I was one of those girls who walked into AP Lang and believed that I was a strong writer and that I could get far in life based on that skill. I was wrong. After the first assignment, my confidence diminished and I knew that Mrs. Smith needed to teach me how to write an essay. I feel like my writing progression includes actually reading over what I wrote, more creative examples, and being able to have insight about what I am writing about. When I first writing about the random, thinking of examples to make a convincing argument seemed impossible. Now, I am able to go back through my outline and feel pleased with how it will turn out. I still need to work on word choice and flow, but at least I have the material to construct an argument.
The fact that the assignments were quirky and creative helped me develop a style. Learning about the different types of essays exposed me to a variety of ways of writing which was definitely helpful. To be honest, the most meaningful assignment was probably the research paper. That paper was absolute death-especially if you procrastinated it as much as I did, missed three days of school in the process, and ended up doing zero annotations. The assignment actually taught me how to read scholarly journals, get real opinions on novels, decipher the main point of the novel, synthesize sources, and write a 5-7 page paper. The main lesson I learned from the research paper is how to budget time. I also grew as a writer, seeing it much easier to find the argument of a novel. I mentioned this in last semester's reflection, but my mom who went to Westminster had an amazing writing teacher. She still tells me about her teacher will find a random sentence every day from a random person's paper and pick on a different student to revise it with the class. Writing drills such as that one will keep our minds focused on writing and inspired to improve every day.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
6. Facebook Etiquette (mainly boys)
I honestly have come accross some hilariously creepy people on facebook. Let's look at some things people should NEVER do while on facebook.
1. Make Sure You Have An Acceptable Profile Picture- Staring at the camera with a bad angle screams creeper. Photos in the mirror with your shirt off and sunglasses just scream "tool", "douche", "player" etc. You do not want to be that guy. Here are some examples of what not to do.
1. Make Sure You Have An Acceptable Profile Picture- Staring at the camera with a bad angle screams creeper. Photos in the mirror with your shirt off and sunglasses just scream "tool", "douche", "player" etc. You do not want to be that guy. Here are some examples of what not to do.
2. Know when to quit. Girls honestly hate when random guys message them. It does work with some girls, depending on the girl and the type of guy that is trying to get her. The best thing is to know when to quit. If you find yourself messaging her once a day for 3 weeks with no answer. It is probably best to give up to avoid your conversation getting screenshot and sent to all of her friends.
3. Do NOT ask her to hang out if you have never met her or any of her friends. Facebook is not e-harmony. Girls hate when a guy they have never met asks them to hang out. It is obvious that they will either do something horribly creepy or just be one of those people who blows up your phone. Either way, it comes off as creepy no matter what, especially when the girl has had no conversation with you.
4. She's probably not stupid. Don't treat her like she is. It is absolutely hilarious seeing the pickup lines or attempts some guys put to get a girl. My favorite is "Hey Galit will you please call my phone? I lost mine and don't have a home phone and I really need to call my mom. Here's my number!" I don't even know what to respond to that.....
Overall, just don't be creepy! You're probably not in love with her, don't call her beautiful if you've never met her and best of all, don't talk to girls you don't know. It never looks good.
5. JC Haters
After an hour of blog-stopping, I finally decided to write a view on Johns Creek, GA haters. It is impossible to go on facebook or twitter and not see the hatred people have for this city, but for what reason? It's boring? They don't like the people? Lets punch some reality into these spoiled brats.
Life believe it or not is what you make it. If you are bored, I have faith for you to find something to do unless you are just all around a boring person. "Colorado has mountains for skiing" or "California has beaches" come up in arguments, but the rarity of being able to visit one of these places just creates the enchanted feeling of having that beautiful natural pastime to add to your schedule. Johns Creek is like most normal cities; it has movie theaters, malls, coffee shops, and houses to hang out at. Honestly, complaining about how boring this city is does not make you a cool, rebellious person. It just shows that you suck at finding things to do.
You're in high school. You're not supposed to like everyone you see. The people in Johns Creek mostly have decent histories and innocent lives. Go to Detroit and Atlanta and there is constant worry about being jumped or robbed. Johns Creek is such a safe city that people should feel lucky to have the privileged to live here. High school has tons of types of people as well; the cheerleaders, the nerds, the art freaks, the drug addicts etc. This dynamic of people exists in every city. The fact that there is no one for you to hang out with just makes you seem like a hateful person.
Just wake up and smell the roses for once.
Monday, May 7, 2012
4. Children's Books
Having a brother and a sister that are 8 and 9 now, my exposure to young entertainment is more than the normal teen's. My personal favorite about their entertainment is how precious their books are. Here are two of my favorites and why.
1. Knuffle Bunny- This book is absolutely precious. It is about a toddler named Trixie who has a stuffed bunny named Knuffle Bunny- which of course she pronounces the K. The story line is simple. She goes out on an errand with he father, leaves her bunny at a laundromat, and her dad finds it on a second trip to the laundromat. Reading time is shared between the child and adult which means that both should be entertained. Children are so easily entertained, so that is no problem, but what is intriguing about this story are the illustrations. The author took gorgeous black and white muted photographs of New York City and drew a cartoon father, daughter, and stuffed animal to go over it. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous and the adults almost don't care about the story which makes it so much easier to share with their little one. This is what I'm talking about. Awwwwww. (:
2. Captain Underpants- Some of the little girls may see the book and think "ew underpants, I'm not reading this" but this book is absolutely hilarious. First of all, they have over 20 chapters of a couple pages which makes them feel like they are reading a lot. The language is absolutely perfect for the mischevious elementary school boy. These books are full of bathroom jokes, teacher insults, but they are genuinely entertaining to read even as a seventeen-year-old girl. The book in the series, Captain Underpants and the Perlious Plot of Professor Poopypants starts out with George Beard and Harold Hutchins-with the bad haircut. Eventually, a bald guy wearing nothing but underwear and a cape saves the day. How could you not want to read this book?
