- My friend and I formed an independent study class that takes place before school in order to play music despite full schedules.
- One of the best times I have had was when a friend and I quizzed each other on a bio practice test.
- I look up math riddles online and I look forward to the TedEd problem solving videos.
- When I read books, it relaxes me more than watching Netflix.
- I received a math achievement award.
- I downloaded a special app with a variety of thinking puzzles.
- Also, I got into my dream school, Harvey Mudd!!!
I have always been interested in learning, passionate about working-hard, appreciate spending time studying -- which are all good qualities -- but combined, it defines a nerd. Although I have always possessed these traits, this year I have embraced them and have become proud of my "nerdy" accomplishments. I hope my random list will help people be encouraged to stay true to themselves.
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Lately, I have noticed there are people in several aspects of my life that are struggling with negative thoughts and bad energy. I want to give anyone who needs it a reason to smile and be happy today. Hopefully, these small little things can spark confidence and build optimism, even if some of them are cliche. So, even if you are not having issues currently, I hope you have a wonderful day.
As of Wednesday, this is a phrase I have been hearing often. Recently, I have had the pleasure of waking up before the sun, spending seven hours inside rooms with limited windows, and dealing with the complications of different class requirements. Regardless of the added intensity to my daily schedule and sarcasm, I am extremely excited for this school year. From the first impressions of my teachers, I think the majority of them are passionate about their field and are willing to put in time and effort into helping their students succeed. I look forward to being challenged in more rigorous classes with other peers that hold the same motivation as me. I especially am interested in my science classes this year; the two teachers seem energetic and their enthusiasm spreads throughout the class.
Also, another part of this year that I am excited for is the hopeful beginning of a new club, Engineering Club. I want to inspire other high school students to use more creative thinking to solve more diverse problems. I hope to accomplish this by creating challenges that people collaborate in groups to find a potential method of completing the challenge. On another note, I hope you are enjoying the start of the new school year. 1. Start an engineering club
2. Read at least one book per month outside of school work 3. Finish researching colleges 4. Do a backhandspring swing down on beam(without mats) 5. Choreograph another dance 6. Continue exercising once a week outside of gymnastics Since the announcement of their tour, I have been eagerly anticipating the day of Fall Out Boy's concert. My excitement grew as I waited in line with my friends and the performance definitely did not disappoint. My friends and I were able to get spots in the pit, a standing area directly in front of the stage, and ended up being only threes rows from the front. The excitement throughout the entire was noticeable as the amphitheater got about five times louder after the opening acts. High energy was running through the crowd the entire show and it made the experience reach a new level for me. Meeting new people with similar interests in music was incredible. All the girls were super friendly and we were all able to obsess over the band together and not seem crazy. Everyone around me joined in singing at the top of our lungs, dancing and jumping around, and cheering for people that have affected our lives. Time flew by and the concert seemed to be over too soon, despite it lasting over three hours. Post-concert freak out sessions were definitely a thing. Although it took a little while to come down from the adrenaline of seeing my favorite band live, by the time I reached home, I was dead asleep. It was an amazing experience that I would want to relive and I hope that Fall Out Boy continues their journey producing music and sticks together. Towards the beginning of the year, I set seven goals for myself. At the start of summer, I completed six! I got my license the first week of summer and my picture isn't even that bad. Even though I have a busy summer planned and haven't been in my typical locations, I have maintained my goal of exercising at least once a week. Because I've been missing a lot of gymnastics practice, I have had the opportunity to run more often. Another goal of mine that I completed was finding a summer activity: COSMOS! It's a great program and I'm meeting a lot of new people that I can really connect with(After the camp is over and I find time, I will add a page to the Extra Science tab dedicated to my experience). I also finished the school year with straight A's. The other two goals, competing giants and making my beam routines, already have a blog post concerning my accomplishments. Unfortunately, I still have not completed the pages on my website about extra science, but will hopefully finish them soon!
