motivation

My AP chemistry test is about three weeks away and I'm having a lot of trouble finding the motivation to study for it and attempt to pass it. In order to pass the AP test, I have to get one-third of it right. Sounds pretty simple, right? NOT. We started reviewing material to prepare us for the test about a week ago, and I don't remember anything. My teacher gives us quizzes on very old material that we learned during first semester, and everyone does very poorly because nobody remembers anything that we learned during first semester. There are also review sessions held after school in a classroom with a teacher that can help us answer questions we may have. I wish I had the motivation to do well on this test, but I just can't find it! Since what we get on this test doesn't affect our grade for the semester, it's hard for many people to find the motivation. Especially for seniors who are graduating in about a month, it's even harder because we seniors tend to not care about school anymore. =)

graduation

So this past cycle's assembly began with a video showing tid bits of last year's graduation ceremony. By showing this video to us seniors, it made me realize just how close graduation really is. This weekend is prom, and then the following weekend is holoku. The next big event after holoku is graduation!!! Of course, there are many senior sing practices along the way, but I don't mind them so much anymore because I like the songs we're singing, and we sound pretty good! Plus, having these practices gets me pumped up for graduation even more than I already am without the practices. So overall, it's a good thing that we're having these practices so often. Prom is in four days. I can't believe it's already prom time. I remember thinking about prom, and how excited I was getting, about...six months ago! Now it's only four days away. How fast time went by...
Anyway, watching the video of last year's graduation made me feel some butterflies in my stomache as I was sitting in my chair in dillingham. I pictured myself in the video walking down the aisle at the neil blaisdell center, linking arms with fellow classmates. I noticed how nice and clean cut everyone looked and got even more excited because I thought to myself, that's going to be me in about a month!!

rain

As I sat here at my computer browsing around myspace, facebook, and uploading some pictures that I took over the weekend, a familiar smell entered the room through a nearby window. I didn't have to look out the window to figure out what odor was coming through the window. As soon as the distinctive smell entered my nostrils I knew that it was the smell of rain. Sure enough, when I glanced at the window from my seat at the computer dozens of rain droplets were hitting the glass through the screen.
What actually makes the rain smell like it does? Rain is just water, right? Water fron the sink doesn't have a smell. So what makes rain smell? Wow I never really thought of that until now..I always thought rain smelt like how it does because it's rain.
Perhaps for my nature essay I could write something about rain...

At My Spot

While sitting at my spot at a picnic bench between Alexander and the library, I noticed: A whole bunch of asian people, a couple of cliques sitting in various spots around me either gossiping with each other, or playing cards. I noticed people walking in and out of the library, people laughing with each other, people studying together, and people eating lunch together. I noticed plumeria trees in front of me, leaves being tossed around on the ground by the wind, and I noticed the trees above me that were shaking violently in the wind, causing a couple of branches and many leaves to fall to the ground.

Observing my spot from another angle, I noticed similar things such as the trees shaking in the wind, and branches and leaves tossing in the wind. I noticed cliques talking and eating, but I didn't notice as many cliques as I did when I was at my spot because my vision wasn't as good as it was when I was at my spot.

I didn't have that much time to observe from another angle because time was short...

Parking Ticket

Today was a pretty awful day. It started off with senior sing practice at the ungodly hour of 7:30. I haven't started at 7:30 since junior year, so I was not used to waking up so early. I had planned to go work-out at my friend's apartment building after school, so I decided to drive to school. Today would make the third time this whole year that I've driven to school, and so I had to stress out about finding parking, and make it to Cornuelle for senior sing practice by 7:30. On top of all of that, I had an oral presentation for Chinese class today right after senior sing practice which finished at 8:30. An oral presentation in Chinese class consists of memorizing 10 minutes worth of Chinese discussing a certain assigned topic. I was so nervous for this and it didn't help that I didn't have time to refresh and practice before class because of senior sing. After presenting my presentation, I had a nice and long relaxing three hour break, went to Composition class, and then it was off to Chemistry class at 1:30. Chemistry class was utterly exhausting mostly because I realized that I don't understand any of the material we are learning now and we have a quiz on Friday. Uh oh. My school day was done after Chemistry class at 1:30. I walked about a block away from school to my car. It was blistering hot, and I was exhausted from a tiring, rough day. To top of my horrible day, I had a parking ticket wedged between my windshield wiper and the front glass of my car. I was very shocked because when I parked at that spot at 7:15 this morning, I thought I made sure that it was legal to park there at that time. Turns out there was a sign saying no parking 7:00-9:00 am on school days only, but it was all the way at the end of the street, hidden by a bush, and the words were facing the opposite direction from a driver's point of view. What a way to top off the end of my day, huh? AHHH.

