Liam 7 - Getting a phone

Getting a Phone

Before January 17th, I did not have a phone.

Ever since middle school, my peers and even some teachers have given me “the look” - not only because I was phone-less, but because I was the new kid and a year younger to boot. Inevitably, age would come up as a topic of discussion, or there would be a point in a class where the teacher would say “use your phones”. All of a sudden, the room would go silent as everyone swiveled to look at me. “The look” wasn’t one of meanness or derogation, but of pure incomprehension. Here I was, already different because I had recently moved, the youngest in the grade, without a phone, in a group of people who have had phones since they were ten. I was totally unprepared. These weren’t the type of person I was familiar with, and they confused me as much as I must have confused them. These were people who can hardly remember life without a phone aside from the constant desire for one. People that panic at the thought of being separated from their phone for more than five minutes. People that would rather scroll through Instagram than read a book.

I found myself almost alone, disconnected from everyone because I was lacking a palm-sized tether to the world. Only almost alone because I had friends who appreciated live conversation and the ancient ways of emailing. For most of middle school, I constantly felt ostracized and that if I could only have a phone, all my problems would be solved.

Now, at 15 and a Junior in high school, I got a phone. I would say that I am better off for waiting. I was forced to make plans (especially for rides) in advance and not change them, lest I risk the ever embarrassing use of the teacher’s phone. I was never remotely shackled to my parents. I learned to be responsible, punctual, and earned my parent’s trust early. I never was, and don’t plan to be, involved in the dramatic mess that is social media.

Having had my phone for three weeks now, I still don’t see why people consider it a necessary item. I haven’t been in a situation where it would be vital, and I almost never see people in a situation where they need a phone - the major exception being a car crash. They don’t even seem to be that big of a convenience; sure you can always contact people, but you can be contacted anywhere. I see phones more as a harness than a resource.

As gratifying as texting friends may be and as happy my parents are that they “never have to worry again”, I feel that when I got my phone, I lost some of my freedom and privacy. I did so much without a phone. I went all over with the band (including Disney World), I went to friends houses, rehearsals, and field trips. I made it up to semester two of eleventh grade. All that time, I was blissfully isolated, and I am thankful for that. What are your opinions on the best uses of phones and how they have influenced you?

Adria 7- No, I do not play basketball.

No, actually, I do not, but thanks for asking anyway! Over the past 16 years, I have become used to the questions and comments on my height-- “you’re so tall!” or “do you play basketball? If not, you totally should!” But when you really think about it, what am I expected to say back? Not thank you because it is never framed as a compliment, but neither is it a criticism.

People simply like to point out the obvious, which is interesting to me being that it would be simply unacceptable to blurt when first meeting someone, “wow, you’re so [insert ‘skinny, fat, blond, short, brunette’ here]!”

However, this is not me judging anyone who has made these comments to me because I get it. We all do it, whether we are aware or not. I believe that when someone sees me for the first time they are shocked and sometimes the only thing they know to do is comment about my height because subconsciously it is a compliment. At least that is what I have taught myself to do: take it as a compliment. Before I came to this realization, I would merely laugh it off with an awkward “yeah!” But now I say thank you with confidence and grace. Because yes, I am tall, I know that. 

The lesson that I can take out from all of this is that I should be proud of who I am and not ashamed to quite literally stand out. I used to be self-conscious of my height because I saw no other girls my age like me. But I like to believe that it is just one more thing that makes me special. All of us, not just me, need this mindset. What makes you stand out? Because none of us should want to be the same as everyone else-- embrace what makes you unique and take those comments as compliments.

.

Ryan 7: Excited for soccer season

Next fall is a long time from now, but I am already excited for my Nazareth soccer season. First of all its my senior season so I want to make the most of it. Second were going to be very good next year we will have nine returning seniors who start. My goal is to make it to the district finals, this past year we were robbed our spot in the play offs. Even though we didn't make districts we beat the state ranked district champions, Emmaus for the first time in years during the regular season. So we have a lot to look forward too and I am very excited.

I have been talking with my friends lately about who our competition will be next year and it seems like all the great players are graduating. While our team was young the past few years and almost all of our team has had at least three years of varsity play. We also realized that were the seniors so we have to set the energy and mood for the season. Which is key to a successful season in my opinion.