At least imaginary dragons because I dance to one of the band's songs, Monster. For my English class, we were tasked with a final project that was to create an artistic representation of anything that we learned this year or a topic that truly forced us to think. This presentation was very open-ended and the artwork could come in many forms, such as, a painting, poem, video, song lyrics, music cover, dance, rap, music video, or collage. For my project, I related my dance to the themes in the book All Quiet On The Western Front. Through my choreography, I tried to show a person who was battling an internal struggle, attempting to deal with a drastic change in worlds. Originally, the dancer is feeling alone and and insignificant in the world until something snaps and they turn animalistic. This person is forced to endure their new perspective and life as they battle to find who they truly are. At this point, they feel out of control and feel as though they are still alone in the world. The ending can be interpreted in multiple ways. My dance relates both to the book and my actual life. The main themes I tried to portray include two connecting ideas. First, don't let others make decisions for you because it takes away your own life. Second, trust yourself and your instincts. If you let fear rule your life, your values will be stripped from you and you will lose the ability to act for yourself. I chose to use these themes because I strongly believe that it is important for people, especially teens, to find themselves on their own. During adolescence, the world is changing and there are a lot of opinions being shoved down your throat, but each person still has to make their own choices and become individuals. Teenagers often feel scared and insecure about the new surroundings or alone or pressured to act like another person. I can relate. These are the reasons I chose to step out of my comfort zone and show what I've learned, not only about the brutality and life lessons from war, but about my own self. Side-note: I have completed one more of the things on my bucket list! Also, if you enjoyed the video, please comment!
For a more relaxed ending to the debate season, our team decided to head into San Francisco for an easy novice tournament. Varsity debaters were still able to attend and participate in judging the beginner speakers in order to be part of our team and earn Nation Forensic League points. Unfortunately for the novice debaters, there were several unexpected challenges that arose. The first issue was rather trivial- the problem of finding parking and then entering the correct building. Although this issue was quite simple to overcome, it set our team towards the path filled with problems. On of the major struggles for me was the massive amount of time between this tournament and the last practice debate I had, which was in November. Half a year gave me ample time to forget all the debating techniques I studied in the previous semester, leaving me to briefly skim the rules, debate structures, and potential arguments just before prep time started. After two rounds of very intense, well thought out debates, our debate coach realized that one of the schools enrolled junior varsity and varsity debaters into the novice category. This created hard competition and an unequal playing field because of the differences in experience levels. Despite this disadvantage, my partner, Emilie, and I were still able to win two of our debates, continuing our 2-2 streak. The third debate led to an exciting turn of events. During the last speakers rebuttal, the fire alarm was triggered, forcing all the students and judges to evacuate the building. Luckily, the fire department quickly arrived and confirmed that there was no hazardous flames. Personally, it was exhilarating and nerve-racking to actually be in a situation that could cause harm. The positive aspect of the spontaneous fire alarm evacuation was that everyone remained calm and cooperated with authority leaders. Also, it helped give my brain a short rest after multiple rounds of tiresome debating. Overall, this tournament was more for gaining experience while having fun and bonding with our team. All of these goals were accomplished that day and hoping this participation will help me improve my debating skills. Also, our entire team won an award! But, no one really knows why we received the plaque or the reason behind the award... but it looks cool! After an intense season containing many ups and downs, my gymnastics year reached State Championships(however, in this case, the phrase is slightly deceiving because it is only Northern California). At this meet, gymnast have the opportunity to qualify to Regionals by scoring a thirty-four or higher. Luckily, my entire team qualified and we get to travel to Arizona!
