I know what you are thinking. It’s crazy that a second semester senior doesn’t have her license. Trust me, I have my excuses. But I am finally getting my license this Friday. I totally am not skipping periods 3-5 for it! School is important but I have been waiting way too long for this. The last two years without my license has quite literally been a nightmare: I felt bad having to rely on friends. Even with my parents, it sucked not being able to make multiple plans in a row since I would need to be picked/dropped off multiple times a day. Because I work at a movie theater, I also work late sometimes, and I feel guilty every time my mom has to stay awake to pick me up after midnight. So, here are the things I am going to do when I get my license, the people that I pick up, and the places I will go!

#1, Pick up a hot chai tea latte from Starbucks and pick up Louisa

Out of all of my friends, Louisa has taken on the burden of driving me around the most. Whether it was taking me to Starbucks, library study dates, or just any group gathering with all of our friends, she has always been willing to help. Therefore, she has to be the first person I say thank you to! Hopefully she can’t read this because she is in Hitzeman’s class but I would pick up her favorite drink from Starbucks (which is a chai tea latte) or maybe I will get her chicken tenders from Raising Canes or MAYBE I should get her a Mcdonald’s sprite and chicken nuggets. It is going to feel so nice to be able to do the same things she has always done for me. She deserves it so much. 

 

#2, Just get Izzy out of her house

Izzy has frequently told me that I am the reason that she leaves the house. Whether it be because I am planning most friend gatherings or because I am obviously the coolest person ever and she only wants to hang out with me, I can see her location so I know she isn’t lying. Whether, we’re getting food, bothering our friends, or hitting up the functions, I’ll be getting Isabella off the screens. Maybe I will help her get more Vitamin D!

 

#3 Take Matthew and Soohyun shopping

Although Matthew is a bit better, their fashion sense is ABYSMAL, truly an artist’s tragedy.

While I could just them shop online, I feel a thorough in person, correction is what is needed and what is most effective. We’ll make an extensive trip to the mall, basically replacing their existing closets and maybe we’ll burn the old ones on the way back. They need to get out of their basic style and develop their own unique style. Matthew needs to stop wearing sports hoodies and sweatpants and Soohyun needs to expand his purchases past Abercrombie and Fitch. The clothing industry is filled with possibilities, but these two have stopped at the same two stores

. 

#4 Drive Grace to work

Grace has been working at Lil Pops for quite sometime but I still have never been. “The food there is so good, Meg”. I frequently get Lil Pops fomo. This way, Grace gets a ride to and from work and I can cash in on her employee benefits. Win win win win win. Something tell me she will be opposed to this when she reads this.

#5 Drive Ivy to the DMV

She is an 18 year old who has no form of identification. Is that even legal?

#6 Drive Shan to school

This has been a request of his for a while. Paying him back for our Tuesday rides. Maybe I will make him pay for my Starbucks on the way!

#7 Drive Zach to a golf course

This is to make up for the fact that he could not come to Hilton Head with us over spring break and play in the really famous golf course there! Sorry we univited you, Zach 🙁

#8 Drive Kathryn and Celina everywhere up and down Ogden

In conclusion, I am so grateful for all of my friends who have driven me over the last two years! I can’t wait to be a more useful human being :)))))

 

I went to Hilton Head over spring break and honestly it reminded me of how much I hate living in Naperville. I sometimes can’t believe that vacation spots for some people are homes for others. Although I have heard people constantly say that a vacation spot only seems like paradise due to the short time spent there and for the people that live there, it is boring everyday life… I would rather have a boring everyday life in tropical weather with palm trees and beaches everywhere than the never ending sight of parking lots and cornfields in the Midwest. I liked Hilton Head since I was able to bike/walk almost anywhere. I felt so good physically and my mental health was also at new highs during the trip. Biking and walking around in such good weather helped me clear my mind and I felt less overwhelmed and stressed.

All I could really do on a bike was enjoy the perfect weather and I traveled down the streets. I have always been jealous of people who live in walkable cities (so basically everyone who

lives in Europe). I constantly see travelers on Tik Tok posting about how when they moved to Europe, they felt so much healthier and happier due to the healthier food and the biking/walking lifestyle.

