So I realized that my last blog post about my summer plans might’ve been written like 2 weeks too early. Anyway, here’s an update on my summer plans and what’s changed since my last blog.

First things first is that while I still want to get better at cooking, learn more about my culture, and get into shape, I also wanted to talk a little bit about the more definitive things that are going to be happening in my life now over the next few months before I head off to college. My family just confirmed that we’re going to be traveling around Europe for the first week or so of summer break. While I personally have never stepped foot on the continent, so far our plans are to start in Switzerland, work our way to Germany, and eventually end up somewhere near France. Our trip is still kinda in the works so we might change our destinations or plans here and there but essentially my parents are planning on us visiting my aunt and uncle who live in Switzerland so us visiting there is practically guaranteed.

Another thing that happened in the past few days is that I finally got Snap! The crazy thing with that is that within the first day I had already reconnected with my old buddies from before I moved to Naperville. These three guys were the same three I’ve known since the day I was born and were my closest friends for all of elementary school. We used to play Minecraft Bedwars together at my old place and they would always pull up to my house after I had badly broken my leg in 6th grade and had been put on bed-rest for a year. We’ve got a few things already in the works to meet up over this upcoming summer break. Right now we’re thinking about heading over to Six Flags together for a day and then having them all come over to my place for a sleep-over or something like that.

Anyway, I know this is technically before summer break, but prom is coming up as well! Right now I’m taking on the responsibility of putting together our group so I’m trying to see if everyone would be down to come to my place the day before and then just spend the night. I’m also trying to see if everyone would be willing to each spend sixty dollars or so in order for us to go ahead and rent a limo for four hours. I know I’ve always been an over-planner who tends to do too much, so I’m trying my best to dial it back a bit with planning for prom by not going too crazy by renting the sixteen-person party-bus. Regardless, I’m sure that prom will be super fun no matter what I plan or how much money I convince everyone to spend. I’m just going crazy trying to make it as memorable as possible.

AP exams are unfortunately also coming up, which means that I’ve got a lot of studying to do. The half-good thing and half-bad thing for me is that all of my AP exams are in the first week of May which means that I will be done with everything by the weekend of prom, but I also have six AP exams and a final across just five school-days. I’m self-studying for AP Government & Politics so that I can get that college credit, but that test is literally the very first one on the morning of May 1st. Thankfully I only need a three on that exam, but the afternoon of the same day I have the AP Chemistry exam which I desperately need a five on to get credit. Then, funnily enough, I have no AP exam on May 2nd, but I do have a final for AP Chemistry just right after I’ve gotten through the AP exam for the same class. Then I have AP Literature & Composition on Wednesday, May 3rd, where I need at least a four, and then both AP Macroeconomics and AP Statistics on Thursday, May 4th. The thing I hate about that situation is that of all things the test for macroeconomics is before microeconomics when micro is the basis for macro. Plus my statistics exam is of course right in between the two as my AP Microeconomics test is on the afternoon of Friday, May 5th and would be my final AP exam of all time. I need a three on all three of those exams so I’m half-chilling. The main two I really really have to worry about are AP Government because I haven’t taken a social studies class since sophomore year and AP Chemistry because I can get credit for two semesters of Gen Chem but only if I can get a five.

But, yeah, those are pretty much the things that are primarily on my mind right now apart from graduation and finishing up all of my assignments for my classes. Here’s me concluding my final blog of the year and my final year of high school!

Considering our final high school summer break is soon approaching, I’ve realized that I’ve still got quite a bit to do before I head off onto the next part of my life. While I’m still deciding where I want to go for college, I know that regardless of my final decision, I need to go somewhere where I can start living the life I have always wanted to but haven’t been able to throughout high school. That’s why I thought it would be beneficial for me to write about what I’m planning to do this upcoming summer break to develop good habits going into college.

First things first, I know for sure that I want to develop some college essential skills before I leave later in the fall. One of those skills being cooking just so that I can learn to be slightly more independent while simultaneously living a healthier lifestyle. I know that I want to fully master egg-based dishes like shakshuka, but first I need to work on getting more adjusted with cooking on the stove. Right now, when it comes to cooking, I’ve got the chopping fruits and vegetables part down (yet I’m still incredibly slow), but I don’t have much experience when it comes to actually putting all of the ingredients together. Pasta is another dish that I know I want to work on as well since there’s so much variety in the types of pasta you can cook and the types of sauces you can have it with. Based on what I’ve seen my mom do, I think I can replicate her pesto sauce, but I’m not yet fully confident on making my own alfredo sauce just yet. At some point, I also want to play around with different types of dough to see how to make certain types of bread and my own homemade pasta just to see what varieties I can come up with.

Another skill that I plan on further developing is in relation to my native language. I have always been interested in reconnecting with Gujarati and Hindi, particularly because earlier in my life I actually knew how to write in both. Now, I can speak Gujarati and understand a little bit of Hindi, but I’ve unfortunately forgotten how to read and write in both languages. I’m going to see if I can enroll in some class, but I know for sure that my culture is something that I take pride in so I’m definitely going to find a way if I can’t find anything online. I also want to try and learn more about the other cultures in India, apart from just the region of Gujarat. India has so many languages that have so many diverse peoples that even the food is completely different in each area. That makes me just want to get even better at cooking because then I can also explore the different dishes across India while learning how to make them myself.