Personally I want to step up my game in the midfield and help our team win game after game. I am so excited for the season because I have always wanted to win the final and the fact that it is a possibility this year excites me. It's still very early but I have been training with my club team and with many others on our team at open fields. 

Overall, I know i'm going to have fun and enjoy the season, but I want this year to be memorable so ill do whatever it takes. When the season finally comes around i'm going to train hard and take it seriously. Hopefully Nazareth soccer 2020 district champions will be on a banner in the gym. Have you ever been super excited for something that is a long time away?

Julie 7 - Decisions

Just this week I went to my first ever lacrosse open field after I decided to join lacrosse. It was a decision I have been thinking about for a good amount of time and finally made a choice. Why I made such a decision? I don’t even know the answer to that question. I just knew that I wanted to so I joined.

Looking back at other decisions I have made I notice a sort of pattern when it comes to major life-changing decisions. I never really know why I made them.  There will be the randoms reasons I give other people when they ask for justification, but I, myself, never truly know why I made the decision.

For example, in seventh grade, I made the decision to go scout camping in Poland for the first time with people I never met before. When people ask why I made this decision I usually say that it was to improve my Polish or to beef up my college applications. These seem like reasonable excuses and please those who ask me, but they are not the real reasons why I joined. The thing is that I wanted to start Polish Scouts, so I did.  The above excuses are just some positives that came out of joining.

When people hear, “I just wanted to join/do it,” they do not take it as a good enough reason. Most of the time the decision made does not affect the people asking, yet they pry for reasons. My belief is that everyone is just overly curious and nosy. Though everyone should know that they don’t have to explain to anyone why a decision was made. Even if the people asking say that your reason does not make sense, if it makes sense to you it’s good enough. Other people do not have to understand your justifications for a decision you made.

What is the biggest decision you have made without having reasoning other people believe is good enough?

Kadison 7 - Color

I’m sure everyone has heard of psychics, palm reading, tarot cards or something along those lines. Recently, a couple of classmates and I were talking about this post we saw online recently. The conversation started with the way people think; some people have an internal monologue, while others think in pictures and abstract thoughts. This in itself is a crazy concept to me, as there is almost constantly an internal dialogue going about in my head. The idea that some people have non-verbal thoughts, which might be why they end up talking out loud, literally blows my mind. It gets even crazier.

One of my group members said that not only can she visualize her thoughts, she can also think with colors and see the colors of people. When I say see the colors of people, we quickly figured out she could supposedly see people auras. She didn’t even realize that’s what she was seeing until we googled what the colors meant, and it was pretty freaky. One of the websites we were on had specific kinds of colors too (like bright yellow, dark yellow, lemon yellow, pale yellow) that all had different attributes.

There were plenty of scarily accurate details, but by far the most mind-blowing one was Alexander Hamilton. She said she could see the colors/auras in photos, so we wanted to test it out with a well known historical figure. She said he was a dark green, and the article read “You are a very jealous person and full of resentment. You refuse to accept responsibility for your own actions.” Alexander Hamilton literally cheated on his wife and refused to take responsibility, and dueled Aaron Burr over his resentment for Burr’s career success. Keep in mind that my classmates did not have the aura article open; I did.

I am unsure if I actually believe in auras or not. This entire conversation could have just been a series of unlikely events. However, after researching some of it on my own, I found a possible science-related explanation for aura-seeing: synesthesia. Synesthesia is a condition that causes people to take in more than one sense at once. In other words, people can taste shapes, see sounds, etc. There’s also a possibility the people who can see auras are just seeing a light source against a darker object (or person).

The entire concept of someone being able to read my personality from just looking at me sounds just as suspicious as someone understanding who I am by knowing my birthday. After the conversation I had with my classmates, however, I started wondering if people could have auras that represented their personality. Whether or not they are actually real is beyond me, but it was pretty cool having the aura colors match up with all of our personalities. Do any of you believe in auras, or is there a literal explanation for everything? Even if you think it’s a bunch of bologna, I think it’s still pretty cool to think about.

Connor 7: Grief Siesta

The worst thing about this world is to live in it. People can put up their walls and shields of fake joy, but in reality, nothing good lasts. Even the most positive and genuinely good people on this earth will break. When things get too real, people tend to shrug it off as too horrible to speak of. Ignorance is bliss I guess, but it is still ignorance and to live in ignorance slowly eats away at your spirit and eventually will break you.

