jess shao's blog

Finally, the last blog of the semester. Like always, this is written on the day it is due and I actually forgot that it was Thursday because for some reason, this week has just been such a blur and I’ve kind of just started to stop keeping track of what day it is. My sister came home two days ago and we are currently having family movie time watching How to Train Your Dragon 3 while I type my life away on my computer.

Since this school year is kind of almost over and we’re about to graduate in like one more month, I wanted to write down my goals for this summer and also for future college so that I can perhaps come back and reread this when summer is almost over. I expect that by then, I will tragically realize that I’ve accomplished none of the goals that I actually wanted to complete.

The first thing I wanted to do this summer was to get a completely new wardrobe. While I do love the clothes I currently have, I want to embrace my soon-to-be role for the next four years as a newfound city girl and dress somewhat decent. It’s funny though because I don’t think I’ll for sure follow through with this plan due to the fact that I am genuinely so broke and will probably have to be spending what little money I do have on dorm room necessities. 

I also want to spend some more time with my friends before we all go our separate ways. I feel like I say this but then again I also always end up cooped up at home sleeping the day away instead. I swear though that this summer will be different and I will try my best and make the effort to go out more often. Ashley and I actually still have plans to return to Chicago when the snow doesn’t violently slap our faces and freeze our fingers, so hopefully, it will be even more fun then and we can freely explore (without getting kidnapped).

Spending time with my friends also includes returning to the gym after my unfortunate one-year hiatus due to laziness. My friend and I did go quite often last year over the summer but then we stopped. Maybe I’ll be able to build some muscle before I go off to college just for fun :’)

Another thing I genuinely want to do is try and get my life together. I don’t know what happened but it seems as if high school has just completely deteriorated my brain and my study skills have just gotten worse and worse. Hopefully, I somehow get a change in mindset and become a mysterious dark academia aesthetic city girl. This is definitely a hard feat for me to achieve, so I doubt it’ll happen but it’s worth putting down on this blog. Adding on to that is to fix my continuous and seemingly chronic neck and back pain. I told myself that I would make an attempt and do something to strengthen my spine to avoid actual injury. I just don’t think that starting a new chapter in my life with persisting neck and back pain is cute at all.

For the next few school years, extroversion is something that I also want to work on. Especially with such a large campus and so many people, I know that introversion isn’t going to get me anywhere near where I want to be, so I’m hoping that I can at least be a little less awkward when meeting new people. I’m also praying to the heavens that my roommate isn’t an absolute nightmare and that we can get along or maybe even become best friends (or not). 

A little intermission to this boring blog: I am still watching How to Train Your Dragon 3 and Toothless and his girlfriend just got kidnapped because the sister from the pair of twins brought the evil guy back to their hideout. I am beyond agitated and actually quite sad but it’s quite alright, everything’s bound to be fixed in the end.

ANYWAYS, my conclusion to this boring blog is that I hope to have a fresh start in this new chapter of my life and I want to do a lot of things this summer to improve myself not only outwardly but also inwardly. Not that I’m not satisfied with how my life is right now, but I just think this is a chance for me to take a hard reset and become the best version of myself. Happy almost last month of high school everyone <3

Per usual, I am idea-less and have no idea what to write for this blog, and in pure Jessica fashion, I procrastinated this and am writing it at 10.48 pm on the day it is due while praying that I finish and have this uploaded before 11:59. Unfortunately, it’s not working out too well for me and I have tragically fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole that is Roman Reigns on WWE (don’t ask, I don’t even know) while also typing this on the side. Due to the fact that I am just trying to fill the word count and have this in on time, I decided that this week’s blog would be about music because it’s the only thing I can go on and on about.

If you read a few of my previous blogs, you would know that I am but a shell of a person without Spotify and my AirPods. You would also know that I absolutely hate the weather being anything above 60 degrees. Looking at the weather predictions for next week, I noticed that Friday would be 79 degrees which is horrendous. Therefore, I wanted to create a cute little playlist for the warm weather to make it just a little less miserable for myself and at least enjoy. 

