A few words (before I "disappear" again...)

Hi all, so this week is officially hell week (aka prom + Baccalaureate + packing + move out + senior dinner + graduation week). I am currently a little very much caught up in things. I shall be back promptly afterwards though--promise!

And since I already wrote something, let's just end this blogpost with a funny (and slightly inappropriate) picture:

xx

Vanessa :]

Okay, so first I'm gonna talk about graduation :D

I graduated last Saturday. It was amazing!!! Our graduations work a bit differently than most people's because we're a small school. The ceremony itself only takes around 15 minutes, but we drag it out to around 45 minutes just to make it worth the time. The rest of it is about the same as yours is (minus the fact that there's only 17 of us so the walk in is pretty quick).

My gorgeous class :D

My best friend Hannah (left) and me!

The only thing that we did differently this year was a special flower. Because there's only seventeen of us we have a lot of time to kill, so we do a flower ceremony where we all run around the gym and give flowers to important people in our lives. Moms, grandmas, aunts, cousins, sisters, etc. This year we did something a bit different. Last year one of our classmates died from muscular dystrophy  His mom and brother came to the ceremony so after everyone got done with our flowers we went to the back of the gym where she was sitting and presented her with a flower in honor of Trevor. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. He was a great kid who deserved a much longer life.

But enough sad (sorryyyyy). It was a really great time. I got to see all most of my family that I hadn't seen in ages. We had a pre-graduation party at my house the night before with all my parents close friends and family. It was great. My cousin has triplet girls who are in fourth grade and they were quite the handful. And then once everyone finally left (around 2 a.m.), Dad and I stayed up talking until 4 a.m.. We had a moment :')

Anyway, that's my excuse update since I hadn't posted in forever!

Plus!!!! no more tests :DDDDD

<3 Sara

What's your biggest change this past year?

Okay, I guess this question is more applicable for those of you reading who are still in school. As the end of the school year draws near (or, for some public schools and colleges, has already happened), I want to challenge you to this question: What's your biggest change this past (school) year?

How have you changed? How have you become a better person? How have you changed other people, for better or for worse? 

Are you proud of the changes? Of who you are now?

(And yes technically what I'm doing here is called cheating because I basically just bombarded you with questions. But but but!! All of these tie back to the main question in the title—what's your biggest change this year?)

Let's hear it (them?).

xx

Vanessa :]

How to say goodbye?

This is a legitimate question: how does one say goodbye to something or someone one loves? 

As graduation looms nearer and nearer, I cannot help but contemplate this question. Recently I've been getting teary-eyed over the littlest things. I go to a boarding school, and although I don't love every moment of my days here (trust me the ups and downs are like a roller coaster), now I find myself unable to leave this place. Here I have friends that I LOVE. And by love I don't mean the kind that you write about in facebook photo captions (example: blah-blah is the best friend one could ask for! love ya!). Here I'm talking about serious love, love that makes you as happy as it makes you sad, this profound feeling that possesses you and engulfs you.

So, how do you say goodbye to a feeling like this? How?

Tell me.

xx

Vanessa :]

Staying Focused

The school year is coming to an end and as a senior I'm pretty excited about this. But along with this excitement comes end of term tests and final projects. I'm having trouble focusing on these because I'm so ready to be done.

So my question is: how do you stay focused?

I need to keep my grades up (because they are slipping) and stay inspired to keep working on my projects and essays.

Question Wednesday: What's with all the useless knowledge?

I've been lying in bed for two hours now, staring up at my ceiling, trying to make it stop spinning around in circles. Staying home sick makes you realize just how much junk you have floating around in your head. 

I can spell "antidisestablishmentarianism" off the top of my head, plus recite the definition and the entomology word for word from Webter's dictionary. But when will I ever use that? When will I ever use a "box-and-whisker plot" or need to "complete the square of this quadratic function" in real life? 

There is so much information that students have to process and retain. The amount is ridiculous, along with the amount of time that they have to learn these subjects. One year is not enough time to learn the basics of physics and chemistry. You can't understand human biology in just one semester (especially when all you do is just read from a book). 

Not only are students being overloaded with information, but the information itself is not useful. It is either far too broad of a topic or it cannot be applied once they get out of the classroom (i.e. antidisestablishmentarianism). 

So, my question is: Why spend so much time learning things that we can't use? Could our time be spent better?

Gangnam Style Parody (You know you want it!)

Seriously, I don't understand how I've forgotten to post this here.