Our flight to Savannah/Hilton Head airport was not a direct flight. We had a 5:20 am flight to Dallas with a thirty minute layover before getting on a flight to Georgia. All of my friends came to my house the night before, in the time range of midnight and two am. We dragged my tv into my room and tried to stay awake until three, so we could get to the airport without being drowsy and sleep on the flight to make time go by faster. That’s a hack I have discovered and I have been using it on any trip I have gone on. I pull an all-nighter and sleep on the car/plane to my destination. When I was in middle school, my family drove to Texas which was almost a seventeen hour drive. I fell asleep when we were pulling out of my driveway and woke up in Oklahoma. It makes traveling so much easier!!

Our first day in Hilton Head, we settled in our huge airbnb. Our airbnb was meant for seven people and there were only four of us. We had tons of space in the living room and an extra king sized bedroom just to put our luggage in!

After we unpacked, we went to get rental bikes. One of the main reasons we chose Hilton Head was due to the fact that we could bike/walk literally anywhere. This took the ppressure off of us to find a rental car dealership for eighteen year olds or the money to uber/lyft everywhere. Our first meal on the island was at a seafood shack, and it was probably my favorite meal on the entire trip. I got buffalo shrimp with a bunch of sides, and even though I am not a big seafood fan, I loved every piece on my plate. We biked around for a while and explored the town and plaza we were in. We also biked for like thirty minutes in the rain because we  could not figure how to get back to our airbnb oops. We picked up sushi for dinner and biked to the beach despite the thunderstorm alert once again.

 Then, we picked up our lovely friend Grace Carsello and kidnapped her!! 

We all went to Moo’s, the ice cream store on the island with the most flavors! I think they had over ninety two flavors, it was pretty crazy. I usually get chocolate but I forced myself to get a very different flavor (like black cherry) just to allow myself to experience things outside of my comfort zone and habits. We spent the rest of the night playing games and watching movies at our airbnb before calling it a night in. 

The rest of the days we spent there were spent lounging at the beach, biking around different areas and exploring different towns, and just eating good! It was such a good trip for my mental health with friends and I am really glad I was able to experience everything Hilton Head had to offer with the most adventurous and funny people I know!

Obviously this blog post has to be about BPA.  

Last weekend’s BPA state trip was a fever dream: a complete blur. 3 days of lounging in a hotel for only thirty minutes of actual competition. A weekend filled with procrastination, napping, trying not to be sick, and heading into the judges room with zero preparation but still managing to snag some hardware. 

We left on Thursday but I was mentally checked out from Monday. Something about only having a three day school week for three weeks (BPA, DECA, and Parent Teacher Conferences) just made me feel like school isn’t real. Time was going faster than I expected and especially with lacrosse starting, I already saw myself in May, disconnected from my current reality. 

When we arrived at the hotel, it was a dump. The rooms were so thin, the hallways were tiny, and each room felt so cramped. But whatever, right? High school kids don’t need much. We navigated through the tiny and creaky elevators, the crowded lobby, and the doordash orders that always surpassed one hundred and fifty dollars. 

After all of us got our schedule, I realized that both of my events were tomorrow and I had absolutely nothing to do today. So while the rest of my friends studied for their events, frantically scanning through printed notes and quizlets, asking each other why each question was right, I just took the fattest nap. 

That’s all I did the whole day on Thursday, nap. 

In my defense, I was a little sick and my cough, bad throat, and light fever did not motivate me to get out of bed to explore the hotel, the mall, go out for food, and socialize with new people. I was comfortable in my little world: the hotel room with my friends. Maybe it is because we were not freshmen anymore, comfort and security I find in my established group of friends overtook the need to explore and find new people. 

For lunch, we got KFC (like true Americans). For dinner, we ordered Cheesecake Factory. Our room smelled like fried chicken and pasta, and I somehow still managed to nap in it. I lost half of my friends for a few hours in the evening, but that didn’t really affect me… because I was napping. 