For this playlist, I already have a few songs in mind:

1. Sex, Drugs, Etc. by Beach Weather

I know this song might be considered overplayed and only made popular by TikTok, but I am proud to say that I did indeed find this song way before it became better known by everyone else. In some ways, you could say that I’m just not like everybody else (even though I literally am).

2. Outside by Ellie Goulding

I swear this song was one of my favourites in like 5th grade and I definitely did overplay it, but somehow it just seems to come back every single summer. It’s such a nice song to drive to and it always brings me joy when I listen to it. 

3. Dark Red by Steve Lacy

I don’t know if this is something that everyone agrees with but Dark Red is a little iffy because I feel like it is more of a fall song than a summer song. While this is the case, I still think that it is summer playlist worthy and may add it in but then remove it later on. 

4. Redbone by Childish Gambino

Redbone is just SUCH A GOOD SONG. The amount of joy I feel while listening to this song is just unmatched and it’s perfect for distracting me from the disgusting summer heat. If I’m being honest, I think any song from Childish Gambino is great for the summertime, and will be adding all of them to the playlist.

5. Heaven Sent by Tevomxntana 

I found this song a few weeks ago but it’s one that’s been played pretty often. The beginning instrumental is so gorgeous and the rest of the song also has such a vibe. If you guys haven’t listened to it, I would 10/10 recommend it.

6. I Hate U <3 by Slush Puppy

I actually had this in my summer playlist last year (yes I make a new one every year), and it’s never failed to put me in a good mood. I love playing this with the volume up and my windows all the way down in the car. 

7. Brazil by Declan Mckenna

I added this song to my other playlist when I heard someone sing it in 8th grade for the talent show. I absolutely adore this song and in my opinion, it’s definitely categorized as a summer song. 

8. Why by Dominic Fike

Honestly, all of the songs from Dominic Fike’s What Could Possibly Go Wrong album are good, but this song is by far one of my favorites and I think it would be a wonderful addition to the summer playlist. 

 

Honorable mentions include

Power Trip by J. Cole ft Miguel

Blue Hair by TV Girl

Talk by Hozier

Eat Your Young by Hozier

Tremors by Beach Weather

Outta My Mind by Monsune

Chagu’s Sideturn by Peach Pit

Music. by Mild Orange

 

I originally wanted to make a playlist with all new songs so that I could expand my music diversity, but funnily enough, all of these songs are ones that I’ve been listening to over the course of this year. I’m hoping that my Discover Weekly will help in finding new songs that I can add to the playlist and have fun listening to, but I’m quite doubtful. If anyone has any suggestions for new and fun summer songs I would very much appreciate a recommendation, but if not, I apologize for a very messy and rough blog and I thank you for reading it anyways.

All the reasons why Lulu is my favorite person.

 

I’m just kidding. I’m sorry to disappoint but this blog is in fact NOT about Lulu. She typed this on my computer.

Honestly I’m having trouble thinking of a topic for this week’s blog. The only things that come to mind are ideas that I’ve already mentioned or done in previous blogs. But in light of the weather being so frigid this week, I thought I would respond to one of the theories I heard this week: Being cold cannot give you a cold. (Lulu also typed this and I decided to continue it and talk about it, so I guess she is currently my favourite person. Everyone please say a quick thank you to Lulu because without this I really have no idea what my blog would have been about.)

This morning (it’s currently Thursday because I procrastinated on this blog), my dad asked me if the weather was really warm enough to be leaving my jacket in the house and not wearing it to school. This is a question he seems to ask me a lot, and it’s always because he doesn’t want me to get sick (also because he’s worried I would be cold). So obviously, my position on this theory- a position that I’m almost 100% sure my dad agrees with- is that it’s false. I told Lulu that I’d do a little bit of research but honestly I’m feeling a little bit lazy. She did tell me that she would be reading AND commenting on this blog so I didn’t want to disappoint, but I don’t think I’m going to go too in-depth about it. 

