Adria Week 5 Best Friends

From what I’ve observed throughout my 16 long years of public schooling, everyone seems to have a “best” friend. Except, then I started noticing that soon everyone was everyone’s best friend. So, I thought, then what was the purpose of them being the “best?” If everyone is, then no one is. Ordinarily, I would not think this term is appropriate if it is simply going to be used to describe everyone. But I believe in special instances where the person you call your best friend is exactly that-- your absolute best friend. 

There I was, a little preschooler, innocently playing with her toys alone. I was shy, which helped me feel more content being by myself. I am still this way to this day, I don’t mind being or working alone. I was alone, but content, and I wanted it to stay that way. My teacher Mrs. Radio noticed this, however, and thought that I should have a companion, so she talked to my mom and told her about this other shy little girl in the class. At only three years old, I had little to no control over when I had a playdate and even with whom. I had never spoken to this other girl, and I was not particularly excited to play with her-- especially at my house. But at a mere three years, I had absolutely no clue what was best for me. After thousands of playdates and every dance class and tennis lesson in history taken together, she and I have been best friends from the start. And to me, being a best friend means not just doing every activity together or seeing each other every day-- it means being the one person that you go to first before anyone else, and the one person you trust with anything. The person you can laugh and cry with, and the person you want to spend every Friday night with. The person you miss even after a week-long sleepover marathon in the summer, and the person you bake all of your Christmas cookies with because no one else is near as fun. The person you would sacrifice your afternoon for just to do something they love. The person you’ve known since you were three and never grew apart from, even through the rough patches and bumps in the road. And the person you share unconditional love with that will last a lifetime. This is what a best friend is to me.

Liz 5: Cleaning my room

When school started, my schedule became jam-packed. Between schoolwork, my job, and trying to maintain a social life, I ended up being so busy that I pushed aside things like putting away laundry and tidying up my room. It got to the point where my closet was literally empty, with all my clothes in one pile on the floor, and I could barely walk across my room to my bed. I hated it, but the problem was I never had a day to dedicate to completely deep cleaning my room. Finally, I decided this past weekend, I was going to do the work I had been pushing off for months.

A couple weeks ago I bought new, velvet hangers to try and encourage myself to put my laundry away. So I finally took those out and started to tackle the huge pile taking up half my floor. After 2 hours of sorting, organizing, and hanging my clothes, I was able to tackle the other main issue of my room: garbage. The floor that wasn’t occupied by clothes was covered in receipts, school papers, and tissues. Also, my nightstand had about 15 empty or half-empty cans of sparkling water covering it. Honestly, it was gross, and I don’t know how I dealt with it for so long. But I’m proud of myself for finally finding the time and energy to tackle the mess, and to make things even better, I can tell that having a clean living space is definitely improving my overall mood. I even decorated my wall for Christmas! Hopefully, I can keep it clean now. Fingers crossed.

Sydney Week #5 Winter Concert

So last Wednesday the band, chorus, and orchestra had the prism/pops/holiday concert (the name was different depending on which class you were in). Although it was a bit stressful at times, it was a fun concert to be apart of. The most interesting part of this particular concert was the fact that not every performance was on stage. Some were up and down the ramps, in the back of the auditorium, in the tech booth, basically anywhere you can think of.

With all of the performers everywhere the audience had a really exciting experience since they got to hear and see performances all around them. On the other hand, the actual performers themselves found it less exciting since we had to constantly be moving around. Instead of being able to just sit on stage and perform like normal, we had to constantly be traveling from one performance spot to the next. This lead to some awkward situations which include, but is not limited to needing to crawl down the ramp with a flute and music stand in a dress while trying not to be seen by the audience.

Luckily most of the other performers did not have to go through the same trauma as the flute ensemble, but there were still many awkward times of crouching and hiding so that the audience would be surprised. Even though a lot of the concert was awkward waiting, it was still a fun and exciting experience, and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.

5 MeiLi- Santa

In light of the holidays coming up (which I am SO SO SO excited for) I decided to dedicate my post to Christmas! Well, more accurately Santa. Every family has household traditions when it comes to the holidays regardless of the one you celebrate, but one of the traditions that my mom has been executing for my entire life is homemade gingerbread houses. 

She takes an entire weekend (sometimes even the following week) to make the dough, roll and cut them out, bake them, assemble, and decorate them, personalizing each one for a family friend as their holiday gift. Well this past weekend just so happened to be The Gingerbread Weekend, and it led me, my mom, my 11 year old brother, and his best friend into a discussion about Santa Clause. 

Now, my mom is an avid believer in trust and never lying. Yes, some things she keeps from us, but she always finds a way to keep the truth without lying. It’s a super power of hers, kind of like the eyes in the back of her head. One particular example of this wild talent is her response to the big Santa question. Now, I’m not confirming nor denying ANYTHING about dear old Mr. Clause, but if asked about his existence my mother will reply with,

“If you don’t believe, he doesn’t come.”

This means that for my entire 17 years of life, she has never once confirmed or denied if there actually is a Santa. My little brother is at the age in the 5th grade where kids start to talk around the holidays and break innocent hearts. I’m pretty sure the 5th grade is where I first heard those incredulous rumors about Ol St. Nick. But when my mom asked my brother and his friend Luke what they believed, Taisen said,

“Of course Santa’s real. If you don’t believe he doesn’t come”

And Luke said,

“Yeah. Besides, if Santa wasn’t real then that would mean that the moms had to do all of that work and that doesn’t seem right.”