From there, I know that I also want to work towards getting into better shape. Four years ago, I was at my peak because of swimming, but I’ve gradually declined since then considering that I quit after the pandemic hit. My goal is to start up my swimming routine all over again, but this time do it by myself instead of being on any official swim team and having a coach tell me what to do. I currently work as a lifeguard at Life Time, so I’m going to use that as a tool to further motivate myself to start swimming again this summer since I can find a way to convince myself to get in the water whenever I have a shift on the weekend. 

With that being said, I also want to contribute to my physical wellness by getting better at basketball as well. The nice thing about that is that by playing basketball I also get to spend more time with some of my friends before we all part ways and head on off to college. Plus, with basketball comes the social aspect to our group where we can make plans to do other fun things together like go and watch movies for example. I know we have a Six Flags trip and a Chicago downtown trip still in the works as well, so that might be something I’ll be looking forward to later this summer break.

In all honesty though, for the first time in a long long time I feel like I can finally go out and enjoy my life and do what I want to do. The past few school years have been an absolute pain and the summers haven’t been any better because every single summer break of high school I’ve had to take at least one summer class, basically keeping me trapped in this loop of just constant stress. These past few weeks have been like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I can now just go and learn the things I want to learn out of curiosity and not because I have to. I know that this break is going to be different than any I’ve had in the past so onward to summer I guess.

For the first time in a while, I thought for my blog this week I’d actually consider turning it in on time for once (yeah well that didn’t happen). Right now (Thursday evening), I’m over in Rosemont by the Ohare Airport for the Illinois DECA State Competition. I somehow managed to qualify for the State competition after placing 1st in the Entrepreneurship Individual Series event over at the Sectionals competition a few weeks ago. For my blog this week, I thought it might be interesting to do a hotel tour since this is the first of three days that we’re going to be staying here.

I’m bunking with the legendary Daniel Wang, the incredible Shan Gupta, and the great Alec Zhang. We have a bit of a balcony just overlooking the highway and a little bit of the airport itself. Decent little view but not as great as the full length window wall from my room last year.

Speaking of last year, I remember a group of us kids from North met up with some random people from Bartlett highschool and held a giant relay race in the main hotel area on the 10th floor. The hotel itself is designed in a giant square with a track that wraps around making it a perfect track course.

Edit: It is now Friday and yesterday night became super busy very quickly. After getting into our rooms and settling in, the vast majority of us just started working on homework and unpacking. We eventually got our event schedules at roughly 3:00 pm which is when I found out that my event was one of the very few that was having its cluster exam that same first night. Before then, however, while everyone else had started exploring the hotel, me and one of my other friends sat down in one room and started to go through previous cluster exams and old questions in order to prepare for the test we both were going to have to take that same night.

 

At the testing room itself, I met a few new people from different highschools throughout Illinois, partly because we were all crammed into a tiny room and we were all sitting like one foot apart from each other. Me and Thomas (my sophomore friend who’s the only other kid from North in the same event as me and is my dedicated study buddy) both thought that we did alright after we finished everything. We went over some questions and I realized that I had made a really dumb mistake on one of the calculation questions because I was rushing through the test way too fast. Apparently 5/2 is actually equal to 2.5 and not 1.5. Overall, however, I still felt confident we did well because our last-minute review session went over at least ten of the same questions that were on our cluster exam.

 

After our cluster exam, we had a giant assembly with all of the DECA students to essentially kick off the competition even though by then I had already finished a third of what would accumulate to my overall score in my event. Once that was over, it had already gotten pretty late so everyone essentially went to bed as the DECA people set in the curfew and ushered people into their rooms. After curfew though, me and Alec ended up staying up late and watching this bum movie with Adam Sandler called The Do-Over. That was definitely a solid 10/10, would highly recommend.

 

Anyway, today morning (Friday) I got my two roleplays done and out of the way. My first roleplay was about this weird Ornamental company, which I honestly don’t remember much about. I just know that it was probably the worst professional roleplay I’ve had to do partly because the event coordinators didn’t give any time warning like they normally do. By the time we had to head over to our assigned judge, I had only prepared for two out of my five performance indicators and I didn’t have any drawn creative element prepared either. I had to come up with a lot of stuff on the spot and I honestly don’t think my improvisation skills made up for my lack of prep materials. My second roleplay was the complete opposite. I think that was the best roleplay I’ve ever done in my entire life. It was about wanting to expand the services we provide as a salon where employees travel directly to the customer and it required me to analyze the different market strategies we would need to use to reach our target audience. For that, I went through all the performance indicators like normal but then I also used two different visual elements to recommend expanding our services through three different avenues. One of my media pieces was a pros and cons table comparing if we were to prioritize employee training just for men’s grooming vs women’s grooming. Then for the other visual, I had a drawing of what our app could look like so that customers could directly interact with hairstylists and whatnot through that and we could essentially just become a company like Uber or Lyft where we would charter out professional services while limiting the liability we take on.