I finally decided to leave the room with my friends in the late evening to go to BPA game night. I left ten minutes after being there. The lights were all on, all of the games were filled, and huge groups of people were gatekeeping each activity. 

I know I made it seem awful and boring, but a day to just sleep and spend a day inside a hotel room with all of my friends just talking is truly what I needed. 

The next day I had to get up at 7am and get ready for my event. Both of my events went pretty well, and I made it to the second round for one of my events. The judge forgot to tell me to check back in for a second round. I saw the finalists sheet because of a stroke of luck as I was waiting to go into another event. I still felt awful, and my seventeen dollar breakfast buffet still did not make me feel any better. I took another nap and then got ready for the banquet dinner and “BPA Dance”. 

The chicken dinner and the mosh pit at the dance were nice, except for the fact that DECA just does it better. A group of kids in the dance went so hard they knocked the sound system over and they spent five minutes setting it back up. Our social battery drained, and we went back to the room to watch some Netflix and call it a night.

We started watching this Korean show called Physical 100, which is trending on Netflix shows right now. The 100 strongest men and women in Korea compete in a series of competitions, including seeing who can hang on high bars for the longest, seeing which team can haul the most amount of sand bags over a bridge, and even one on one competitions that ended in immediate elimination. 

It was such a low key weekend, filled with really doing nothing. I was floating around with no thoughts in my head. But ultimately, I was so glad it was a lame weekend. I needed a reset, a break, and just some time to be antisocial while still being with all of my friends.

 

Love you, BPA. 

Waking

on the train, I thought

we were attacked

 

by light:

chrome-winged birds

hatching from the lagoon.

 

That first day

the buoys were all

that made the harbor

 

bearable:

pennies sewn into a hemline.

Later I learned to live in it,

 

to walk

through the alien city—

a beekeeper’s habit—

 

with fierce light

clinging to my head and hands.

Treated as gently as every

 

other guest—

each house’s barbed antennae

trawling for any kind

 

of weather—

still I sobbed in a glass box

on an unswept street

 

with the last

few lire ticking like fleas

off my phonecard I’m sorry

 

I can’t

stand this, which

one of us do you love?

—

Upon the first reading of Venice, Unaccompanied by Monica Youn, I was most perplexed about the imagery she was using throughout the poem to tell her narrative. The poem began with “Walking on the train, I thought we were attacked by light: chrome-winged birds hatching from the lagoon”, which was difficult to interpret due to her use of a colon. Initially, I thought she was sleeping on a train that was traveling through a tunnel, and she was woken up by light. However the use of a colon after“light” followed by a description of “chrome-winged birds hatching from the lagoon” indicates that the birds are a restatement of her description of the light. This made the reality of the description difficult to comprehend. She could be talking about pigeons, as they are a chrome color. However, since these birds are hatching from a lagoon, so there is a higher probability that they are seagulls or shorebirds. Due to this, it is more probable that she woke up naturally and a swarm of light-colored birds was the first thing she saw, rather than being woken up by sunlight after traveling through a tunnel. She also has a break in the imagery which makes the first stanza appear to be violent, ending in “we were attacked”. “Light” appears after the break and only then can the imagery be fully read as “we were attacked by light”. By breaking the imagery off between the words “attack” and “light”, it brings a sense of paranoia onto the reader before they realize that the speaker was simply just personifying light. The speaker may have done this to bring the reader into the setting with her, and convey the sense of fear she felt at that moment while she entered a new stage of her life. Throughout the entire poem, it was difficult to discern certain imagery due to her ambiguity and punctuation; it made me read and reread backward to understand what was truly going on.