The first thing that popped up as I searched “can being cold give you a cold” was an article from Northwestern Medicine (so everything it says is legit, I guess). They quoted Dr. Rajendram, who said “Wearing layers during the winter can help prevent physiological conditions that can make you more susceptible to contracting viruses.” So technically he’s saying that staying warm and not being cold helps you avoid getting a cold. Another article I saw as I took a little scrolldown Google was from healthline.com (I use this website often so I’m hoping this is also legit), which said “New research has found that cold temperatures lower immunity in the nose and make us more susceptible to viruses.” I’m not going to go into a whole analysis on these quotes but it definitely is pretty decent proof that there exists a correlation between being cold and getting a cold. Therefore, I feel like after reading all of this that it’s pretty clear that the theory is false. I did find, however, a few articles that agreed with the theory but they seemed like sketchy websites (maybe I’m biased) and for the sake of proving my argument, I choose to be ignorant. It was also just more work to click into those and read more and then actually talk about it on here but I’m sure I’ll go back and read those after this blog post is done and posted onto the wordpress website.

My own experience, which is obviously the most credible thing on this blog, also tells me that this theory is false. I would like to start by prefacing that my immune system is as strong as a horse. Perhaps it is because of all the Red Bull I drink. Anyways, I haven’t been sick enough recently to be able to prove my rejection of the theory. However, I will speak to the previous years of my poor health. I usually get some type of sickness from where the lines blur between fall and winter, and my assumption is that it’s because I’m enduring a change in temperature. Along the same wavelength is the idea of always drying your hair after washing it, especially during the winter time. My dad always warns me that I’ll get violently sick (maybe I’m being dramatic) if I leave my hair wet because the cold will “seep into my scalp and chip away at my immune system.” Honestly I don’t think he’s wrong, because every time I leave my hair wet and let it dry during the winter, I notice that I wake up the next morning with a fuzzy throat and a stuffy nose. This all goes back to prove that being cold DOES in fact make you get a cold, and while I realize that my explanations were lowkey not so good, I hope I was able to make my case. Either way, please let me know if you also disagree with the theory or if you think I’m a scam that just wrote a whole blog full of misinformation.

Websites I used while researching (just in case I get docked for plagiarism because I quoted)

https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/can-winter-make-you-sick#:~:text=Being%20Cold%20Can%20Cause%20a%20Cold&text=Dr.,Rajendram.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/scientists-finally-figure-out-why-youre-more-likely-to-get-sick-in-cold-weather#:~:text=New%20research%20has%20found%20that,colds%20and%20flu%20during%20winter.

Everyone knows or has heard of the name Edgar Allan Poe. Growing up, Poe had a relatively hard life, so he used his childhood as inspiration for the poems and short stories he would write. Known for talking about darker topics through his writing, “Alone” is not an exception. 

Unlike some of the other poems we read in class, I actually found “Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe to be a relatively more straightforward read and slightly easier to comprehend. Not going to lie, I did feel like I screwed myself over with this when I did my first read-through and noticed barely any annotations, but I think it did work out after a couple more read-throughs. 

Without reading the poem and just looking at it, the very first thing I took note of was the number of dashes strewn throughout as well as the way the poem didn’t have any stanzas. Upon completing my first read-through, the first thing I noticed was that the general rhyme scheme includes rhyming couplets, which gives the poem a musical flow. For example, line 3 says “As others saw-I could not bring” and line 4 continues by saying “My passions from a common spring-” I later realized that the dashes I took note of pre-read served as places of emphasis and where the reader should take pause, substituting what possibly could have been periods. I also took notice of the tone of the poem, which seemed to be relatively somber and dark, highlighting the isolation that the speaker feels. 

The first two lines, “From childhood’s hour I have not been” (1) and “As others were- I have not seen” (2) clearly showed that the speaker was someone who didn’t see the world as others around them did. After reading them, I had a few questions. How did the speaker see the world, if not like their peers? Why do they see it the way they do? To see if I could find any answers, I continued on. The next two lines talk about how the speaker “could not bring [their] passions from a common spring” (3,4), which suggests that the passions they have stem from views far different from their peers. Similarly, lines 5 and 6 present the same idea in terms of sorrow. Even in love, the speaker states that “And all I lov’d- I lov’d alone-” (8) The continuing lines stress that although the speaker felt the same emotions as everyone else around them, the drives and the explanations for their emotional responses were vastly different from their peers. 