And that’s the moment at which these two wild, loud, and sometimes *slightly* annoying boys melted my heart. They were either trying to make my mom happy or still held onto their sweet innocence all the way into the 5th grade, but either way I felt so warm and fuzzy inside. It gave me my first true warm holiday spirit feeling this season.

5 Julie - Mess and Clutter

I am a mess when it comes to most things. No matter how hard I try I can never keep anything in order. People who know me don’t understand how I haven’t fallen to the pressure of trying to turn my life around and clean it up. The thing is I have tried and I have failed. This would be the point where I would quote Yoda to myself with, “Do or do not. There is no try.” However, I kept doing, and after a while, I noticed it wasn’t working so I stopped.  Yoda’s wise words did not work for me.

I have attempted to explain to both my friends and parents the fact that I understand that my life is messy, but I don’t feel the need to clean it up.  I like the chaos my life has become because it is a chaos I am accustomed to and probably would feel empty without. It is a mindset that, even though it is probably making my life harder, allows me to understand what is happening around me.

As Albert Einstein, a famous yet messy theoretical physicist, once remarked, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?” If you look at my desk (picture below) you will see a prime example of what he means by a cluttered desk correlating to a cluttered mind.

My desk is covered with things ranging from my aunt’s old chemistry textbook to my Doctor Who comic-books and binders full of random papers to wood shavings. Each has its own reason for being on my desk. The picture you see is actually the cleanest my desk has been for months, and the only reason that is is that I had to work on a project that required adequate space and haven’t had the proper time to re-clutter it. 

My mind has a similar layout and, as I have heard people say, I have too many tabs open at once. In my head, I am always thinking about too many things at once, which might screw people up, but it works for me. A common thing that happens to me is I’ll start to mix up English, Polish, and German in my brain voice. Funny thing is that it's a perfect flow and doesn’t sound choppy until I fully notice it. I’ll never notice how much my brain is working until it comes up with something that is more important than the prominent thoughts.

Looking deeper, I believe there is a physiological reason for why I like to have a messy and cluttered life.  It has to do with the fact that if I am given proper time and space to think I would delve into the parts of my brain that scares me. I would start to think and remember things that I shoved deep down. Though this is not healthy, my lifestyle has reflected, what I believe to be, my physiological needs. 

Albert Einstein's desk after death

My desk(surprisingly clean)

Stephan Nigohosian 5: Procrastination

One of my worst habits is my tendency to procrastinate. Most of the time I end up pushing off all of my work until the last possible minute. I always end up having work pile up if I don’t get my work done ahead of time. This leads to unnecessary stress and issues that are easily preventable. Why is it that I do something that I know will hurt me in the long run. This is a common problem that a surprising amount of people have. I decided to look into the issue of procrastination and my findings were a bit surprising. 

One of the first things that jumped out at me was that it’s possible that twenty percent of the population are chronic procrastinators. Why is it that so many people just push everything off? According to an article I found, it is often heavily based on the persons’ personality. Thrill-seekers procrastinate to feel a euphoric rush of energy, while those who are avoiders procrastinate as they are afraid of either failure or success. Some end up procrastinating as they are indecisive. Regardless of the reason, any type of procrastination is detrimental. 

Some people think that procrastinating helps them as they think that they work better under pressure, but studies have shown otherwise. In a study at Case Western Reserve, they asked their students to log their performance for the year. Students that procrastinated ended up with lower grades and reported more illness than those who did not procrastinate. No matter how you look at it, procrastination doesn’t do you any good. For these reasons, I really want to try and stop procrastinating. I feel that it would make everything so much better in terms of my mental health.

Liam 5 - Star Wars

Star Wars

     As many of you probably know, the final episode of the sequel Star Wars trilogy and the Skywalker saga comes out on Friday. The franchise has come a long way from its humble beginnings. Star Wars was originally created by George Lucas, a small-time director that wanted to write a Flash Gordon-like space opera. The result was the fifth largest media franchise of all time and holds the Guinness World Record for the “Most successful film merchandising franchise”.

     This sequel trilogy is special to me because it is the first Star Wars movies I get to see in theaters. All my life I have been exposed to the prequels and the original trilogy, but these are new. I am really excited for the Rise of Skywalker. There has been an unbelievable amount of hype for the movie. This film is the culmination of decades of Star Wars. I can’t wait to see it on Friday. As with all big movie releases, there are people that make guesses about the film. I have been forcing myself away from anything that might reveal the plot. For the past few years, Star Wars has been a Christmas tradition. I see each new movie several times over break. Looking to the future, Disney will have free reign to mold the star wars universe. I am even more excited about the films they make in the next decade. Star Wars is part of the world culture that I think will grow more under the management of Disney.

Connor 5: FBLA Regional Competition

I did it, people. I ventured out of my everyday life and did something fairly interesting this week. I spent the school day at Lehigh Carbon Community College for the FBLA Regional Competition. I've been working on my presentation for it for months and have been anticipating this day.

