So I was wrong.

My blog will not be about life at monroe. It will be about books!
Okay, so like I've mentioned before, I'm a big literature fan. By literature, I don't mean Sarah Dessen or Glass by Ellen Hopkins. No, I mean classic literature.
Let me re-iterate. I love C L A S S I C literature. Like the Bronte sisters or Tolstoy. When I go to bed at night or am having a bad day, I don't turn to cheesy romance novels or murder mysteries. No I turn to Anna Karenina and Catherine Earnshaw. The stories that the authors write are (to me) the same story Emily Bronte did. Love stories are so much more eloquent and touching. Battles are so much more dramatic.

But do not think that I only read the antiquated books of our grandmother's generation. I can be hip! (That was a joke.) Two of my most recent authors are John Green and a man named Ned Vizzini.
Wanna know why I like them so much? Well, I'll tell you!
They have written the words that I've always thought but never said out loud. They know how I feel without being a teenage girl from California. And that's an amazing thing to me. So look them up. I recommend It's Kind of a Funny Story by Vizzini (which is also a movie) and The Fault in Our Stars by Green. Read them. They might become your favorite too.

So this is my return to the blog-o-sphere. I haven't blogged in a while.
So Kim commented on my blog saying I hadn't spoken a word about her so here it is, Kim! I first met Kim in the magnet office when I had been told I could work in there & she said I was lucky. I guess she got sent to the library to T.A. And when I was exiled from the coveted spot as the magnet office t.a. I joined her in the library. At first, she overwhelmed me. Though she be but little, she is fierce! (Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, look it up you plebeian)
And I as I grew to know her, I grew to love her. She made my days bright and she was funny. She was a little ball of sunshine I knew would be there when eighth period rolled around.
Now, I feel like we're not as friendly as before but I still like discoursing with her.
Well, I guess my new blog topic is life at Monroe, how it's been and what I think it's becoming. Have a good day.

So it's valentine's day here at Monroe. Woo!
Yeah, right..

As a student from the magnet, I have to live with everyone in F Hall. Ever been in there after school? It's like a highway. One way is into the hall and the opposite way is out of the hall. Add balloons, flowers, stuffed animals and all the sugary treats our society has deemed acceptable to gift to another and you can picture what it's like to walk through the hall on Valentines Day. All these things result in a bitterness of the heart that begins as annoyance then shifts to anger then grows to bitterness. And this feeling doesn't only plague people who are single. No, this has an effect even on those of us who have a significant other.
This is my tangent for the day. Have a happy Valentine's Day.

12 February 2013

Last Friday was the AcaDeca Awards night. It was amazing, even though I didn't medal in anything.
We're actually 20th out of the 58 schools. Still pretty good, in my mind. One of my closest friends got a Bronze medal in Interview; one of the seniors got a gold medal in interview and a bronze in speech (I think, I might be wrong); and my boyfriend (that was awkwardly typed, just so you know) got a silver medal in speech, a honorable mention in essay and he was the top scoring student of our team.

To tell you the truth, I was really upset that I didn't medal. I cried for a long time and I did resent my teammates for a bit. I have this thing that I have to be the best at everything. It comes with being a dancer and a student in the highly competitive Magnet. In dance, you have to better than everyone to even be noticed. To tell you the truth, there's been many a time that I've hoped for or relished in someone's mistake. And it seems like I'm a horrible person, I know.
But you don't understand. I grew up in the environment where I needed to be the best. I was found "gifted" at an early age. This led to my placement in the "more advanced" classes surrounded by children of the same mental capacity. My fourth grade teacher instilled such a love for reading that ever since, I've been a literature geek.
The Odyssey? Age nine. Bullfinch's Mythology? Age ten. Edith Hamilton's Mythology? Age eleven. Pride and Prejudice? Age 12. The Scarlet Letter? Age 13. Doctor Zhivago? Age 16 but I read it three times: the first in a week, the second to understand the book and the third to actually analyze and iron out all the inconsistencies in my mind.
From the same education that gave me a love for literature, I also got a love for history. What interests me so much about books full of someone else's story and another country's story is that even though all of it happened in a world from long ago, they will forever be remembered. They will forever have their name printed in a book that brags about their accomplishments. Isn't that amazing? Imagine, if I do something big enough to span decades and centuries, a girl or boy in the future will have to forever remember my name and what I've done.

I'm done with my life story. For now...

4 February 2013

So I am finally done with Academic Decathlon. For this year... But it feels good.
I tied for the highest score on our team (in the Super Quiz), we're unofficially 19th of the 52 schools who participated, and in the western San Fernando Valley, we're second only to Granada Hills. But it's Granada Hills, they're state champions!

I'm really really proud of myself and my team. We worked hard and it sure has showed. We're awesome like that. So that link down there is a link to an article the LA Times wrote on the day of the First Round of our competition.



LA Times wrote about Academic Decathlon.

Two days before competition; 31 January 2013

We must travel in the direction of our fears.

Let me tell you what I fear. I fear that on Saturday, I'll completely blank out. I fear that the taunting voice in the back of my head will win out over all the hours I've put into studying. I know what I'm doing. I know that I've given hours to studying.

I'm just so stressed. I want to cry and just give up. But I can't. I can't let them down. I can't let Mrs. Miller down. I can't let myself down.






I'm sorry. I just wrote and deleted about six paragraphs. My mind is so confused. I don't make much sense.
Well, maybe I'll tell you about how I do. But  I'll probably just cry in a corner. Have a good weekend.

29 January 2013; Tuesday after AcaDeca competition part

So last Saturday (26 January 2013) I competed in the Speech & Interview part of the AcaDeca competition. It's a two part thing; one Saturday, you give your prepared speech and an impromptu speech and you interview. The next Saturday, you test on the other 8 subjects. Yeeeeeeeeah. I think I enjoy the speech portion better..

Let me give you the rundown on AcaDeca: you have ten subjects. As previously stated, you do two pieces one Saturday and the other eight the next. The subjects are: speech (prepared and impromptu), interview, art, math, LangLit (a novel and shorter selections), music, science, history, and economics.
The eight subjects are all based on a chosen topic. This years topic is Russia.
Great subject, right? The right answer is no, if you have any common sense.
Last years topic was Imperialism.
But, I hear the year before that was the Jazz Age. Flappers, jazz, shockingly showing some leg (by that I mean the knees). What's not to like?


Do I bore you with my talk of this? Well, you only see the outside view.
But if you join, you get to see why I love this team.