other side of town and is one of the most difficult places to find in my opinion. Elmcrest was out because number one I think they were trying to get rid of schools having their proms there, and two because there is a wedding on the ONLY day we could have prom. Due to lovely AP exams and what not, our principal decides that there is one weekend, and one weekend only to have prom. (But it's the weekend before exams, ha.) Oh, and we were also told no senior skip day...wait, what?

Problem numero dos, there are so many elements and bits and pieces that go into this one special night. We had to book a DJ, a place, catering, security, a hypnotist (one of the most important parts of post prom), and parents to sell the tickets. We had to figure out decorations which is a huge hassle but oh-so-fun...so we ended up hiring a professional decorating service to do it for us. : D We picked out the dinner menu, class gift, where we want everything, what time everything needs to be, etc. It's like there's so many details that they all kind of blob into one huge stress pimple. Thank goodness our team of class officers and sponsors are responsible and hard-working, despite all of our busy schedules.

Problem numero tres (I promise this is the last one), people need to stop complaining. Alright, I realize prom tickets aren't cheap. But with all of the things that we have to pay for in order to make this successful, we need to balance out the ticket prices and our budget. We obviously don't want to lose money off of this, but we also don't necessarily need to bring in the big bucks, either. Don't ask me for discounted ticket prices, because I'm sorry, I'm paying the same price everyone else is, too. Also, please don't complain about the place. So..would you rather have prom in the band room or gym and have the dinner in the Black Box? I didn't think so. Be thankful that we called every freaking place in town to hold this prom just so that we wouldn't have to have it at school. And as for all the rumors...to clear things up we do have a DJ, the hypnotist is going to be amazing, and the place IS FINE. They have wedding receptions and stuff there all the time. It's going to look a lot better with all of the decorations and of course all of the people inside it. We have plenty of money, too. Don't complain about prom when I hardly saw a fraction of our class helping out with fundraising and putting on dances and such. Don't complain if you weren't a part of making the money and putting work into this to make it successful.


PHEW so that's the break-down. Get off my back, prom is going to be amazing. And in a few short weeks, you can see that for yourselves.

Two Jobs= More $

I have the best job imaginable. I work only in the summers because the school year is so busy (as you can tell from my previous posts) but I love my summer job. I work at a local country club in the tennis shack. Even though it involves cleaning the bathroom every half hour, court maintenence, sweeping the clay courts 3 times, serving at events, and dealing with attitude, it's the best job for me. Tennis is a passion of mine, and being able to be around that everyday is really fun. I love working with people and playing my favorite sport, so it's the perfect combination.

My job is also great because there is really good food at the cabana by the pool. My co-workers and I call in and order them to bring us food to the tennis shack on our lunch breaks. =) I think that might be slightly illegal, but we don't have to tell anyone that. Another benefit of my job is that there is free golfing for us on Mondays? I have never taken advantage of this opportunity because I'm definitely not good at golf. I'm also intimidated by all of the guys that work in the pro shop. I've been told that the club has a nice but difficult course.

Though the club is great, I've decided to take up another job. I'm hoping to get 30-35 hours in at the club and 10-16 hours somewhere else. It's funny because I told myself never in my life would I work food service, but that's what sparked the idea of working at Beef o' Bradys which is a new restuarant that just opened. The concept of me working as a waitress is hilarious because I can picture myself already being the girl that can't remember orders, drops food/spills drinks on people, and forgets about the tables I'm waiting on. A safer option might be working retail at places in the mall. At the same time, this could potentitally be dangerous because being a teenage girl with discounts could create problems with the money I actually make.

Regardless of what second job I get, I'm hoping to do well at the current summer job I have, but also find a second job where I can get a little more hours in. I want to save up a lot of money before I go off to college so that I won't be poor and help my parents out with college costs.

Grad Party//Graduation//Prom

I'm constantly reminded by my mother that my grad party is coming up. Paper or plastic? Pink or green? This fat baby picture or this other fat baby picture? Hmm...decisions decisions. It's so weird being a senior because time flies by so fast, it just sort of seems like everything will be later on, later on. It's already April, Prom is in less than a month, and we are graduating next month? WHAT? So being bombarded by all of this grad party business and invitations shouldn't be put off any longer I suppose.