I am the type of person who recognizes everything as it is. Both good and bad. The only problem is I tend to suppress both positive and negative emotions. Suppression is one of the most unhealthy habits a human can develop. Keeping a more neutral approach to things is horrible. Just due to the fact that the world just naturally has more negative than positive, it's hard to do to begin with. On top of that, it causes me to break all the time.

Being positive doesn't work because it requires ignorance. And being ignorant might as well be being brain dead. Being negative doesn't work because it doesn't even give you a fighting chance. You will wake up every day already being crushed. Being neutral doesn't work either because of the lack of balance in nature. The only way to survive is to mix up each emotion accordingly to beat out the inevitable crisis.

Finding the right mixture is not something that can be easily done. Personally, I have been crying for 4 hours now due to the fact that I've been suppressing weeks' worth of emotions. Each little feeling piles up and hits all at once. At this point, it's required to take a grief siesta, or tragedy slumber. Since my last grief siesta, my gerbil died, I've had the busiest nights at work of all time with the crappiest tips, still can't share feelings with others, and still vomit in my mouth a little bit when human connection occurs. The only thing that actually gets me through all this the grief siestas. Sleeping off the pain is one of the most effective tricks to this.

Is the grief siesta even healthy? Probably not. Are any means of pain relief actually healthy? No one really knows. We are all way too different to know what is actually effective. I have the issue where I can't miss school or my anxiety acts up and I can't breathe. Last year I had the flu, came to school the whole time, and actually crawled on the floor for a couple of my classes. Despite that insanity, the only thing that I want right now is to not enter that building and deal with the humans inside. Does that mean I've reached a new kind of rock bottom, or what? The only thing that is actually known is that this year has sucked so far, and I need another siesta.

Stephan 7: First Block Study Hall and Privilege

One of the best things on BDF days is starting my day off with a first block study hall. Since I have privilege, I can sleep in until 7:45 instead of 6:30. It’s nice because I can sleep in and wake up feeling well-rested and refreshed. I find it so much easier to get up in the morning, compared to my ACE days when I have to wake up earlier. It makes my day so much easier, as I am able to focus and get all my work done with ease.

It is often hard for me to be even remotely productive on the days that I don’t have a first block study hall. What is even more out of the ordinary is that I end up not procrastinating on my work, as I can just sit down and do it. When I sit down to work on days I can’t sleep in, I can’t gather myself and it ends up making everything harder on myself. This really got me thinking about some of my sleeping habits and what effects they ended up having on me.

To figure this out I did a small test. What I ended up doing was on days that I didn’t have first block study hall, I went to bed an hour earlier than normal for a week. I had a bit of trouble going to sleep when I first started my test as I was used to staying up later, but this was only for the first few days. After a while, I started to feel better each day. After a while, I came to the obvious conclusion that the extra sleep was really the only thing helping me.

I think the main difference at first between the days I had first block study hall vs. the days I didn’t was the fact that it was easier for me to fall asleep later, which obviously let me have more time to sleep. I wish I could keep this up for longer but it isn’t sustainable with all of my schoolwork and everything else going on in my life. I can only try to make it work, but I’m not really sure if I’ll be able to do that. Has anyone else ever had an experience like this?

7- Renee Roberts: Things That Bring Joy

Around the time of the start of the second semester, my anxiety rose with my new overwhelming schedule as well as the stress of figuring out how I was going to balance work, friends, and school while still maintaining a healthy sleep schedule, and a healthy mindset. The last blog I wrote was actually concerning these issues, and unfortunately, my predictions were right: I’m exhausted. 

When deciding what I would write about this week, I told myself I wouldn’t write an “update” per my last blog, but this is different. I have been feeling so negative as of late, mostly due to the new semester’s challenges, that I’ve found it extremely hard to persevere and focus on the good. That is why I’m choosing to talk about the things that are bringing me joy even while I feel I’m at my worst. Not only is this therapeutic, but a reminder to myself and others to not lose sight of the good things in life, and never take them for granted. ` 

Something I always do, no matter if I’m stressed out or not, is to listen to music. I try to find new songs and make a monthly playlist. I’m not sure why but it’s one of my favorite things to do, as well as sharing my music with some of my friends. This might seem like a small insignificant thing, but it makes a serious impact on my mood. 

