10 Things I WIsh I'd Known When I Was A Freshman

I genuinely enjoyed high school. I knew what college I wanted to go to and I did what I needed to do to get easily accepted. Coming up with this list took a lot of thought and I'm still not sure how helpful it would be to someone other than me. I could easily make a list that would help other freshman like 'join clubs' or 'remember freshman year grades matter' but those aren't things I needed to hear. I mean I made mistakes but none that I would actually want to go back and fix.
1. Its okay to put yourself first sometimes. I fell best when others feel good. This isn't necessarily bad but it can be if it effects me getting something done. I can take care of other people and myself at the same time.
2. Focus more on learning the content and not just earning the A. The skill of fast memorization was very helpful in keeping my straight A's. I wish I would've spent more time focusing on learning for long term than just trying to know it for the test. I still learned quite a bit but I feel like I could've walked away with more knowledge,
3. Prepare more for the SAT and ACT. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I probably could've done better if I studied harder but would that stress be worth 1 point? I got high enough scores to get into the school I wanted, the programs, and additional scholarships.
4. Your sister is smarter, get over it, and do your best. That doesn't make her a better person or someone I should compare myself to. This one has always been a rough one to come to terms with. My sister took BC so why am I only taking AB?
5. Plan what need for the week out on Friday. I switch between my mom and dads house every single day and it seems that throughout the beginning of high school I forgot something more often than not. By planning out my outfits, food, workouts, and showers on Sunday I could make sure I had everything at the appropriate house before I wake up in the morning without anything to wear.
6. There are going to be teachers you don't like but the only thing you can do is suck it up. You need to remember that they deal with the same annoying kids as you and even the best teacher is going to have an off day. If you don't get along with a teacher just do the work assigned and stay quiet the rest of the bell.
7. Choose classes wisely. By doubling up in Math sophomore and junior year I didn't have much room for electives. Its not something I regret doing but after only being able to take yearbook for my senior year maybe I would've taken a math course over the summer to fit yearbook in.
8. Even if you worked for 5 hours and want to browse the web just go to bed. Doing homework up until bed time is never fun. Sleep doesn't sound like fun and you feel like you need some fun. If its after ten, brush your teeth and hit the hay.
9. Learn from your mistakes. If you mess up, don't dwell on it. Take a minute to reflect why it was wrong then learn from it & move on. Living in your past mistakes won't help your future.
10. Love yourself. This is something that I am still working on and will probably try to do forever. I wish I would've started to do this earlier in my high school career because its so important to happiness.
Overall I'm very happy with how high school went and sad to see it come to an end. I hope I can take all these lessons I learned and apply them successfully in college.

Goodreads

I don't often read books during the school year because I get consumed in the story and can't stop. I read a few short e books and its a good thing they were short because I didn't stop till they stopped. I was scrolling through the recommendations in my yearbook so a lot of these come from the girls sitting next to me.

What to Eat by Marion Nestle

I'm very interested in food and nutrition and this books seems to be the guide to a general set of rules to follow. While I would love to dive deeper into specific areas of nutrition I think it is best to get a good grip on the general sense of healthly first.

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
This was actually a suggestion made by my friend who was watching me scroll through the goodreads recommendations page. From the cover it looks like a teenage romance but this is actually a trilogy that involves weddings and family. My friend suggested it on the basis that she liked it so who really knows how much I'll enjoy it. It seems really dramatic and it is always better to read it than live it.

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
I have watched John Green on YouTube for awhile now and for some reason I have never read one of his books. I would put all of them on this list but I feel like that would be cheating. So, I'll put one as a place holder for all. I have read little excerpts from a variety of his novels and I really enjoyed his writing style. Of all his books, this one has grabbed the most attention so I figured I'd read it first.

Love Story by Jennifer Echols
This story is your classic teen romance novel that is great to read while laying by the pool. It seems like an easy read though it has an interesting plot where the main character is a writer and so is the boy. They basically write about each other until they find out the truth(or maybe they don't but usually these books have happy, lovey-dovey endings).  

Stiff by Mary Roach
This book was recommended for me but Liz was reading it the other day and it sounded interesting. Science is probably my favorite type of non-fiction and I always wanted to take anatomy I just never had the room in my schedule. From the reviews it seems like even though it is research based it is actually quite funny and a light read. Dead bodies don't really freak me out but I'm glad she is said to refrain from gross terminology. 

Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
I think this book would be a good read because its about a girl learning that good things will happen as long as your not skeptical and let them. This is something that I should probably work on before college and watching someone else go through it might help me out.







                                   
The Glass Caslte by Jeannette Walls
I have heard so many amazing things about this book that I thought it was about time to give it a read. It sounds like the type of book that will have you crying out of pain and triumph. From the summary this girls life sounds so intense and interesting I just want to know what happens to her and if she succeeds despite it all. 





The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My whole family has gone through the series so I figured it was my turn. After seeing the movie I couldn't get the thought out of my head of how everything was described in the book. The costumes were so amazing that I just need to read how they were described because as always that is going to be more detailed than what you see. I really enjoyed the movie but I find I like reading action more than watching it. With Harry Potter the action scenes of the books are my favorite but my least favorite part of the movies. I also want to get through the other two before their movies come out.

The A-List by Zoey Dean
This is a story about a teenage girl who moves to L.A. to finish up high school and finds her self sucked into the Hollywood lifestyle. I enjoy reading books like this because it is most likely something I wouldn't find myself doing. Its a series so i;m sure somewhere along the line there is a romance but it seems more like an up-beat, fast-paced, fun book.

The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O'Brien & Rachel Kranz
Seeing as next year I am going to be completely incharge of what goes into my body I definitely want to read more about the processed foods so loved by our nation. This book is written by a mother so I have a feeling. It is said to have information about why these foods should not be eaten and then it also provides recipes and an action plan to keep yourself healthy. 









     Books can be kind of pricey but after reading all of the reviews for these books I cannot wait to stop by Half Price Books on my way home from school on Friday. I find that if I'm truly intrigued by a book I can knock it out in a day so I'm thinking about stocking up! After I ask around to see what friends of mine have these books I'm going to set out to find the others. 

Capstone Night Debrief

     The adjectives I could use to describe Capstone night could take up half a phone book. It was fun, interesting, awkward, relieving, nerve-racking, casual, educational, and so much more. It was a mixture between what I expected it to be and things I could never of prepared for.

   
     I think it would've been cool to have a chance to present in the IMC because it seemed more conversational and different to how it went in class. My room was one reviewer and 3 students. I thought it was going to be weird because it was such a big room with only a few people but our community reviewer was really casual and made it more comfortable. None of us really need the whiteboard but we had it so we used it and the technology worked perfectly so that was nice.

     The hour before the community reviewer arrived was a whole lot of awkward. I was in a room with two students I had never talked to and we all just wanted to present already. It was filled with a cycle of 5 minutes of good conversation about our topics or college then 10 minutes of awkward silence.  Once our community reviewer arrived we got things underway pretty fast. 

     I was the first to present and my opening was a little out of order. This is because I got up there, introduced myself,  and then saw my note cards sitting by my phone. I knew my information and speech well enough to go on without them but it just shook me up a little bit at first. I think it went about the same as it did in class but while I'm presenting things my mind goes blank and I don't really remember what happens. At the end she asked a really good question that I hadn't really put much thought into about the cost efficiency of healthy baking. That is definitely something I want to look into more because I feel a lot of people use cost as an excuse to eat unhealthy foods.

     I made my muffins again and it reminded me how this class wasn't just for a grade but I learned a lot. I literally was able to take my question and what I spent months researching and bring it to life. It was easy and it worked which makes healthy baking all the more appealing. 

Counterinsurgency

     I think the ideas carried out in this video could have similar effects elsewhere in the nation. It seemed to work so well for them because the cops had background in the field so training for other cops would definitely be necessary. The good thing is its a simple idea that anyone can follow. It does seem like it would work best for a gang situation but opening up the information lines between cops and witnesses is always going to be helpful.

I thought the web of social connections was a really cool way to dismantle a gangs connections. It makes sense that once you track the main connection lines that cutting them would lead to the gang crumbling. As you can see in the pictures you get left with smaller and smaller groups as you cut connection lines. The formulas and technology they used to make the webs was also really intriguing. The only problem would be that if Harvard students were the ones surveying the area and making all of this work can we really do this everywhere? I mean there is a limited suplly of Harvard students and I'm not sure if the technology/strategy is simple enough for them to teach others.

