I have a huge case of senioritis and I am not even a senior yet. School is just so stressful and I am basically over it. I have about a month left of junior year and then I am officially a senior. Next year is also gonna be so easy. I already have enough credits to graduate so I took the bare minimum classes I need for next year. I also asked for early release so I will be out of school early. When I was talking to my counselor about my classes, I also found out that I do not have to take any regents at the end of the year. I am so excited to be a senior. I know it is going to be very stressful though because I have to apply to colleges and go through all that. But, with the easy classes it should be a little less hectic for me. I can focus more on readying myself for college and the real world. I will be able to get the application process over with and not be too stressed about my classes. I am going to try very hard to not let my senioritis get to me next year, though. All the seniors are so over the year already and are giving up. But I can not let my grades slip at the last minute. That would not be good for my future and it will help me work on staying on top of things once I have more independence.
ACT
A few weeks ago, I took the ACT test. I was pretty nervous going into it because I was having some test anxiety. When I got to classroom, we had to check in with the teacher at the door. She needed our photo ID and our test ticket. She then gave us a number and we had to find that number on a desk and sit there. During the test I thought it was pretty easy. The science section was pretty difficult for me but aside from that, it was not as bad as I expected it to be. When the test was over, I found my friend and we talked about how hard or easy we thought it was. I waited for my dad to come and get me. All I wanted to do was go home and sleep. I had to get up really early plus I had work until ten the night before. Also, the stress from taking the test made me even more drained. When my dad came, I expected to go straight home but, no. He said that we had to go to Wegmans. I could not even say I did not want to go because I was already in the car being dragged to the grocery store. I rushed my dad the entire time which really pissed him off. When we got out, I asked to drive home. I drove pretty decent but my dad still felt the need to yell at me for my driving skills. I got home and walked my dog and went straight to bed. I was so tired from that morning. I was wondering the next week what my score would be. I was really nervous about if I would like what I got or not. Yesterday, I got an email from the ACT people. My scores were in and I was very anxious. I was in the middle of physics class and I went online and looked up my score. I got a 23. It is out of 36. I was really upset about this score because I thought it was bad. But, I looked up what the average score is and it was a 20. So, I got a little above average so I guess I am okay with it. This Saturday, I take the SATs. I am about one hundred times more nervous about this test than the ACT. I do not know why but I just feel like it is so much more serious and harder. I am praying that I get a good score on it. This is just so much stress for one test. I wish that these tests were not necessary to get into college. What if you are a bad test taker? Well, there goes the decision on whether you can go to college or not. All because of one or two tests that you have to take. I just want Saturday to come already so I can get it over with. This is the only thing I am stressing about at this point.
Boom Babies
My friend and I finally found our prom dresses earlier this month. We went to about 5 different stores before we found the perfect dress. The last store we went to was Boom Babies is Syracuse. I heard from several people that there was a huge selection and I would probably find something there. So, we took a road trip to Syracuse to find one. When we got there, it was insanely crowded. You had to take a number just to get a dressing room. They were in single digits when we got there and my number was 36. So, while we waited, we decided to look around for dresses. In the beginning, I was really upset because my friend was finding all these dresses she liked and was taking them to try on. I lost all hope at this point. I did not think I was going to find a dress that I liked. Then, finally, a lady asked if I needed help so I told her I could not find any dresses and she helped me look. I would up finding like six dresses that I wanted to try on. My friend and I wanted to be in dressing rooms next to each other so we could see one another in our dresses. It worked out and we got one big dressing room with a curtain in between it. So, instead of walking out to the store, we could just pull the curtain aside and look at each other. I am glad we got this because I think it is very embarrassing to walk out in front of all the people when you are trying on a dress. It is just an awkward situation for me. Anyway, every dress I tried on, I did not like something about it. This started to upset me also because I finally founds some dresses to try and I did not like how they looked on me. Finally, the lady brought me these two dresses to try on. I fell in love with both dresses. I still do not know which one I should have chosen. But, I went with my gut and bought one. It is pink and has beading all over the top. From the ribs down, it just flows straight down. I think the dress is gorgeous and I am so excited to wear it. It is a very distinct color of pink, though, so my date better match it right. After we bought our dresses, we drove back home and stopped at Red Robin for dinner. This was my first time ever eating there. It was pretty good, in my opinion. Overall, the day was great. I got to go on a road trip with my friend, found the perfect prom dress, and got to go out to dinner with her before going home for the night. Yesterday, after work, my friend and I picked our dresses up from alterations. They are finally all ready for a great prom night.