The general plot of the poem was not too difficult to interpret. It appears that a young woman (who could be the speaker) moved alone to Venice, a new city, after being cheated on by her significant other. The poem is a narrative of her journey, her lost sense of self, ultimately ending with her breaking down and calling her significant other from a phone booth to ask… “Which one of us do you love?”. The poem explores a sense of loneliness, transition, and feeling like an outsider. It presents a conflict about loyalty and independence. Even though the speaker moves to a new city to escape her past, she still feels tied to her old life. It can also speak to the difficulty of migration andhow it is hard to adjust to a new identity in a new location. Setting is more tied to one’s identity than many believe. However, finding a rhyme scheme was difficult. It appears that Youn used the free-verse writing style, which is popular amongst modern poets. Upon research, I learned that the free verse style allows for a greater sense of freedom of expression for the poet, since they are not bound by rules and constraints. This allows for the reader to focus more on the content of the poem rather than the form of writing. Youn’s usage of a free verse writing style caused difficulty as I was trying to discern why she made each stanza a tercet (three lines per stanza). Could it allude to the three people in the relationship that the poem is centered on? Was it to make the reader read the poem in a short, choppy manner that can make them feel disoriented and surreal, which is how the speaker feels in this new city? Despite not being able to understand its purpose, the free verse style allows the poem to be read as a stream of consciousness which lets me be there in Venice and experience the speaker’s thoughts and feelings in a more vivid and real manner. Continue reading →

Hi! My last blog was about my anticipated cruise port ratings, so in this blog, I will give you my actual ratings. I loved the new experiences I was able to experience during this experience (lol). Before our cruise, we stayed at this mini resort near Miami and the beach there was absolutely beautiful. My family and I went for a sunrise walk and it was honestly the best thing to wake up to. We got onto our cruise ship that Monday and it felt like complete deja vu because the cruise ship we were on was very similar to the ship we were on in 2018. I quickly learnt that Princess Cruises has pretty much the same outline and structures for most of their ships. The ship we were on was called the Enchanted Princess, and she was a pretty new ship (built during COVID) so that was pretty cool! The rooms, piazza, restaurants, and Lido Deck were all the same as I remember. I kind of wish we went on a different cruise line so we could have a completely different experience, but it is something family and I will keep in mind for next time!

Port 1: Bahamas 6/10

The Bahamas went pretty much as I expected. The beach was the same as last time and since I knew how it was going to be, I was able to set my expectations accordingly. I took the longest nap, ate some burgers from the buffet, and made a little sandcastle. It was a pretty chill spot.

Port 2: St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands 10/10

This place was absolutely breathtaking. St. Thomas was genuinely the most beautiful out of all the islands I visited. The island itself was so high, green, and had so many boats/yatchs. I went on a catamaran to these coves and drove an underwater scooter eight feet deep. I was able to see a bunch of fish and a shipwreck so it was pretty cool!

Port 3: Antigua 7/10

In Antigua, we went on a catamaran ride to a bird island and hiking trail. I kind of did not enjoy it as much since we got onto a boat after getting off from another boat. The bird island was really really small and the hike was simply a staircase. However, the ride was really pretty as I was able to see the Caribbean and the Atlantic Oceans mix along with various historic sites. I absolutely love viewing historical sites, it reminds me of how far the world has come and how life was so different than we know. The view on top of the staircase hike was also beautiful and I got an ariel view of the island and the two oceans coming together.

Port 4: St. Lucia 8/10

St. Lucia was also beautiful. It was so mountainous and it had Pitons (which are like island peaks). I was kind of in a bad mood and tired that day but other than that, the actual island was gorgeous. We went on a bus tour which was a nice break from all the water tours we took. I loved seeing the island life. We also got to go to sulfur springs and a drive-in volcano. It was pretty cool but also very similar to the Yellowstone trip we took a few years ago. By this time of day, I was super hungry but the tour still included a botanical garden and by the time we got to go to lunch, we were received with a disappointing menu. But other than those two things, it was a pretty decent day.

Port 5: Barbados 9/10

I have a few regrets about Barbados. Some family friends and I went on a submarine which was insane. I got to see the ocean floor, corals, and some pretty cool fish. The submarine was an hour and we went back to the ship after that. My parents, however, went on a tour of Barbados on a bus. When they came back, they told me how absolutely beautiful Barbados was. I wish I had planned to go into Barbados and see more than just the submarine but I still loved the experience.