Housing

The next step in completing my college decision process is to sign up for housing. I just finished looking at the selection of different dorms, and I'm having a hard time deciding what dorm I want to stay at...there's a gallery of pictures of each dorm and certain ammenities, but they all pretty much look the same. A bunch of my friends are applying for housing around now too, and I'm trying to decide if I want to be in the same dorm as them. I'm afraid if I do stay in the same dorm with a bunch of my friends I'm just going to be hanging out with them, but at the same time I want to be with at least some of my friends so that I don't feel as lost and lonely. Honestly, I'm getting pretty intimidated by going to college, and the whole process, but I'm really excited at the same time! All I can really think about is going up there and being on my own..finally! It's been very hard to think about school related work this semester, but I'm trying my hardest to stay on track and focus on getting all of my work done on time so that by the time May comes along I'll basically be on cruise control. May is full of activites to prepare us for graduation, and so it is really hard for us seniors to fullyu concentrate on school work.
I hope I can survive this month!!

4th Quarter..

It's the last quarter of my high school career, and I should be excited right? Nope. Starting this week, seniors have to attend senior sing practices during certain times of the day. The time must correspond with a time when you have a break, because you can't miss classes to attend them. Which sucks a lot, because some days I only have one break or no break at all. You must attend four practices a week...and if you can't go you have to write it down on some sheet of paper with the deans or something like that...I'm not completely sure about that part. Anyway, my point is, I'm going to be so busy this quarter, and I already have a lot of work to do, and to top it off we have senior sing practices during our breaks? UGH.
I'm getting less and less excited for prom, which is just around the corner...getting everything organized with the limo, and flowers, and tuxedo's, and pictures, etc. is very stressful and frustrating because everyone wants something different, and it just becomes a big mess. I hope when prom actually comes along, it will be really fun and all of this stress and frustration that is happening now, will all be worth it.
Well, here goes into the fourth quarter...gahhhhhh

Teen Drinking...

Because my group had the chance to read the public interest essay on binge drinking, and we had the chance to discuss the drinking issue as a big group, I decided to write about my opinion on teen drinking and the drinking age. I think teenage drinking is a big problem, but I think that one of the main reasons why so many underage teens drink is because of the fact that it is illegal. I feel that if it weren't illegal, a lot of teens wouldn't have the urge to do it. But because underage drinking is illegal, not everyone can get ahold of alcohol, so not that many people can drink. If it were legal for teenagers around the age of 16 and up to drink, then I think not so many people would be doing it because all teenagers who are 16 and up can gain access to it, so it's not that cool if your group of friends are drinking.
In our class dicussions, we discussed that if the drinking age was lowered to 16, and the eligible age to get a license was 16, then the two would not mix very well. I agree with this, but I think that in that case, the issue is more about drinking and driving versus the age a person is allowed to drink.
I think this topic is something that can be talked about for hours and hours, and a logical solution can't ever be found that can make everyone happy.

blades of glory!!!!

This past weekend was a very fun one. I got to hang out with some of my guy friends that I usually never see on the weekends, and it was really fun because I haven't hung out with them in a really long time. On Friday a friend of mine had a get together at his house and it was really fun because there were a lot of people there and a bunch of them were people who I usually do not hang out with outside of school. But Saturday was even more enjoyable than Friday because I got to see Blades of Glory...TWICE! In the same day!! I can't even begin to explain how funny this movie was, but it was funny enough for me to spend nine more dollars to see it later that night. My whole group of friends ended up going together, and it was just a good weekend. I haven't had a good weekend like such in a really long time...and I hope the weekends will continue to get better as the year winds down to an end. With prom just around the corner, I'm anticipating this last quarter of high school to be a good one!

I highly recommend Blades of Glory.....see it ASAP!!