Originally, I had been signed up to compete alone in the graphic design event, however, after I nearly finished that project, I was told we could only send 2 teams instead of 3, so I got cut. Thankfully, I was adopted into a team doing Publication Design, which had a very similar project. I now worked with Hannah Long and John Nigohosian, in an event where we had to create publications (Click Here for Slide Show)  for a musical artist and present it to a panel of judges.

After all the prepping we did, we were definitely ready for the competition. We got to the college and were told we were entry #2, so we sat down and were ready to prepare everything for our event. Much to our surprise, they called our names to go first (Because 2 comes before 1?). That rattled us a little, but it didn't make a difference. I'm not one to have confidence, but I really wanted this win, and let me say, we NAILED it. Our presentation was honestly amazing.

After we went, we had to sit for 4 hours and wait for the winners to be called. Those were the longest and most nerve-wracking hours I've felt in a long time. We were feeling kinda confident, but since every person alive now has severe anxiety (Wonder why😒) we started to question ourselves and got really nervous.

After the long wait, they finally started calling names. They did all the tests first so we had time before we knew if we qualified to go to states. During this, one of the judges came over and told us we did really good. My teammates got so excited and started celebrating, but my mind shockingly went to the dark place and thought, she's being nice because we got dead last and she doesn't want to hurt our feelings. Then stupid me opened my mouth and said that out loud. Back to the anxiety.

Then the time came. Our event popped up on the screen. Nazareth Team 2 had made states. We were so excited. Then to make it better, they announced second place went to the other team on the board. I may or may not have let a, naughty, slip, but as usual, I really didn't care. We won 1st place in regionals and are going to Hershey in April to compete for states. To top it all off we got really cool medals and giant Hershey bars, so I'm definitely feeling accomplished.

The whole competition was a great experience and honestly the most fun I've had in a while. Now all I have to worry about is getting 400 dollars to pay for states, but since I'm writing this at work, I feel like I can manage. Now the real question is, should I pay 800 dollars to get the Antisocial Suite? The GoFundMe will be in my Instagram bio soon.

Joe 5: In the Unlikely Event that I Ever Get Off my Butt...

Look people. There are a lot of perks to having a computer-based hobby. I get to have my own creative space, hide away from my loud family for hours at a time (and call it “creative output) and occasionally even get paid for hired work.

However.

With every good thing, there comes a bad. For one thing, I have these really weird stretch marks on my back that look like I fought an alligator who tried to mug me. I also have joint pains in my right hand from using a computer mouse for hours on end. And there is the looming, ever-present fact that I absolutely, for the life of me, cannot bring myself to work out.

That’s right, dear readers, you are about to be clued into my severe lack of Chuck “The Rock” Schwarzenegger energy.

That isn’t to say I haven’t tried valiantly. Over the last few months of school, I came home every day, retreated to my cold, scary basement, and feebly lifted weights and did planks. Loyal members of this blog will also remember my odyssey of asbestos and housework over the summer, which kept me fairly tuned up. But as always, as school came a knockin, I started a walkin. Away. From exercise. Oh and I started working at a donut shop in the meantime.

I have a great deal of respect for sports players and active health enthusiasts who have it in them to beat themselves to a pulp deliberately in the name of wellbeing. I also know that I am not one of their numbers. I’m more of a cheerleader on the sidelines, pom-pom in one hand and a donut in the other.

So, onward good people who want to avoid high cholesterol and have muscles! I have a date with a couch and a bowl of heavily-buttered popcorn.

Mackenna 5: Christmas Presents

My youngest brother, Harrison, is turning seven on December 21. Normally we would all be excited to celebrate, but it's impossible to figure out what it is he wants for his birthday and Christmas. So far he has said that he wants a Google Play gift card for $50, along with some legos and Nerf guns that he never actually plays with. He spends most of his time playing on my dad's tablet until my parents take it from him. My parents got desperate that we downloaded an app that allows you to "call Santa" so that Harrison could tell him what he wants for Christmas. Everything he said he wanted was completely useless. We even went to see various other Santa's at the mall, Martin Guitar, and the grocery store. He said he didn't want anything for Christmas! 

On the other hand, my other brother, Beckett, wants a bunch of really expensive electronics and gift cards. He said he wanted things like a cell phone, a new tablet, a TV in his room, a google play gift card for $100, and for my dad to bring the Xbox upstairs to the family room so that he can play it whenever he wants. My parents said his list was outrageous. I swear he thinks money grows on trees. My parents have no idea what to get him either. 

My oldest brother, Everett, wants sports equipment, which sounds easy enough in the average person's head but it's not quite what you would expect. He wants a new rebounder net to replace the one we broke, as well as a new fence so that he can throw more balls at it and break that as well. He also wants a lot of signed merchandise from his favorite players, which is also out of the question. 

Jillian, my younger sister, is the only one that actually has a reasonable yet interesting list. Last year her list composed of mainly plants and books. This year she simply asked for a bookshelf full of books, as well as some candy canes. The problem for my parents? Trying to figure out which books to get her. 

At the end of the day, I think it's really frustrating to have to constantly guess on what to buy kids for Christmas. I never truly understood how difficult it was for my parents to get presents for me and my siblings based on our crazy demands. Because of this, I tried to make my list as straight-forward as possible in order to at least make finding my presents as painless as possible. I think that it's really important that kids try to do this on their Christmas lists to make it easier for everyone during the holidays. 