What really confused me on the first read-through was lines 13-22. Maybe it was because I didn’t read it thoroughly enough, I’m not sure. Either way, I didn’t quite understand why the speaker wentfrom describing the nature around them to suddenly saying that there was “a demon in [their] view” (22) After reading this section, I took a pause, went back to line 13, and reread it again. The second time around, I realized that it wasn’t just a random idea that had been thrown into the line. Instead, the demon was what the speaker saw from the cloud in the sky. At this point, I was thoroughly baffled by the speaker. Line 21 emphasizes that “the rest of Heaven was blue”, which implies that other than that one supposedly demon-shaped cloud that only the speaker saw, the sky was clear and blue. What a strange character. I realized after taking a break from my poem that the speaker saw the demon everywhere, no matter the weather or the nature around them. It’s consistently in their sight, which I thought could have meant that the demon was a metaphorical idea for something that causes their solitariness and suffering. These 9 lines also were the answer to the question I had at the beginning about how the speaker saw the world. Instead of seeing all of the bright, beautiful things around them like what their peers would see, the speaker saw the world obstructed by a demon. However, the more I think about it, I’m not too sure that I would use the term “obstructed”. While it is true that all the speaker saw was the demon, it could also be a metaphor for a wider worldview. Due to the speaker’s isolation, they see the world not through a bright and colourful lens, but through a more realistic, duller lens. 

While I was able to answer one of my earlier questions about how the speaker saw the world, I never got an answer to why it was. It’s one of the questions that leave me thinking, and although there may be possible answers, I don’t think I would ever know for sure.

If I’m being fully honest, I don’t know what to write. Maybe it’s because I’m a little rusty after winter break, but there really isn’t anything that pops into my head when I think about writing these blogs. Therefore, I have decided that today, I will be rating parts of my day as they’re happening on a scale of 1-10. For some more unnecessary background information, it’s currently Thursday the 19th and the weather is extra sad today. 

 

8:05 AM: Senior Foods

Rating: 8/10

This morning has been so far so good. I was really tired before class because I unfortunately did not get enough sleep, but we made coffee cake yesterday so today we had it for a second mini breakfast. It wasn’t really my taste because it was overwhelmingly sweet but it was fun to make and I think it would be good with coffee to kind of balance out the sweetness. We are currently playing Kahoot in preparation for our test tomorrow and I’m not on the leaderboard which is kind of sad, but I guess it’s okay.

 

9:26 AM: AP Calculus

Rating: 6/10

For Calc, we just did what we usually do. I will admit I was slightly confused but I ended up figuring it out which was good. I rated it a 6 just because I was thoroughly bored and stressed but overall it was averagely okay. I didn’t get any homework done during class but it should be easy enough to get done quickly at home.

 

9:31 AM: WIN (Chem with Mrs. Brucker)

Rating: 8/10

Chemistry with Mrs. Brucker is typically my go-to WIN option when I don’t have any other class to go to just because I really like the classroom and usually my friends also just so happen to choose her class for WIN. I don’t have any need for chemistry help today but I do have a bunch of other things to get done so I’m hopefully going to be using this time to finish those assignments. 

10:43 AM: AP Statistics

Rating: 2/10

As I’m typing this, I’m staring at the clock in the front of the room and waiting as the minutes tick by. I don’t know what it is about this class or this classroom but it seems to drain all the energy out of my system and I always think I end up losing brain cells. I’m currently trying to finish my calculus homework instead to feel slightly productive and all I’m hearing from the lecture is a lot of words that I can’t comprehend at the moment. Just now, Lulu has called me dumb for not figuring out how to type the equation on the calculator but it’s okay I love her anyways.

 

11:53 AM: AP Literature

Rating: 3/10

It took me a bit because I didn’t have my Chromebook out during class. It wasn’t boring but I did almost fall asleep just because there was a lot of talking but I guess it was productive. We did get new books today which was actually really exciting so I’m looking forward to reading it because it seems interesting. 

 

1:36 PM: AP Chemistry + Chemistry Lunch

Rating: 10/10

For chem today we did a group lab with the whole class and tried to figure out what type of solid each of the mystery chemicals were. It was a little confusing at times because we kept getting different results but I had a lot of fun doing it. We also went into AP chem lunch which was basically a continuation of the lab, and I think we figured out which type of solid went with which chemical but Mrs. Brucker never confirmed it so I think we’re talking about it tomorrow. 