 

Hopefully I place well, but it kind of all depends on how badly I did on my first roleplay since I think I did good on everything else. Right now I’m chilling with the one and only pandaman, Jacob Pandya, and with the fishy guy, Vish Yelamanchili. I’m in their room right now eating Panda Express while playing NBA2K, Madden, and Fortnite along with the king, Ian King, the possible D1 athlete, Tommy Morrison, and the big man himself, Joe Hinsberger. Vish brought his Xbox just like last year so we’re all kind of just cramming into his and Jacob’s room. Meanwhile, my room basically got raided by like everyone else from North and just became a giant Squid Games binge watching party. 

Edit2.0: Tis now the day of Saturday and is the last day for DECA State for some of us. Yesterday night we also had a big banquet we had to go to where we got some pretty solid cheesecake and had a few good rounds of Uno. There was also a hypnotist assembly but the majority of us ended up skipping that. 

Late last night I actually stuck around in my room and spoiled Squid Games for myself by only watching the last episode, but honestly, I don’t really care anymore because I’ve already heard so many spoilers from other people at this point that I pretty much already know what happens for the entire series. We also ended up watching Kung Fu Panda 3 and I rediscovered how much of a fan I am of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic after a great discussion with the frizzy Izzy Chew about Twilight Sparkle, King Sombra, and the other characters in the MLP Cinematic Universe. To be completely honest, I kind of want to go back and rewatch the entire series one of these days when I get the chance.

 

Anyways though, today we had the main awards ceremony where they announced everyone who won raffle prizes and also who got into the top 10 for each event as well as who would be going to nationals based on who placed in the top 4. To get to the point, I, unfortunately, did not even place in the top 10, so yeah, I was definitely bummed out quite a bit because I actually really wanted to go to ICDC. As copium, I keep telling myself that it’s senior year so it’s not like I can put it on college apps anyway, but to be honest, this was the first time I really put effort into DECA and actually won something out of it, so I was very much so hoping to make it all the way especially since I came in 1st at Sectionals. It is what it is unfortunately.

 

LASTEdit: Well now I’m writing this almost two weeks later because I didn’t submit earlier, but I just got back my full results from the competition and apparently I placed 11th overall. I got a 79/100 on the cluster exam and placed 5th out of everyone on that. Then I got a 77/100 on my first roleplay and 88/100 on my second one. It really was that first roleplay that ended up killing my overall score. That makes me feel a little bit better, but DECA State was still fun regardless of how I did in the competition itself. This was my second year competing at State and I truly had a lot of fun in the two years I got to fool around with a bunch of friends in a giant hotel. 

The first stanza of the poem “Street Dog” by Amrita Pritam indicates that the speaker is someone who seems to be talking to their former spouse and is someone that they had recently divorced. Upon researching the author, I discovered that the speaker is most likely to be Pritam herself since she had left her former husband at some point in her life as well. I believe that the purpose of Pritam writing this poem is to reminisce about her life with her husband before having to sell their home and part ways. Pritam utilizes metaphors and personification to allude to human characteristics being apparent in household objects like pots and pans and vines in order to illustrate the emotional significance of the place and memories that were formed in that home. She states as if discussing this with her former spouse, that these emotional representations were not something she dwelled on too much, but instead she remembered the death and scent of a street dog that had died within a room of their home. I believe that this street dog’s death was not a literal event due to its lack of barking but rather a representation of the traumatic or “odorous” nature of the memories Pritam shared in her home with her former husband. Some additional background information that I have to reach this interpretation is that I am aware of the fact that Pritam lived in South Asia throughout the 1900s. Due to my own experiences with the geographic region, its current environment, and my cultural upbringing, animals of the canine variety there are often perceived as commonplace, unwanted, and as nuisances which may be seen as uncharacteristic to how dogs are treated here in the US. Understanding this perspective, I can see how the memory of a dead dog sitting in the middle of Pritam’s and her former husband’s home may result in her being annoyed by the memory’s resurrection. It’s also possible that given the context of living through the partition of India and Pakistan, the traumatic memories that Pritam is associating with her former home are religiously connected and in conjunction with having to leave her home and her husband since in history, many families were broken apart during that time. It is also important to note, that the only point throughout the poem where Pritam opts away from describing her own experiences when utilizing the word “I” is when she is describing the discovery of the street dog’s carcass which is when she uses the word “we”. It’s definitely possible that this is Pritam’s indirect way of associating blame or recalling the bad memories as something that occurred with her and her husband, but the only good parts of their union were when she was her own individual and in direct contact with the amenities throughout her house. In effect, this poem would essentially serve as a quick message to Pritam’s former husband to formally say, “my life was good when you weren’t in it”.  However, by the poem’s conclusion, I realized in doing so, Pritam also admitted to having thought about the good times as well. It’s ironic that despite saying “things such as these never cross my mind,” the lone fact that she even stated what “these” were alludes to the idea that she actually did think about them and that she did go through a period in which she reflected on her past. This contrast establishes a tone that makes Pritam’s emotional intentions for the poem vary in its meaning. Even though she’s telling her former spouse that her memories with him were insignificant, she’s still acknowledging and remembering those events, signifying that they must have been somewhat important to her. At the same time, however, she’s also pointing out to her former husband that even though she is thinking about their past together, her memories are plagued by one specific traumatic event that is thereby symbolized by the carcass of the dog lying in their former home.

