Reflecting back on my blogs over this semester and senior year in general, I realize that I have learned a lot about who I am as a person and some of my values. I made a lot of amazing memories this year that I feel will continue to help me grow and bring me joy throughout my entire life. 

I wanted to start out this blog by giving some advice to future NNHS seniors, some of which has only been reaffirmed since the beginning of this year but some that I have had to come to realize. While this is definitely a cliche, it is also extremely important and very true for this year; time really does fly by, it feels like it was only a few months ago that we had the first day of senior year and I cannot believe we managed to fit so many events into one year. I would also highly encourage future seniors to participate in senior-specific events; I find that there is something really special about getting together with just your class and experiencing all of the nuance that senior year has to offer. On top of that, the school really puts a lot of effort into senior events, so it is definitely worth going. Senior year is obviously a very stressful time, especially first semester as everyone figures out where their futures are going to take them. Make sure you stay true to yourself during this time and try not to compare yourself to your peers; you will be much happier if you can accept that your path might not be the same as everyone else, because the most important thing is to make sure that your plans are going to benefit you. My manta for this entire year has been to just breathe; it is very easy to get caught up in the future and deadlines, but in doing that, you run the risk of overlooking the smaller moments that can provide you just as much joy. You also never want to regret that you missed something because you were too focused on what is next.

My favorite blog from this semester was the one I wrote about my shoe collection; I definitely could have made that one way longer but I didn’t want to make anyone comment on an obnoxiously long blog post so I cut it off. When I realized that I hadn’t written about them yet, I knew that I had found the perfect blog topic for that round. Not only do I have plenty to write about since I am definitely running out of storage for my shoes, but they are also some of my most prized possessions. I knew that I didn’t want to just write about my shoes though, so I enjoyed coming up with creative ways to categorize my favorite pairs. 

Overall, I really enjoyed writing the blogs again this semester as they give me yet another way to reflect on my senior year and provide the perspectives of my peers on this year as well. I was able to find many new ways to connect with my peers that I would not have discovered otherwise and could share my own ideas as well. Here’s hoping that I enjoy the summer just as much as I did senior year!

Looking back on the blogs I have written both this semester and last, I realized that they are all filled with topics that I love, which makes sense because those are the most interesting ideas for me to write about. That being said, I want to take this blog in a different direction and talk about some concepts that I really do not like, whether those be phobias that I have or situations that annoy me. 

In my eyes, there is nothing better to start this blog off with than bugs. I have hated bugs for as long as I can remember, and would always do my best to avoid them even when I was playing outside as a little kid. Whenever I tell people that I do not like bugs, there is always that one person who goes on and on about how they are good for the environment and necessary to the food chain, but their nasty beady eyes and weird hairy legs make me genuinely not able to care any less. One of my least favorite bugs has to be the house centipede (on the right) because its legs are disgusting and it is so hard to catch because it’s so fast. I do, however, have a few exceptions for my hatred of bugs; ladybugs are relatively bearable, butterflies are pretty, and earthworms would never end up in your house. Other than that, my bug hatred is all-encompassing and I would be happy never seeing another ever again.

This next one is a bit more of a phobia, but I have always been scared of deep water; it is specifically called thalassophobia. It started when I was in Mexico and my family and I were on a snorkeling tour, which probably was not the best place for me to suddenly get really scared. I was fine in the shallower water, but we suddenly got to a section with rougher waves and an abundance of sea creatures living way under my feet and I found my heart rate speeding up as I started to panic. A large part of that trip went like that, but because I did not want to be left out, I kept making myself go into deep water with lots of fish, and I continue to do so for some reason. Thankfully, the water in most places I have snorkeled is typically quite clear, so I could at least see what was under me. That fact definitely does not apply to lakes and most large bodies of water, so I pretty much always refuse to go into them. If I do, I end up frantically swimming until I reach shallower water. I just really hate the idea of there being seemingly endless murky water underneath me, and that I have no way to know what is lurking under there.

