This whole semester was a whole mix of stress and senior activities. Stressful because of college interviews, scholarship essays, and battling senioritis. However, throughout this whole blogging process, I realized it was a space for me to reflect on the enjoyable moments of the past, or to become excited for the future. Many of my essays consisted of ratings and lists for which I was either writing about previous food experiences or activities I was looking forward to for summer. It allowed me to take my mind off of the stress of school and focus on other things.

Overall, I would say my favorite blog to write throughout this whole year was “X Marks the Park.” It definitely wasn’t the most well written or most insightful, but for me, it was the most fun to write. I was able to look back at many of the parking jobs that I did. I also got the most interactions with this post with many people commenting on my parking and driving skills.

To the seniors next year- choose something you WANT to read, not what you think will be the best to create a thesis for the overall project. Being completely honest, I didn’t really know what this project was when I first started, but when we were choosing books, I decided to choose a book based on others’ recommendations. My mom always told me that “The Joy Luck Club” is a book I should read before I go to college, which is also a key factor to why I chose it. Yet when choosing books, definitely choose a book you find interesting or else you won’t want to even finish reading it. 

Through the Voices Project this semester, I learned about the different perspectives of parents and children. It was interesting to see two different perspectives in the book, and while researching, I was also able to find the differences between how parents and children perceive different situations. What I also found interesting was how common certain situations are between immigrant parents and their children. The generational and cultural gap is always present between parents and children, and it really just depends on the maturity of the children and parents to see how wide this gap gets.

With my four years at NNHS, I feel that I have really matured. The most significant thing that I learned however, although it may sound generic, it really is true- put yourself out there and try new things. My freshman year was all online, so it was really difficult for me to find different highschool clubs and activities. Sophomore year was also challenging because although I was able to try new things, I felt I was cheated a year because of COVID. Junior year was when I started finding different activities I like to do and making connections that I hope will last for a long time. I learned that it’s never too late to try new things and meet new people, because many good things come at unexpected times.

For future NNHS Seniors- get college applications done early. The more the year goes on, the more difficult it becomes to find the motivation to complete them. Also, going along with that, don’t stress. Even if you don’t get your first choice, it will always workout in the end. I was devastated when I didn’t get into my dream college, but now I’m able to lay on the beach and go to class under the sun 24/7. It’s always meant to be.