August!

wow, so it's august right now... happy? excited? nervous? sad? or maybe all of the above. regardless, it's been a wonderful summer with a couple of weeks left to go. guess i should probably do some reflecting right now, especially of the last few years... here goes:

freshman year. wow. firstly, i'm really glad that it happened. sounds weird i guess. anyway, moved to toledo in august. definitely remember being really sad about leaving everyone in louisiana. anyway, that was quite a long time ago it feels now. back to freshman year. walked into school that first day, not knowing anyone (the only person that i knew was my neighbor who was a sophomore). still remember being the last person to get onto that yellow public transportation device called a school bus. there were only four of us on the bus that day. definitely sat in the front seat by myself, lol. when we got to school, student government kids stood outside giving us schedules of that day and maps. so awkward, no one wanted to take any from them and they didn't really want to be there. anyway, put my stuff into my locker really fast and then went into the gym to find an empty seat and just sit down (wow, this sounds so different from me now, lol, and it's turning into a first day at school memory, ugh). got through the assembly that they planned, minimum invovlement from me, plenty satisfied with that at the time. then they dismissed us and we followed the schedule that they gave us. things went pretty well, i guess, a lot of the kids seemed to already know people (arbor hills people knew the arbor hills people and the mccord kids knew the mccords kids). then came lunch. sat down with this kid who was in my world history class (maybe i forget now, but i had seen him before). talked for a few minutes and then just sat there eating my lunch. still pretty content i guess. after lunch it was more of following the schedule. went to all of my classes fine. just really intimidated that there were so many people. in junior high, my graduating class had 45 people, and then all of the sudden i started going to a high school with a graduating class of 308 in the end. talk about culture shock. when my junior high teachers talked about it, i kind of blew them off, but i guess i was really wrong. ok enough about first day of school. oh last comment, i would like to thank my locker buddy, a cool(wo)man. thanks for talking to me on the first day of school. and yes osu starts on sept. 21 if you're reading this. yes you have a summer assignment as dumb as that seems. ok rest of freshman year (sorry the bore you with the first day), um... first semester studied, played around, didn't really do anything i don't think. joined a couple of clubs (quizbowl, table tennis) made a few close friends (you know who you are). second semester, studied some more, tried to be more social. oh i totally remember really getting to poker, lol. haha, good times those poker parties. overall it was a good year, at first i really didn't like northview/ohio, but after getting accustomed to it, things got a lot better. those close friends really made a difference though :-) definitely started to grow out of my shy shell. classes were really easy. some classes seemed like a joke, but other classes were kind of fun. it was freshman year, not much to say about classes really, lol.

sophomore year: hm... changed quite a lot this year, and actually took classes. let's see, sophomore year classes, ap history and chem definitely stick out. man, had to actually do work for ap, that was a new experience for a social studies class. chem (honors) is probably the second hardest science class i've ever taken. got introduced to something called reading the book from those two classes. well got to learn sometime. english class was well... shouldn't have read "metamorphosis", let's put it that way. gah, it's such a depressing book. math class was really fun, met a really good teacher. bio teacher was good, too. hm... seems like sophomore teachers are better than freshman teachers? so... other things, um... went to my first dance ever (homecoming). oh student government was cool, speech and debate was lots of fun (as long as i had a partner), p2 starting at the end of the year was a great way to wrap up the week. table tennis was fun, but i didn't practice that much during the summer so i didn't get much better. made more friends, definitely more social. oh and most importantly, developed my late night habits. haha, got into xanga that year too for sure. atleast the first half of the year, i think myspace started taking over but i forget the actual timelines (by the way, never really got into myspace). it was a good year, a little stressful in the beginning with all my classes and stuff, but did lots of new thing and pushed my comfort zone. oh and started taking private violin lessons, can't forget that. how could i almost forget this... met my best friend. well the first time was actually at a part at a friend's house during the summer, but got to know him really well during the year, since we had all but like two classes together. that was really cool. haha, the stupid things we used to do in class when the teacher wasn't watching.

junior year: well... still did speech and debate, but didn't spend nearly as much time on it, did ld that year isntead of pf. was an officer for student government, that was really cool, great learning experience there. still did p2. hm... joined school orchestra, that was a pretty good decision, i guess. it was during the middle of the day so i could wind down between my classes, which kind of didn't matter that year that much since all my ap's were in the beginning of the day, more about that later. orchestra spring break trip was so amazing. wow. lots of pictures, went to so many different places, the restaurants were so good. BLUE MAN GROUP!!! that was definitely the best part of the trip. anyway, classes, um...ap psych is probably like the best or second best high school class ever. ap bio was um... ap bio? don't really know how else to describe it. ap lang was pretty up and down at first, bunches of hit or miss essays in the beginning, got better as the year went on though. taught me a lot about writing, so overall very pleased with that class. hm... rest of life went along as well, met some new people through different classes. took a bunch of standardized tests that year, ugh, hopefully never again (haha have to love my wishful thinking). guess this year was pretty relaxed compared to sophomore year. got inducted into nhs, too. pretty simple year i guess.

senior year: so bittersweet. took the hardest class i've ever taken, ap physics, oh boy. stayed up so many late nights doing homework or rather looking at identical sample problems and still not getting the right answers on the practice problems. ap chem was so much more fun. ap calc was a really good class. never have i had to work so hard for a grade in math. well, most of the time i had to work at it for calc. ended up as sir issac newton, that was kind of a shock, seeing as how i didn't have any competition points until may :-O ap gov was interesting, thanks to the different people in it. fell asleep so many times in ap lit... what am i going to do come next quarter? still did orchestra, was section leader, that was so scary. did sci olym for the first time. that was fun, well it was kind of more like a joke, but still there was a fun part and a serious part. states was hilarious. hotel adventures, hehe. bus rides as always have its moments. being vp of nhs was pretty cool, except when i had to count everyone's volunteer hours. well atleast that means that people were volunteering which is good i'm pretty sure. last homecoming and turnabout. well, atleast now i don't have to decorate for dances anymore. prom was amazing, so much fun :-) so thanks to my date (you're completely amazing), my boss ($ enough said, lol), parents (putting up with me then and always, lol) and friends (you made the night). went to chicago for spring break again, lol, it's like a magnet. this time it was with friends and family. watched BLUE MAN GROUP!!! again. almost went to the APPLE STORE again, but then we didn't, poo :-( went to navy pier again though. didn't get to go on the ferris wheel or the end of the dock, but i did get to go to bubba gump's restaurant, which was lots of fun, until people started tagging me as a certain sign in the restaurant. oh and bought a laptop for school this year. woo hoo! go MACS! so many fun times with friends this year. definitely had a blast. not only did i go to school, but for once i can say that i had a life. that took long enough to get, lol.
i guess this next part deserves its own paragraph. so colleges... ended up only applying to five, even though should have applied to eight. got into this six year med program, which made me feel good. kind of surprised that i got into the med program since, i didn't have any shadowing stuff or any research, but i guess my stats held up in the end. ended up at osu though, somehow... amid all of the thinking. apparently, i'm majoring in bio for the moment. that'll be interesting i guess. nothing really to report on getting into any special places, so i guess that'll have to wait until med/grad school.

so overall these last four years were great. while there are definitely somethings that i would change (no i'm not going to tell you what), they taught me some valuable life lessons and made me who i am today. needless to say, while i'm not sure if northview has prepared me for the rest of school and life, i'm sure that it didn't hurt. the memories that i have made here will carry on. i realize that i have changed so much from writing this entry, from a shy freshman to a senior that people know (well some know atleast...).