 

 

2:06 PM: Sports Medicine 2

Rating: 5/10

We had our usual document assignments but today we also got an assignment that required taking videos of movements described with anatomical terms. It took me a lot less time than I originally thought, which was nice because then I don’t have much homework to do after I get home. I am, however, getting a slight headache and am a little nauseous which is not so fun. I am looking forward to the end of the day so I can take a nap.

 

2:47 PM: Advanced Chemistry

Rating: 4/10

I’m very excited to go home. We are currently reviewing electron configuration in class right now but I already learned everything in AP last semester. I think it’ll be better once we learn about other things but as of now, I’ve just been spacing out. We also have a quiz tomorrow so fingers crossed it goes well and I don’t make stupid mistakes.

 

7:42 PM: Home?

I woke up from a nap a little bit ago and I’m currently eating dinner alone while typing this up. Overall I think today went averagely okay. I was really tired but that’s nothing new at all, and classes were okay. I would, however, like to rate my nap a 10/10 because it was just wonderful. Other than finishing this blog, I also have to finish my calc homework and do my stats FRQ. Either way, this blog has gotten really long so I’m hoping all of you had a wonderful Thursday.

I don’t know about anyone else but for me, senior year so far has been an absolute train wreck. I’ve honestly never found myself wishing for break to come faster as much as I have this year, and I just genuinely need a break to gather myself and refresh without having to think about school, so I’m beyond glad that winter break is only 2 days away. 

Even though this year has gifted me with a strange pain in my spine that I cannot get rid of and plenty of sleep deprivation, I’ve made some pretty good memories and became friends with a lot more new people than I originally thought I would. I also joined another club (finally) that I find genuinely interesting and fun to be a part of. I’ve also been able to better myself with the help of my teachers and the people around me, so I guess that would be a plus.

I honestly feel like this year was really helpful in building not only who I am as a student but also who I am as a person. Through the majority of my courses, I learned that it’s always important to keep an open mind going into things or even when talking to different people because although you might not realize it, you can learn a lot from keeping an open mind. Although it might seem strange, it was one of my goals from junior year that I wanted to achieve, and Sociology was really helpful in this simply because there were a lot of topics that we discussed that required for everyone to stay open about. 

One really obvious but super important piece of advice that I would give to the almost seniors would be to just not procrastinate. Sounds easy on paper, but in my opinion, it’s actually really hard not to unless you’re just really studious (extremely jealous if you are like this). More than once, procrastinating has screwed me over. During college app season, I told myself over the summer that I would finish my apps way before the deadline, but if you just took a drive to the library a few days before November 1st, you would have found me practically living there, frantically typing away on my computer and then violently hitting the backspace button and sighing in disappointment when it doesn’t read how I want it to. It’s also really not helpful when you’re studying for tests for AP classes. Despite what I thought, a lot of my AP classes this year are A LOT of work. Putting in the time and effort to properly study without distractions is really important for the more demanding courses that they might choose to take, and finding the study techniques that work best for them would be really beneficial in the long run. It’s not to say that their whole year should be spent on studying and college apps. While senior year is pretty stressful in itself, it’s important to remember that it’s okay to have fun as well. Not everything has to be about school. Taking a nap, being with friends, going outside for a walk and some fresh air, or watching an episode of your favourite show is a good way to refresh. It’s essential to keep in mind that mental health comes first, and while that took me a while to learn, I want to emphasize that putting school and grades first is not healthy. Obviously its still a work in progress for me as well but it’s an important point to remember. 

For second semester, I want to better my studying habits and limit procrastination. Knowing myself, it seems pretty unrealistic, but I know that I can take little steps towards fixing it. I hope to branch out and participate in more social activities so that I can make more memories before leaving North. Either way, I hope that all of us are able to recharge during break and come back better rested and refreshed. 

 

In celebration of our last blog of the semester and Spotify Wrapped coming out on Wednesday, I wanted to take a second and really dive into my very questionable music tastes this past year.  

First of all, in case you didn’t already know, I absolutely love listening to music. I always have it playing in the background or through my headphones to keep me company, and it serves as (in my opinion) a very valid excuse for not hearing someone yell my name across the hallways. 