     One of the most important parts of ounterinsurgency is to get the community on your side. You need the people who witness these crimes to have the ability and want to let the cops know. I thought the cop talking to the neighbors after the home invasion was such a good idea. Seeing people angrily rush by with guns can be scary, even if you know they are the good guys. So by the cops talking to the neighbors in a charasmatic way they may be more likely to open up and give valuable information to the cops. With the combination of friendly cops and powerful technology I can see this as the best way to stop gangs. 

     I think this is a great idea for schools. I have never once in my life talked to OPP and as a student I've herad some things I'm sure he would like to know. I would feel awkward and like a snitch going up to him. Now if it was something that threatened someone's life or was a federal crime of course I would tell him but there are plenty of petty offenses that go on with what seems like a blind eye. Now the one difference is I don't really think the web thing would work for us because there are so many different social groups that get up to their own antics. I believe this could really help a school with gang problems and is definitely worth a shot.

Research Progress Blog #5

     Coming into this week my paper was pretty close to being done. I decided I didn't want to rush myself into finishing it early and just took an hour with it each night. By Thursday night all I did was a read through for flow and making sure my paper followed the checklist we were given last Friday. Even though doing it this way kept the stress of the paper on me it also gave me the opportunity to sleep on it and re-read it with fresh eyes. I changed some things on Thursday night and if I had the chance to read it again I would probably change more. What's written is written though and now it is out of my hands.

     Along with editing my paper I started to brainstorm ways to make my presentation effectively cover my topic without being boring. I decided that there is no better way to keep teenagers attention than with food! Since this class is in the morning I decided I wanted to find a muffin recipe that used a few of the substitutions I mentioned in my paper. I found these blueberry oatmeal muffins that actually use a lot of the substitutions I mention in my paper. Because of this I think for my presentation I will start with the muffin then use it as an example to guide me through my paper.

     I'm a little nervous about baking something for the presentation because you never really know how a baked good is going to turn out. This is a popular blog so I trust that they turned out good when she made them but me making them is a different story. I've baked plenty of things before but when things aren't definite they worry me. I am going to make the muffins Sunday night so I know I have enough time to focus on the cooking. Since I'm presenting on Tuesday I think leaving them in an air tight container should keep them fresh (fingers crossed!).

     I'm really excited to make these muffins. Like super excited (probably too excited). Its just I've been reading about these substitutions and how awesome they are for months and I haven't had an excuse to try them. I mean if its for school my dad has to let me buy these ingredients. The cool thing is though I already do have most of the ingredients so if these turn out they really could become an everyday breakfast.

     I have my presentation outline sketched out and now I just need to add in the wording and more details. What I found though was I know a lot about my paper. Like I'm not going to have to memorize facts to present I'm just going to need to memorize the order. I get anxiety about speaking but by going on a day with only half the class and feeling comfortable with the people in the half I think I'll have just enough nerves to give me the energy for a good performance.
 

Motivation

     To me this video felt like an animated TED talk. TED talks are always interesting but because of the animation I couldn't stop watching and listening to this video. The color scheme of simple black and red kept me focused on the words being said more so than the pictures. Another thing the animation did was very quickly reinforce what Pink was saying. If I didn't catch a word or missed a point the illustrations were a fun way to catch me back up.

     Obviously for a teenager school is going to be one of those things that you need motivation for. Its not something you roll out of bed in the morning longing to do. In school I think we can equate money to grades and purpose/mastery to how your teachers feel about you & you feel about yourself. There are definitely some  classes where I could get an 'A' without really understanding what I'm doing. If the class is gym and I feel like I'll get nothing out of it or I don't respect the teacher I might take that path. One of my main motivators though is not disappointing myself or my teachers when I know I can do better. The last day of third quarter I had three tests. In all of those classes I had at least a 98%. I could've not studied, bombed them all, and still kept my 'A'. But then I started to think about my teachers grading those tests. They would know I didn't study. I would feel like I let them down. I mean they spend their whole day teaching and I can't even try on a test? So, I studied for them all and got A's. Now semester exams were a different story. My motivation every year to get A's on my exams is that I get exempt from the final. Well this year since I don't have to take any my goal was to get the grade that could still give me an A for the year. The only class I was worried about not even being able to get a C on was AP Bio. So I studied for 12 hours and ended up getting a A. Maybe if I had put that much effort into my other classes I could have gotten all A's. But what I lacked was the motivation for that. I think this is because semester exams are supposed to be hard. Teachers understand that you have 6 others to take and that you probably won't perform to your usual caliber.

