Carpe Diem

As I read the play “Time Flies”, I thought to myself, “This is like my life. I need to Carpe Diem myself.” As college applications are submitted, finals are studied for, and first semester comes to an end, our high school lives are almost over, and not only is Christmas around the corner, but so is the beginning of our adulthood.

Some are excited and ready, while others are still timid and not ready to take that leap. However, we all must take that jump into college; we all can’t be Super Seniors forever.  We all must see the end, whether we are ready or not.  I, myself, am still scared to leave high school behind when I feel like I just got used to it and didn’t get lost on the first day of school.  But I know high school is almost over, and I need to carpe diem.  We all have to take those risks while we are still have the ability to, so we do not enter adulthood dwelling on what could have been. 

Enjoy the time we have left, as we take that journey to make more memories, to have more stress, and start our lives independently.  We don’t know how much time we have left until it is almost over.  Time truly flies when you reminisce about elementary school and think that it was only 6 years ago when you had your 6^th grade promotion when it felt like it was only yesterday.  Today, we don’t stress about who gets the ball for recess anymore, but about what and how we are going to enter adulthood and college.  The question is, how are you going to leave high school, what impact are you making, and how are you going to start your life.

Live like the Mayflies.

Carpe diem.

- Amy Lie

Poor Creature

After actually reading Frankenstein for the first time, I now realize how much the character of the "creature" is so poorly misconceived.  So often we see Frankenstein as this abominable creature--well this is actually true because he's really ugly--but for some reason we think of him as having green skin and something incapable of of human-like intellligence when, actually, is very smart.  So is the "creature" really that bad? I don't think so and, in fact, he reminds of a Quasi-Moto character reborn through Mary Shelley's story.  You may laugh, but when thought about throughly you might find I'm not so far off in my analysis (just remember I'm talking about the happy Disney version, not the real one with the sad ending).  For example, Quasi-Moto was rejected at birth and abandoned in a bell tower--the "creature" was also rejected at birth and abandoned by Victor after his creation.  So bearing, this in mind is it so hard to actually grow to like the hideous "creature"? The aversion everyone has to "creature" is the fact he's just so UGLY and, sure he murdered a few people, but Quasi-Moto set fire to a building (probably killed some people to) and he and Esmeralda were still best friends.  He even got crowned the King of Topsy Turvy day and the people loved him...in the movie, that is.  So why not give creature a chance?  I'm sure he can't be that much uglier than Quasi Moto (whom everyone eventually loved) or an English Bulldog (which are really ugly but people will still buy one for $2,000 at Moondoggies), and who knows? Once, you get to know him he just might just realize he's not so bad after all.

Rebekah Adeyemo

Oh, college essays!

This is crazy, not this blog of course, but just the situation we are now in. It seems like just yesterday I was watching the terribly boring graduation ceremony for my brother and thinking "wow, that will never be me, that is too far away". Here we are, here I am, it is something I am proud of, but of course not satisfied with. However, I can't feel completely relieved yet, as our days of high school are not over. It seems these are the busiest we have had. I am talking of course of the dreadful college application process. It is fun to think about and it is nice to think that you are going to start them, but once you sit down and get to work, there seems to be no fun involved. Endless filling in of email addresses, social security numbers, SAT scores, and that's not even including the essays. I could sit here and just type on and on about how much I dislike the application process, but this certain blog post is to get all of us encouraged to take on this process head on! We have worked too hard and suffered too many years of terrible substitutes, long half-days of school, and final exams to not take this time period on with full force. There will be very few times that one person can focus on his or herself so much so cherish this time as much as you can, for the rest of life could end up being a lot of sucking up! Enjoy it now ! Let's go!

Cameron Tagge

The World is to Much with Us

                Reading the poem, "The World is to Much with Us", I thought not another poem.  But as we did a different activity with the poem each day it began to grow on me, and the poem made a great deal of sense to me.  I began thinking how we as humans have so much power to do good in the world, but do not always put our powers into doing good. In the poem, Wordsworth, mentions how we look so little at nature, but nature makes up our living. We should learn to take care of the world we live in. Just by picking up a piece of trash off the floor that still makes a difference in our environment and it helps better the world we live in.
                In our world doing good is very difficult for people to do, since everyone is so absorbed in their own little world and do not seem to care about anything that has to do with them. Technology has had such a huge affect on why people tend to stay locked up in their homes and not explore the outside world, if people just take a few short minutes out of the everyday things they do and try and better the world with helping with a small little task it will make all the difference in the world.
                Wordsworth states how he truly hates the society we have come to know. Our society is very ignorant to our environment and need to take action to better the place we live in.  Wordsworth strongly states his facts and I am sure that there are many people doing the right things to better our world, but there are many who only care about things concerning themselves.

Tamera Askarieh

To be of use

The people I love the most - if I were to complete this statement, it would mean that I love a certain person or type of person more that others.  Most people would accept that there are indeed people that they love more than others.  But my beliefs and view of the world make it so that I am not capable to make such distinctions between people.

I do not that believe we can love because I do not believe that we exist.  We can understand that something is hot because we can distinguish it from cold.  We can understand that something is dark because we can distinguish it from light.  So how can we say that something exists when there is nothing that we can distinguish from existence?  It is impossible to distinguish existence from its negation, so the concept of existence does not exist.