Renee, 5: My Mom's Reception

This past weekend my mom's family and friends celebrated her marriage to my new step-dad, Rob. I had only ever been to one wedding reception before, and this was especially different because I was also part of the planning process.

My mom decided to have her actual wedding ceremony in Hawaii, with just her and Rob, so no one else was present for that. About a month later, this past Saturday, we celebrated at the Easton Wine Project. It was a gorgeous venue that embodied a modern, but rustic feel. Each table had a wine bottle decorated with twinkling lights, and much of the room filled with greenery and flowers. My mom's vision was represented perfectly.

I was in charge of putting together a playlist that would last the entirety of the reception. I began making this a few weeks ago and had gradually put songs I knew my mom and stepdad loved. I placed them in ascending order that started with slower love songs, so by the end of the night, it would be more of dancing music. I think it worked out really well and I was happy to have helped.

It was so nice to see all my family and mom's friends again, as well as some of my friends who my mom is close to. It was a venue filled with some of the best people I know and it radiated positive energy.

Owen 5: Project Hope of Easton

Yesterday, Sunday, December 15 my family and I volunteered for the second year in a row to help out Project Hope of Easton. What is Project Hope of Easton? It is a nonprofit organization that starts up every year on the 3rd Sunday in December and extends till the Sunday before Christmas. They invite numerous families in the Easton, PA area who are in need to come in and have a family meal, along with countless other activities for children and others alike. However, because the event calls so many people to the site, they are always in need of volunteers, so this is where I come in. 

Yesterday we had a showing of over 700 people come into the Our Lady of Lebanon church seeking food, shelter, and help. The activities they offer include a prepared Christmas meal, a clothing drive with over 1,000 pieces of gently-worn clothes, stuffed animal donations for children along with a visit from Santa himself to listen to the wishes of every child there. After Santa leaves, each child gets there own book, a small gift, and the family gets a food bag that includes enough to make another Christmas meal. 

While I was there I helped set up tables for the families along with delivering the food, helping hand out small gifts, and then when it was time to clean up, helped sweep and set it up all again for the second session. My job was to be a “Table monitor,”  I was there to assist if anybody needed help or had questions about how the event would work. 

Overall it was another great experience and heartwarming thing to do around the holidays. Although you sometimes have to attend to people who might not be in the holiday spirit, the act of giving instead of receiving and the Christmas spirit is embodied through Project Hope of Easton.  

Kadison 5 - FBLA Competition

I’m sure you’ve heard of the club FBLA. It stands for Future Business Leaders of America, and it involves competing every December against other chapters in our region. My team decided to do a presentation (partly because that is what we’ve done the past two years), and only the top two teams make it to states and compete in Hershey. However, this year there were a lot of different issues that popped up.

Usually, we do our presentation sometime after the opening ceremony and find out where we placed during the closing ceremony. Unfortunately, Saucon Valley had a gun/bomb threat, so they were not able to attend the regional competition. This created a slew of problems; they now have more time to work on and perfect their presentations, and they also could have harder/easier judges. Any groups in an event where Saucon was supposed to compete have to wait for them to compete and get their results. I’m empathic towards Saucon Valley, as having that threat over their safety would be terrifying, but at the same time, I am irritated because I have to anxiously wait longer to find out how well my group did.

On a more positive note, I feel as though my group actually presented pretty well. We did not use any notecards or script this year, just the powerpoint and ourselves. We also practiced our presentation a lot more than prior years, which helped it run more smoothly. Our topic was Social Media Campaign, and our judges were two young women (they looked like they were still in college), so they already had a prior understanding of how the social media we chose worked. We only had a couple mishaps along the way. Our group presented first, which was stressful, but we also got the presentation and stress over with right away. However, this meant we had to wait forever for the computer and projector to boot up. According to Mr. Koser, our adviser, the setup is usually good to go, but a lot of things were rushed due to the concern of finishing before it began to snow.

Even though my group doesn’t know if we qualified or not, a lot of my friends who competed in tests earlier this month found out that they placed, which is really exciting. Hopefully, my team will place and will be able to go to Hershey with the rest of our friends, but as of right now, all we can do is wait.

Alanna, 5; FBLA

Today I went to regionals for FBLA, Future Business Leaders of America. I was in a group with my friend Katie Madson and we did a topic called Graphic Design. For this topic, we had to create a band, their name, logo, and promotional tactics needed to advertise them. We started it around 2 months ago and were SOOOO excited. Katie and I were both state qualifiers last year, but were not in the same group. We never really thought about not making it to the state competition but regardless we worked hard on our project.

We created our logo and basically plastered it over everything whether it was cargo vans, websites, stickers, T-shirts, etc. We worked on it every day over this past weekend till late at night. For extra practice, to make sure we were ready, I slept over her house Sunday night, the night before regionals, where we stayed up till 1:45 am, practicing our presentation.

When we got to regionals we were feeling rather confident with our project and execution. They called us into the room around 10:30 and our hearts started beating at an alarmingly fast pace. Then we went into the room, introduced ourselves to the judges, and began our presentation. We had two younger judges watching our presentation this year and they were very quiet and disengaged when we walked in. When presenting, the one girl judge was on her phone THE ENTIRE time! After we finished they asked no questions about our process and showed no interest in our products.