     Throughout the video I think Pink made very good points and backed them up with a lot of evidence. Its hard to argue against someone when you don't know much about the field and they are providing study after study in their favor. It makes sense to me that simple tasks can be improved upon when you are given a money incentive. These tasks are usually accomplished best by the hardest worker, not the most skill. One thing I wish he did more was go into more detail about why more money made you worse. I get that it does but are there any reasons why? I'll definitely have to look that up soon.

     Since I am going to be in college next year I started to try and apply this video to how motivated someone is in college. After thinking for awhile it occurred to me that it is just a completely different idea. I think money is the number one motivator in college. You are not going to want to fork over thousands of dollars to just sit there and do nothing. I remember reading about one study where kids who paid their own admission to college did better. This makes perfect sense to me. It follows the phrase "get more bang for your buck." If it actually is your buck you're going to want to get as much out of it as possible! I'm just thankful my parents don't know about this study.

I'll leave you with my favorite motivational quote: "Failure doesn't come from falling down. Failure comes from not getting up."

Research Progress Blog #4

     Spring break went how I expected. We got home from our daily activities around 9, I would fire up my laptop, and just outline facts. By Saturday morning when we got home I had my organization down with my research but absolutely no flow. Realizing this made me very thankful that the due date was moved to Tuesday. That weekend I spent most of my time trying to make my sentences mesh and my paper feel less like a fact sheet.
  
     On Monday it actually wasn't freezing and if you know me then you know I can not stand the cold, so clearly I had to go outside. I live near Pioneer park so I walked to the park, ran around the track there, then walked back. Maybe it wasn't the most productive hour of my life but it felt good. It cleared my head and left me ready to get to work. The rest of my evening was spent trying to bulk up my now flowing paper with more research.

     When I went into my email to download my rough draft on Tuesday I saw I had an email from Cooking Light. I had messaged them the very first day we were asked to find someone to interview, so about a month ago. I received a response fairly quickly but it was just a sentence or two saying they just recommend everything in moderation. Well, the people at Cooking Light must forwarded my message directly to the chef because I now had this brand new source to use for my paper waiting in my inbox. As you can see in the photo pictured right she wrote a lot. I hadn't even asked an questions in my email; just a quick "Hello I'm writing a paper." Immediately I sorted through and added it to my paper. She covered everything from fats to sugars so I think it was really beneficial to not only my paper, but my understanding of how to change a preexisting recipe.
 
     One thing I've realized over the past few months is that this paper is always on my mind, in a good way. By that I mean in my free time, if I'm looking at recipes, instead of just getting ideas for my kitchen, I'm finding comments that lead me to research things for my paper. I never would've know to research about flax eggs if i didn't find myself casually scrolling through a vegan recipe blog. The research part has been so easy because I truly enjoy it. I said in my last post that I was worried I was going to be burnt out on my topic it and hate it by the end of this project but, just the opposite is happening. The more I find out the more I want to learn. When I learn about a new substitution idea I want to look into it more. Researching has also taught me tricks in the kitchen that I've been testing. One thing I've tried is replacing all-purpose flour with oat flour. To make the flour I took some rolled oats (like the kind you use to make oatmeal) added them to a coffee grinder and pressed go! I was left with a nice flour consistency that worked out perfectly in my muffins.

     The reason this paper has been tough for me is because I'm the type of person where if you give me an assignment that doesn't have an official 'end' I won't stop working on it. What I mean is that if I have 5 math problems for homework, I know once I get an answer for all five I'm done and can move on to the rest. Well with papers they never really have an end. You can't look at a draft and say its done, it could always use some editing. So Monday and Tuesday night I found my self constantly adding more and changing wording and by 11:30 on Tuesday night I was done. Done in every sense of the word. I had emailed it and never wanted to see it again. Because of this, on Wednesday I took a much needed break. I had already had all my sources in easybib so I created my works cited in seconds. After a days mental rest from working on this paper I took the comments made from onto my rough draft and put them into action. This weekend I am looking forwarded to starting my section five and tweaking sections 1-4 a little more.