Port 6: St. Kitts 9/10 

St. Kitts was pretty fun. It was the day after Christmas so the entire island was having a festival; it was interesting to see the island coming together for their traditions. We went on the most wild bus ride ever. It was an open bus and the driver was driving like it was a race track. My hair was absolutely tangled, everyone was flying around everywhere, and not to mention that St. Kitts is a pretty rainy place, so random bursts of water would hit us inside whenever we would drive through a rainy patch. I got to see some pretty beautiful sights and walk through a rainforest!

The cruise was pretty fun, but it was also a little long. I was so stressed when I came back after because I had to take my finals. But overall, it was an experience of a lifetime!

One of the things my friends hate most about me is that I am a super nostalgic person, it is kind of bad to a fault. I love my friends, I love North, and I love the person I have grown to become the last few years of my life. People usually joke about how boring Naperville is and how they cannot wait to get out, and even though I would love nothing more than to go to college far away from home and experience a new chapter of my life that will make me more open to all this world has to offer, I personally have no complaints about Naperville. To me, it’s a place of security and love that has nurtured me throughout my entire life. With that in mind, I’m always filled with sadness when things come to an end – such as the end of the first semester of senior year. Even right now, my mind is filled with how the second semester is going to go by even faster than the first semester. Between lacrosse season, senior festivities, spring break, and work, I know that graduation is approaching faster than I would like to think so, and leaving my friends and family behind to go to college is something that absolutely instills the fear of god in me. Perhaps in a way, I should feel grateful for having such great relationships with the people in my life that make saying goodbye so difficult. I have learnt to treasure the people in my life but remain more open to new experiences and people. Leaving somewhere is hard, but once you leave, you may realize you are even happier somewhere else – but you have to take that risk first. The last six months have been dramatizing. My close friends have changed, the strictness of my parents, I got my first job, I applied to my dream college, and even heard back from a few other ones. I changed from a girl who just finished an exhausting junior year, worried about her future, to someone who accomplished the big steps in life that have always seemed like they were too far away to worry about. For this blog, I would love to travel to the two key events of these last six months that defined growth as I embarked in a new phase of my life.

Over the summer, I got my first job at Studio Movie Grill, a dine-in movie theater in Wheaton. I will admit, I am a pretty high maintenance person. I love eating out, have an eye for the more expensive things on the aisle, and overall just love having fun. Although my parents never have prohibited my spending and made very few remarks about it, over the last year, I have begun to accumulate feelings of guilt for spending money that was not mine at the levels that I was doing so. At the same time, I did not have any intention of reducing it (because you only live once you know) so I finally got a job so I can have complete control over what I spend my money on, and  I feel good about it too because it truly is mine to spend. Getting a job started a period of financial independence away from my parents for me, and made me a more responsible person. In a way, it also changed how my parents viewed me and hopefully makes them feel better about me going to college. Getting a job also played a key role in them being less strict and acknowledging my personal freedom more.

When college app season started, I realized that Michigan was my dream school and that I wanted to major in finance. This took away years of me simply not knowing what I wanted to do with my future. But with research and campus visits, I fell in love with the school and happily pressed the submit button on October 28th. Even though I genuinely do not think I am going to get in, it really helped me define the future I saw for myself career wise and solidified what I valued in a college, my likes and dislikes, which helped shape the rest of my preferences regarding colleges. No matter where I actually do end up going, Michigan played a key role in mapping out my preferences and for that I am also grateful. During college app season, being together with my friends for hours and hours in the library, even skipping school together for it, brought me closer with everyone and reminded me just how lucky I am to have such a hard working group of friends who would do anything to help each other, even though what was the hardest few months of our lives. The advice, the editing, and the simple moral support has helped me a lot this year, and it makes me happy that I have such a great support system in place.

Bonus: here are some fun pictures from Homecoming, 80s dance, and football games!! 

    

 

 

To the incoming seniors, I would tell them to make the most out of their last year and cherish the time they spend with the people they love, even if it’s at the library at 9 pm rushing to submit their last apps. These are the lessons I have taken away with me these past few months and I hope that I will find the same contentment in the second semester that I found in the first semester. 

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 🙂