The biggest de-stressor I can think of would be my friend group. I’m extremely lucky that I have such close friends and feel I have a really strong support system. The friendships and relationships in my life are so important and remind me how lucky I am to have that in the first place, while a lot of others don’t. I feel that is the biggest source of my happiness. Spending time with my friends always makes me feel better, which is why even with my busier schedule, I will always make time for that. 

I truly feel it is so important to remind yourself of the positives in your life, so feel free to share yours as well.

Owen 7: What it's like to work at Panera.

About 3 weeks ago I started to work at Panera Bread on 248 in Nazareth. Overall the job pays well and my coworkers are all super nice. The company is super flexible to suit my schedule and needs and the managers are encouraging. The only negative is that well, I work every weekend and Friday night and the more you make the food, the less appetizing it becomes. And no. I'm not saying the food at Panera isn't good. It just so happens that the more and more you make it the less you want it (if you catch my drift.)

Anyway, going back to the positives. I've made a lot of new friends, learned a lot of new things, and have had lots of fun these last few weeks. Currently, I'm training and it will last about a month before I'm certified. Believe it or not, there's a lot of things that go into making a sandwich, or a plate for our customers, especially MeiLi and Alanna (They go there a lot ;)

Like any other fast food/ chain restaurant, you have to be very fast when working on the line and prepping food. It took me a while to learn everything and how to be quick about it but after that, I was ready for business.

One of the greatest perks of being an employee at Panera is the discount. 70% off the total bill under $10, 55% off under $20, and 40% off the bill over $20. That's a killer discount anywhere, especially at Panera because (don't tell my managers) its expensive!

Another great aspect of the job is the pay. I make $10.49 an hour plus tips. Yeah, you heard that right. TIPS! We actually make a lot of tips at Panera. If I'm lucky tips add anywhere from 15-30 extra non-taxable dollars to my paycheck and you can't beat that!

Overall I'm pretty excited to continue working at Panera Bread. If you see me don't hesitate to give a smile or a wave.

I recommend anyone that is looking for a job right now to see if we are hiring. You might even see me!

Emma 7: Psychology

       Last year when we were picking classes, I chose AP psychology as one of my possibilities. At the time I didn’t know much about it other than I had an interest in areas regarding psychology such as cognitive disorders. Some of my friends that had also signed up for it told me that it would be an entertaining AP class that would be relatively easy to achieve good grades in. I also heard the teacher was very experienced and made learning psychology fun. Despite the positive reviews on the class,  I didn’t expect to love it as much as I do now.
After a semester of taking psych, I’ve come to a few conclusions about it. First of all, psychology is not just about the anticipated subjects that one would assume makes up the class. Most people tend to assume psychology and careers within this area are based mostly on anxiety, depression, and other abnormal cognitive issues. While that is an obvious part of the curriculum, those topics are only a small portion of it. We’ve covered everything from sleep to the anatomy of the brain to how sensation and perception work in only one semester. Being able to learn about so many unique topics that are unlike anything I have learned in school before has been a really fascinating experience. Psychology incorporates all types of subjects, not just what is expected.
Secondly, the brain is probably one of the craziest things to learn about. Everyone’s brain works in a different way even with simple things such as seeing colors. Some people can even connect certain words, colors, or symbols with everyday things like music. Even though our minds all work differently, our brains have the same principles in regards to many processes including hearing or observing things unconsciously. There are so many different aspects of the brain that are constantly working without us even being aware of this. Learning about how the mind works both consciously and unconsciously has allowed me to gain insight on not only my own brain, but everyone else’s around me. It’s an entirely different experience to learn about what is going on inside of you compared to learning about the world around you like so many other classes focus on.
Finally, I have discovered that I am highly uninterested in the biological components of humans. This class is the type that if you put the work into studying for the tests, you will do well on them. However, when the brain unit was going on, I had a very difficult time remembering any of the information I was studying. I probably should have studied sooner, but most of the time I start studying only two or three days in advance to the tests. I already knew from taking biology freshman year that it is not something I love to learn about, but the brain unit only confirmed this. Having to learn about synapses and neurons firing for almost three weeks made it very clear to me that biology is not my forte. If you take this class, I would recommend studying for this unit a week or two before the test, otherwise you will probably struggle with it.
Learning about what goes on inside of the mind applies to essentially every subject in the world because we use our brains for everything that we do. Mr. Angstadt is an amazing teacher, and due to having so many different topics in the class, you’re bound to find at least one of the units interesting. If you haven’t already taken it, I would definitely recommend taking AP psychology. What has been the most interesting class that you've taken so far?