Katie and I were rather confident with our execution of the presentation but after that, we began to question if we shouldn't be. We were set on making it to states, and now we are scared we will not qualify but we can only hope it was the same way for the other groups as was for us. 

 

Ryan 5: My Favorite Part of Christmas

Most people's favorite part of Christmas is getting presents, or even giving them. It may also be getting a Christmas tree and decorating it with your family. Another commonly enjoyed event is having dinner and meeting with relatives. My favorite part of Christmas is none of these. Christmas is my favorite holiday simply because I don't have to go to school for twelve days. This may sound funny, but it means a lot to busy high school students like me.

With the end of the second quarter of the first semester near, at Nazareth Area High school. Christmas to me is a way of celebrating how far I've made it through the school year so far. Christmas break means to me that I can hangout with friends almost everyday because everyone has off. I also let myself stay up late because i'm not able to do that with the normal school schedule. With this, of course, comes sleeping in really late and actually getting a lot of sleep. I'm hoping for no over the break homework so I can truly enjoy these twelve days of rest and relaxation.

Overall, school stresses me out a lot, probably along with many other students. I'm excited for Christmas, but i'm super relieved we get a nice long break from school. It's a time to re energize for the second half of the school year and to begin the new year. That's what I enjoy most about Christmas, at least while i'm in high school.

Emma 5 :My hamster

About a year and a half ago I bought myself a hamster without my parents knowing. Throughout my childhood I had many pets. I had two dogs, many fostered kittens/cats, fish, hermit crabs, etc. By the time I was around 10 years old, my mom realized that she was the only one taking care of all the pets. She put my dog Maybee up for adoption and refused to let me or my sisters get any other pets unless they were fish. At the time I was very upset because Maybee and I were best friends, and I loved to play with her all the time. I understood why my mom put her up for adoption when I got older, but I always wanted a pet to care for. I asked my mom many times if I could adopt any pet, but she wouldn’t budge.
Eventually, I decided that even though my mom didn’t want me to buy a pet, I was going to do it anyways. My friend’s brother drove me and my friend to the pet store. I asked the worker at Petsmart for recommendations for a pet. She said the sweetest animal they had was a Winter White Syberian hamster named Walter. I watched her interact with the hamster and decided that Walter was the animal I wanted. You have to be 18 to adopt a pet from the pet store, so my friend’s brother signed the form for me.
Once I had brought my hamster home, I made a home for him with a large bin that I found in my attic. I also picked out the name Oliver (Ollie) for him. I had kept my hamster in my closet for about a month before my mom discovered it. Surprisingly, she wasn’t that upset with me for lying to her about getting a hamster.
Ollie is now a very spoiled and cute member of my family that everyone loves. I keep him in my room and play with him every night. He’s also very fat because everyone in my family feeds him treats all the time.

Julie 4 - Field Hockey

Field Hockey has been apart of my life since fourth grade. I love the sport and I always look forward to it on boring days. I play all year long, both indoor and outdoor, for both the Nazareth Area High School Team as well as Marajoka, a local indoor and outdoor club.

Over the weekend, we had our first indoor field hockey tournament. After practicing for about three months and then being placed on a team, I was restless for my first tournament. I was put on Marajoka Purple one of the three U19 teams we have. I didn't know most of the girls on the team, but I soon learned who they were and how they played.

I would like to say that we won the tournament, but the opposite is to be said. We lost three of our games and tied one. Though, this is a valuable learning experience for the entire team. We were able to learn how to play with each other, so that, hopefully, our next tournament goes better.

As a goalie, I have to be able to recognize the weak and strong points of each player. This is hard to do during practice, but once in a game like situation it is easier to point out.  This tournament allowed me to do just this, and now I know who is stronger in offense, in defense, or who can do both amazingly.  This is super important to know because in indoor field hockey there are usually five players on the field over outdoor where you have 11 players on the field.

Even with this tough start to the indoor session, I am hoping that after some more experience my team will be able to qualify for NIT's(National Indoor Tournament).

Grace and I on game day(when? no clue)

Liz 4: My thoughts on the SAT

So this past Saturday I took my first SAT, and honestly I was completely underwhelmed. Everyone talks about the SAT being this super hard, important test, but as I took it, I realized it was practically the same as every other standardized test out there. It got me thinking, if all these tests are practically the same, why are some held in higher regard than others?

I’ve taken my fair share of standardized tests: IOWAs at Holy Family (which are practically the same as the PSSAs), Keystones, PSATs, SATs, and probably more that I can’t think of at the moment. While these tests differ slightly, they really seem to have the same setup and goals. Also, most of these tests are required to graduate and get into a good college. Why can’t we just take one that sums up everything? Or maybe not just take them at all. Honestly they seem pointless to me. They test the most narrow section of information/skills that we learn in high school. I think that entrance exams (which are often also required) done at colleges are the best way to test a student’s knowledge. Let’s be real though; standardized tests are just a convenient, however inaccurate, way of ranking schools and judging their abilities.

Sydney Week #4 Chameleon

So as many of you know I got a chameleon, whom I named Dio, this past Saturday. It has been a very fun yet very difficult challenge to figure out the best way to take care of him. One of the main struggles that I’ve been dealing with is figuring out the feeding schedule. Since I don’t get home from school until the middle of the day, my parents will tend to feed him instead. This may not seem like a problem at first, but my parents tend to spoil their pets. Instead of feeding him the usual 2-3 crickets, they like to feed him 4-5, so Dio has become quite chubby quite quickly.