This next section is more of a list of things that annoy me, pertaining to everyday life. I find it annoying when people do not understand the rules of walking in a hallway and decide to stop right in the middle to have a conversation. Similarly, I do not like when people walk really slowly in the hallway; I know it’s sometimes not their fault but people with short legs can still walk fast. When I am driving, I tend to get annoyed by the driving habits of others, especially if they are driving obnoxiously under the speed limit, but also if they are driving recklessly over the speed limit. I also get annoyed when someone pulls out in front of me while I am driving and they clearly did not have enough space to safely do so, so I have to hit the brakes really hard to make sure I don’t hit them. I always forget that I’m able to hit the horn though to warn them, so I just hope they can figure it out themselves. 

As I said in the introduction, a lot of my previous blogs are extremely positive and optimistic, which would be the expected tone when I am talking about topics that interest me. Despite my belief that optimism is one of the most important qualities you can implement in your perspective on life, part of being able to be optimistic is to have a safe space to vent about the more negative aspects of life, as those are just as much a part of the natural human experience. It is important to give yourself somewhere or someone that you can utilize when you have something you need to complain about, because the sooner you are able to accept the negative emotions you are having and learn to process them, the sooner you can part with those emotions and push yourself to have a more positive outlook.

As I was brainstorming ideas for the third blog of this semester, I was also getting my clothes out for school the next day and found myself trying to decide on the best pair of shoes to wear with my outfit. I then had the realization that said shoes would be a perfect blog topic because I have so many favorites. Thus, I will be ranking my shoes, not necessarily in order, but on the qualities that I think make me love them so much.

1. PRETTIEST

I wrote a blog last semester about the little things that make me extremely happy, and high on that list would be sunsets; therefore, obviously I had to include my shoes that look like a sunset first. These are the Air Jordan 1 High Craft Skyline (high referring to how high up on the ankle they go) that feature a light pinky-orange that fades into a light purple with blue at the very end, with the gradient being flipped on each shoe. The actual colored section is a denim texture, while the white is the standard leather. These shoes conveniently appear to be the Naperville North orange and blue, so they work really well for spirit days and NNHS gear. They’re also very comfortable once you break them in a little. Because there are limited colors, they are not super versatile compared to some of the other shoes on this list, but they are gorgeous so it balances out.

2. MOST VERSATILE

There are quite a few shoes that I have that could fit into this category, but I am only going to talk about the one pair that I like the most. These happen to be my newest pair that I got for Christmas. They are the Air Jordan 1 Mid Patent “Black Gold” with a typical black and white design except that the black material is patent leather, and the swoosh is metallic gold. The only problem with these is that patent leather can be kind of difficult to clean as it gets cloudy sometimes, but as long as you are careful they should be okay (but if you are not careful, a little dish soap and water on a washcloth works). Since they are just black and white, they go nicely with pretty much any outfit, plus I typically wear gold jewelry which matches the gold accents. 

3. MOST COLORFUL

A lot of the pairs of shoes that I own tend to feature one or two main colors, except for this pair. They are the Air Jordan 1 Low Easter Pastel, as Jordan tends to release a lot of light-colored shoes in the springtime. There are many shades of pink, purple, and blue, and the colors aren’t consistent on both sides of the shoe as some sections switch. These are fairly easy to match with outfits, they just have to go with some sort of solid color since there is so much going on here. This is one of my favorite colorways because of all of the pastels, which also take up a lot of my closet.

4. MOST TEXTURED

Textured was really the only word that I could think of to describe this category, but it’ll make more sense in a few sentences. The next pair of shoes is the Air Jordan 5 Regal Pink that, which can be seen from the name, are a very light color of pink suede with accents of silver, purple, and blue. The reason why I say they have many different textures is because of all the different materials that can be seen on the shoe. There is a textured piece in the middle of the shoe and an air pocket in the sole. The tongue is made of reflective silver, and the bottoms actually glow in the dark. Thus, they fit this category perfectly. With all of those textures, you may think they are difficult to pair with outfits, but since they are so light they actually go with many different items. They’re also extremely comfortable and do not take the time to break in as Jordan 1s and other styles do. 5s are most well-known for the plastic piece that sits on the laces and keeps them together rather than having to tie them, and overall the shoe has a very interesting silhouette. 