So some of my classmates got together a bunch of sports teams, clubs, teachers, and students, and did this Gangnam Style parody, and it's totally HILARIOUS!! Beware when you click on the link below, that you will very possibly laugh so hard your abs hurt. Yepp, it's that insane.

All right, here goes:

I'm DONE.

Done with all finals in my high school career. Woot woot! I'm so excited. Also, the world ends today. Slightly nostalgic at the moment :P

Okay...so i just failed that.

Chem. Done.
Now to study for Physics. Oh, who am I kidding. I'm not gonna study.
I'll be on YouTube if you need me.

it's finals week.

i can't deal with these tests. i have a chem and physics test tomorrow. and our science teacher doesn't tell us what to study. he actually told us yesterday that we will all definitely fail our physics final. i don't think that's how it's supposed to work.

Popularity.

What exactly makes you popular? And why does that stuff make you popular? It could easily have just gone the other way. Why is being skinny desirable? Why do we only like the handsome boys/men? And what exactly makes them handsome? Who's to say that everyone isn't pretty in their own way? Susan Boyle is just as pretty as Keira Knightly when you think about it. It's opinion, and opinions can differ. So why don't they? Because we...well "we accept the love we think we deserve."Humanity is a push-over. If people say that this is 'good' then we all agree. Everyone else is doing it. We'd rather let someone else tell us what we like than figure it out ourselves.

What do you think?

Girl, Interrupted

We're reading this book for English class, and I have to say, I LOVE it so far. I'm only thirty pages into the book, but I'm already fascinated. Personally I've always been a little obsessed with mental illnesses, since it's much more common than you'd like to think. And the book just tells the story of a "mentally ill" girl with such delicacy and accuracy that it appalls and awes me.

More detailed review to come...gotta go back to reading.

I SURVIVED

After three days of turkey and pie for every meal I have escaped back to the prosaic world of school lunch (it's chicken nuggets today woot woot!). I have probably gained some mass in my lower mid-section and should probably go for a run but I won't because i'm lazy it's snowing and running laps around my living room doesn't sound quite as tantalizing as sitting on the couch with hot chocolate.

Anywaysies. Vanessa is...somewhere. I don't know (as you can tell we're quite organized here). So imma do a music monday. Vanessa. If you want to you can put some up too.

I have a confession. I'm ashamed to say that I may like One Direction. I try not to. I usually hate pop music and boy bands. But I can't help it. I'm sorry. I can't stop listening to Take Me Home (their new album). Seriously, I never gave them a chance until this weekend. And I regret (haha who am I kidding) every hour that I spent watching their video diaries. But I have to say that Over Again is fantastic (along with last First Kiss and Little Things and Heart Attack and Rock You and Kiss You and all of it). Seriously. Look it up. Enjoy it. Get Spotify if you don't have it already (seriously it's a lifesaver/moneysaver).

I just improved my ACT score!!!

But I sucked in the science portion...

So it makes me wonder what I could have gotten if I would have done better in science...

But still. I'm happy. (as made obvious by the gifs...sorry)

Oppa Gangnam Style!

Drumroll... the much anticipated Youtube video of me and my friends dancing Gangnam style at my school's pep rally!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EXoVGGSSWM&feature=plcp

The greatest thanks go to my friend Julia, who filmed this for us. Thank you, Julia!

Final Act

Yesterday evening was my final performance on my home stage. I've been in drama since I was a freshman. It's been...everything to me. I have two more performances left, but last night was really it. My last time on that stage. It went brilliantly. I don't think I've ever acted with that much heart in my life, nor will I probably ever again. When we finished, my coach came on stage and did her speech that she gives every year to the seniors. She thanks them for all the time they put in, etc...but this time was different. She didn't finish it, she couldn't. She was crying. And at that moment I realized just how much I was going to miss this school. It's gone far too quickly.

My Weird Obsession (besides books)

So...now that you've realized my weird obsession with anything literary, I should probably clue you in on something else that peaks my interest. 

Quantum Mechanics. Yes, I know. But I love it. I watch documentaries on it, I read all the news. I sit in Chemistry class after the bell rings and I discus it with my science teacher. I'm a full blown nerd when it comes to this stuff. The fact that light is both a particle and a wave...at the same time. Yeah. 

Like this.
I literally died from excitement...but seriously. I quantum computer. THIS IS FANTASTIC. 
I'm sorry. I just had to share my excitement. Don't feel obligated to read the article ;)