This past winter break I had the chance to go on my dream vacation along with my family. Having spent sixteen days across three of Hawaii’s islands, I can definitely say that I’m planning on retiring there one day. From visiting bustling cities to remote beaches and beautiful sunrises, I got to see things I might never see again for a long long time. Here’s a quick recap of how it all went down:

Our journey first started off as we flew to Honolulu which is on the southern tip of the island of Oahu. Our flight was roughly 9 hours long which isn’t the worst if you really think about how far Hawaii actually is from the mainland USA. Nevertheless, we spent the first six days of our vacation in Honolulu and driving across the island while we visited its remote beaches. What was great about that whole experience though was that my parents had rented a convertible Mustang and a Jeep Wrangler on the two days we went driving around the island which really allowed us to get into the tropical vibe as we followed the coast of Oahu and watched the Sun set each night. One of the isolated beaches we drove to actually had a sea turtle just lying there in the sun and was the first sea turtle I got to see while in Hawaii. I got to see another two more on the Big Island of Hawaii later on in my trip as well. On another note though, the city life was also great, but the food options were definitely lacking in my opinion. Since my family is vegetarian, it was very difficult to find a place that was critically acclaimed in Honolulu, didn’t have all meat options, and still had seating available for us. A funny dining experience we had was when we went to this rooftop nightclub-type Mexican restaurant and we ordered these really bland dishes that were nothing like the spice level you would come to expect from Mexican food. And so my mom had gone and asked our waiter for some “hotter” salsa like the typical Indian mother, but we were all taken aback as we watched our waiter take our salsa, warm it up in the microwave behind us, and then give it right back. After that whole experience, I’d definitely say that you don’t want to go to Honolulu just for the food, especially if you’re vegetarian. Regardless of that ordeal, however, on the last day before flying out to the island of Kauai, my sister and I got the chance to learn how to paddleboard while on the extremely crowded beaches along Honolulu. I thought that was a good way to end my experience of the city as I’m realizing now that we honestly didn’t do as much in Oahu compared to the other two islands we visited.

The flight from Oahu to Kauai was roughly thirty minutes which is honestly the shortest flight I’ve ever been on in my life. The state of Hawaii, unfortunately, requires you to travel by plane when going to different islands even though they could definitely be easily traveled via boat. We stayed over in Lihue which is on the east coast of the island but is constantly struck by hurricanes so the town honestly hasn’t developed much. What I really liked about Kauai though was that there was no hustle and bustle with the city and most of the people there were very down to earth. I remember on several nights my family would just have fresh fruit for dinner after having gone to the local farmers’ market in the morning and sitting on the beach and eating while the sun began to set. We had giant papayas, star fruit, lychees, rambutans, pineapples, bananas, coconuts, fresh honey, and chocolate, and macadamia nuts, and rawly refined coffee all of which were locally grown by farmers on the island of Kauai. My family also visited the Dole Plantation at some point on our trip, but I honestly don’t remember what island that was on. I feel like it might’ve been Kauai just because that’s where I remember primarily all of our nature-related adventures occurring. There, my family got to have pineapple and coconut ice cream and bought two full-grown pineapples which we ended up bringing back home. Something we learned was that apparently, you can take as many pineapples home from Hawaii as long as they fit in your luggage bags. That’s good to know for my next visit to Hawaii I guess. We also went on a lot of hikes while in Kauai and visited some family friends who actually own a vacation home there. With them, we went to a sacred South Indian temple that was on the island and visited a rudraksha forest. If you didn’t know already, rudraksha are very holy in Hindu and Buddhist cultures and are technically a type of seed. You might commonly see them used as beads and strung into necklaces or bracelets that are then worn by religious monks and deities. I just thought it was very cool to see a part of the culture I’ve grown up around be in Hawaii of all places. Then to add to the religious exploration I went through on my trip, my family also visited this absolutely beautiful Buddhist temple that was highlighted by the mountain peaks sitting just behind it and ponds of koi fish that lay just in front. I most definitely found my inner peace while I was in Kauai and I think that it actually might’ve been my favorite of the three islands I visited. But after spending another five days there, my family flew on over to the Big Island of Hawaii which was roughly an hour’s flight away.