Although those are not even close to all the pairs of shoes I own (it’s honestly becoming a problem), those are definitely some of my favorites, largely due to the colorway of each of them. I know not everyone cares about the shoes they wear, but I find them to be a really fun way to add to what I am wearing and would highly recommend looking into getting a pair of nicer ones if you are interested. 

My absolute favorite blog that I wrote for this semester was the one about the little things in life that make me happy, even when I have a busy schedule. I enjoyed writing it mostly because it gave me a chance to reflect on all the positive things that I get to experience in my life at the same time as difficult things I may have to go through. It reminded me that I need to find a balance between working hard and giving myself time to relax, which is something that I occasionally forget. I was also able to go through my camera roll on a search for the items I mentioned in my blog so I got to see other happy memories I’ve experienced so far this semester.

My LEGO blog gets an honorary mention though because, obviously, I just got to talk about Legos and then take pictures of said Legos. Overall, I really enjoyed writing the blogs this semester.

Throughout this semester, I feel I have evolved a lot in my writing. The blogs have helped a lot in figuring out things like syntax and word choice that I can use to make my writing more interesting for my reader when writing about topics that I can choose myself. Outside of the blogs, I had not had much chance in other English classes to write something similar; pretty much anything that I wanted to write about and wanted my classmates to read. I also really enjoyed being able to comment on other people’s blogs and see the topics that they found interesting or important. As far as the AP test, I have developed my commentary further than what it was at the beginning of the semester. I have a better understanding of the balance that needs to occur between the evidence and explanation of my ideas within the story versus the commentary I provide that extends outside of the novel.

Within the blogging cycles, I was able to learn a lot about either random topics or my classmates from the blogs that they wrote. I found responding to other people’s blogs to be one of my favorite parts of this class because I really never knew what I was going to read about each cycle. I found that a lot of my classmates and I have similar interests and opinions on certain topics, or I got to explore the opposite side of some of those topics. I also got to experience a lot of different styles of writing and approaches to topics, especially with the very first blog we posted about our experiences with reading.

There are definitely a lot of lessons that I have learned from this course, both writing-related and completely separate from writing. As far as writing is concerned, I was able to get a chance to learn more about my writing style and how I would write about topics that I actually find interesting (no hate to my past English teachers). I also learned that there are many different ways to approach writing and that I can have a lot of different ways that work for me. Still within the course, I found myself learning quite a bit from the novels that we read this semester. I’ve read a lot of assigned books throughout my English career, some that I would run over with a car (Boy’s Life for one) but some that I enjoyed reading for the new perspectives that they gave me about society and history. This semester, Beloved was one of those books that opened my eyes to the experiences of people in a part of history that I hadn’t gotten the chance to learn about before. I enjoyed watching the documentary about Morrison’s approach to writing this book because I feel like it made the book feel more personal and therefore have more weight while reading it.

Outside of this class, the biggest lesson I’ve learned through this semester is to live in the moment as much as possible. Yes, it is important to be prepared for the future too, but sometimes I find myself so focused on that future that I forget to be fully present in the situations that I get to experience in my everyday life. In that sense, I hope to keep that in mind throughout the rest of this year and into whatever beyond I find myself in.

As the Christmas season comes up, I find myself thinking about Christmases of the past, as well as gifts that I should be asking for this year. One gift that stands out as being at the top of my lists from the age I was old enough to fit the bricks together is Legos. Some people may see them as made for kids and having no place past childhood, but in reality, Lego makes sets for people of all ages and with different interests. Following that, my tastes have very much changed from when I was little, as I used to build everything Lego Friends with all the pink, purple, and teal you could possibly imagine, to the larger sets that I now have on my wishlist. In that spirit, I will be talking through some of my favorite sets that I have built and a few sets that I hope to be getting for Christmas.