Mackenna 7: Attempting to study in complete silence.

For the past few months, I’ve realized that my studying is immensely affected by the amount of noise in the room. I have always had very sensitive ears, so different noises bother me in different ways. Therefore I decided to attempt to study in complete silence. (By the way, I came up with this idea based on the schema builder assignment we did over the summer for AP Lang. This was one of the schema builders we could have chosen to do.)

I know exactly what you’re thinking: how did you manage to eliminate all possible distractions in a single room? The answer is I simply couldn’t, which is why this experiment failed miserably. My first attempt was to usher my brothers outside in the freezing cold to play basketball, which didn’t bother them in the slightest because they do that all the time. I didn’t have to worry about my sister, mainly because she always has her head stuck in a book. However, I did have to confiscate her phone and all other devices that produce sound because she likes to listen to classical music when she’s reading.

Even so, I went all the way downstairs to the basement and lasted not even two minutes before my brother came screaming through the front door like his head was on fire. I was convinced that one of my brothers had gotten hit by a car. He and my other brothers were actually just arguing about the rules of basketball. After that, I had given up on trying to study in complete silence

I don’t have a lot of takeaways from this experience, other than the fact that my family is really loud and annoying, but I did learn that having sensitive ears can sometimes be a blessing in disguise. If I couldn’t hear my brother yelling from downstairs, maybe one of my brothers had actually gotten hit by a car, and I would’ve been held responsible! Also, I’ve found that some soft music actually does help to focus a little bit. So, at the end of the day, I guess this experiment kind of worked. However, I would still love to hear your opinions on what you think of experiencing complete silence! Try it for yourself and let me know if it worked.

Alanna 7: Jefferson University

Junior year, the year where you have to start looking at colleges, take the SATs, ACTs, take harder, more challenging classes, while still balancing other extracurriculars. Inevitably, the time had to come sooner or later where my mom would ask me every day if I have studied for the SAT yet, picked a major, picked a college to visit, or even started my college essay and I couldn't be less excited. To get her to be quiet, I suggested Jefferson University to her and of course she didn't hesitate to schedule a tour.

Going into this, my hopes were pretty low and I was not excited. I never thought too far into college, mainly because I wanted to avoid it. I am scared for the whole process of acceptance and rejection, and maybe even going somewhere you didn’t end up liking. All of that really turns me away from starting this process, but for my mom, I did it.

Jefferson University is in Philadelphia, about ten minutes away from center city Philly, but still not in the busy, scary city. I chose here because I knew it was very close to the city so I would be able to get the experience but not gain the full city exposure, along with a very good and growing medical program. To my surprise, when we arrived I was, off the bat, very impressed. It was a BEAUTIFUL campus with a really good academic program. I found out many interesting things about the campus and college life that made me somewhat more excited and open-minded to the college experience. They are very giving with financial aid, accepting of personal needs, and open to personalizing your experience to make it the best for you.

I learned from this experience that I shouldn't judge the whole process before I try it. If I kept an open mind to college, I wouldn't have been so pessimistic and angry at it. Even though I may not be excited, I should still try and put in the effort because no matter what I need to do it, and it might surprise me.

What makes you eager or not eager to start college?

Joe 7: 450 Words of Me Being Pessemistic

There are two things to consider about me before reading this blog post. One, I consider myself a reasonably optimistic guy. I prefer to spend my day-to-day looking for that silver lining because being depressed all the time is, well, depressing. And two, both of my parents are medical professionals. Med School-graduated stethoscope-wielding people fixers.

Alright that’s cool and all, but why have I decided to tell you about these two seemingly-unrelated facts? Well, put simply, the start of this new semester means I’m starting a class that completely upends every expectation you may have about a guy with these two traits.