Personally, I had one of the best meets in level eight, including last year. I managed to score a 35.375 for all-around and definitely earned a spot to compete at Regionals. This meet lead to the accomplishment of my first listed goal, to compete giants on bars! This step is a major stepping stone and hurdle I have overcome. I have been working towards this goal for approximately the past three years and have past mental blocks concerning my fear of heights and bars. Although the progress seems slow, and it may not show significant improvements to my scores, I am extremely proud of my accomplishment. This bar routine set the positive streak that followed through the rest of my meet. Despite fretting over possible falls on my beam routine due to a couple of rough practices the past week, I ended up sticking the majority of my routine and placed fourth with a 9.125, my highest level eight beam score. My floor routine rocked the judges with my acute tumbling and fierce dance. Ending on vault, I had faith in myself to score at least a seven to qualify to the culminating level eight meet; I ended up receiving a score well above that allowing my to gain a regional leo and spot in the upcoming meet. One small goal I have for Regionals is to compete an upgrade twisting vault by adding a half turn to my current vault. This will raise my start value a couple of tenths and help me practice warming-up and executing a slightly higher level skill. *I will try to post pictures soon. A teenager is killed in a drunk driving related accident. This point was emphasized during a simulation that took place this year at my school, San Marin. It is extremely important for everyone to be aware how dangerous driving under an influence, of any kind, can be and how easily it is to lose a life. Whether it was an accident or not, an entire society is greatly affected by the consequences that come along with the tragedy. An organization, the community and a group of amazing students accepted the challenge of educating our society on the possibilities and results of poor decisions. The simulation took place over the course of two days. On the Thursday of the past week, the 'Grim Reaper' traveled around campus taking the lives of students every fifteen minutes accompanied with a heartbeat flat-lining. Those students were completely cut-off from communication, including online social media, and the community treated their death as a real loss by calling the parents, reading an obituary, and making the students leave the area(they stayed at Walker Creek overnight). totaled and several bodies were bloody and unconscious waiting for help to arrive. Glass was smashed and scattered all over the pavement. Blood poured out of the windows from a mutilated arm. Bumpers were crushed and bent inwards in an unnatural formation. Skid marks scarred the streets and tracked the dangerous swerving. Sirens constantly rung as notification to the entire community of an accident. Traffic was blocked and cars were forced to detour around the scene. A girl lay conclusively still over the front of the car signaling her sudden death. Many different organizations, such as the police, ambulances, the mortuary company, a helicopter, and firefighters, arrived at the scene to show what would happen at an actual crash. After the firefighters safely rescued two of the victims, they were airlifted to a better equipped hospital to undergo intensive surgery. After carting away the dead student, the police turned to the major issue that caused the accident, drunk driving. The student was subjected to standard DUI tests and was found guilty of drinking so he was cuffed and held at the police station. Video showed sections of the student's trial and the consequences that will forever resonate in his life; from the years in prison, the guilt of murdering a fellow student, and the set-backs in his future goals and career, the drunk driver deals with fitting punishments to the crime that caused the death of an innocent person. The next day, a funeral and memorial service was held for the girl who died in the accident. It was powerful to hear the letters and final words of the students who 'died' during the simulation. Their speeches showed that their deaths affect everyone in the community. A man also described his experience of his family dealing with the death of his sister-in law. He explained the innocence of the life taken and the harsh impacts left behind. His granddaughter was cruelly stripped of her mother at the young age of five and is forced to live her entire life without remembering the appearance of her own mother in person. This tragedy was sudden and the repercussions were painful; however, this is only one accident among the many that have occurred all over the United States. Through this simulation, I realized many things that scared me. Although I plan to never drink and drive and never had the intention of doing so, I can easily be the victim of an accident due to other drivers on the road. I also noted that a number of other things, such as cell phones and tiredness, can cause a lack of focus while driving which could possibly relate to accidents. One thing that concerned me was the amount of time the ambulances took to arrive and safely remove the injured people from the car. This simulation mirrored the processes of an actual car crash and it worries me that it takes over half an hour for people to receive the needed care in a hospital, even with helicopter transport. Another thing that shocked me was the number of students that actually drink and drive. This little case can affect everyone on the road, even innocent bystanders can have their lives stolen away.
*For the full video click HERE. This past weekend, I traveled to San Diego for a gymnastics meet. I was able to stick my beam series and stay on the beam for the remainder of the routine. This was the second meet I made my beam routine, in a row! I am really excited that I accomplished my goal of making two beam routines within the first three meets. Now, I have the chance to push myself in future competitions and aspire to stick my skills at higher meets, such as States or Regionals!Only six more major goals to accomplish this year.