There is so little time now! I think we have 20-something days left of school, but we have so much more planning to do. Prom is stressing me out like no other, my mother has torn up the house going through baby pictures, albums, and other sentimental items of my childhood, and I have to write a graduation speech to deliver to the entire U.S. Cellular Center. Oh my. This is when I realize that procrastination is truly a bad thing, and that people really aren't that ridiculous when they start planning months and months ahead of time.

Believe me, all of this trouble and stress is totally worth it in the end. I'm just kind of ready for everything to be done with, but in the same sense not really. It's a mixed feeling because I want graduation and all the stress to be gone, but it's these memories that I want to keep forever. Leaving high school, as much as everyone says they want to leave, get out, and never come back, is true in some ways but is really, really sad. Graduation will be tough because that will be the last time that we're truly all together. In summary, despite all of the craziness that will go on in the next month, I can't wait to see what happens.

Illness

Yet again I'm pretty behind on this whole blog thing, but I'm doing my best. I already wasn't too amped up for spring break to begin, even though it was nice to sleep in everyday and just hang out. But to my surprise, I fell really ill over the last half of spring break. On that Wednesday I had to leave my tennis lesson early and go home because I felt sick to my stomach. The next day I had a fever, along with 5-6 days after that. On Friday I woke up with a huge rash all over my arms and legs which was super painful. I have never been so sick in my life!

I missed three days out of last week, too. I went to the doctor 4...I repeat 4 times over the week that I was sick, each time doing different tests for my illness. I had to do blood tests...2 of which were for west nile virus and lyme disease?! Strep, influenza, mono, etc. EVERYTHING came back normal so I ended up just having this huge mystery virus taking over my body. The only thing the doctors put me on was this anti-histamine to make the rash go away, but other than that it was just rest and relaxation (sort of) and lots and lots of Top Chef, America's Next Top Model, and the Hills.

I also missed a couple of tennis meets and a lot of practices. But...we haven't had that much tennis anyways because of the snow/mix that we've been receiving this past week. Where are you spring? So that's my deathly illness that was taking over my body for week. I hope to never get that sick again, and hopefully my immune system will get better after this.

Tests Should NEVER be on the Friday before spring break....

Normally I don't complain too much about my homework load or having big tests. The only thing that really bothers me is that someone would put a test on a Friday before spring break. Even worse, I have this large test last hour of the day. AND we just started learning this material last week. I realize that with all of the snow days we had, along with two hour delays has altered our schedules a ton, but honestly.

AP Bio is a class that has been a challenge for me all year long. I know that is not another reason to complain, but I will. There's a lot of information and a lot of memorization involved and I get overwhelmed easily. Maybe that's my fault for taking the course, but I wanted to challenge myself my senior year. I also wanted to be prepared for what teachers might throw at me in college. She assigns reading occasionally, but most of the time we have to gage how much reading we want to do each night in order to prepare for the test. That's another place where I'm at fault, I admit.

Regardless, it's been a stressful week and to top it off I have a huge test last hour. She got mad at us because we haven't been focused all week, but what do you expect when part of the class is seniors, it's the last hour of the day, the last day before break. I don't know, it could just be me. Hopefully after spring break we won't have any surprise tests or quizzes.

Scrabulous

Right now I should be studying for an AP Bio test..(yes on the last day before spring break, the last hour of the day), but instead I always find myself sitting on Facebook battling on the Scrabulous application. Scrabulous is essentially online Scrabble that you can play with friends.

Originally I was never into the game Scrabble until someone introduced it to me over winter break. Then I found that there's an online version with Facebook with basically the same set up. You can play with up to three people and play normally. I used to be really, really bad making three letter words that were worth at most 5 points but now I've been getting better with 42 point words. You don't have to be online at the same time to play, it's just the next person's turn the next time they sign on. It's a good way to expand vocabulary...and it's really easy to look words up on the online dictionary. =)

Facebook applications are annoying, with Scrabulous and Bumper Sticker as an exception. Scrabulous is addictive, and you should probably try it.

Chicago

Today I went to Chicago to do my third or fourth college visit. This was the first time I was on campus with actual people, because I happened to have weird timing on the visits before..when students were on winter or spring break. So finally, I got to see my school with actual people running around. I loved it. The weather was soo nice, I walked around, and all of it made me really comfortable. It pretty much confirmed my decision.