But let's say that we care enough about the concept of love regardless of whether it exists or not.  What  would motivate the uneven distribution of love?  Love falls on people due to chance.  If people are genetically or developmentally blessed with positive characteristics - beauty, charisma, mental endurance, compassion, and so on - they will more likely be loved.  People tend to love the people close to them - friends, family, spouses - but that connection would have been moot if said parties had lived far apart from each other, if certain sperm were faster than others, if said parties developed in a way that was incompatible, and so on.  Love is completely dependent on chance and randomness.  So assuming that love is significant, I would say that I had an equal chance to love anybody in this world, but randomness has caused an uneven distribution of love due to its unique situations and creation of compatibility.

David Mao

Literature Is...

Literature has different interpretations, different definitions, and different impacts to different people. Literature is path that allows people to escape reality and delve into a world that is impeccable and impossible.  It is also used to connect with others through personal stories of experience.  These literatures written create the world to become more united; as it travels through the hands of different cultures, countries, and ages.

Reading through Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland the reader is able to fall down the rabbit hole along with Alice.  Reading literature should be spontaneous just how Alice “never once considering how in the world she was to get out again” and not think about anything else, but living in the moment.  We cannot find adventures like that of Alice’s in Wonderland in reality. There is nothing that can compare to that experience.  As readers, we can live vicariously through the characters of novels, short stories, poems, or any kind of literature. Literature can also be a memoir to remember the days that have passed where we have surpassed, lost, and forgotten.

Literature is most definitely an adventure.  However, it isn’t any regular adventure of playing on the playground pretending to be pirates, but a different kind of adventure where you can swim with dolphins with Karana in Island of the Blue Dolphins; fly a kite with Amir in Kite Runner; or even cast spells with Harry Potter, or maybe even save Narnia in The Chronicles of Narnia.  Literature is a way to experience adventures in a different environment, a different lifetime, a different world. 

Amy Lie

End of Solitude

"The goal, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of minerature celebrity.  How many friends do I have on facebook?  How many people are reading my blog?  How many google hits does my name generate?  Visibility secures our self-esteem, becoming a substitute, twice removed, for genuine connection.  Not long ago, it was easy to feel lonely.  Now, it's impossible to be alone." 

 

It is a bit sad that our culture has made us completely dependent on what other people think of us, and how much we talk to them.  How often do we simply sit down to read a book? play an instrument without others listening? take a run on a dirt path, or ride a bike up a mountain trail? 

 

It can actually be very rewarding to spend time by yourself.  While doing so, you can actually take the time to process your own thoughts, and become a person who is not completely reliant on the ideas of others.  It allows you to determine your own beliefs; both religious and political.  Also when you are fully aware of yourself, it allows you to become less dependant on the approval and love of others.

 

I challenge everyone to spend an extra three hours in solitude this week.  You'll be supprised in how

fulfilling it can be.

 

by Ivie Crawford

Ulysses

In the poem Ulysses, Lord Tennyson writes "I am part of all that I have met" as the character Ulysses reminicses on the battle of Troy.  I found that this quote relates to my own life, because I also believe that "I am part of all that I have met", meaning that my experiences in life have shaped and defined who I am today.  Lord Tennyson uses this quote to convey to the reader that everything Ulysses experience during the Battle of Troy and later during his Odyssey have allowed Ulysses to become the hero he is known as today.  It is through the pain and trials in life that we are able to grow and become that which we were meant to be.   Through this quote I found that my experiences in life have played a part in my becoming the person I am today, and that "all experience is as arch wherethrough gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades forever and forever when I move", meaning that what I have experienced and will experience in life has no bounds nor limitations.

--Rebekah Adeyemo

Big Fish

Watching The Big Fish in class seemed more like a privilege to me than an assignment. Note-taking was required to make sure that the student's were following along with the movie and knew what general archetypes and allusions there were. However, it felt like I was watching a step by step system of how to make the most of one's  own life. The similarities any kid's life to Edward Bloom's: the struggle for self-recognition, choosing fame and money over love, how to handle stressful situations with family members and friends, and many more instances that will alter the characteristics of any person. I sometimes get lost in thoughts for hours that drive me crazy. What am I doing here? How and why is this all possible? Is there an end to life or is it eternal? Watching this movie brings up some of these questions that spin in everyones' heads, no matter what age. It is kind of funny how the movie seems to have all the answers. Bloom goes on a risky adventure where he doesn't know what the end result will be, but somehow he always manages to reach a good destination. I disagree with this result. I feel life is not about reaching that good destination. If a single person focuses on one destination, what are the results if he or she passes or fails? What about all the other people, places, and things they are missing out on while they focus on one goal? Life is about the experiences, and while watching this movie, I noticed Bloom had many experiences, but they all ended up in a certain place, where in the real world, the end result is not the most important.

Cameron Tagge

The Garden

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Caroll mentions the garden multiple times. Alice has trouble finding her way into the garden, but desires to find a way to enter the garden.  The garden is a very strong symbol throughout the story.  It can mean any one of two things.  Since Alice is so set on finding an entrance to the garden, the garden represents desire and Alice wanting to escape her childhood innocence. The garden also symbolically stands for the Garden of Eden. It represents the Garden of Eden because it represents beauty and innocence at the same time.  Both of these allusions help pave way for Lewis Caroll to make sense of his story, and tell how Alice is young and naive.  The garden is where Alice wants to escape to but she is struggling to make her way through the gate but continues to try and find a way through just like and other child would.

Tamera Askarieh