 

In my opinion, going to the Big Island was the least fun at the start just because at that point in the trip we had felt like we had already seen everything and were mentally preparing for having to return to Chicago weather in the next five days. Also, that was around the same time that I had to finish up my college applications as well in order to get past the January deadline schools. I can attest that it was definitely not very fun when my family was out at the farmers market and strolling through the town of Hilo while I was stuck up in our hotel struggling to fill out the Coalition App. However, the highlight of the entire trip ended up being just the day before we were about to come back to Chicago. The Big Island had been where we had spent the majority of our time going on various hikes and visiting the mountains of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea as we were checking out each national park. Funnily enough, a week before we got to the Big Island, the volcanic eruptions that had started a month before had stopped on Mauna Loa. But on the last night we were at the Big Island, we randomly happened to see on CNN that the Kilauea crater had begun to erupt. No joke, at like eleven in the night we ended up abruptly driving an hour back over to Kilauea which we had just been at that same morning. That was definitely the highlight of my entire vacation since I had the opportunity to see literal magma flying up into the air as it erupted from the earth below us. I honestly don’t think that I’ll ever have the chance to see something like that ever again and was a once in a lifetime experience.

All in all, my vacation to Hawaii was definitely the best vacation I’ve ever been on. I’m glad I got to experience that with my family right before I’m heading off to college and then hopefully medical school one day. I don’t think I would’ve gotten another opportunity like the one we had just this past winter break. I still have the dream of learning to surf and free dive and jet ski in Hawaii, but I guess I’ll get to those goals when I visit Hawaii again in the future. After all, I still have yet to see the natural beauty of Maui.

This past semester has been painfully long and stressful. I remember even making sure to slightly lighten my school courseload from last year since I knew college applications were going to suck, yet I still failed in achieving what I had set out to accomplish. I’ve learned that I don’t make the best choices in my personal life, especially as demonstrated by my lack of motivation all of this past year. I don’t fully believe that I have senioritis per se since I still want to do well academically, but I think that it’s more so because I’ve just given up on high school. As I’ve been going through the college application process, I’ve learned that I am often defined by the many mistakes I’ve made in the past four years. I’m yearning for a clean slate where I can start anew and go back to the habits, motivation, and level of success that I had before. I’ve learned that I need to change my environment and immediately immerse myself in habits that lead to the growth that I am searching for. I am still stuck with the bad habits I formed during the pandemic and I’ve realized that I’m not able to break out of them and change my thinking and perspective on school or academics.

I would like to personally advise the next generations of students to try and not be like me. As the next class of seniors enter their final year of high school, I would like to make the suggestion that they change something about themselves when they aren’t able to succeed in life or in their coursework. Don’t just think that you’ll do better the next time, but rather make the effort to study in a different environment, find the motivation to get ahead, and learn to be responsible and independent. Easier said than done, trust me, I know, but believe me when I say that the first step in changing yourself is to realize that where you’re at is not good enough. Living with the mentality of striving to just get by is not a good mentality to live with. You should work to be independent and become the student that teaches others rather than becoming the student who relies on the lessons given by those around you. Change where you work and study. Stay busy. Fill your time with activities that allow you to grow and allow you to live happily. Only then stress about the lack of time you have to study, but never give yourself so much free time that you begin to lose your motivation to succeed as I had.

The last six months of this past year have only highlighted how much I desire to change myself. I need to set a schedule so that I can keep on pushing and driving on into the future. As the new year approaches, I aspire to start studying and completing school assignments by going either to the library or staying after school rather than doing them at midnight right after having fallen asleep on my couch. I want to develop the motivation to go and work out (I literally work at Life Time and still don’t!) and play basketball with my friends. I want to strive for new experiences and prepare for my future medical career and its adjacent aspirations by volunteering and shadowing physicians again. I hope to develop my social life by getting better at driving (I’m kinda bad at it right now) and going out and spending time with my close friends either at the movies or in Naperville Downtown. I have missed out on much of my high school experience, not just because of the pandemic, but because of my fear to take the next step. My message to the next group of students in AP Literature & Composition is to not make the same mistakes I have.

My parents just told me we’re going to Hawaii this winter break! … And then also Florida!

I just found out that my family will be going along with my aunt, uncle, and cousins to visit three different islands in Hawaii for about two weeks at the start of winter break. I think we’re planning on spending half of our time between Maui and the main island of Hawaii, but then I think we’re also going to be flying over to Oahu for a few days. We’re planning on leaving almost immediately on Friday, the morning of December 22nd, and then coming back on Sunday, the evening of January 8th, which is quite literally the day before school starts again. A week after that, though, we’re planning to fly back over to Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale for Florida where we’ll stay for another five days for my college interviews and other stuff. Funnily enough, though, my interviews only go on for about two of those five days, which leaves three days for us to just chill out on the beach some more. I’ll have to miss school on the Thursday and Friday we get back from winter break though, but hopefully, I won’t be missing too much since it’s just the start of second semester. The plan is to stay down in Florida until the following Monday evening which we have a day off on because of Martin Luther King Day.