The funniest thing happened to me today. I was walking around one of the cafeteria places and we came across a lady that was checking for people's IDs to enter. Of course I was a dead giveaway as an incoming freshman because I was with my parents, but that's besides the point. We were welcomed with a huge, "HI MY BABIES. HI LOVES! HOW ARE YOU TODAY?" I couldn't stop laughing. I explained to her that I didn't go there, I was just on a visit walking around and checking out different places. "OH HAYY BEAUTIFUL. DON'T YOU WORRY ABOUT IT GO ON AHEAD." I walked past took a gander at the food I was getting myself into next year. We left shortly after, and we were sent off with a, "COME BACK SOON HONEYS!" Still laughing, I couldn't believe this lady's energy and serious peppyness. Oh my goodness.

This lady honestly greeted everyone with the same upbeat "screaming" welcome and her upbeat personality glowed with every word. She made everyone laugh or at least smile with her greeting. It made me think about things, like this lady is simply taking IDs for people and scanning them but she absolutely LOVES doing it. And even if she doesn't, she fakes it pretty darn well. She's someone that is enthusiastic and puts people in a better mood. She made me laugh and I talked to her for maybe a second. Something so little like that made my day.

An alternative career...

I get inspired by any of the shows on Bravo...especially Project Runway. Another one of my favorite shows includes Top Chef, which is slightly embarrassing..but believe me it's a good one. It's like any other cooking show really, they're given a challenge and time to create a meal then serve it to the judges, and are judged based on their performance. There are eliminations and all of that good stuff too, oh and did I mention drama in the kitchen?

I really like Top Chef because I think it'd be really cool to be able to make the kinds of foods that they do. I've always wanted to be able to create these elaborate 5 course meals, knowing how to cut, sautee, and dice all of this food and make some amazing creation out of it all. I think it's a totally different kind of art. I'm not into painting and drawing, but I think cooking would be a really amazing thing to be good at.

Of course, this is not a realistic career for me. It's just something I was thinking about as I was watching it the other day. I would really struggle, because to be honest the only things I can make decently well are brownies, toast, and ramen. Including things that only need to be re-heated in the microwave. But think about it. Would it not be amazing to be some celeb's chef or have your own restaurant?

Spanish Final

Next hour I have one of the biggest finals of my high school experience. This final sometimes makes me question why I took the course in the first place, but I was up for the challenge. I knew about this final before going into the class, but I tried to put it into the back of my mind for a while. Until now.

The AP Spanish oral final is pretty well-known. We have five topics to choose from: my personal relationships, my strong interests, my ups and downs, I am who I am and my circumstances, and my hopes. Senor picks any one of the five topics for us to talk about, then we have to talk for eight minutes in straight up espanol. This is much like the AP Psych final that I had to take last year with Mr. Johnson, only that was in English. I don't even think I could talk about a topic that I actually like for eight minutes. Ouch.

I'm so nervous..but I've heard that people that have taken this in the past say it's not that bad, or I wish I would have studied more, or it's not that scary. I'm hoping that this holds true. Ughhh. Good thing I'm getting this over with today. No me gusta la tema de espanol AP.

Tennis Season!

For those of you who don't know, Roger Federer is probably one of the greatest players of all time. AMAZING. Tennis season started on March 10th. It will be my last season playing tennis! I've been playing for four years, and I always look forward to this time of year. Maybe it's the cute tennis outfits, the competitiveness, and team bonding experiences. Oh and we can't forget, the infamous TP at the end of the year...

I've been playing tennis since I was five. I first fell in love with tennis at one of my friends' houses and made my parents sign me up for lessons away. My mom made me take dance for four years but I absolutely hated it and decided that "I didn't want to be a ballerina". So I opted for the next best thing which was sports. I started to compete in actual tournaments at the age of 11 or 12. When I was 13 and 14 I traveled all over the Midwest to partcipate in tournaments like the Supers and Endorsements. I've played in several local tournaments as well.

High school tennis has been one of the best experiences of my life. I had the opportunity to play with some of the best players in the state and compete at a high level. I played on varsity as a freshman and we ended up hardly losing to Jefferson to go to state that year. My sophomore year we qualified for state, and got all the way to the state championship and lost to Iowa City West, aka our biggest rivals. Junior year we qualifed for state and ended up winning the championship in a battle that lasted for about 12 hours. We had to sweep all doubles in order to beat them, and we did it. My doubles partner and I beat a doubles team that we had never beat before and Sarah and Lees beat a doubles team they lost their title to the day before. It was honestly the picture-perfect championship and I couldn't have imagined winning any other way. That's the biggest reason for coming back to tennis is for the challenge. I'm super competitive and love huge battles on the court.

