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Senior Year

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Ever since the start of high school, people always told me to “not take it for granted” - before you know it, you’ll be a senior. I’ve imagined what my senior year would look like all the way back to when I was in elementary school. Watching movies such as High School Musical 3 and Grease kind of set up my expectations as senior year being the best, most carefree year of your life. Although those expectations didn’t necessarily follow through as being that pitch perfect, movie-like senior year, it was still one of the best years of my life. I didn’t quite grasp onto the concept of “self growth” until this past year. I can confidently say that I have learned more about myself and the world as a whole in the past year than I have any other year of my life. The losses that came with this year, were turned into growths and realizations. Every hug from grandpa that I missed, every dance class that we did virtually, every school month of school that didn’t follow through, only preached the i
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Waiting

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     Waiting has always held a negative connotation for me - it was linked to the feeling of uncontrollability. Even as a kid, waiting for something was one of the things I hated most because it was so irritating. Waiting for Santa to come Christmas morning or waiting for it to be your turn on the jump rope at recess were certain things that gave me an itch. You get tense in your hands, fingers, and toes, you can feel your heart beating out of your chest, and you can hear your subconscious screaming over just pure irritation, the time in which you have to wait is uncontrollable.       As I watch the movie more, Didi and Gogo remind me of my child-self. The impatience and annoyance that I’ve observed within their mannerisms is very childish: the pacing, petty arguments, foot taps, the crossing of arms, the random outbursts, etc. It’s very nostalgic to watch in a sense because I know the exact feeling of that childish impatience. Even as a young adult, I think we have all had moments whe
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Exploring Poetry

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          In my last blog, I talked about how writing poetry myself and sharing it is one of the hardest things. As a poet, I feel as though the goal is to make your audience feel something or to write something that someone can relate to. One thing I have learned throughout these past couple weeks is that the best poetry comes from within. Using emotion, experience, and heart is the key to writing a poem when aiming for this goal. It doesn’t have to be complex either; poetry isn’t defined by how many lines you write, but rather what you write. Being timid and closed off, vulnerability is scary for me. Although, I realized that I’m not the only one who feels hesitant and judged when it comes to sharing poetry, and that idea of being scared of vulnerability is shared throughout this class. After reading some of my peers’ poetry in their mentor poet projects and in their blogs, I felt inspired to share my own. Here’s a simple, hopefully relatable poem about our current situation as senio
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Spoken Word Poetry

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          The past few weeks we have been working with poetry. We have done many assignments and projects that have expanded my knowledge and allowed me to grow as a poet, one being the mentor poet assignment. For the mentor poet assignment I chose Shane Koyczan, a Canadian writer and spoken word poet.            I’ve always been drawn to spoken word poetry. I remember the first time I saw it being performed was in my eighth grade video tech class. Every Friday, my teacher would show us inspirational and moving videos that would hopefully open up our perspectives on certain things in our everyday life. He just happened one Friday to show this certain poet and his poetry and it has stuck with me ever since. “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan, is a spoken word poem about bullying. I remember when I saw it, I was instantly moved and gravitated towards it because of my past experience of being bullied. In his poem, Koyczan touches on the names he was called and how that name-calling shaped his
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My Relationship With Poetry

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          Poetry is something that I have always struggled with. One could say that we have a very love-hate relationship. I have found that I genuinely love to read poetry. I enjoy being able to connect experiences and emotions within my life to the hidden messages and meanings within certain poems. I also really like the creative aspect that it gives both the writer and the reader. When writing a poem, there aren’t any limits to what the writer can write about or how they choose to write it. In terms of the reader, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to interpreting the significance of a poem. It can mean one thing to one reader, and a whole other thing to another reader which just exemplifies the beauty of poetry - there are no limits.           Although there are things I love about poetry, there are certain aspects and experiences that lead to this love-hate relationship. One thing that I don’t enjoy when it comes to poetry is the writing part of it. I love writing in
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The Lion King and Siddhartha

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     When reading Siddhartha, and knowing the prompt for the blog revolved around the idea of a hero’s journey, my mind immediately went to the movie, The Lion King. I found similarities between both Simba’s personal journey and Siddhartha’s journey, and would like to touch on how the two relate.      In both stories, the main characters are both set out to discover something. Siddhartha, for example, is seeking for Enlightenment. Simba, on the other hand, is searching for his sense of self. Both individuals are on a journey to better themselves and grow into the true characters they are meant to become. Siddhartha, on his journey of enlightenment, is discovering who he is as a person and what his true, innate beliefs are. Simba, on his journey, is discovering that his pathway in life is meant to lead the kingdom and his destiny is to become King, following in his father’s footsteps. These journey’s both result in Siddhartha and Simba finding who they truly are and what they are meant
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1st Semester Reflection

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    My first semester of 12 AP has been an awesome experience for me. Even though we are online, I think the liveliness and enthusiasm that lives in the classroom is still present on zoom. It is definitely not the same, but being a part of a class that saviors that same energy has been awesome.       One of my favorite assignments was actually our final project. Writing is my favorite part of English, and I love the freedom it gave us to pick a topic of our choice, do research on it, and write about it. It was awesome because I was able to apply everything we have learned in the past couple months about writing a strong thesis, structure, and overall purpose, but at the same time I was able to make it my own and be creative with it. I definitely think the research paper was a representation of my writing growth this semester. I’m really proud of how it turned out and I hope that throughout second semester I continue to grow as a writer.      As I mentioned, writing is my favorite part
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