Recently, my level eight gymnastics season started. With each year holding at least one major travel meet, our team made our way down to San Diego to enjoy the competition, beaches, and sun. Luckily, a school break followed the meet, so most team members took an extra day to explore the city. As far as competing goes, my team was amazing! Unfortunately one person was injured and could only compete bars, but the rest of us completely hit beam including sticking(no wobbling) all of our flight series(the scary flipping two element backwards skills). By the end of the meet, our team ended up winning third place all-around, which is surprising because there are only four team members, including the injured friend and the awards are based on the top three scores on each event. The girls on the other team we rotated with were also super encouraging and their coach was funny.
and walked along the boardwalk that had small shops lined on one side with the water bordering the opposite edge of the path. During lunch, we were able to meet up with two former teammates who currently go to college in Southern California. Finally, at dinner, the waitress brought dessert and sang Happy Birthday to me because a teammate notified her, which was sweet, but still embarrassing. The next day, our coaches were heading back to Novato so a couple of the girls decided to hangout with Kerry before she left(first pic. in slideshow). Instead of going to the zoo because there was not enough time, we took the ferry to Coronado and wandered through the shops, walked down the beach, splashed in the freezing cold waves, and journeyed past beautiful houses of my dreams. Towards the end of the day, we hopped onto the ferry and witnessed a magnificent sunset that stretched over the expanse waters. For dinner, most of the team grabbed pizza at a very unique warehouse that was completely industrialized looking and had a chill environment. On the final day, one of my teammates, Carina, and I spent the time discovering the Gaslamp District and the smaller shops by the waterside. We found the coolest candle shop the designed spherical light globes that shone colors through the outer layer when lit. It was cool to see all the artwork hand-carved and I think making a candle like it will be my next art project. Maybe during summer, I will make a post about it. Unfortunately, like all trips, ours had to come to an end. This was honestly one of the best travel meets of my entire gymnastics career. One of my former teammates is currently a junior at San Jose State and competes on beam. The past weekend, the level eight team supported her at the Haas Pavilion on the UC Berkeley campus. Other teams competing included Arizona State, Denver, and Cal(who... spoiler alert: won the meet). Unfortunately, Gab was not on the competing squad for beam that Sunday and didn't have the opportunity to perform in front of the judges, crowd, and team. Nonetheless, we had a great time and witnessed many incredible achievements demonstrated through crazy insane skills and perfected routines. The expansive abilities of these college gymnasts inspired me to work even harder at practice and push myself in order to accomplish my goals of obtaining new skills. I may not be a competitive college gymnast, but I still hope that I can continue my intense hobby throughout high school and possibly do club gymnastics.
1. I am a very introverted person and my friends think I'm crazy because I talk to myself.
2. I can solve the Rubik's Cube in under two minutes. 3. Whenever I have free time, I either watch YouTube videos or read books. 4. One of my life dreams is to travel the world. 5. I wish I was British because I love the accent. 6. I love roller coasters and amusement parks and fright nights. 7. My favorite ice cream is Ben and Jerry's-New York Super Fudge Chunk. 8. Only recently have I realized that marshmallow was not spelled marshmellow. 9. I can tie my shoes with one hand. 10. I use my music stand to dry my towels. 11. I have awkward unproportionally long legs. 12. I have a pin collection. 13. I have finally achieved the average height of 5'3''. 14. Any kind of shaming(fat-shaming, slut-shaming, skinny-shaming, etc.) is horrific in my eyes. 15. I participate on a competitive debate team. 16. I hold a grudge against those who are pompous and disrespectful. 17. My dream house is an isolated cabin near the woods where I can hike. 18. My full name only consists of 11 letters. 19. I know how to plot the fatal injuries of people who exasperate me without leaving evidence. 20. I have a hope that I can choreograph a personal contemporary dance. 21. Reading keeps me from going completely insane. 22. I wish I could write as well as I could think. 23. As well as drawing and painting artsy creative pictures. 24. I have broken three bones. All from gymnastics training. 25. When I was little, I cut my hair... twice. 26. One of my deepest fears is that I will never live up to my parents' standards. 27. I am extremely ticklish. 28. My eyesight is atrocious at 20/100 and continues to get worse. 29. For two years, my friends called me 'brace face'. 