3. perfect balance
I am one of those girls that is influenced extremely easily and have always had older friends. They are all in a different stage in life that I am which makes me feel so much older for some reason. I have friends who are turning 20, squealing about which colleges they finally decided to go to, or are working as much as they can to make money and support themselves.
This might have influenced me in my life. I am weirdly mature for my age. I can easily get a job, I just got my third, set up my schedule to be almost like a pre-college, and am taking a college class over the summer- just like all my older friends.
These influences can be either good or bad depending on how you see it. I know exactly where I am going in life and am extremely excited...but I am striving less and less to achieve short term goals unfortunately such as grades. I care about what the numbers on my report card look like, but it is so difficult to show it. On the day before my AP environmental exam, I easily could have studied. My brother needed some hours driving so he and my dad drove up to Talking Rock on the back roads to eat at one of Georgia's best barbecue restaurants. Of course instead of studying, I decided to join the two and cruise in the sun on the country roads then go home and watch America's Next Top Model.
It is definitely important to focus one day at a time. I have my entire life planned out. Since I was 10 years old, I wanted to be a graphic designer. I am going to push through my classes, go to the hardcore art program at Georgia State, take drawing and painting 1 and 2, graphic design 2, and AP 2D to prepare. That is four art classes senior year which will make it that much harder to focus on the core classes that affect my GPA to even keep hope that sounds so easy to get.
There are so many different types of people in the world. Some are intrigues by the way math equations work, enjoy doing chemistry programs, and find literature absolutely fascinating. I have always been in honors and AP classes, but as I get older, I am getting more and more overwhelmed by how much I cannot get myself to feel as passionate to study like the rest of my peers. I feel like my interests are the blow off ones that will make you less successful in life. My strong points are art and music. I was weirdly good in middle school-first chair 7th and 8th grade, made wind ensemble sophomore year, and almost made Allstate Band in 7th grade. Once I figure out what I am passionate about, I can easily bust my ass, but the more respected classes to be good at are extremely hard for me. Then again, I have a brother who is a genius at math-literally. He was comfortable doing multiplication and division in kindergarten and never had to try to get perfect grades as a young child. In the creative part of his brain, there is almost nothing. He hates drawing, cannot create a composition for his life, but it is completely fine because he has his other gifts. Artists are actually needed- someone needs to make billboards for the advertisements, create restaurant layouts, and make the cute Christmas cards to send mom in college. Society looks down on art majors because they do not take the same kind of brain power as chemistry and economics, but the differences in people in the world create the beautiful balance.
This might have influenced me in my life. I am weirdly mature for my age. I can easily get a job, I just got my third, set up my schedule to be almost like a pre-college, and am taking a college class over the summer- just like all my older friends.
These influences can be either good or bad depending on how you see it. I know exactly where I am going in life and am extremely excited...but I am striving less and less to achieve short term goals unfortunately such as grades. I care about what the numbers on my report card look like, but it is so difficult to show it. On the day before my AP environmental exam, I easily could have studied. My brother needed some hours driving so he and my dad drove up to Talking Rock on the back roads to eat at one of Georgia's best barbecue restaurants. Of course instead of studying, I decided to join the two and cruise in the sun on the country roads then go home and watch America's Next Top Model.
It is definitely important to focus one day at a time. I have my entire life planned out. Since I was 10 years old, I wanted to be a graphic designer. I am going to push through my classes, go to the hardcore art program at Georgia State, take drawing and painting 1 and 2, graphic design 2, and AP 2D to prepare. That is four art classes senior year which will make it that much harder to focus on the core classes that affect my GPA to even keep hope that sounds so easy to get.
There are so many different types of people in the world. Some are intrigues by the way math equations work, enjoy doing chemistry programs, and find literature absolutely fascinating. I have always been in honors and AP classes, but as I get older, I am getting more and more overwhelmed by how much I cannot get myself to feel as passionate to study like the rest of my peers. I feel like my interests are the blow off ones that will make you less successful in life. My strong points are art and music. I was weirdly good in middle school-first chair 7th and 8th grade, made wind ensemble sophomore year, and almost made Allstate Band in 7th grade. Once I figure out what I am passionate about, I can easily bust my ass, but the more respected classes to be good at are extremely hard for me. Then again, I have a brother who is a genius at math-literally. He was comfortable doing multiplication and division in kindergarten and never had to try to get perfect grades as a young child. In the creative part of his brain, there is almost nothing. He hates drawing, cannot create a composition for his life, but it is completely fine because he has his other gifts. Artists are actually needed- someone needs to make billboards for the advertisements, create restaurant layouts, and make the cute Christmas cards to send mom in college. Society looks down on art majors because they do not take the same kind of brain power as chemistry and economics, but the differences in people in the world create the beautiful balance.
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