Another struggle has been figuring out how to keep the cage humid. Since chameleons are tropical reptiles, they require a humidity of at least 70%. This means that we had to install a dripper which constantly drips water into the cage in order to keep the humidity up. We quickly realized that this wasn’t going to work since the cage became flooded from the extra water. Luckily we were able to figure out a way to catch the water, so that Dio would not have to live in a swamp.

Overall, I am very glad that I was able to get a chameleon. Even though it has been a lot of work to figure out how to properly care for him, I am still grateful for the fun yet challenging experience.  (Sorry for the red light in the pictures. That’s the light from the heat lamp in his cage)

MeiLi Van Hise 4- The Mandela Effect

A few weekends ago, my friend Morgan and I hosted a friendsgiving. We spent the ENTIRE day cooking food, setting up the dining room, and most of all stressing out over every single little detail. It was a blast. In the final moments just before people arrived as we were putting the chicken nuggets in the oven (because we’re teenagers and naturally chicken nuggets trump a turkey) and many dishes were keeping warm on the stove, she looked up at me and with a burst of every asked me if I thought it was a good idea to play Left, Right, Center when everyone arrived.

I said of course because who doesn't love that game? She went into the other room and came back with the tiny box so we wouldn't forget about it later on in the night (which we did… oops…). She then turned to me and said,

    “Did you know that it's actually called Left, Center, Right?”

I asked her if maybe it was just a knock off brand because that couldn’t possibly be right, my whole life it's been Left, Right, Center. She then explained to me how her mom said the same thing, until they googled it and found out that ALL of the games were titled “Left, Center, Right” in that order. 

And that’s where the real fun began… She whipped out her laptop and searched “Mandela Effect Examples” in the google search bar and clicked this link:

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g28438966/mandela-effect-examples/

As it turns out, there are many many things that are widely known as one thing but in actuality they are called/mean/have different qualities and names. This conspiracy originated, and got it's name, when Nelson Mandela died in 2013. Mandela was a civil rights activist in South Africa who was arrested in the 1980s and sent to prison. However, many people all over the world recall him dying in prison when in reality he lived for over 30 more years. The premise of the concept, as described by the New York Times is “a recent refinement of false memory that typically refers to pop culture or current event references.” I highly encourage you to check out the link and even do a little research on your own. It’s absolutely fascinating to me.

   

Adria Week 4- The Cruel Minds of Middle School Girls

Middle school-- when all everyone cares about is popularity, and absolutely nothing can stand in the way of achieving it. This was such an immense period of transition for most kids, but in this case specifically girls. They are trying to cement their friend groups, and if that means cutting someone out then so be it. 

My sister is 12 years old and in 7th grade; she is sweet, kind, friendly, caring, beautiful, and absolutely 100% hilarious. She is my best friend, and probably the greatest blessing I could have ever asked for. When my parents told me at 4 years old that I was going to have a sister, little did I know how much she would change my life in all the right ways. However, we are complete and polar opposites of one another-- she is outgoing whereas I am shy, she is unapologetically herself, whereas I have a harder time being myself around anyone but my friends and family. So when she told me that she feels like she can’t be herself around her “closest” friends, I knew something had to be wrong. I watched her do it, too. If her friends would come over, she would act too different. As I observed, I would tell her, and all she could admit to me was that she liked the way she was around them and that they were good influences anyway. I of course disagreed, but I also wanted to support my little sister. About a month ago, her three absolute closest friends started spreading rumors about her-- horrible, vicious rumors that were simply false. I remember her coming home and sobbing, telling me that they cut her off and told her she was a disgusting person. The first thing I wanted to do was text them; one of them even I was close to. My heart still breaks for my little sister, because middle school is just about the most vulnerable time to lose friends. But, she was eventually okay because of one of her friends who stuck by her, took her side, and believed her. Middle school girls, from mine and my sister’s experience, can be simply cruel. In fact, as I am learning in AP Psychology right now, it is the beginning of the adolescent years which is the state at which everyone is trying to find themselves. Last night, that friend who has been there for her for years and she called her best friend, told my sister that it was “no wonder they said those things about you, you are a horrible person and deserve nothing.” I got home late and my parents told me what happened. I just wanted to hug her, but she was locked in her room hysterically sobbing. That friend had been the one to sleep on the bathroom floor with her because she was throwing up that entire night before. She was the same friend who stood by her side when everyone was turning against her and spreading disgusting rumors. Now, ordinarily, such a topic would not be on my mind-- if anything, the minds of high schoolers would be. But ever since this happened to my little sister last night, I felt that it had to be observed in this blog post. Why must they be so mean? Why must they exclude people and cut them off as if they had never spoken before? Why must they say such things to my best friend and expect me not to call them out on it? Why must I be expected to keep my mouth shut and not say a word to them? Why must a human being say these things to another human being? Why must these things happen, and why must they victimize my little sister?

