My Last Blog Post

This indeed will be my last blog post for Non-Fiction writing. I chose to write another blog post because being honest, keeping up with my journal was not something that I had been doing all too well. With this last blog post also comes the end of English class this semester, and also marks the almost end of another school year. To be honest, Junior year feels like it just flew by. It wouldn't be right to say that some of my memories from this year "feel like they were just yesterday", but it would be more accurate to say that looking back on my junior year is like a blur. I have changed in so many different ways that three paragraphs couldn't even begin to express.

Seeing all of my friends in the class above me graduate is somewhat surreal. I remember going to graduation last year and it seemed so far away that I didn't give it much thought. But it dawned on me that exactly one year from now, I will be completely done with high school. This is very exciting but also one of the scariest things ever. It may be that I'm just not good with change but I am already nervous for the end. It is so strange to me that in exactly 5 days, I will be considered a senior. Forgive my rambling, for I do have a point.

What junior year has taught me is that you really have to cherish all of the moments in your life. Apart from the few bad things that happened this year, I had a pretty great year! My grades were pretty solid (hopefully finals week won't make me retract that statement) and I'm done with the ACT. Junior year was also my best year to date in terms of sports. Being on the varsity soccer team and running some of my PR's. On top of sports, I also made some new friends in the senior class, and became closer with some old friends.

Along with cherishing moments, I have learned that optimism is a very important trait to have. Pessimism is a plague that I feel many people I know suffer from. My best analogy for it is how many people feel during summer break. Almost half way through, we start to complain about how quickly the summer is going. Then it's time for school again and the countdown until next summer starts back up. Hopefully this summer I can avoid this phenomenon. What's the point of even having a summer if you are going to spend all of your time worrying about when it's going to be over? I plan on spending my senior year living in the moment. I want to acknowledge that it is my last year in high school but at the same time I don't want to let that ruin my last year.

A third thing that I finally learned in Junior year is that you shouldn't spend time dwelling on your, and other peoples mistakes. I probably should have figured this out a while ago, but it is a serious point. When you make a mistake, its over and done for. That's all there is to it. I saw a graph of how to deal with problems that really changed the way I look at life. You can't control how other people treat you, only how you treat others and how you react to certain things. This goes along with the earlier summer analogy; there is no use in worrying about things that other people have done to you because it just fogs your vision of things you can actually change. Instead of being mad or even hating someone for something, in the future I plan on taking everything in stride and learning from my mistakes. Maybe instead of dwelling on a problem I'll just remember to not trust that person in the future. And next time I have an issue in my life that I spend a lot of time worrying about, I'll just look at that graph (which is my desktop background).

Hopefully this rambling mess of a blog post will help some of you guys. At the very least, take a look at that graph. It really changed the way I view a lot of things and hopefully it will help you calm at some point in the future. Anyways, thanks for reading my blog posts (even if you only did to get your comments done) and stay happy. :)

College...........

There was a challenge to write this blog post completely in one syllable words but I don't believe I could properly express myself in with such a restriction. I promise that is the only reason this post isn't all one syllable words.

ANYWAY! This wonderful blog post is about college! Or at least the perspective of a high schooler who is only just beginning the process of applying to higher education. Since recently, I had given college minimal amount of thought other that one thing. I was certain that I did not want to go to the U of I. After all, I have lived in Chambana my entire life! If you were to ask a young me, I would tell you that college is the time to move to far away places and rarely have to see my parents! These views have changed *slightly* since then. As of now, the U of I is number one on my list of possible colleges. But lets start at the beginning of the beginning of my college process.

At the start of this school year, I signed up for ACT prep classes over winter break. This was the first time that it actually started to sink in that I was at the verge of college. My parents found a great ACT prep teacher who came with very great recommendations and the stage was set for me to have no free time over winter break. The class wasn't actually that bad. It was pretty boring but I got through it anyways. What I didn't realize at the time was that Jason Franklin (the teacher) is amazing. The first time I took the ACT in february, I got a score I was extremely happy with and I think I owe some of that credit to Mr. Franklin.

After I got the scores of my ACT back, I cancelled the next ACT I was signed up for because I felt no need to take it again. And since that day I haven't done much else in terms of college preparation. I guess I'm really lucky in that sense. Now back to why I want to go to the U of I. Over the summer, I interned in the Mechanical Engineering building on campus and I loved the work they were doing and the types of classes students take in that field. So as of now, it looks like Mech Engineering will be my major (something that the U of I is known for). I also have found that I prefer large schools to small ones. On top of that, I started playing cricket on campus which is something I would love to continue when college comes around.

Though there aren't that many reasons I can list as to why I want to go to the U of I, it would be hard to make a case to go anywhere else when the cheapest school for me to go to also happens to be one of the best in my field. As of now all I am is excited for college. From talking to my friends that are in college now, it seems like a great time. Now all I have left is to write my essays which shouldn't be too much trouble.