I am missing finals for a cruise! It is obviously not ideal for my family and I but unfortunately it was the only date that worked with the rest of my family friends. I am going to be so stressed after I come back but hopefully the twelve days will be worth it. People keep saying how lucky I am to miss finals but they seem to be forgetting that I have to grind during the last week of winter break. For my final blog, I am going to preemptively rate the locations I will be visiting. The last time I went on a cruise was when I was in eighth grade and I remember having a really good time. Hopefully I am not setting my expectations too high this year. Here are the locations, ten days and six ports. I personally have not heard of some of these islands before, I searched them up on google maps and they are pretty small. The Bahamas, Virgin Islands, and Barbados are the bigger and more popular locations. Ok here are my anticipated ratings!

Port #1: Bahamas5/10 

I went to the Princess Cays in the Bahamas on the last cruise but honestly it was really not that fun. This cruise line doesn’t actually take us to the Bahamas but rather a small offshore town that they own. There really is not much to do, it’s a saltwater beach, a few shops, and some food areas. If I remember correctly, last time it was insanely hot, saltwater is not that much fun to swim in, the shops really did not have anything interesting and the food was ok. I am going to presume it will be the same as it was a few years ago. Maybe I will get a wave of nostalgia and try the banana boat ride, aqua boats, or the stingray encounter this time. I freak about touching stingrays though, they are way too slimy. 

Port #2: St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

8/10

I have heard so much about the Virgin Islands but I’ve never been! They have a coral world ocean park that I am so excited to explore, they have colorful lorikeets and view red footed tortoises. We get to interact with the animals in indoor and outdoor exhibits and there is also a Coki Beach near the park where snorkeling and diving opportunities are available. There is also something called the Paradise Point Ariel Ride which includes an ariel cab ride to the highest mountain point that overlooks the island. I am really looking forward to seeing the different parts of this island!

Port #3: Antigua 

7/10

Antigua is an island I have not heard of before. Antigua is known for its coastlines, rolling hills, and sugar mills. It is rich in nautical history during the colonial times. They offer a rainforest zipline adventure, which seems super fun but when I went zipline in the Smokey Mountains over spring break, and it was not as fun as I thought it would be. Maybe in Antigua, it will be higher and the rainforest aspect of it will make it more appealing. There is also a popular beach called Fyres Beach which serves authentic Caribbean  cuisine which I am really looking forward to. It is such a cute little island! 

Port #4: St. Lucia

10/10

St. Lucia had so many interesting activities available. There are sulphur springs, volcanic island trip mud baths, and whale/dolphin watching. Sulphur springs is a drive-in volcano which sounds insanely cool. It is the most active volcanic area in thai region and I have never seen a volcano in real life before. I would be able to see the bubbling hot springs, mineral mud pools, and sulphur steam. I am also excited for the mud baths because I have always seen them on social media but also never got a chance to do one in real life. They look super relaxing and satisfying to do! Also, I have never seen whales in real life before (dolphins I have), so that will also be a fun experience. Overall, St. Lucia holds so many new experiences for me which is why I am the most excited for it!

Port #5: Barbados

10/10

Barbados is such a beautiful and therefore popular vacation spot for many. My family and I are going to go on an Atlantis Submarine Adventure, which is actually something that I have been looking forward to for a long time. I have always wondered how it would feel to be in a submarine and seeing all of the ocean life that underwater is an exciting prospect for me. There is also a cave adventure, and I have also never been in a cave before. I admit, it scares me a little bit to go in it but maybe I will like it! Barbados also is a host of new experiences for me. 

Port #6: St. Kitts

7/10

St.Kitts has a scenic wooden railroad ride! The pictures looked really cool and I have never been on open train so that will be fun especially with the nice weather. There is also an 4D expedition where we get to take a jeep through the jungle to get to a beach. St. Kitts has a lot of adevntury stuff along with plenty of beaches so it will be such a nice way to end the cruise.