Stephan Nigohosian 4: The Christmas Miracle

Planning things with a group of indecisive people never goes well, as I have learned over Thanksgiving break. Our friend’s birthday was over the break, and we had the brilliant idea to decorate her car. We decided that we were going to do a Christmas theme for her car, as she is obsessed with Christmas. We struggled to make a basic plan of what we were going to do in the weeks leading up to it;  we could not figure out when we were going to go shopping and decorate her car. What was even worse was everyone’s schedules were already filled those two weeks.

Everything was going well until the weather had to ruin everything. Of course, we had to schedule everything on the only two days it snowed. We had to go buy everything and decorate her car all in the same day. We finally ended up going to Target and Five Below, buying gift cards, cotton as fake snow, a blow-up camel, wrapping paper, and fake lights. We quickly got everything and went over to her house to decorate. At this point, we just couldn’t keep it a secret anymore. Our original plan was to decorate late at night when she wouldn’t see us, but we were forced to do it at two.

It was probably better this way as we would get to see her excitement when she saw her car. Our goal was to make it look like Christmas threw up in her car. We wrapped her seats in wrapping paper, strung lights around the roof of the car, and filled her car with cotton, candy canes, and ornaments. We even connected an outdoor inflatable Christmas camel to her outdoor outlet and put it in her trunk.

Even though our plans fell through, we couldn’t have hoped for a better result. She was very surprised when she realized we hadn’t just done a bunch of balloons and some streamers; we did a whole Christmas shebang. Seeing her reaction was probably the greatest part. She was just so happy and her reaction was priceless.

Mackenna 4: Experimenting with Napping

For the past few months, I've been feeling very tired and lazy, so I've been playing around with a few strategies. I've found that taking a fifteen to thirty-minute nap every day has boosted by work ethic by a ton. It's made me a lot more aware of myself and my surroundings as well as what I need to get done each day. Not to mention I'm finding that I have an increased tendency to actually want to work and I've been so much more efficient every day. 

I was so surprised by this that I had to do some research. I happened to come across this article from the National Sleep Foundation that uses a statistic from a research study done by NASA. Using military pilots and astronauts, they found that a forty-minute nap is extremely beneficial. The study shows that performance increased by 34% and alertness skyrocketed to 100%. 

I found the information really fascinating and I plan on doing a lot more napping in the future. I think that even if you happen to have a busy day it's worth it to take some time out of your day to refresh your mind so that you can work your hardest that day. Especially with our school day starting so early in the morning, it's crucial that we all get enough sleep. In fact, most people don't know that we actually need between seven and nine hours of sleep to fully function every day. Most teenagers in this day and age aren't getting that kind of sleep, which causes us to fall behind in most aspects of our lives. Therefore, I think it's really important that we try to get a decent amount of sleep every night to help prevent conflict in our lives. 

Owen 4: Maturity & Driving

Maturity can range from being able to hold a simple conversation about a serious topic all the way to making responsible decisions when driving. As I am growing up and getting older I find myself paying more attention to the life of myself and my peers and becoming aware of those who are mature and those who are not. I find myself getting in debates about the maturity of my own friends with my parents constantly. 

In my opinion, I find the maturity level of kids my age to be quite low especially when it comes to driving. As many of you know, this time of year there are lots of new drivers out on the road including myself. Now you may be wondering why I’m singling out driving only but it will make sense. The other day I was driving home from lifting practice at our school and I was at a traffic light. I was heading straight but the car in front of me was turning left, now I knew the first car on the other side of the street was also turning left so I naturally anticipated for that car to make the left turn although they are supposed to yield to traffic. Well low and behold the car behind the one turning jumps out in front of me in a big hurry to go where they are going. 

While on the inside I was fuming, and a bit on the outside I held my composure and I was able to avoid an accident. I think maturity had a role to play in my own decisions and if the adult in the situation were more mature we wouldn’t have had the problem. However, maturity at my age not only allowed me to prevent an accident but I was able to learn from it and anticipate something like that happening again. 

Kadison 4 - Love

Recently, a friend and I got into a conversation about the concept of love. We were talking about high schoolers saying “I love you” or “We’re in love”. She was saying that you can’t be in love with someone after only a month or two of dating, and is often frustrated with couples breaking up and saying “I never loved her/him” afterward. Teenagers don’t have the ability to distinguish the difference between infatuation and actual love. Chances are, they do not truly know each other well enough to say “I love you”.

On one hand, I agree. I think there is a lot involved with the concept of love that teenagers don’t understand. For instance, trust is a key part of love, and many teenagers are not mature enough to fully trust someone else, which can lead to going through the other person’s phone, creating rumors, getting jealous, etc. I mean, how can you possibly know if you “love” someone after only knowing and dating them for a month or two? Teenagers can be involved and still have meaningful relationships with each other, but chances are that this “love” is simply infatuation or adoration. 

On the other hand, I also think that the concept and true definition of love is always changing, depending on one’s growth, experience, and mindset. When a teenager says “I love you” there is a chance they genuinely mean it; there and then, in that moment, they are truly in love with their significant other and who that person is. As kids grow into teens, and teens grow into adults, their perception of what love is changes. A teenager’s definition of love is going to be different than an adult’s more “mature” version of love. Actually, I read a study somewhere (I would link it, but I don’t remember where I saw it) that said couples that stayed faithfully married to each other defined love as a choice and commitment, instead of a feeling. The article said that love isn’t just a feeling (like lust, adoration, or infatuation); it's a conscious choice that couples make every day. 