• I can’t talk about my favorite sets without first mentioning the Starry Night (Van Gogh) set that I built over the summer. I believe it’s one of the largest that I have, and Starry Night is by far my favorite painting, so I was so excited to build it. It’s surprisingly accurate when I compare it to the Starry Night print that I have in my room, which is also pretty cool. It even has a tiny figure of Van Gogh on an arm on the side with a paintbrush and a mini replica of the painting. There are also a lot of 3D elements in the set. The only slightly less fun part about building it was the extensive amount of time that it took to fill in the background, which is just a bunch of 4×1 rectangles in a variety of different shades of blue. However, I really enjoyed building this and now have it on display on my desk. 
• This next point is for all of the Marvel Lego sets that I have, which include the one that I most recently finished. I have the Infinity Gauntlet from the Avengers, and both the regular Baby Groot and the new Venomized Baby Groot. Those were all enjoyable to build and just goes to show how Lego makes an effort to reach a lot of different audiences. As far as Marvel goes, they also have Thor’s Hammer, the Iron Man version of the Infinity Gauntlet, and scenes from different movies among other sets. 
• The Lego Botanical sets are in a category full of flowers, trees, and succulents and could be enjoyable for a lot of people. I own a decent amount of the sets in this collection, some of which I’ve built and some of which are in my closet waiting to be built. Ones that I have built include the Flower Bouquet, which is in my kitchen, and the Bonsai Tree and Succulents, both of which are in my room. I also have the Wildflower Bouquet and the Orchid in my closet right now which I will hopefully get to building before Christmas so I don’t stack up even more in there. These sets are all a lot of fun and include some really cool features, like the two different kinds of branches for the Bonsai Tree that allow for some customization within the set. 
• The Architecture collection is one of my personal favorites and is one of the collections that led me to the more “adult” side of Legos. There are all kinds of sets included in this collection, such as larger famous landmarks and city skylines. Since this was the first kind of set I started building after I grew out of the smaller Lego stage, I own quite a few of them. I have almost all of the skylines, which have a bunch of recognizable details from the cities that they represent. There is Tokyo, Chicago, London, and my personal favorite, Dubai, to name a few. There are also lots of larger sets, like the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, and the White House. These are all really fun to build because I think it’s cool to be able to create something that is part of real life and to be able to recognize the details that are included, like the buildings in the skylines. 
• Now, a few sets that I don’t have but very much want that I will hopefully get in the near future. One of the Architecture sets that came out a few years ago is the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is part of the larger sets that I mentioned earlier. There’s also a set called the Tranquil Garden that’s a really pretty design. A set that Lego quite literally just released is called Tiny Plants, and honestly, the title alone makes me want to build it, but I also really love tiny plants, which can be seen by the succulent set that I mentioned earlier. 

As a young girl, Disney princesses were a big part of my playtime. I had tiny little figurines of each of them and larger dolls of my favorites. A lot of those favorites have stayed the same since I was little, but some of my opinions have shifted as I’ve gotten older.

Tiana (Princess and the Frog)- I don’t remember much about my opinion of Tiana when I was really little, but she has become my favorite princess by far. Princess and the Frog is my go-to movie when I’m sick and it always cheers me up. 

Personality- One of my favorite things about Tiana is that she has a goal in her life that is completely separate from her prince. A lot of the Disney princesses before this movie depicted the prince as being the dream of the princess, or as fixing all of her problems. However, Tiana’s dream to run a restaurant is the main focus of her life, and she doesn’t change her path just to be with Naveen. Rather, she waits for him to become a better person, and once that happens he plays a significant role in supporting Tiana in her dreams.

Outfit- Tiana’s green dress from the very end of the movie is stunning; the way that it incorporates all parts of the movie shows a lot of attention to detail. 