Prom
For prom this year, I was not going to go in the beginning. I did not see the point of going. The year is already almost over and I still do not know anyone in my grade except for a couple. So, I would be miserable at prom. I would be alone the whole night. But, the one friend I have convinced me to go. I am still iffy about it because she has other friends so she won’t be with me the whole night. So who am I supposed to hang with? This is just too much stress for a stupid dance. But, everyone keeps telling me I will regret skipping my junior prom. So, I got dragged into going. This Friday, my friend, her boyfriend, and I are all driving to Syracuse to go dress shopping. We tried a lot of stores around here but could not find anything. I found an amazing store in Syracuse so we are taking a road trip Friday. I am anticipating it and I can not wait. It is getting me excited for prom but I am trying not to get my hopes too high. I do not want to be all hyped up and then have a terrible time. I would rather go in there not expecting much and getting blown away. Another reason why I do not even want to go is because I do not have a date. I have someone in mind I want to ask but I do not have the guts to ask him. I do not understand why there is so much drama for a prom. It is one night and people go crazy over it. Anyway, when we go dress shopping Friday, I really hope I find a dress. Prom is coming up fast and I need to find a dress. This really shows my procrastination. It is not really procrastination though because I was not even planning on going until like a month ago. I am really hoping it is fun and not a waste of time and money. I also hope I find a date last minute. It is already terrible I am going even though no one knows me. If I go unknown and alone that will be ten times worse. My friends are piping it up saying how much fun I will have but that is only because they know people. I do not so I will probably feel awkward the entire time. At least I am super excited for dress shopping. The store I found has my dream dress online so I hope it is in the store when we go and in my size. If my friend and I find our dresses there, we are going to have to bring them home for alterations because I am not driving all the way out to Syracuse a couple more times for alterations and a dress fitting. I will find a place here to alter the dress. I just hope I find a beautiful dress for a decent price.
Easter
Easter is coming up this weekend. I honestly had no idea that it was so close. I completely forgot to take off of work so I got scheduled on Easter. Why is McDonald’s open on Easter? I could not tell you. Thank god I found someone to take my shift because my family has Easter plans. It is my family’s first Easter in New York so I have no idea where we are going for brunch. My dad said we are going to the country club but I do not know which one he is talking about. Every Easter, my family has a little egg hunt for my brother and sister. I love watching them try to find them all. The best part is when there is an egg hidden in a very obvious spot and they just can not find it. They get mad when I tell them where it is but I am the older sibling so I love to torture them so I do it anyway. When my parents make the Easter baskets the night before to put out, they use the same baskets every year. I am surprised my siblings have not noticed yet. But when I think back to when I was younger, I never noticed. It is probably because we are more worried about what is inside the basket then the actual basket. Using the same basket is kind of stupid though. When my brother or sister do notice, it is going to spoil the whole Easter bunny thing for them. They will be crushed. When I found out the Easter bunny was not real, I was so sad. I told my parents that they had to buy me extra candy that year because I was so distressed. I manipulated my parents to get me more treats. It was great. I will have to share all my secrets with my little siblings once they find out. I hope that is not for a while though. It is refreshing to see how excited they get on holidays. Since I am older, it is nice to see the excitement kids get all over again. It keeps the holiday spirit in the house. If it was just me, I feel like holidays would not be as exciting or important because I already know it is all done by my parents. My favorite part of Easter is honestly the candy. I do not like anything else as much as it. That just sounds really fat. I do not like the brunch because my brother and sister do not know how to behave in public so the whole thing is just embarrassing to me. I have to sit at a table while people stare at us for having loud children. It is terrible. I also hate getting dressed up for brunch because all I do when I get home is take it off and put on sweatpants. That is pretty much all we do on Easter which is why getting the candy is my only favorite part of Easter.