Overall, I am so excited and hopefully I will get to do everything that I want to do. Missing finals better be worth it.  

This past summer, I revisited my favorite childhood book series, The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. I met Soman when I was in fourth grade, he visited my elementary school as a part of his book tour. At the end of his presentation and storytelling session, I received a signed copy from him. In all honesty, I don’t even remember asking for a signed copy, I think my mom just ordered one with the rest of the forms that came home with me every Friday evening. Once I got the book, I put it in my bookshelf, and I didn’t touch it for almost a few months. 

Later that year, I was moving rooms in my house. As I was packing up my stuff, I noticed the amount of books on my shelf that I never bothered to pick up to read. I pulled The School for Good and Evil off my shelf, and once I started reading, I immediately fell in love. The plot for the book is as follows:

Two girls, Sophie and Agatha, are kidnapped from their small village and taken to a magical world. This world is a realm of fairy tales, the world that Cinderella, Peter Pan, King Arthur, The Evil Queen, etc.. live in. Now, how did these fairytales even come into fruition? All of these fairytale characters, from the heroes to the villains, had to go to the School for Good and Evil, and their class ranking when they graduated determined the role they take in the fairytale world. Currently, the children of these fairytale characters such as King Arthur’s son and the Great Witch’s daughter are first years in the school. Sophia and Agatha live in the “real world”, in the woods beyond this realm. Every four years, two children get kidnapped from the village, one good child and one evil child. Sophia is the poster child for good, she looks like a princess and is known for her high maintenance beauty routine and her surface level good-deeds. Agatha lives in a graveyard with her mother and her black cat. Pretty self-explanatory, right? Despite their unusual circumstances, they are both best friends. When they are the chosen ones and this said mysterious force takes them away from their homes, Agatha is dropped off at the School for Good and Sophie is dropped off at the School for Evil. The rest of the book (along with the rest of the series) takes us on the most unexpected journey regarding love, war, good, and evil. Each book is around 600 pages long, which might give you a sense of the complexity of the plot, characters, and just the mere amount of twists and turns each book holds. It is actually mind-blowing how much Chainani develops the storyline and how far the last book has strayed from the first. He famously said “Truth and lies and good and evil — they mix in the world, both sides claim to be good, both sides claim to be telling the truth. The power of a lie that feels true and drives people’s behavior is at the heart of the book — a theme that feels very now”. Each book he navigates adapts the storyline to address the nuance between good vs evil in the first book, boys vs girls in the second book, young vs old in the third book, and the truth vs the lie in the fourth book.

This summer when I reread the series, it was literally all that was on my mind. On a car ride to Michigan, I ignored Ivy for four hours, my eyes not glancing up from the page once. I fell in love all over again, and it was a nice escape from my everyday life – I was surrounded in a world filled with characters I have come to love. So, when I saw the movie a few days ago… I died a little bit inside. The movie was so bad. It was a Netflix original (I already knew it was doomed). The casting was absolutely awful. Chainani had already painted the how the characters look on his beautiful covers along with black and white sketches throughout the book. His drawings captured his description of the characters perfectly – and played a key role in how I envisioned this fantasy world . None of the characters matched the covers and description, which completely ruinred the visual aspect of the book for me. Also, they directed the movie like only 5th graders were going to watch it. It was comical, satirical, and way too whimsical. It lacked the sophistication and maturity that I expected.

It was basically a children’s movie (but I guess it was a children’s book so I am trying not to be too upset). It is kind of like the Percy Jackson or Harry Potter movies, but just worse. It took me twice as long to watch the movie because every five minutes I had to stop and text Izzy everything wrong with the scene I just had viewed. Oh my eyes. Overall, it was very disappointing. Chainani has these book trailers he released before every novel (they were animated and teased the plot), and even those two minute videos were better than the entirety of the movie. Overall, the movie lacked the sophistication and depth that could have been drawn from the books. I was distressed to say the least.

Never watch the movie of your favorite book. It ruins it.