Other than labeling me as an “angsty sad boi” (yes with an “i” instead of a “y” I swear it isn’t a spelling mistake), and essentially telling me that I listened to sad music too much, I think this year’s wrapped was honestly the highlight of my extremely long week. 

This year, my music addiction has summed up to a whopping total of 82,320 minutes of listening. I’m honestly not too sure if that’s good or bad, but I do know that it’s a number that I want to surpass for next year’s wrapped. A good chunk of those minutes were definitely while I was dying in the library trying to complete my college apps and the rest were probably made up by second semester last year, which was pretty rough. Spotify really knows how to make me feel special because it told me that it was more than 97% of other listeners in the United States, but I feel like that’s pretty questionable.

If you haven’t read my blog on The Neighbourhood in My Neighborhood (shameless self-promo), I ranked all of my favourite Neighbourhood songs and talked about why I liked them so much. This year, Spotify told me that my top song was Single by The Neighbourhood, with a total of 609 listens. I truly don’t know why I had such an affinity to that song this past year or what happened on January 11th but I will admit that it’s a masterpiece and everyone should listen to it at least once.

Going off of that, the rest of my top songs this year consisted of C U Girl by Steve Lacy in second place, Sex, Drugs, Etc. by Beach Weather in third, Talk by Hozier in fourth, and Mind Games by Sickick in fifth. I feel like this was definitely a pretty accurate representation of my favourites, all of which are pure art. 

The only band I like more than The Neighbourhood is Chase Atlantic. I’ve spent 7,954 minutes listening to them and placed myself in their top 0.1% of listeners, but unfortunately I am still not satisfied. Last year I was somehow able to place myself in their top 0.01% of listeners, so I definitely downgraded but I will make it my goal to claim my spot back next year. 

Funnily enough, Spotify decided to call all of us onions as if we were Shrek and told us that we had lots of layers. In some type of effort to make a knockoff MBTI for music personalities, I was labeled as an early adopter and apparently have the music personality of ENVC, which supposedly stands for Exploration, Newness, Variety, and Commonality. I’ll place an image of it so that you can get more information if you’re curious, but honestly it’s nothing all that fascinating.

In order to validate my ENVC status, I guess I have been able to branch out into newer genres this year, one of them being Drift Phonk/Phonk in general. To be fully honest, I’m not sure how I even got into Phonk, but for being mostly just instrumental it’s actually a pretty good genre with a plethora of good songs, even though some of them do sound the same. In case you didn’t know what phonk was, Google says that it’s a subgenre of hip hop and trap music that was inspired by 1990s Memphis rap. I feel like that definition definitely throws me off a little bit but I also don’t have a better way to define it. With Drift Phonk sitting at third in my top genres this year, I wouldn’t say that I’m a professional at all things Phonk, but I will say that I listen to it enough to be able to recommend a few songs. 

Although I absolutely do not appreciate Spotify doing me dirty and telling me that I am an angsty sad boi (I will never get over that), I’m quite satisfied with this year’s wrapped. I know college next year is definitely going to bring my listening time up so hopefully I can rid myself of my angsty status and swap it out for something better.

I am not ashamed to say that I am a procrastinator.

It’s not that I don’t hate that I do it, I do. But it’s just a way of life that I’ve come to accept at this point. Much to my dismay, I’ve found it to be more challenging to procrastinate this year especially because my classes seem to be more demanding. More often than not I stay up abnormally late – MacBook AND Chromebook open, music playing, textbook open, papers scattered across my desk- sounds like I’m being productive, right? But do not be fooled, that is not me. 

What am I actually doing? Staring off into space. The assignment is due before class the next day and I had all week to do it. It’s 12:30 AM and I’m nowhere near done. So what do I do after I finish staring at nothing? Stress over the assignment, stare at it blankly, tap my phone screen to look at the time, and suddenly I find myself watching a TikTok of a dancing frog. Despite all that, I usually get my work done and turned it in on time.