Final comments- Overall, Tiana’s drive and ambition make her a great role model and one of the best princesses by far. (Plus the soundtrack is so catchy so extra points)

Overall score- 100/10

Cinderella- When I was little Cinderella was my favorite, which I think was mostly because she looked a little like me with her blonde hair and because her dress was blue. That opinion has very much changed since then. 

Personality- Cinderella honestly doesn’t have that much of a personality to talk about. She was just good at cleaning and getting bossed around by her family. She definitely had dreams of a better life, but she wasn’t capable of working for that life. Then, a man came along and solved all her problems. To be fair, this movie is one of the older Disney princess movies when that kind of opinion was more popular but it is very outdated.

Outfit- The dress earns some more points for Cinderella, however, as it is a very classic image when people think of the Disney princess movies. 

Final comments- The princesses of today are thankfully much more developed than Cinderella was, but for the period that the movie was released she was very popular. 

Overall score- 6/10

Ariel (The Little Mermaid)- This was one of the first Disney princesses who was not a human, which was one of the things that made her so popular. Disney recently released a live-action of the movie that was also pretty popular with people who enjoyed the original.

Personality- Ariel’s big dream mainly centers around Prince Eric, but since she was a mermaid she wasn’t capable of going out and changing into a human on her own. I liked how the movie made some of the mundane things that people do seem more important and wholesome. All of these movies definitely have the aspect that we talked about in class earlier this year where you allow yourself to be immersed into a fantasy world for the sake of the story, but The Little Mermaid has an extra amount of that aspect in that Ariel trusted Ursula for anything. Ariel probably also should have listened to her dad and her friends a little bit more often considering they were all a lot more experienced than her, but it worked out for her in the end.

Outfit- The classic tail and shells combination is very well known, but the wedding gown she wears, while not as well known, is still very pretty, even if it does leave something to be desired in terms of lack of color. 

Final comments- Overall, Ariel could have made some better decisions, but for the sake of the story, it’s fun to watch. (This is another one where the soundtrack gets extra points)

Overall score- 7/10

Rapunzel (Tangled)- Rapunzel was another one of my favorites when I was little, and remains there even today. 

Personality- Rapunzel was very innocent and did not know much about the world, but her positivity and overall happiness were very refreshing. It is evident that she loves learning about the world, which gives it the wholesomeness that is also seen in The Little Mermaid. I also liked that Flynn only happened to be there to help her get out of her tower; this wasn’t a love-at-first-sight situation like the one that is seen in many of the princess movies, but rather an acquired love that came out of many shared experiences. The end of the movie was a really beautiful moment in which Rapunzel could learn about the world and then reunite with her parents to bring her perspective into helping others.

Outfit- The purple dress she wears throughout the movie is so perfect. 

Final comments- I love this movie for the positive outlook that the princess has and the learning that she does. (And yet another one with an amazing soundtrack)

Overall score- 12/10

Belle (Beauty and the Beast)- I also really enjoyed watching Beauty and the Beast when I was little, as I’ve always loved reading and related a lot to Belle’s reaction to the Beast’s gigantic library.

Personality- I don’t have a lot of complaints about Belle’s personality. She knew what she wanted, and was content with the life that she had. She also sacrificed herself for her father, and again loved to read. Belle was courageous, as not many people would’ve stuck around after the Beast lashed out at her on the night she rescued her father. Not many people would’ve gotten to know the Beast well enough to fall in love with him either, but that worked out nicely for her later. 

Outfit- I know I keep saying that the outfits of these characters are classic, but they really are. Belle’s gorgeous yellow gown with roses is one that many little girls find themselves wishing they could wear. 

Final comments- I relate a lot to Belle in her love of reading, and think that she was good at teaching little girls not to judge a book by its cover, either with the Beast or an actual book. 

Overall score- 10/10

There are a lot more princesses and Disney characters overall that I didn’t get to, so share your own opinions in the comments too! I’d love to see what other people’s favorites are and why.