Here is a compilation of the book trailers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDgqX3PAcuQ

Here is the movie trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aftysDQ4hpI

This week, I have written a combined total of six hundred and fifty + five hundred and fifty + three hundred + two hundred and fifty + four hundred + fifty + fifty + one hundred and fifty + one hundred and fifty + one hundred and fifty + one hundred and fifty + fifty + fifty words for college applications. I still have to write six hundred and fifty + five hundred + three hundred + three hundred + three hundred + three hundred + seven hundred + five hundred words. Equivalent to six thousand three hundred and fifty words.

I decided the most fitting thing to write about this week was how many times I have cried, with photographic evidence for a few of them, and the reason behind each time. This last week, my parents have probably seen me for a grand total of 45 minutes. I leave the house every morning before they wake up and come home after around the time they go to sleep. This is because I have basically been living in Nichols Library’s Huddle Room 1. That huddle room has seen quite a few people cry (not name dropping me, Isabella Chew, Ria Pande, Ashley Chen, and Jessica Huang). I think I have developed a newfound hate for writing and word counts. As of this moment, I am sitting in a room at my mom’s office instead of my WIN session, hoping to crank out the rest of my supplements so I can submit my applications before the Common App starts crashing.

I miss school and I miss my friends; maybe I will start crying again today because of that. If I do, I will make sure I update the blog. Now, let’s take a journey through the month of October.  

October 1st. I started the first morning of the first day of the month with an absolute banger crying session. I had to take the SAT that day, my birthday was the day before and I was so stressed the whole day because all I could think about was how I would have the worst three hours of my life the next day. I was emotional the whole day at school, I was thinking about reading section tips through the Crosstown game, and was silent at my birthday dinner with my dad and my sister. I also missed my mom. After I took the SAT, my friends and I went to Olive Garden where I had what was probably the most depressing meal of my life. Overall, it was the most mid day of my life and it foreshadowed the vibes for the rest of the month. 

October 5th. I was so stressed that week that I popped a blood vessel in my eye. I do not remember why I was stressed but I think it was something to do with calculus and not being able to think of any ideas for my personal essay. It was a very short yet crucial crying session because it was from that day I realized that I needed to get grinding on college apps.

October 7th-8th. I cried in the break room at 11pm after my shift ended on Facetime with Soohyun and Izzy (reason: secret). Later at 2 am, my friend Facetimed me upset and I started crying because she was crying (this exact thing also happened on the morning of October 2nd).

In the middle half of the month, I do not recollect any huge crying sessions. Maybe I had some mini ones. If so, they were probably irrelevant since I didn’t document them in my snap memories.

October 21st. I cried to my manager at work in front of Mia because there was no way I would could come in for a six hour shift on Saturday and stick with my college app timeline.

October 22. I cried in the car with my dad while he drove me to Mock Trial practice. He told me to stop being stressed because even if I get in nowhere, I can still go to College of DuPage or Benedictine University. I almost cried at the nail salon with Ivy because I really just wanted to get my acrylics removed as quickly as possible so we could go to the library and write our supplements. But, they decided to give us the longest spa experience they could possibly think of. Later that day, I was sitting at a cafe with Louisa and I started crying because I was overwhelmed about my Michigan supplement. I was kind of expecting that one.

October 26. A few friends and I left school after 4th period so we could work on apps at the library. A few hours in, the combination of Zach telling me applying early action to Michigan can hurt my chances + Daniel telling me he doesn’t trust my edits, my BeReal caption is more eloquent than my personal essay, and that I should put a pin on any halloween parties I was planning on going to go because my supplementals were just the bad led me to have a solid five minute breakdown in Huddle Room 1.

October 27. I realized I had to write another essay for Lit.

—

Just realized I met the word count. Goodbye. My UVA supplemental is waiting for me.

My personality is yellow, but my favorite color is blue. 