I’ve been talking with my aunt who is always the one who organizes all of the activities for us to do while on vacation. So far, I know she’s planning for us to spend a day or two just hiking and checking out the volcanoes and mountains and whatnot in Hawaii. I’m not sure where or what national parks we’ll be checking out exactly, but I do know that we’re going to spend at least two of our sixteen-day vacation just hiking throughout Hawaii. Apart from that, I’m really excited to go snorkeling as well since it’s been like four years since I last went which was when my family went on a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. I absolutely love snorkeling since I’ve swum for practically my entire life so I’m really looking forward to doing that in Hawaii. I really want to try out jet skiing as well, so I’ll definitely bring that idea to the table. I know that one of the locations we’ll be staying at is literally just a house that’s directly on the beach so that’ll most definitely be super relaxing but will also give us the opportunity to find jet skiing and parasailing places we can check out.

This trip was kind of sprung onto me just a few days ago and I really wasn’t expecting it considering college applications are still going on for me and all. But it being my eighteenth birthday next week, I guess my parents wanted to have my dream vacation with me before I head off to college. I know what’s going to suck though is that I might actually have to keep working on college applications while in Hawaii at the start because I still have eight more colleges I want to apply to by the first few days of January. I’ve applied to a lot of colleges already, but the majority of them I only applied to because my parents were very adamant about me expanding my options and applying to more schools. These last eight, though, are all schools I would love to go to so unfortunately I’m going to have to prioritize them while still being on vacation.

The week right after my going-to-be amazing vacation in Hawaii I will have to start preparing for my college interview for Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Hopefully, though, that’ll be more laid back since technically I’m attending their “Shark Weekend” to learn more about their school and won’t officially be having any interviews apart from their direct DO program and for their scholarship programs. We’ll see how it goes though, because while I’m there I’ll also have the chance to meet up with my cousin and one of my old friends who are both in the same program that I’m applying to.

I know that I’ve got a busy few weeks ahead of me because of finals and then the last bit of college applications for me, but then it’s all smooth sailing from there. Hawaii is definitely going to be epic and Florida will get me back in the mood for school again as I start heading into interview season next month. It’s kind of funny that I’m going on my dream vacation with my family for my eighteenth birthday, but apparently, all I can think about is college applications.

I thought that for my fifth blog, instead of continuing on with my neuroscience research article, I thought it would be the perfect time to start talking about other things that are going on in my life right now such as preparing for the first meeting of the Brain Bee for this year. Last year, I created my own competitive neuroscience club that was centered around learning about neuroscience and then going on to compete in the Brain Bee competition. I thought I’d just take a moment to plug that our informational meeting and our first meeting of this year is going to be on this upcoming Thursday, November 17th in room 201 right after school. If you’re interested in learning more about medicine or neuroscience, definitely come check us out! We do a ton of cool stuff that I’m going to talk about for the rest of this blog post, and the more dedicated people we have involved, the more activities and things we can participate in and accomplish this year. If by any chance you are interested in joining then please fill out the following Google form to receive future updates: https://forms.gle/XA6KkQr2bvhtUHjN7 

Last year, I created weekly presentations that were based on our BrainFacts textbook that I would then go ahead and teach to our members during meetings. I also made and compiled a bunch of different resources that everyone could use to help them prepare for the competition like notes and example questions and whatnot. One of the biggest feelings of pride I have from last year is that I managed to pull together a little mini-lab for our members where we all got to dissect and look at sheep brains while we were learning their anatomy and comparing them to human brains. I originally thought it would be a little lame just because it was a lab that I had already done before but getting to see the freshmen and sophomores who hadn’t really experienced a real dissection before just be fully amazed by the giant bucket of brains I had hauled in made me feel like I did something really good. That’s definitely a lab that I’m planning on bringing back this year as an intro to the anatomy of the brain and just so I can use it as a basis to teach everyone the different locations and functions that the brain has.

There are also a bunch of new things that I want to do this year as well, but it really depends on how many people are interested and end up coming to our informational meeting. I really don’t want our club just to be the Brain Bee but more so a neuroscience club where people can come and just learn something new and then maybe get rewarded for their interest and knowledge by winning at the competition. My goal is to just get everyone excited about neuroscience topics and then introduce them to how it can translate into a career in the healthcare field. 

A new idea that I have for a possible dissection is to bring in a bunch of cow eyeballs we used in Anatomy & Physiology class last year to demonstrate our Senses & Perceptions Unit for the Brain Bee and have kids get more hands-on experience with performing dissections really early on in their lives. After introducing the different locations and functions of the brain, the next topic we directly go into is talking about how our ears, eyes, nose, and tongue work in conjunction with our brain. That’s why just having back-to-back dissections would just be really fun and cool to put together for this upcoming year.

I’m also planning on having a community aspect or volunteering aspect for our club so that we can branch out and be more involved with other people. I am thinking of putting together a Christmas fundraiser where we would sell chocolates to students in the lunchrooms at North in order to raise money for our competition travel fees and team uniform fees. However, if we end up being really successful we can also definitely donate the remaining profits to a local Alzheimer’s care facility or something along those lines.