30. I am proud that I have not cried while watching The Lion King. 31. I have memorized 36 elements, 40 digits of pi, and 1,023 binary numbers. 32. Homosexuality is something I strongly support, along with other basic human rights. 33. I can recite the alphabet backwards, in sign language, and in Morse code. 34. I have a tumblr blog... 35. I spend more time at gymnastics than in my home, disregarding sleeping time. 36. Extreme stress and anxiety have ruled my life at times. 37. I like tall people because they give nice hugs. 38. Once, I have stayed awake for 37 hours straight. 39. My future is one of my greatest worries. 40. I am a feminist. 41. I am a major procrastinator and just stress about my procrastination. 42. My brother is an amazing sibling(I am being completely honest). 43. I have a deep love for terrible puns... If you haven't already noticed my jokes. 44. I often have trouble expressing my feelings for people. 45. My parents deprived me of traditional childhood Disney movies. 46. I want to play as many different instruments as possible. So far I have played flute, alto sax, piano, bari sax, and trumpet(a little). 47. I refer to an infinite amount of objects as 'things' or 'thingy-things'. 48. Apparently, my natural face makes me look completely angry. 49. I am extremely strict with grammar, but I can't spell for my life. 50. Although I love the internet, I also enjoy running outside. *Feel free to comment about interesting and unique things about yourself or if you ever thought marshmallow was spelled differently! I would like to clarify that these are not New Year's resolutions; the following notes are ongoing goals I have had for myself. I believe it would greatly benefit me to not only write down my ambitions for my future, but also post them for others to view. Sharing my aspirations would force me to follow through with each step towards my destination and I hope this would inspire people to reach forwards to their own personal goals. 1. Compete giants on bars this gymnastics season.
2. Get a part-time job or an internship or go to science camp over the summer. 3. Get my drivers licence before summer ends. 4. Make at least two beams routines throughout this season. 5. Finish extra science pages before school ends. 6. Get straight A's. 7. Exercise at least once a week, outside of gymnastics practice. Over Thanksgiving break, my family, including all my grandparents, one aunt and uncle, and two very loud cousins, was able to drive up to Tahoe Lake and stay in cabin. My cousin, Oliver, is four years old and my other cousin, Piper, is one and a half. I'm definitely not used to spending time around small toddlers and greatly noticed the difference in decibel levels. Although it was great to spend time with family, I absolutely can appreciate the peaceful silence that typically is prevalent in our family household. It was a more mellow trip, but it was refreshing to spend time with close family. Even though we live relatively close to each other, time schedules are so hectic that we can rarely come together at the same time.
I was super excited that it snowed in Tahoe! It has been so long since I had the opportunity to play in the fluffy snow. Last week, I got to go sledding with my brother and cousins at Donner Ski Ranch. We trudged up the snow covered path underneath the chair lift before running and jumping on to a sled. After riding with my younger cousins several times, my brother and I decided to construct a miniature jump. It was fairly successful and my brother got air, but unfortunately, he landed sideways and rolled into a prickly bush before slowing to a stop.
Thanksgiving was a mix of eating, watching football, completing puzzles, doing homework, cooking food, and playing with the cousins. Overall, it was a great hiatus from school. *Please comment about the activities you did over Thanksgiving break! 1. Stuffed animals that function as cuddle buddies.
2. Spending an entire day just reading. 3. Rainy days for an excuse to stay in bed. 4. Running or hiking alone because it's peaceful. 5. Seeing reflections of trees in puddles after it has rained. 6. Finishing a book series in one day. 7. Hot chocolate and peppermint; especially if it has whipped cream! 8. Gymnastics! I couldn't imagine a life without it. 9. Dancing in my room, even if I'm bad at it. 10. Scented candles are marvelous, even if they aren't lit. 11. Midnight snacks, they are essential in my life. 12. Falling in love with characters from books or shows. 13. Decorating my walls to personalize my room. 14. Smelling hairspray or gel as you wash it out of your hair. Just kidding, I lied about the party; I just wanted to make an alliteration. For the weeks leading up to Halloween, one of my gymnastics coaches brought carved pumpkins to practice and displayed them throughout the gym. Despite my lack of spirit for Halloween, I really love pumpkin seeds. So, I asked my coach if I could have the pumpkins when he wanted to get rid of them and now there are three pumpkins in my house even though it is November. It only took me forty-five minutes to prepare the seeds and actually bake them and they turned out surprisingly well. Typically, when I bake several errors occur, but last night nothing went wrong!