Although I think that some people might disagree, I find procrastination to be an art and a talent. The way people can take what some would do in two days and shrink it all down into 4 hours of quality work (less or more, it depends,) is so fascinating to me. I would consider it to be the one and only skill that I am decent at even though I always end up sacrificing my sleep. 

The only downside I absolutely despise is that I never get enough rest because I stay up completing homework. Averaging around your regular 3-4 hours, I’m always pleasantly surprised that my brain can keep me sane when going to school the next day. However, getting 3-4 hours is no longer enough to keep me awake during some courses that are more or less lecture-based. 

“OMG Jessica, how have you been keeping yourself awake?” you ask.

What a wonderful question that is. Allow me to let you in on a little secret.

I’m sure anyone could guess it by now, but for those who don’t know, my secret is that I consume copious amounts of caffeine in the form of energy drinks. 

If Red Bull has millions of consumers, I am obviously without a doubt one of them. If they have 10, I am still one of them. If they have one, it is me. If they have 0 consumers, then we can all presume that I have died tragically. I am a pretty big fan if you couldn’t already tell. 

My junior year consisted of only two a week just because I didn’t want to overload on caffeine, but senior year is seriously a whole different breed. This year, the only consistent thing seems to be that I’ve been tired no matter how much I slept or how many energy drinks I consumed. Therefore, my solution was that whenever I found myself to be tired in the morning before school, I would grab a can of Red Bull from the fridge. Unfortunately, it’s been almost every day now that I carry around a can of it in the side pocket of my backpack in the mornings, with the occasional exception of late arrival Wednesdays. I’ve had them so often that Mrs. Brucker’s gotten used to seeing me with one and only mentions it when I don’t walk into her class with a can in hand.

My friends seem to always be telling me that I’m going to get a heart attack or have to get a mechanical heart pump or go into heart failure before the age of 30 if I keep going down this path, but I think they’re just being dramatic and that I’m going to be just fine and thriving. 

Either way, I don’t believe that drinking them has helped me stay awake any more than my pure sheer will, but I enjoy drinking them just for fun and for the possibility that maybe there will be a random occasion where the caffeine actually ends up working.

Overall, my senior year so far has been extremely exhausting and quite stressful, as I’m sure it’s been for most of us. It’s also been pretty caffeinated and wild, but I’ve kind of grown to enjoy the little things that happen every day, even if the majority of my school day is pretty lame.

 

In honour of college app season and them being due in literally 5 days, I wanted to make a list of my top favourite songs by The Neighbourhood that have been on repeat in my AirPods while I live in front of my computer and tirelessly type my life away. 

I would like to preface before you all keep reading this blog that I am not a music professional and only listen to music for my enjoyment, so I guess I would choose label myself as a music maniac because you would never catch me without an Airpod in ever (unless I’m driving, but there’s still always music playing nevertheless).

I also honestly think that the band doesn’t even have any bad songs, and the rankings are my just my favourites out of all of the fantastic songs they have. If you couldn’t tell, I’m a pretty big fan of their music and I even have this sweatshirt that my sister made back in middle school along with her friends with their logo on it.