Touring
Recently, I went on my first college visit. My mom and I drove and went to visit the University at Buffalo. I took off of work for it but they still scheduled me. This made me nervous that I would not be able to enjoy it because I would be anxious about being late to work the whole time. Luckily, that did not happen at all. My mom and I absolutely loved the school. When we arrived, we could not find where to go because the school is so big. We had to ask a student there and then we found it with ease. Before the campus tour, we had a presentation shown to us in one of the auditoriums. There were a lot of people from all over. There were people from New York City and even Las Vegas! The presentation went over applying to the school and details about the school. After, we split into two different groups and proceeded with the tour. The first thing we saw was a science lab room. It was really cool. There was a lab table in the front of the room and then a bunch of rows of chairs going all the way up to the ceiling. Then, we visited a dorm. The dorm rooms were really small, but they were only for freshman, Upperclassmen get the suites and apartments. We then went to the library. Inside, we talked about doing classwork and printing limits and things like that. After the library, we were supposed to go to visit the gym, but my mom and I left because we were cutting it close on time to get to work. I really liked the school. The environment was great, tuition is not too over the top, and it is a great school. My only concern with going there would be getting lost. The campus is pretty large. But, I feel like it is easy to get used to. I have a couple more college visits coming up and then I want to schedule some more. I really liked Buffalo and I plan on applying there next year. It is a great school and is a great opportunity for me. It has the field I was thinking on going in to and there is a very large amount of classes to choose from. There is also a study abroad program which I was thinking of doing. I would want to go to England if I studied abroad. This opportunity is at Buffalo. On the way home from our campus tour, my mom told me that she loved the school. She said she did not want to pressure me to go there because it is my decision. I told her I loved it too and she was not pressuring me. I plan on applying there anyway. I am glad my mom liked it as well. That makes my decision a lot easier knowing that she loves where I want to apply. I am proud that I have finally taken action in planning my future.
Family
My family is a huge pain in the neck but I love them all. I have two younger siblings that annoy me to no end. My brother Nick is seven years old. He is in first grade and he is adorable. He looks just like me but is the exact opposite of me. I am loud and outgoing. He is extremely shy and quiet. He tends to keep to himself more unless he is going crazy with my sister because of a sugar rush or something like that. He likes video games a lot. He plays on his tablet all day. His favorite game is Minecraft. He is always trying to show me things and explain things about it to me. I never want to hear it but I feel so bad because he is so excited about it and all he wants to do is show me. So, I suffer through it and “listen”. I also have a younger sister named Reagan. She is five and starts kindergarten next year. She is just like me but looks the opposite of my little brother and I. She has straight blonde hair and my brother and I have dark brown hair. My sister is a very busy girl for a five year old. She is involved in a lot of activities. She does cheer leading, gymnastics, tumbling, and she is also a model. I do not know how she never gets tired of doing all this. My brother and I do not do any activities so my family has time for all of this. My sister probably has an activity five days out of the week. She is a nut. My mom is usually the one that takes her to the activities. She works from home so that is more convenient for her. Sometimes my dad has to take her if my mom gets caught up in work like traveling or meetings. That is where I come in. I am the go to babysitter for the family. Food shopping, cheer, gymnastics, CCD, I always have to babysit one sibling for something. I hate babysitting with a passion. When I get home from school, all I wanna do is go to my room, lay in my bed, and be on my phone. I do not wanna be downstairs watching little children. Especially because when I babysit, they always want me to play with them. Depending on the game, I either play or not. Sometimes my brother wants me to play the Wii with him or watch a movie with him. I am perfectly okay with that. Or if my sister wants to plays dress up or play house, that is fine also. But if one of them wants to break out all these legos and little cars and toys, I pass on it. I tell them that we should plays something else or make up an excuse. If I am feeling extra nice maybe I would make an exception but usually I’m not down with playing with all these boring toys with them.
