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.