1. The song I would put into first place would probably be Single from their Wiped Out! album. I listened to this song for a whole week on repeat during junior year (it may seem like I’m lying but I’m not, it was a very concerning time) and I have no regrets. I feel like what made me really like it was probably the instrumental of the track, which is incredibly beautiful. I would definitely recommend giving it a listen, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I still listen to the song on occasion, but definitely not on repeat anymore.
2. The second song is probably a classic for people who are on TikTok, but I swear I found it before it became popular on the platform. I would definitely recommend Softcore from their Hard To Imagine The Neighbourhood Ever Changing album. It’s such a fun song and like Single, the instrumental is extremely fun to listen to. I found it maybe in November of last year and it’s been a definite favourite of mine since then. It’s even on my Spotify playlist specifically for driving at night.
3. You can’t mention The Neighbourhood without thinking about Sweater Weather from their I Love You album. I hold strange but also fond memories of listening to it with my sister when she was in middle school whiledriving home with my dad from Chinese School on Saturdays. It was a good song to listen to then and it still is now, and if you end up driving up next to me, more often than not you would hear this song being blasted through my car bluetooth. 
4. The fourth song on this ranking would be Cry Baby which is from their Wiped Out! album. I don’t really know what it is about this song but I was absolutely obsessed with it during the summer before junior year. It would be playing all the time no matter what I was doing and it would be my favourite song to play while driving to work at the time. I guess listening to it now kind of reminds me of the summer I had junior year which consists of pretty good memories.
5. Fifth place definitely goes to The Beach, which is also from the Wiped Out! album. If you couldn’t tell by now, I’d say my favourite album out of all of the ones they have would be the Wiped Out! album. I know I keep mentioning the instrumental to these songs being really good but this one is especially pretty and I definitely believe that it’s worth trying to look for on youtube or another platform. The song with the lyrics and everything else is also really good and relatively calm so it’s a pretty good song to play for typing up apps or blogs.
6. I think sixth place would be Pretty Boy from their Chip Chrome & The Mono-Tones album. It’s just such a wholesome song and I love how mellow it is compared to a lot of the other songs that I tend to listen to. Like all of the other songs on this list, it’s great for studying or typing up assignments. In fact, I’m listening to it right now as I’m making this ranking.
7. Honestly seventh place would definitely be Wires from the I’m Sorry… album. It’s just such an interesting song to me especially in terms of the lyrics and it’s also not as upbeat as the other songs which makes it good to listen to while typing things up or doing homework.

Either way despite my rankings, I would 100% recommend you all listen to the band if you haven’t, and if you have, then please let me know which songs you all like. Also feel free to suggest any other bands that you like to listen to and would like to share. I hope by the time everyone reads this blog that I’m done with apps and am no longer stuck in front of my computer, but then again I’m extremely unpredictable when it comes to being productive. I’m hoping that everyone is now app stress free and relaxing.

 

 

One thing that I vividly remember from my growing up in China was watching this kids cartoon about student sheep living on the grassland who try to run away from a dumb hungry wolf who wants to eat them called 喜羊羊与灰太狼 (XiYangYangYuHuiTaiLang), the English name being The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. 

I feel like watching the show is almost a universal experience for Chinese children around our age, especially because it was so popular. To be honest, my very lacking short summary doesn’t do the show justice at all. I swear I made it sound a lot lamer and maybe more violent than it actually is but even now, I sometimes click on an episode or two to watch just for the fun of it. I would definitely rate the show number 1 on my childhood shows list because even though there were also big competitors like XiongChuMuo (Boonie Bears) or XiYouJi (Journey to the West), XiYangYang has a very special place in my heart.

My memories of the show include sprinting up the stairs of my grandparents’ old house at 3-4 years old, candy or snack in hand, and plopping down on the bed or on this old woven wood chair just so that I could catch the show while it was being played on cable. The only days I could catch it were usually on the weekends, when I didn’t have kindergarten at the local school.

Watching XiYangYang as a child would bring me extreme amounts of joy. The world around me would melt away and all of my focus would be on the small TV in the room, the speakers blaring the theme song so familiar to me that it was engraved in my brain. My grandma would occasionally come sit with me and watch along, bringing me cut up fruit or fresh Bingtanghulu from when she left the village to go to town. My sister and dad would also watch with me when they came to visit during summer break, making commentary and much to my dismay, stealing my snacks. 

When I moved back to America, I found that I could no longer find the show on cable and substituted the show for a DVD called Salad English, which helped me learn English, and the PBS Kids network that showed on cable in our old house up in Wisconsin. It was never the same though and I was always pestering my dad to find DVDs for XiYangYang or help me find videos online, which I eventually did.

I never really knew why I had such an attachment to this show, even after being here in America for so long. Obviously the main reason was because it kept me entertained as a child and made me laugh, but now that I think about it from my current point of view, I guess it’s because it reminds me of a time where I could afford to be carefree and also brings a sense of nostalgia for the life I had growing up in the old house in the village. Now, watching the show reminds me of my grandparents and how much I miss seeing them. With everything happening in the past few years, I haven’t gotten a chance to go back and visit everyone in quite a long time. Watching the cartoon is, in a strange way, my way of trying to keep a connection with how it felt to be back there.

Either way, the show brings back parts of the best moments of my life, and while it’s specifically catered to children, I find that it’s still strangely entertaining to me even now.