Ever since middle school, I have always had a fondness for online quizzes that revealed details about yourself that you are subconsciously aware of but couldn’t quite articulate. I searched for the most obscure personality tests on sites such as Buzzfeed, Reddit, Popsugar, and Wired and found myself spending hours on quizzes that revealed what kind of water bottle I was or which planet best suits me. I loved learning about how my personality and interests manifest into eccentric ideas. They essentially divulged the way I identify myself.

As much as quizzes that revealed what kind of tree I was or how I died in the past life intrigued me, I ultimately found solace in the quizzes that were predictable and validated the existing perception I had of myself, including personality tests. I was especially fond of the “What color are you” test. No matter which test I take, regardless of the website, I have always gotten a variation of the answer orange or yellow. The description for the color has always been something along the following lines “this color represents adventure and social communication, you are not only an enthusiastic person but someone who is extroverted and full of vitality”.

Knowing myself, that seems to be a pretty accurate description. I am an extremely extroverted person, I love big groups, parties, and always being around people. I project the same sense of warmth and familiarity around everyone I know – best friends and strangers alike. I act like I have known everyone for a lifetime regardless of when I met them. I feel comfortable around people easily and have no problem being altruistic. Some of the positive traits with someone with a yellow/orange personality include being:

• Optimistic
• Friendly
• Perceptible
• Nurturing
• Whimsical 
• Bubbly
• Happy/joyful
• Forgiver
• Hopeless romantic
• Attached 
• Dramatic
• Emotional
• Open 

Even though the results of this test are pretty accurate, my favorite color is no where near the hues of yellow or orange because  everything I own is blue.

My walls of my room, my homecoming dresses, the necklace I have worn everyday for years. Anytime I am shopping, without even noticing, I gravitate towards all of the items whose color is a dark sapphire blue (which coincidentally happens to be my birthstone). I didn’t even notice it was my favorite color until one of my friends pointed out that everything I owned somehow all happened to be the same shade of blue. I find blue to be calming; it brings me a sense of peace and serenity. The complete opposite of the yellow. People who embody the color blue demonstrate the following traits:

• Dependability 
• Rule-following
• Dependable
• Long-enduring 
• Tenacious
• Timely
• Planner
• Honest 
• Disciplinary 
• Routinely
• Structural 
• Loyal
• Trustworthy 
• Organized
• Trustworthy

In other words, “blue” people are calm and collected and value discipline and work over social gatherings and drama. They are people who strive for peace and balance opposed to adventure and emotion. After reading these opposing descriptions, I realized that my favorite color is the opposite of the color that represents my personality (I guess opposites do attract).

It validated the common theory that people always like what they don’t have or can’t have. We have a tendency to find our balance to our inner selves through our exterior choices. It is harmonizing in a way… to seek comfort in the outside world as an escape from our inner world; the reality we made of ourselves. We should all find objects, people, places, and interests that stabilize ourselves so we are never being too extreme in anything. It is one of the healthiest one can do to bring a certain sense of peace that is difficult to be found anywhere else.

If you are interested in finding out what color you are, here is the link: https://thecolorofmypersonality.com/

I also have some pretty interesting ones here too: 

Which Victorian Ghost is Haunting Your House?

What Kind of Garbage Are You?

Which Melancholy Vegetable Matches Your Personality?

I hope you guys start to notice the subconscious things you do to balance your life! Send me the results of your quizzes; I would love to see them 🙂

6th grade was the peak of my reading career. I even had to get glasses.

I picked up my book right when I woke up and I would read it while I was brushing my teeth. I had the book open while eating my bowl of Cocoa Puffs and then I always made sure to bring it with me in the car. I would be reading with a flashlight at 10 pm and turning it off immediately when I heard my parent’s footsteps coming upstairs only to turn it on again when I heard their bedroom door close.