Of course, the entire topic of love is very controversial. All I have mentioned so far is strictly about romantic love. There are several different types of love, including platonic or familial love. The Greeks had seven different words for all the different types of love. I say “I love you” to my friends all the time, but this does not mean I would want to date them or spend the entirety of my life with them. I use this phrase to show I care about them and that I want them to be happy. I use it to convey my feelings of appreciation, intimateness, and affection, because that is what “love” means to me (at least in a platonic way). I find these different versions and opinions on love both fascinating and interesting to talk about.

Reinert Week 4 - The Corn Epidemic

The Corn Epidemic

I just finished reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan for this class. The book exposed the long convoluted food chains that have taken over in our industrial agricultural society. The book covers the author’s experience with farmers and hunter/gatherers. It opened my eyes to the flaws in our food chains.

I found the most interesting part of the book to be the exposure of corn. Corn has dozens of uses, shown in the graphic above, that can be unlocked with heavy processing. However, this variability has its drawbacks. One acre of industrially grown corn can require 50 gallons of fossil fuels. 50 gallons of oil is far too much for corn. This seems especially ineffective when you take into account that we mix fossil fuels with corn products. We first mixed ethanol with fuel in the world wars to stretch the oil supply. It seems smart to make ethanol, 50 gallons of oil for 328 gallons of ethanol. This doesn’t account for oil still making up the majority of fuel, the wear ethanol puts on engines, the amount of energy it takes to process corn, and the negative effects of petroleum fertilizers on the environment. As a country we grow ridiculous amounts of corn that we don’t use. We only eat a small portion of corn. Most is turned into bio-fuels or used for animal feed. Our excess corn is force fed to animals that aren’t meant to eat corn. Cows, for example, have a highly developed digestive system that is perfect for digesting grass. Corn destroys them. They produce lesser quality meat at a fast pace, while causing environmental damage. Cows are blamed as being dirty methane emitters, but when fed a proper pastoral diet of grass, they help reduce the carbon footprint. What I’m trying to say is that the next time you go to a fast food joint or the grocery store, remember the impact of corn.

For further reading on the problems with agriculture and corn, I recommend this article.

Joe 4: Self-Teaching Myself How To Be a Teleporting Ant Jedi Wizard

One of my more public hobbies is making short action/sci-fi videos. Every time I get a free moment or two, I’ll come knocking on my sister’s bedroom door and watch her face grimace with annoyance as I loudly explain I need her to help me record some video footage. To her credit, it isn’t glamorous work. It usually demands her standing in the middle of the street, holding my phone, as I flail around interacting with things that exist only in my head. However, she is quite good at it and is almost always the one holding the camera in all of my films. (Don’t tell her I said this, but there is absolutely no way I would be able to do any of this stuff without her help, albeit begrudging.) 

Despite the truly riveting task of sword-fighting nonexistent monsters, I consider it all a formality. Once I tell my sister she’s free to go, I get to start the portion of the process that I enjoy the most; editing. I’m not entirely sure what sitting down in front of a computer for upwards of 12 hours at a time does for my physical health, but for my mental wellbeing it’s a life saver. 

Reaching a point where I can easily sit down and give myself superpowers was not a fast process. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a high school class dedicated to “Advanced 3D Compositing” or, in English, “How to Make Really Cool Stuff That Doesn’t Exist.” That’s where the self-teaching came in. Countless hours of video tutorials and forum surfing took me to every corner of the internet in my search for knowledge. It was like a mystical quest, except instead of dragons and goblins hindering my path, there were viruses and pyramid schemes. And yet, in spite of the unconventional tactics and seedy websites, I learned as much as I would have in any classroom. 

I discovered like-minded artists and filmmakers to inspire me. I happened upon amazing communities, with each member bringing their own style and passion for the very thing that enthralls me on a daily basis. In a sense, it was a more enriching experience than any other learning I had ever done. 

To this day, I still am learning new tips, tricks, and techniques that I can incorporate into my own work. This industry is constantly changing, presenting new challenges to overcome all the time. And it is truly one of my favorite things about it all. 

(My sister throwing a basketball at my head for video purposes)

Ryan 4: Indoor Soccer

This winter i'm playing soccer with the Nazareth boys varsity soccer team at an indoor complex called the Lou Ramos Center. The Lou Ramos Center is thirty minutes from my house in Allentown. We have games every Sunday through the winter against eight other teams in our league. It's a nice complex with two turf fields inside, a lot smaller than a normal soccer field. It's less competitive than the actual high school season, but it's still a lot of fun.

This year i'm excited because our team is really good. We had a game this past Sunday and won. We dominated the other team throughout the game, the score was five to three. Our team has older kids that we picked so that we would be good. Were in the varsity league so the teams we play will put up a fight, but i'm still hoping we win it.

Our team is very laid back, last game we were laughing throughout it. It is competitive, but we have fun. Our coach is one of our players' dad so there is a chill vibe. Its fun playing with friends on my team, especially when we are winning.

Overall, I enjoy the different soccer setting in the winter. I'm excited to play next Sunday and hopefully win the league, but to also have a good time with my friends. I've always liked indoor soccer when the Pocono Dome was still open because of the fast paced play and and high scoring games. So i'm happy to play again this winter with Nazareth.