It's hard to say what will happen this year. We lost three of our top three players. The lineup will have 4 returning varsity letter winners, but we'll have some newcomers at the bottom. The girls have a lot of potential to do well this year, it's just a matter of how hard we work to defend our title now. We worked all winter in the off-season to train for the spring, and we have our first meet coming up on Saturday. It's been bitterly cold and ridiculous outside, but we're fighting through it. Hopefully we have some good weather because we have two meets over spring break! I'm ready for this season to start. I just wish I was as good as Federer!!

Stress?

I've realized that I was very, very wrong about senior year. Yes, it's amazing to be the top dogs of the school and body slamming freshmen out of the way just to make a path in the hallway. But there's so many other things that I was completely brushing off like they would be no big deal once I got to this point. This is the part I needed to reconsider.

First off, senior year is not a drag by any means. It will probably be one of the best years of high school for most people. When I was a freshman and sophomore I couldn't wait until senior year because that's "when the least amount of homework is assigned" and "you only have to take 3 classes if you have enough credits", etc. etc. Though this is partly true, it can be a slack off year for some people, but for me it has been anything but that.

For some odd reason, spring term has already swamped me with homework. I have tests back-to-back, projects, and papers. So not only am I trying to maintain decent grades, but there's also college decisions, scholarship applications, prom planning, and a spring sport to balance on top of that. My parents always tell me to back out of activities and "quit something" but I never would/will. I guess you could say that senior year is what you make of it.

Teachers/administrators/counselors always say that you can always take the easy route or challenge yourself and get ready for college. Even though all of this stuff stresses me out, I still think it's beneficial in helping with managing my time. I know if I would have taken only a couple-few classes I would probably be really lazy next year. Being a senior is really fun, it's the last year to enjoy all the football & basketball games and be with your friends until prom and graduation. I'm just ready to get out and go to college and experience something different.

Dancing With the Stars

If you don't know who this is, you probably should. Tonight was the first night of Dancing with the Stars (Season 6)...and in the past I've never been into this show. I thought it was some crazy thing that my parents were obssessed with, but believe me, it truly is addictive.

Jason Taylor (sigh) above along with R&B star Mario, tennis player Monica Seles, figure skating phenom Kristi Yamaguchi as well as other celebs are battling it out on season 6 to win a trophy as America's favorite dancing pair. One professional dancer and one celeb team up to come up with routines and master them to perform in front of a live audience and the rest of America. The three judges watch each routine, then judge 1-10 on their performance.

Though it's not quite American Idol with the ridiculous critique and interesting people that can't sing, I found this much more entertaining. It's sometimes combining the least athletic celebrities with a professional dancer and coming out with a hopeful 30/30 score. Almost impossible, right? Wrong. I found myself impressed with Jason Taylor because he's a 255 pound, 6' something rough and tough football player that's out dancing with great posture and enthusiasm. I have found my new favorite. I'll be tuning in until the final episode to find out the best duo.

Research Paper

My research paper is going to be about behavioral and personality disorders. I will be addressing these main points:

• Different types of disorders
• How the disorder forms
• The effects on people's lifestyles
• Different medication and technology treatments
• How genetics plays a role in disorders
• The symptoms
• When most individuals are diagnosed with a disorder
• What types of therapy are available
• How living with a disorder affects the person's attitude or outlook
• Particular struggles people go through
• The most extreme disorders
• The least severe disorders

I thought this would be an interesting topic because I took AP Psych last year. I think anything to do with the mind and personality is really fascinating so I'd like to learn more about the specific disorders, how people live with the disorder, and how it can be treated.

Shoveling Snow ...in MARCH

Alright. Everyone knows that our winters are pretty ridiculous. But I think everyone can agree that this winter was the Big Bertha of all winters. Almost breaking records of snow fall/basically breaking records of snow fall makes me love living here. Nottt. It's really scary when the city runs out of snow and salt and that magical ice melt stuff they use. They weren't prepared for a winter like this...no one was. It's also frightening when I'm driving and see cars flipped over, on their side, or flipped over next to a semi on the side of the road.

