I'm Baaaaccckkk

Hi guys! Did you know that I died and I came back from the dead?  Yep! Just in time for my senior year of high school. Yippee doo dah day! Guess what? NO WORD COUNT! I CAN WRITE WHATEVER I WANT TO! YAY!
I only have 72 more days of school until I get out of here and I can't wait! I'm done with APES and learning about dirt in all its glory and I'm done with perspectives and having to read stupid books I don't care about. and I'm done with this cold. It is so cold. This morning was -15, feels like -20 AND WE STILL HAD ALLLLL OF SCHOOL. F that.
Right now I should be doing an APES packet but we have a sub and frankly, I don't care much about this class so I just BS my way through and I still do well on tests. Yep. I'm that girl. Hate me cuz you aint me.
Okay. that's it for this post. I think I'm going to keep doing this! its fun when you don't have a word count!
toodles!

AP Test Stress

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Imagine that you're sitting on the couch watching, I don't know let's say The Big Bang Theory, and they start talking about their scientific nerdy stuff which reminds you of what you're learning about in chemistry. This then leads you to think about how you really like chemistry and wished you would have taken AP Chem instead of AP Environmental Science but you just don't know if you could handle that type of AP class. Then you start thinking of how many you're taking next year and how you are going to have to take five AP exams and how that's absolutely crazy then

BAM!

You remember that your first AP exam for THIS YEAR is five days away and you are totally not prepared. Where did the time go? Just yesterday it was winter and snowing and....oh wait. Dang it, May! You made me think it was still winter and I still had months before my test!
Okay so this week's snowfall didn't really trick me into thinking I still had a while before my tests but it did sneak up on me. Not completely, though. I have been studying but I still don't feel prepared for my Friday one. AP Lang is a class where you can't just memorize flashcards like in biology or even history. Also, there aren't 'right' answers. Everything in LA is all based on point of view and opinion and if the person writing the test has a different opinion than I do, I'll get the question wrong. It's just stressful.
This year I am taking three tests: AP Lang (Friday), AP US Gov./Pol (Tuesday), and AP US History (Wednesday). The one I feel the most confident about is my Government test because this whole third term we have been working on reviewing for the exam and my teacher really helps you figure out a way to study that best fits YOU and how YOU work. I'm probably not going to get a five on the test but I'm hoping for at least a three! Right now I am just going through a ton of flashcards and notes that my friend let me borrow from when he took it last year. The flashcards are actually really helping. What a surprise, right?
So if you're taking an AP test in the next couple of weeks just remember to not stress out about it and continue to study in a way that works best for you.
Oh and here's a quick tip that I used when I took my AP Psych Exam last year: Don't study the night before the test. I just went to bed early and got a good night sleep. If you study right before you go to bed the night before the test, you'll stress yourself out and make it hard for you to sleep.
So yeah that's it! Good Luck!

~Skooogster(:

Crime is Pride...or is it?...

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Think: all men make mistakes

But a good man yields when he

Knows his course is wrong,

And repairs the evil: The only

Crime is pride.

According to this excerpt from Antigone, by the classical Greek playwright, mistakes are bad; that they make you an evil person if you don’t go back and fix them. True, if you steal from a store and don’t feel a smidge of remorse this doesn’t apply to you because you are on track to becoming a serial killer. Mistakes that can hurt or harm others should be gone back to and fixed but what about a simple, innocent mistake? If someone was hanging out at the mall and thought they saw someone and called out to them but it turned out not to be who they were expecting, they don’t have to go up to the person and ‘repair the evil’ mistake. It was an honest mistake.

But there are also some mistakes that have created things we would never have invented if someone hadn’t let their mind wander a little too long. For example, the microwave oven. Percy Spencer was an engineer who was experimenting with radar and vacuum tubes when he noticed that the bar of candy that he had in his pocket started to melt. He decided to test this on other things like popcorn and ta-da! You have yourself an invention that is used in most homes in America every day. What if Percy Spencer hadn’t had a candy bar in his pocket that day? We wouldn’t have a microwave oven. It’s as easy as that.