Another community aspect that I was also considering exploring was opening up a free neuroscience course for elementary school kids at the Alive Center and having it taught directly by us. I think it would be really cool to just pull up one day and let a bunch of kids explore a sheep’s brain and allow them to learn more about neuroscience. It’s all about expanding our knowledge and increasing exposure so I feel like this would be a great activity to start up later this year.

I also have a bunch of other free online courses that students can enroll in as well. They can have the chance to learn more about neurons and neurotransmitters and all that more in-depth than we normally would so those who are interested in pursuing an independent and self-paced aspect to our club could definitely have that opportunity if they wanted to.

Another thing that I would like to maybe accomplish this year is to invite a professional psychologist or psychiatrist or someone in that related field to hop onto a Zoom call and just talk to our members about what their job is like and how they originally got interested in their field. That way we can connect our topics and what we learn about neuroscience to the greater picture and how that works its way into becoming a potential career.

Definitely though, the Brain Bee is going to be incredibly busy this year considering I’m planning on doing all of these activities. I’m sure though that we’ll be able to do it and more if we just get a good amount of people who are deeply dedicated to learning more about neuroscience. If anyone reading this has any questions feel free to comment or ask me if you are interested in joining the Brain Bee. If you have any opportunities as well or additional ideas about things we could do this year, please do reach out! Thanks for reading!

Last week I analyzed the processes that cause addiction to form and the different ways in which drug use affects the transmission of neurotransmitters within our synapses. I will be continuing the topic of addiction for this week as I discuss how addiction relates to mental health disorders. This blog will be a direct continuation of where my previous blog left off at. First, however, before I begin, I must include the third process for which addiction can develop considering that it was not included in last week’s blog post.

The third and final method for which neurotransmission is disrupted is unique in its own way compared to the previous two. While the two previously mentioned processes enhance or strengthen the signal being transmitted, this method utilizes inhibitory neurotransmitters to reduce the intensity of sent signals. That means that instead of cascading positively charged ions, negatively charged ions are being transmitted. The two previous processes are a lot like the gas pedal on a car; they make it go forward. As opposed to this, inhibitory neurotransmission resembles the brake pedal since it causes the signal to stop or slow down. The most prevalent inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human body is GABA which essentially functions as a sedative. Alcohol is one such example of a drug that increases the effects of GABA within the neuron and causes the individual to fall into a narcotic state. Alcohol essentially serves as a GABA imitator allowing its molecules to bond with the adjacent neuron’s receptors and pass down the negated signal.

These three main processes are the ways in which drugs affect our brains. Over time, as individuals consume these harmful compounds, our brain learns to decrease its production of dopamine, thereby creating a dependence on the said drug in order to experience the same level of pleasure felt before. Due to this, the person’s ability to naturally experience pleasure also becomes reduced as the brain is no longer able to produce dopamine by itself. Individuals who misuse drugs then begin to lack motivation as they are now unable to enjoy the things they had previously found pleasurable. They need to continue to take drugs to experience even a normal level of reward, only adding to the addiction cycle. Eventually, even the feelings that the drugs used to impose become diluted as the receptors at which they interact are now unable to perfectly bond together, making them less and less efficient in transcribing a dopamine signal. This is commonly known as the tolerance effect.

 

However, it is when addicts eventually strive to overcome this effect and receive treatment do they actually realize how difficult it is to break this cycle. The brain requires a lengthy period of time to reacclimate to having to produce its neurotransmitters again. This period is commonly known as withdrawal and is characterized by the patient feeling a diverse range of symptoms depending on age, race, socioeconomic factors, as well as what drugs were used and for how long. Withdrawal may cause recovering addicts to develop insomnia, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and nausea as it is the first but necessary step in the recovery process. The process, however, can be incredibly dangerous if not regulated in a professional setting and under medical supervision. The patient must gradually decrease the usage of their addictive substance in order to allow the brain to adjust in the safest way possible. Addiction quite literally changes the chemical structure and processes of the brain and directly degrades the ability of individuals to develop motivation, making it all the more difficult for them to receive treatment. It is because of this reason that intervention is necessary to treat addiction and prevent drug overdoses from occurring in the future.

Now after having looked at the processes by which addiction forms and how it can be treated we can finally begin to understand the comorbidity between substance use disorders and mental illness. Approximately 25% of individuals who have a mental illness also consecutively face a substance use disorder, however, it is important to note that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. There is evidence from several studies that link both types of disorders together, but there are three ways in which they can possibly relate and be diagnosed.

The first way is that both substance use disorders and mental illnesses can arise from the same environmental risk factors. Genetics, for example, plays a large role in determining the strength at which dopamine may be produced or transmitted, as those who are predisposed to feeling a heightened level of pleasure from certain drugs might be more likely to develop a substance use disorder for that drug. At the same time, however, genetics can also influence mental disorders and make individuals more likely to develop genetically associated illnesses such as ADHD, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Past trauma and stress from childhood events can also serve as risk factors for both disorders as an early indication of antisocial behavior and exclusion can lead to both drug use as well as mental illness. For example, the season of summer may cause a sudden surge in both the ice cream industry as well as the swimwear market. However, it’s not possible to conclude that the increase in popularity within the ice cream market led the swimwear market to increase. The same goes for substance use disorders and mental illnesses. Even though both might develop at the same time, we cannot conclude that one causes the other simply because of the numerous factors at play that scientists have so far been unable to manipulate and isolate.