What is that class you may wonder? Let me hold it over your head a bit longer while I paint you a mental picture. Imagine a kid with two medical parents. Sounds familiar. Now imagine that same guy, except by some cruel trick of nature he cannot stand the sight of blood. Or bones. Or really anything more graphic than a scraped knee. Couple that with a workload of several AP classes and you’ve got an idea about where I currently stand in life.

So with all of that in mind, what would you say is the worst class for me to take this semester? Probably a class that devotes extensive amounts of time to studying dissected organs, looking at medical diagrams, watching surgeries, and other excitingly nauseating pastimes. Maybe this class is notorious for having a college-level workload. Perhaps a course where, by the end of the second week, you’ve already had to cut open a pig kidney the size of a dinner plate.

So what did I decide to do? I took that very class.

Anatomy & Physiology Honors.

So, here I am. Staring down this monster of a class dead in the eye, with my stomach already churning. I took this class for the sole reason that I wanted to take my last science course this year, and this was the only one that would fit into my schedule. Already I’m starting to realize I bit off more than I might be able to chew (which isn’t much, as I find I lose my appetite fairly quickly come third block).

But despite all the panicking and the concern, this isn’t all bad. For one thing, body science does interest me to some degree, when I’m not gagging into a trash can. At the end of the semester, I’ll take my tattered pride and 65% average in the class and (most likely) be proud of myself for persevering. Still, it’s not gonna be a cakewalk, so I’m gearing up for the long haul and telling all of you about it.

Wish me luck homeslices.

Mackenna 6: New Dinner Plan

This week my family and I decided we wanted to come up with a new plan to organize our dinner schedule better. My parents mutually agreed that the older kids are capable of doing more around the house, so they decided it was our turn to make dinner every night. Therefore, my mom made a separate calendar and we are all now being required to sign up for a day each week to make a meal of our choice. At first, we were up to the challenge because we all love to cook. We play cooking games all the time and it's a lot of fun. However, as for right now, this plan has been a disaster because my sister and I have already had an argument over Taco Tuesday and Fajita Friday being in the same week. On a more positive note, my parents are getting out of making dinner every night, so I suppose this plan has been more beneficial for them than it is for me and my siblings.

The other topic of discussion at the moment is whether or not my brother Beckett is allowed to make gross food for dinner. He claims that since my mom said we can make whatever we want, he is allowed to make grasshopper casserole (yes, this is a thing in his deranged mind). However, my mom claims that Beckett is allowed to make whatever he wants, so we will be having grasshopper casserole on Tuesday.

Believe it or not, my dad completely regrets agreeing to this plan. I made homemade ravioli for dinner last night, and everybody thought it was delicious. Everybody except for my dad, that is. He spit it out immediately and went out to get pizza. He also didn't like my sister's burgers or my other brother's chicken and waffles. He tends to be very opinionated when other people make dinner. Personally, I think this is unfair because he only knows how to make breakfast and barbeque foods.

Although this idea is turning out badly, I'm still hopeful that everything will turn out alright. Even Beckett's grasshopper casserole.

Sydney Week #6 Christmas and Dogs

 So as many of you know my siblings came back to PA for the holiday season. It was strange at first to have so much commotion in the house again since I’ve grown used to it being pretty quiet with just me and my parents around, but luckily I got used to it quickly. It was also pretty fun to constantly have something to do since there was always one sibling that was itching to do something.

Another great part of having my siblings come was the fact that they brought their dogs Sandy and Haru. We had to set up gates in order to separate where the dogs could and couldn’t go. This however did not last long because Sandy quickly learned how to jump over the gate anytime she became lonely. The only other problem with the dogs was that they were allowed upstairs and unfortunately my family was not very good at hiding our Christmas candy. This lead to two instances of Haru and Sandy eating some chocolate which made them a bit sick for the rest of the trip (they were ok though).

The only real complaint I had about my siblings coming was the fact that I got kicked out of my room. Luckily it was only for a few days and once I got my room back I got frequent visits from Haru and Sandy so I would count that as a win.

Overall, I am very glad that I was able to see my siblings again since I only get to see them for a few weeks a year with them living so far away.

(Left Haru, Middle Ivan, Right Sandy)