A different example would be when two brothers tried to boil a pot of grain, they accidentally left it on for too long. When they went back for it, the grain had molded but there was something else, too: a dry and thick product. When the brothers the mold off, they were left with a golden brown flake known to every American household: Corn Flakes.

Now, I don’t know about you but I don’t know what I would do without my microwave oven or my bowl of corn flakes in the morning before school. I am glad that these people made the mistakes they had made. What if Percy Spencer had realized, ‘oh I have a candy bar in my pocket! Better take this out!’ or if the two brothers hadn’t left the grain on the stove for too long and checked on it regularly? According to the excerpt from Antigone, they are evil people and should have gone back and ‘repair the evil’. But they aren’t. Percy created a faster way to cook food which shaves off hours of cooking and the two brothers invented an easy and healthy breakfast that will keep you full all day. I wouldn’t say those were products of evil.

Yes, some mistakes are evil ones and the people that make them should go back and fix them. But not every mistake is bad. So many things that we use in our day-to-day lives were created because of a simple mistake that someone made. If you make a mistake, don’t fret over trying to fix it if it was something simple. Even if it was something big, you never know what can be born from just a simple mistake.

 

~Skooogster(:

One Month to Go!

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The end is in sight! There are only 23 days left of school and the seniors only have 15. The weather is starting to get nice, the grass is green and all anyone really wants to do is be outside, and out of school.

Everyone’s heard of ‘senioritis’ but honestly, I think it applies to everyone, not just seniors. As a junior, I know that this is my third year of having this ‘senioritis’ feel. Every year by this time, around the end of April, beginning of May, teachers start counting down the days left. Focusing is pretty much nonexistent. I am seriously struggling with finding decent enough topics to blog about, even. All I want is for it to be summer so I can be outside and not have to worry about school for three more months.

But then I’ll look back on the other days of school that I’ve had. It’s gone by so quickly. I posted my first post on August 28^th. I remember the first day of school and it is so hard to believe that eight months have passed. We have sat in classrooms, having information spewed at us for eight months. Isn’t that crazy? It feels like it went so fast, yet at the same time, so slow.

That’s when I realize that in 23 days, I’m going to be a senior and how my high school career is almost over and if this year went fast then next year will be ten times faster and before I know it I’m out on my own going to college up at UNI and…

Okay. I have to take a deep breath. I’m still a junior and have a whole summer ahead of me. Oh yeah, and finals and three AP exams to take before that but in 23 days, it will be summer. And I plan on making it an amazing summer!  

 

~Skoogster(:

Bullying

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You know, I’m actually surprised that I haven’t blogged about this yet. Bullying is a huge problem and finally, people are starting to realize that bullying is more than one kid beating up another. According to Marriam-Webster Dictionary, a bully is one habitually cruel to others who are weaker. Nowhere in there does it mention physical abuse. For the longest time people thought bullying was physical but they failed to see the emotional and verbal aspect of it.

From about second grade to sixth grade I was bullied. I was never beat up or hit once but I was bullied all the same. But when I would tell the teachers they shrugged it off because they didn’t see it as bullying. They blamed me for it. They said that I was being oversensitive and insecure and that’s why I would go home crying. They didn’t think that the constant teasing would be considered bullying.

To an onlooker, it wouldn’t have seemed like much. A comment here and a comment there but nothing too harsh. But to me, it was horrible. It wasn’t just one comment once. No, it was one comment thrown at me by five different people, ten times a day, and every day. Asking them to stop became pointless because I knew that they wouldn’t stop. Telling a teacher soon wasn’t a possibility because I was ‘too sensitive’.

I have to be honest and say, yes I was a little weird when I was little but as I got older I became more ‘normal’. By the time I was in sixth grade, I was just as normal as you but my other classmates couldn’t get passed who I used to be and would still make fun of me using the same worn-out joke that I have heard for years. So. I moved.

If my classmates couldn’t accept my change then I had to move to somewhere that they don’t know my history.