Another cool thing I did with the pumpkins was used an exacto knife to carve patterns. I didn't actually stab completely through the pumpkin so my pumpkins still haven't spoiled. The tree turned out relatively good considering it was my first attempt at carving. The second picture is a capital E written in calligraphy. That design was troublesome because of the intricate swirls so that pattern doesn't look as detailed. Overall, I was satisfied with the results.
expand on my knowledge of debating and was great practice with the immense numbers of debate rounds. Watching other teams and observing their techniques and speaking styles accelerates my learning and improves my personal experiences with parliamentary debate. By the end of the tournament, my mind could barely function and I was exhausted from the five rounds of debating. But, the experience was definitely worth the fatigue. Friday, our team left school early to reach the campus before the first round that started at three; however, there was a crazy amount of traffic so in a frenzied rush we had to change into formal clothes and run through the campus. We barely made the registration in time and shortly after our arrival, began to prep for the upcoming debates. Unfortunately, my partner and my first round was located fifteen minutes across campus, without getting lost. In order to not be disqualified, we sprinted through the streets after taking a wrong turn and heading away from the desired area. Luckily, our opponents were friendly and also slightly late so we ended up walking together. Our second round proceeded much better; we were more efficient with our preparation time and more focused in our rebuttals. Despite only two rounds occurring on Friday, we still didn't arrive back at the hotel until after midnight, leaving only eight hours to rest and brace for the next three debate rounds on Saturday. Following the trend of misfortune, the next day it began to rain heavily causing travels to classrooms miserable and forcing us to prep inside the busy and boisterous student lounge.
Despite the several issues of our trip, it was totally fun and exciting. This was one of the first times that I was able to connect and interact with the other members of our debate team. Everyone was welcoming and helpful in prepping for debate rounds. The weekend brought smiles to me throughout the tournament with prank calls, Morse code through hotel walls, bubber ducks(not a typo), charades, and tripping in the middle of crosswalks. Another great part of the tournament was the cafeteria food; the taco bowls were amazing! Also, another cool thing about the campus was a circle of columns that created echos if a person stood in the center. However, only the person in the middle could listen to the sounds. The tournament was tiring, but great bonding time for our team and helped me practice debating. During a lab in biology class, my friend, Ananya, and I partnered up and made a baby. While choosing our partners, I proposed to my friend with an imaginary ring and brought up the question of having children together. At the beginning of the lab, it was soon decided that I would be the man of the relationship and flipped the coin to determine the gender of the baby because of my XY gene. Kai Cesare(Ch-ez-er-ay) Nam was named collaboratively and wears a colored bow tie to demonstrate his awesomeness. (My friend and I want to wear bow ties to a debate tournament because we were going to be partners until someone else dropped out of the club.) We were studying genetics and punnet squares and applied this concept by flipping a coin to find attributes of our baby. Certain aspects, such as the skin color, were determined by multiple coin flips because more than one gene contributes to the phenotype of the characteristic. Both partners would flip a coin and if it landed on heads, it was the dominant allele and if the coin was tails, it was the recessive allele. An alleles is a form of a gene that contributes to the appearance of characteristic. This process repeated until all the traits of our baby's physical aspects were discovered; then we drew and named our kid. This experiment only had completely dominant genes, not co-dominant or incomplete dominance. This lab was a very fun lab where we were able to laugh at the same time as relating to biology and how genetics work. After coloring our children, the class got the chance to present their kid and it brought a positive uplifting mood to our day. One of the things on my bucket list is to bake a cheesecake, however my friend, Sofia, and I discovered it takes thirty-two ounces of cream cheese in order to accomplish that. Since we were in the baking mood, but lacked the proper amount of cream cheese, we decided to bake chocolate fudge with the additions of candy canes, white chocolate chips, and caramel. Surprisingly, the kitchen did not get set on fire and the fudge didn't get burned. The only issue was needing several attempts to melt the chocolate chips because when we added them to the pot, the milk caught on fire. After that failure, we resulted in using the microwave because it seemed a lot safer for the fudge(and our lives). Despite this modified technique, there were still several complications throughout the baking process, including accidentally pouring cocoa powder onto the stove, burning my hand on the white chocolate chip bowl, splattering chocolate all over my friend, and mistaking fingers for candy canes when crushing the peppermints with a mallet. Luckily, the fudge still survived and tasted fantabulous. *If you want the recipe for the fudge, send me email or leave a comment with your contact information. Also, leave a response stating anything delicious that you have cooked(or failed at cooking) or something else I should try making! Over the weekend, my friend, Emilie peer pressured me into hiking. Despite the heat, I thought it was still a beautiful day to be hiking out in nature and be able to hangout with my friend outside of stressful school classes. The hike was amazing; we were one of the only people on the trail, walked to the peak of the hills that overlooked the entire city of Novato, and took Tumblr worthy pictures.