That is where I think I’ll end off for the week. I plan to continue where I left off for our next blog post as I finish analyzing the other two ways in which addiction and mental health disorders relate. We’ll see if that ends up being my final iteration of this neuroscience series or not and if I find anything else interesting as I’m doing my research. Thanks for reading!

The brain is one of the most complex and sophisticated systems of the human body. The small region of mass located within your skull is responsible for sending and receiving the messages that allow you to drive a car, have a meal, and elect in conversation. It is what shapes your behaviors, your decisions and emotions, and is what determines your personality as a whole. The brain is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, and as such, it is a mystery we may never fully understand. However, its implications regarding the structure of our communities, societies, and how our world functions is a vast and immeasurable expanse and thus is a topic that we must attempt to discuss and realize. In my blog post for this week, I will try to explain the chemical processes that lead to addiction and the ways in which drugs interact with our brains.

The first topic we must first begin to understand is the process that is utilized by the brain in order to continuously interact and communicate with the other organs throughout the human body. The brain is composed of a large and complicated network of cells called neurons that send electrical signals via the peripheral nervous system and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system — as opposed to the central nervous system which is made up of the brain and spinal cord — is composed of smaller arrays of neurons that disperse and branch out throughout our bodies. This entire network of neurons forms an interconnected web that is constantly sending electrical signals back and forth to the brain in the form of neurotransmitters. These chemicals essentially work much like how a key opens a lock. By leaving the synaptic vesicles of their respective neuron and crossing over and attaching to the receptors of the adjacent neuron, neurotransmitters do as their name suggests — they transmit information in the form of positive or negative ions to the next neuron and to the next until a message is finally conveyed. Once a signal is transmitted to the following neuron, the neurotransmitters are recycled and brought back to where they originated and are stored in the synaptic vesicles until they are needed again.

This brings us to the topic of drugs and the two main ways in which neurotransmission is disrupted by these harmful compounds.

• Neurotransmitter reuptake, as it’s often called, is the method by which specific enzymes are capable of bonding with certain free-floating neurotransmitters. This bond essentially serves as the passcode that allows neurotransmitters to enter back into the synapse of their originating neuron. However, some commonly known chemical substances, cocaine, for example, interfere with this process. Cocaine specifically targets transporter enzymes and bonds with them, thereby preventing neurotransmitters from leaving the synaptic cleft and therefore increasing their presence among the adjacent neuron’s receptors. One such neurotransmitter that gets trapped by cocaine is dopamine. Dopamine is classified as an excitatory neurotransmitter that is positively charged and is known as the most prevalent pleasure-inducing neurotransmitter in the human body. Its transmission is what allows us to feel the emotion of happiness and is what drives our motivations and reward-seeking ambitions. By closing the exit way for dopamine to re-enter the synapse, the neurotransmitter is trapped within the synaptic cleft and forced to continuously activate the receptors of the adjacent neuron, thus causing a pleasure signal that is constantly being transmitted throughout the body. This activation sequence continues indefinitely until the effects of the cocaine molecules wear off as they dislodge from the dopamine transporter enzymes.

• Other drugs, on the other hand, can imitate and serve as substitutes for neurotransmitters themselves. Nicotine is one such example as it hijacks the dopamine and acetylcholine receptors along the dendrites of the opposing neuron. Acetylcholine is a specific neurotransmitter such that its responsibility lies in transmitting signals regarding the body’s muscle control and involuntary actions. Scientists believe that it is due to this link that the drunken behavior stereotypically associated with that of alcohol is also characteristic of nicotine. Regardless of that fact, nicotine chemically induces a response that leads to an excess of stimulators built up in the synaptic cleft and thereby causes a cascading effect of the pleasure signal that would typically have been derived from dopamine. Rather than wait for dopamine to build up like how transporter enzyme bonding drugs often do, this process simply adds similar stimulators into the mix of neurotransmitters in order to have that same pleasure effect conveyed.

These two main processes are the ways in which physically consumed drugs affect our brains. Over time as individuals consume more and more of these harmful compounds, our brain learns to decrease its production of dopamine and other neurotransmitters, thereby creating a reliance on the said drug in order to have certain states of feeling. As addicts suddenly end their usage of such substances, they will find that the brain takes time in order to reacclimate to having to produce its neurotransmitters again. This is known as withdrawal and can be incredibly dangerous if not conducted in a professional setting under close observation by a medical professional. Additionally, the patient must gradually decrease their usage of their addicting substance in order to allow the brain to adjust in the safest way possible. Addiction quite literally changes the chemical structure and processes of the brain. Having a developed understanding of the brain and its functions allows us to better realize the ways in which we negatively impact its health and how to avoid those impacts.