So, with all of this in mind...we've gotten a lot of snow. So much, in fact, that the school decides to pile all of the parking lot's snow by the tennis courts and soccer field. Not a few plows full, but moreso a giant mountain of snow. Basically the whole winter's worth. It's awesome to be able to have parking spots and look at the great mountain everyday, but this brings me to my biggest concern for spring sports.

I play tennis and as our second day of practice, we got the entire team (9/10, JV, and Varsity) out on the courts in their snow boots and mittens. Not for practice of course, but to shovel off all of the snow thats collected over the winter on the courts. Everyone had to bring their own shovel, and we spent "practice" clearing six courts. I laughed to myself wondering where OUR GUYS TEAM WAS, if our courts will flood anytime soon, and also how sore I'm going to be tomorrow. I don't think I've shoveled that much snow...ever.

For doing such a good job today with the courts, our coaches have given us the day off tomorrow. I feel like after shoveling all of that snow and slush, it's going to either snow more or freeze over. We're supposed to have warmer weather the rest of the week (which will literally feel like summer), so hopefully that will do some good things for the courts. Meanwhile, we'll be practicing indoor or running. Thank you, winter, for being so ridiculously drawn out.

Academic Assemblies

Apparently I am very behind on this whole blogging thing, so here goes 5 posts.

Today we had an academic assembly like we do every year. It hasn't really changed all that much, besides the fact that we switched which way we face the stage and the new overhead projector thingies that show video and close-ups of peoples' faces. This year was no different in the sense that the assembly is still super long and super boring.

I realize that Kennedy is a great school. We're one of the best in the nation, after all. I don't mean to take away from anything that Kennedy has to offer or the amazing things we have accomplished as a high school, but when we have so many assemblies for so many different things it becomes a bit repetitive. Don't get me wrong. I love free t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, and pizza parties, but I don't love sitting through over and hour's worth of listing names and watching people walk.

The assemblies are helpful because it allows the school to recognize the other kids that aren't necessarily playing varsity sports or other activities. It's the clubs and groups that we don't often hear too much about. It's nice to see that not only are we a great school academically (which is basically the whole point of the assemblies) but we're also diverse because of our broad span of clubs, competitions, and awards.

So there you have it folks, the pros and cons to assemblies. Although most people would probably agree that they're unnecessary at times. Unfortunately, the academic assembly was not my last.

Research Topics

I would like to research:

• The true benefits of "going green" because lately there's been so much about global warming and saving the environment. I think it'd be good to research because more people are choosing this lifestyle, but there are plenty of people left that are still being wasteful. It'd be interesting to see how it benefits the world and different ways it makes the environment better.
• Psychological/behavioral disorders because last year in AP Psych we studied several different types of disorders and I thought it would be interesting to research a couple to a few to get a closer look on how people deal, live, and accept their disorder.
• Advertising and the effect it has on the general public. I would research how advertising works to convince or sometimes turns away people from purchasing a product/service.

State Basketball!

Heyyy. I realize that the name of this blog is super lame. So I will be changing it soon. I just got home from the state basketball quarterfinals at the Wells Fargo Arena. I'm really, really exhausted. Overall the game wasn't a disappointment, even though it was a lot closer than I thought it would be.

The drive over is probably the worst part. Although I did get some tasty Culver's. I went with some friends and we got there about an hour early and got the perfect seats. The white out went over really well (as always) and everyone was pretty excited for a good 4A showdown. Southeast Polk is probably one of the most random schools we could play, but maybe that's just me.

Everything was good, I thought they boys played well except we always seem to come out the slightest bit nervous//unsure. SEP came out pretty strong and had some big guys, but nothing that we couldn't handle, of course. Also, this is a bad excuse for the game score, but the refs made some pretty bad calls. Hopefully we have a better reffing game next time, or else I'll probably be upset. Calls need to go both ways, and not biased, thank you. The game overall was low-scoring, and got really close at the end at a score of 47-43.

I'm really excited for the short day on Friday. I'll be leaving once again, with some friends, and hopefully we'll kick butt and play again in the finals on Saturday night! I think the state championship is possible, but we definitely need to take it one game at a time. Like tonight, we can't get too ahead of ourselves otherwise some bad things could happen. Over and out.

Blog Noob

I'm new with blogs. Therefore I'm a blog noob.