Unfortunately, half way through the hike, we got a little lost. Accidentally, we ended up walking on another trail after backtracking our steps, then finished our hike near someone's backyard. There was a major party occurring with a live band and fancy caterers and we walk by in our running shorts and t-shirts...However, the trail was marked with a public access sign, so it was legal. Despite our slight unintentional detour, I really enjoyed this hike and would definitely agree to hiking around the trails again.
Instead of hiking two miles altogether, we ended up walking five miles on hilly terrain. Not only was the path steep, it was also in the sweltering sun and the path was dusty and uneven. Over the course of the day, I rolled over both of my ankles several times and decided to place my feet in the lake to ice my aching joints. Unfortunately, the lake we finally arrived at was not as nice as our original spot. So after eating a quick lunch, we walked back up and partied at our campsite location.
Another cool point to this lake was the depth and the rocks surrounding the edges of the water and the weather was bright and sunny. Combined, this made several somewhat safe, but very fun, rocks to jump off of. The first day my friend and I went swimming, it was quite windy and caused my arms to go numb. Along with the wind, the lack of towel or warm clothes caused me to be very cold. However, the next day, my entire family jumped off the rock, which was about four meters high, and luckily it was a warmer day. We took several pictures of everyone jumping at the same time and I even did a front flip once. It was adrenaline spiking to fling yourself off a small cliff into bone-chilling water, but after the initial fear, the experience was awesome. *Comment if you have ever gone backpacking or camping and the experience you've had. If not, comment whether you would ever like to try living outdoors for several nights.
Although there are many positive aspects of my high school experience, there is one major issue I personally have with the logic of California Standards. The title of this blog is quite factitious because I don't think one part of the education system is logical; this problem is P.E. Despite the fact I have proven my physical fitness, I am still required to take twenty credits worth of physical education class(two school years). Other students have been able to waive the second year, if they pass the tests and complete two seasons of an M CAL sport. Gymnastics is not considered an M CAL sport and therefore I cannot waive any P.E. credits. So, even though I do twenty hours of exercise a week, not including the extra running, swimming, and elliptical, the California standards do not recognize my exercise.
This system does not only affect me. Mountain bikers and any other athletes who participate in sports outside of school need to take two classes of physical education regardless of their fitness level. A majority of students, both in the MSA and STEM program, have too many classes in their schedule because the forced P.E. requirement. As a result, students need to choose to drop a subject, such as an art elective or language, until junior and senior year. This year, I take eight periods and attend school from 7:15 to 3:40. After the last bell rings, I head directly to a four hour gymnastics practice(every day except Thursday). The time I start my homework is when I get home at 8:45; then get up at 6:00 to start school the next day. Adults shouldn't expect me to get proper amounts of sleep with this hectic schedule and load of work. Adding more periods to a person's schedule is extremely stressful, especially during high school testing and balancing seven other advanced classes. *Leave a comment below if you believe this system is unfair in many circumstances or you are one of the victims to this requirement. |