College part 2
So, I am starting to get more proactive with my future. In the beginning of the school year, I was a lost puppy and I did not even know where to start with getting ready for college and things like that. Luckily, when I was with my counselor picking classes for senior year, she gave me a paper which was basically a checklist for junior year. That helped a lot because it gave me an idea of what I had to get done and by what date. It had the task, the website, and the “due date” on it. A couple weeks ago, I sat down with my mom and got a lot done. I registered to take my SAT’s and my ACT’s. Then, I scheduled three college visits. I am visiting University of Buffalo, SUNY Geneseo, and SUNY Brockport. I still have no idea what career I want or what major I want but I am hoping visiting some colleges will help me get some sort of idea what field I want to go into. It was actually great once I got all of this done. It took a little stress off of me and made me feel a little bit more independent and proactive. While doing this, it also hit me that I am growing up. It all of a sudden hit me that I am going to be a senior next year. I am going to college in two years and I am going to be moving out. I am going to be a legal adult and have to start doing things on my own. I think I am doing pretty good for where I am at right now. I finally got a job, I am starting to go through the college search process, and I am working on getting my license. I am pretty much doing everything I can at the moment to prepare myself for the future. It is a little scary. To think that a couple years ago, I had no responsibilities and now all of a sudden I am 17 years old and have all this stress and pressure of growing up and starting to have to grow up and act mature and responsibly. It is a huge transition for me. In two years, I am going to be out of the house, probably paying some bills on my own, and attending college. I am pretty scared about this but I am also excited. I can not wait to leave the house and gain some independence but at the same time I am so used to my parents providing everything for me. I pretty much have free food and shelter. My parents pay for all of it and I am going to have to do that in a few years. It is a lot to take in right now. The six months so far of junior year have probably been more stressful than the past two years of high school for me. I just want it to be over already.
McDonald’s
Since the beginning of the summer I have been trying to find a job. I have literally applied to over twenty different places. Out of all of the I only got two interview. Thankfully, one of them went through because I finally found a job. I am now employed at McDonald’s. It is not the ideal job but it is a good first job. I feel like I did not get hired any where else because I do not have a lot of work experience. This made me a lot more excited that I got my job. At my interview, I was the last one so I found out right away that I got the job. I could not wait to start. The next week, I had orientation. That was on a friday and then my first day of training was monday. There are five days of training before you can start working by yourself. Training was terrible. Once you clock in, you have to watch a few training videos before you start. Then you go out to the front and start working. The first two days of training, you are on front counter working the register. Then, the next two days are handout. That is when you are at the window handing out the food to the cars in the drive thru. The last day of training, you are working the fryer making fries. It is very stressful and a lot to take in when you are new. It was especially stressful for me because it is my first job and I am new to the working world. After training was over, I had the hang of things. I was super excited to start working on my own without a trainer breathing down my neck. I was also excited because I could get more hours. That means more money which means more happiness. Even though training is over, it is still difficult at times. I get worked up sometimes and I get mad at myself. I just have to keep reminding myself that I am new and I will get better with time. I worked today, and it started terribly but it got better. In the morning, I was pouring coffee that just came out of the brewer and I spilled it on my hands and burnt the back of my hands pretty bad. We were also really busy all day so it was pretty stressful. It was also bad because they did not schedule my break at the same time as anyone else so I had to sit in the crew room all by myself. It was awkward because there was another new kid watching videos right next to the table. After my break it got better though. It was still packed basically all day but I did not injure myself anymore which is good. I was just glad when my shift was over. It was not my day and I just wanted it to be over with.
Crucible Online Response #2
The theme I had for “Young Goodman Brown” was loss of innocence. It related to the story because Brown lost his innocence once he walked with the devil and went to a meeting with witches in the woods. This theme also relates to The Crucible because many towns people lost their innocence during the witch trials. For example, Abigail Williams and the girls lost their innocence. Before they were discovered dancing in the woods, they had an innocence in the town. Once they “admitted” to conjuring with the devil, there innocence seemed to disappear. Also, many people in the town lost their innocence. Before the witch trials, everyone was mostly honest and true to the church and god. But, once they realized that they needed to lie to save their lives, all that was lost and forgotten. They did what they considered to be a sin just to protect their lives. Even the town seemed to lose its innocence. Salem was a quiet town and was not on the radar. It was not really known for anything big to have happened there. Once witchcraft was spoken of in the town, everyone saw it as having evil present in it. The town was seen differently after that. It’s presence of evil became infamous and it would stay that way. Even now, Salem is known for having witches and being haunted. I bet if these witch trials never happened, Salem would just be another small town in Massachusetts that no one has ever heard of before.
Behind The Front Hash 