I would read any book I could find (except non-fiction) because I could never pick my favorite genre to read. One week I was reading realistic fiction, the next week I was reading fantasy, the following week I was reading a murder mystery book that only the 8th graders were allowed to read. All three years of middle school I read all 20 Rebecca Caudills. I became a familiar face to the librarians and I was always the first one to run out of the classroom anytime we had a book fair. Slowly, the drawers in my room began to fill up with books and I had to use the guest room dresser to store the rest of them. My sister followed my pursuit and started reading my old books and for some odd reason I got protective over her touching them. Reading was a way for me to be in solitude and escape from reality and I guess I believed that if someone else was escaping with me, it meant I was not alone with it anymore. I was sheltered growing up and reading stories about people who led different lives from me made me feel more connected to the world around me.

7th grade was the peak of my writing career. 

My years of reading finally caught up to me and I was able to write the most detailed stories that my English teacher loved so much that she would read them out loud to the class. The stories I wrote were similar to the stories I read, all of them featuring young adults in a fictitious adventure. Even with writing, I could never pick what I liked writing the most. 

So I wrote stories, speeches, poems, and essays. I would write about anything and everything that I cared about to the point that I was just ranting everything my mind was carrying on a page. I loved writing because even as frustrating as it was, once I found the right idea, I couldn’t stop typing. It took the weight of my thoughts off of me as I loved watching the clutter in my brain come together on my screen in clear cut sentences.

The way I approached writing changed towards the end of 7th grade. In February, a school shooting occurred in Parkland, Florida. It was one of the first times I felt myself truly being disturbed by the possibility that the world we live in is far more cruel and unjust than I initially thought. It was another moment of me coming out of the sheltered life that I had settled in for as long as I had known. Following the shooting, I took the opportunity to write a speech about changing gun control laws in America. Anytime we could write an essay of our own choice, my topic would always be regarding gun laws. I wrote letters to lawmakers and joined March For Our Lives to participate in as many walk-outs and protests as I could.

I learnt the power of being able to write since the ability to write gives one the ability to voice their opinions into the world . If you write with enough impact and persuasion, you can change a few hearts and minds. Those few hearts and minds will change another few… and then another few… and then another few. This revelation gave me the motivation to write well. To write with such passion and sincerity that would make people acknowledge and appreciate the object of your writing. I read with a purpose and wrote for a purpose. The importance of that purpose grew with me as I began to learn about the profundity of the literary world.

8th grade was when the way I viewed reading and writing was changed completely.

I always thought annotating text was a foolish idea. I sucked the enjoyment out of reading and up until that point I only did read for the sole purpose of enjoyment. I wondered why my teachers would force us to make analysis and conclusions when I simply just wanted to enjoy the story. I was becoming frustrated that reading and writing was becoming a burden.

The 8th grade English curriculum introduced me to texts such as Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and To Kill a Mockingbird and my teacher taught me how to read books with intentional depth. I learnt about symbolism, motif, tone, mood, syntax, and diction. I began to admire the author’s intent and the complex thought that went into each line in order to convey the truest meaning of the book. I stopped reading purely for enjoyment and I started reading with the intent of learning the author’s wisdom and experiencing their perspective. At one point, I had so many annotations on a page that I couldn’t even read the original text. Reading became a scavenger hunt as I tried to discover the complexities of the book through the author’s choice of writing. I applied my own life experiences, bias, and circumstances when I was reading to adapt the author’s lesson into my own world. My new perspective on reading consequently affected the way I wrote. I was no longer writing simply out of pure passion, I was writing with a goal. I researched which words I wanted to use, where to put them, how long I wanted a sentence to be, and the specific details I wanted to include. My writing style changed from free flow and fast paced to deliberate and thoughtful. I wrote my pieces like how I wanted them to be read. It made my writing more powerful and thought-provoking since my intentions introduced a different dimension to it. It heightened my purpose.

I have been and will always be a lover of language. The stories and memories that can be shared through reading and writing are something that we should never lose. It’s how we share ideas, wisdom, and our unique experiences to make everyone understand life a bit better. We are all individual puzzle pieces in this world and language is what brings everyone together. I will always believe that my purpose can be conveyed through intentional reading and writing and that is how I will use my story to impact the stories of those around me.