I moved schools and haven’t been bullied since. But also, since then, teachers and parents and the whole world has become more aware of what bullying means. We have started to learn that bullying is more than just physical. Someone can get hurt by a few words. You might not see the harm in it but having someone be rude to you or make fun of you constantly tears you apart inside. You’re never the same. You constantly flashback to your time in elementary school when things were so bad and it makes you sick that people would think it was okay to act like that to another classmate.

It’s really hard to forget what people have said. If I hadn’t repressed most of the memories I could tell you everything that was said to me. But fortunately, I don’t remember too much. I have been able to push them from my mind and I can’t even force them to the front. They’re gone and I don’t want them back.

So please, I cannot stress thing enough. Think before you speak. I know you hear that from teachers and parents and everyone but this time it’s coming from a victim; someone who has been verbally bullied before. I don’t want other kids to have to go through what I did. Please. Think before you speak.

~Skooogster(:

College Visits

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So today I went on my first college visit. Well, my first 'official' visit. I've toured some before but never an in depth organized visit. And let me tell you, it was amazing.

Since I'm only a junior in high school I thought that I would be the only one there but actually the other two in my tour group were juniors as well!

It is never too early to start visiting colleges. I am the kind of person who likes to get things out of the way so I want to know where I'm going when it comes to senior night at the last home football game. It is such a good experience to go to these schools. I went during the day so I ate lunch when a lot of the students were at lunch and there were always students walking around the campus. It really gave it that real feel that you will get when you go the the school. It was amazing.

People always say that they know they've found the right place once they take their first step on campus. I haven't visited any other schools but I can tell you that I felt very at home while I was walking around the UNI campus. It just felt right.

I am planning on visiting other schools as well but I'm not sure that I will find one as perfect for me as UNI. I want to go into Special Education and play in the marching band. UNI had great programs for both.

If you are a junior thinking about going on some college visits I strongly suggest that you go. The earlier you go, the more time you have to make your decision. Plus, you can just get it out of your way and just enjoy your senior year and not worry about college visits!

 

 

~Skooogster(:

When One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

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I get home today and get the mail and there are three things addressed to me. All three of them are from three different colleges telling me about one thing or another. One was about Cornell College but that one isn’t important to what I’m talking about here. The other two were telling me about summer camps that they had. One of them, from Concordia Nebraska was giving me dates and times of their volleyball camps. The other, from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, was telling me about various summer marching band camps that they are having. This was kind of a wake-up call to me. Not really, but it just showed me how my interests have changed from even a year ago.

A year ago I was head-over-heals crazy about volleyball. I wanted to play on varsity and play in college, possibly getting a scholarship to a small school. My parents and I spent so much money and time on volleyball camps and teams and clinics and private training. But this fall, all of that was taken away when I got my concussion and was out the whole season. I was devastated.

Little did I know that my concussion would open up a whole different door that would make my college choosing process so much simpler.

I was Drum Major for my school’s marching band, as many of you know, and I guess I was lucky because if I had been a regular marcher, my doctor wouldn’t have let me participate because, as silly as it sounds, I could get hit with a color guard flag or a trombone slide or something. (Don’t laugh, it’s happened before!) Being Drum Major made me realize how much I love band and how much I actually missed marching so I thought, “hey, why don’t I just march in college?” so that’s what I’m going to do.

A year ago I was determined to play volleyball in college but now it has taken a break in the back of my mind. So when I got two post cards in the mail, one about volleyball and the other about marching band and I got really excited about the band one that just showed me where my interest lies.

The sad thing is, my family is thinking about going on a vacation the same week as the band camp so my chances of going are slim. The UNL marching band is one of THE bands to be in. They are amazing and honestly, it is my dream to be in that band but the school isn’t exactly strong in the areas I want to go into like UNI does (where I’m 98% sure I’m going). They also have auditions and, frankly, I don’t know if I’m good enough to get in. But hey, if you aim high, you’ll land among the stars, right?

~Skooogster(: