(written as a letter to my sister. she is will be a freshman at North next year)
Dear Veronica,
This is it – can you believe it? I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it so hard to wrap my head around the fact that my last day of high school is rapidly approaching. Now that I’m done with AP exams, finals, and most concerts, I finally have the time to stop and really think about what this means to me.
As you already know, I’ve been doing a lot of writing this semester- whether it was for my English class, college applications, or some other activity. Writing has never been my favorite or my strong suit, so I’m sure you’re beyond sick of hearing me complain about my writer’s block these past months. However, writing blogs in AP Literature has emerged as the bright spot among the chaos of all these other assignments.
At the beginning of first semester, writing blogs was just another task to check off my to-do list. My mindset has shifted since then – I now view them as an opportunity to explore different topics that interest me and they’ve allowed me to rediscover the appreciation for writing that I lost in elementary school. I also think I’ve really developed my voice as a result of writing blogs this past year. Like with any other skill, the only way to get better at writing is to practice, practice, practice! I never would’ve had the motivation to regularly write 750+ words every couple of weeks if it hadn’t been for this assignment.
My favorite second semester blog was “Unraveling Bolero,” in which I talked about Anne Adams- an artist and scientist whose neurological condition caused her to experience music in a unique way. Not only did her story combine music and science (my favorite subjects!), but the parallels between her life and that of Maurice Ravel, the composer of a piece that inspired her artwork are genuinely so fascinating to me. I went down so many rabbit holes while researching and I think the blog itself ended up being well over 1,000 words. You know how we were talking about people having Roman Empires last fall? Mine is probably her story.
Another meaningful assignment from this semester was our Voices project, in which we read a novel featuring an underrepresented perspective and did a research project inspired by that text. I chose to read How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, a novel by Julia Alvarez about four sisters who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic. While I was initially drawn to it because of the title (I figured I could relate to the themes of sisterhood and feeling caught between two cultures), I was ultimately convinced to pick up this book by its unique structure. The novel is actually a collection of short stories- only they’re in reverse chronological order. It was very interesting to see the way how the author portrayed the process of adjusting to a new culture through this structure.
It was a pretty good read overall, but you should probably wait a couple years to read it so that you can better understand the points Alvarez is trying to make. I also know you’re not normally a fan of realistic fiction or even short stories, but I think it’s so interesting to see how much an author can do in a limited amount of pages through their choice of words. It’s worth checking out if you’re interested in learning more about the Latin American experience or if you’re just looking for something different.
Anyways, that’s enough about literature for now. As my high school journey ends and yours begins, I have some advice for you:
- Find your own balance. Preferably as soon as possible.
I made the mistake of overloading myself with too many hard / time-consuming classes, when I already had enough going on outside of school. Everyone has their own limit of what they can take on, and I think I probably reached that a couple times this year. While I did make it through, I would’ve much preferred to have more time to spend with you and Melanie (and sleeping!) instead of struggling to keep my grades up.
- Get out and participate!
Okay, maybe this seems like it contradicts my first point, but I really do think that you should try to incorporate fun high school activities into your balance- especially when you’re a senior. Go to Senior Celebration, go to Airband, go to prom. Go to a Crosstown game, or really any kind of sports match, especially if you’ve never been. Take that blended class, go off campus for lunch. Try not to skip class too often, but take at least one ditch day for yourself. After all, these are your last couple years with this particular group of people- so make the most of it!
Much love,
your older, somewhat wiser sister,
Anna-Maria <3