My Old Town Alexandria Day Trips

This post was initially gonna be about Otakon, but then I decided I didn't feel inspired enough to write an entire blog post about it. TL;DR the con was really fun and super chill.

I've actually taken two day trips down to Alexandria this summer: the first one was with my mom's cousin when she was in town, and the second one was as a birthday celebration since I wanted to go back to Old Town. I didn't expect to enjoy it so much!

I'm not sure I'm happy with how this looks, but I made this entire post the night before it went up, and I'm tired enough from walking up and down King Street that I kind of don't care it looks amateur-ish. Forgive me? 

This post is really image-heavy.

What I Really Learned in High School

No, not what I actually learned in school. I don't think that'd be all that interesting.

Like the slam poetry my English teacher recently showed us said, the most important lessons aren't actually the ones we've been taught.

At the time this is posted, I'll be sitting through my high school graduation ceremony. I figured I'd reflect on what I'd picked up non-academically through four years of public high school.

This is actually the closest picture I can find to the beginning of my freshman year;; We apparently have no pictures from the first day, which honestly, is only slightly surprising. 

This was taken on Friday at our senior picnic. This last week or so of classes was hands-down the most fun I've had all of high school, and I'm really glad I was able to document some of it. 

Friends are #1

I've been lucky in the fact that my middle school was the only feeder school for my high school, so I've been with most of my classmates since 6th grade. I was lucky in that my closest friends from elementary school ended up at the same high school, too, despite the different tracking we did in middle school. 

I'm also lucky in the fact that (what seems like) half my graduating class is going to community college, which means I don't really have to say goodbye to them yet. I may not have talked to a lot of my classmates much, but I still have enjoyed seeing them every day in class or even just in passing in the hallway. I've made a lot of good friends over the years and I've learned a lot from all of them. I still can't imagine what it will be like in the future to not see them every day, or to see them move across the world to follow their dreams. 

Find your effort level. 
As I like to repeat over and over again, I've had senioritis since freshman year. I actually did my homework back then, of course, at least on a semi-regular basis. But what's the fun in that?

I got my first "hard" class in sophomore year when I took AP NSL. I actually had to read for that class. And I kept up! I also had a really good teacher who was scary when we all failed, so of course we tried our best collectively not to get on her bad side.

After passing AP NSL, everything else has seemed pretty easy. I've taken five AP courses -- just one short of getting a medal ;; 

Of course, I've gotten more lectures than I can count about "needing to try harder in school" and "developing a better work ethic", but I don't really see either of those developing in college, either. I've been spoiled by public school and all the regulations of No Child Left Behind. In case you haven't been in school since 2001, NCLB basically brings everyone down to the lowest child instead of trying to elevate the lower kids in the class. The HSAs we took for our graduation requirements were so easy you'd probably have to actively try to fail them.

I can't tell you how grateful I am that I took 6 elective classes this year. I had so much more time to devote to what I actually wanted to do. Honestly, if you're an underclassman, please don't stress yourself out by taking too many hard courses. I don't think it's worth it. Enjoy your life!!

Work smart, not hard.
My English teacher told us this last year and it was a complete revelation for me because I'd finally found a way to put my outlook on life into words. A lot of kids at my school -- especially the underclassmen -- put in a lot more effort into their schoolwork than they need to. Like, I know getting good grades is nice, but I really don't see the point in sacrificing health and friendships just to get the best grade on an assignment.

Of course, I'm pretty sure a lot of people could argue that this motto has just made me more lazy, but ┐( •̀ᄇ• ́)┌ Sorry not sorry that I had hours more free time to do what I want than you did because you decided to do work the hard way.

I love writing.
I'd written on and off through elementary and middle school, but it was never coherent and I never shared it with anyone. (And I never will. It was terrible.) Two of my friends were working on a Pokemon fanfiction, and that inspired me to write my own. It was my first real attempt at storytelling coherently, and while I can't write off my fanfics as "worthless" or anything like that, I obviously didn't really know what I was doing. And I still don't really know even now.

But that basis in fanfiction that diverged from canon opened me up to a ton of "what ifs" that have now become Aperture. It's two years old at this point and I can see how much I've improved just by looking at where I started with it.

Aperture has also allowed me to preserve some of my experiences and memories into writing. I have to adapt a lot of things in order to make it fit, but doing so helps me remember it better, and I'm glad that I have so much to look back on later. A lot of my friends have become or have inspired characters -- whether they know it or not -- and I'm really grateful to all of them. My friends have put up with endless talk about Aperture and have helped me brainstorm and improve the story, and I can only hope that I do them justice in my writing.

Anyway, I guess I was lucky in the fact that high school wasn't absolute hell for me. I actually enjoyed it -- this year especially. It's strange to think that today is something I could never really picture happening. Back in elementary school, or even in sophomore year, I could never really picture myself being here. I'm sad to think about how I have to move on from this period of time, but I hope that the coming years are just as bright.

Recently, I've been thinking more and more about that rhetorical question about how your younger self would see you. I specifically remember trying to picture myself here in 5th grade, but I don't really know how I would've reacted to how I am now. I don't think I've changed much. I actually think I would be amazed at how little has changed, to see that I still have such great friends and that I have so many wonderful memories.

I'd also be really embarrassed of the melancholic mood I've put myself in trying to write this, so I'll stop here. I guess I don't have too much to be sad about, because like I said, I'm not losing as much as I could be.

Edit: I've officially graduated!!

I cried during graduation. More than once. I only made it fifteen minutes into the ceremony before I turned into a hot mess. Despite that, though, I had a lot of fun today. I got to spend a lot of time with my family and friends and I'm really grateful for that. 

Prom 2015

This is my 100th post!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

My prom was May 15th on the Spirit of Baltimore boat. I'd been anticipating it for a while, but it was more along the lines of the worries I had going to Katsucon my first time five years ago; in concept, prom is really not my thing, so I was worried about how it would go.

And in all honesty, it went so much better than I expected. I don't think I could've wished for anything better.

One of my classmates asked me to prom back in March. We'd had classes together since back in middle school, but we never talked enough to become close friends or anything, so I was really surprised when it happened!

Just like at homecoming, I didn't dance at prom;; there were two different dance floors but they were both too loud and too crowded, even if I did ever dance in the first place. My friends were gathered in a couple different groups that kept shifting, so for most of the night I just walked around the ship and hung out with different friend groups. We stayed up at the front of the top deck as we returned back into the Inner Harbor. It was soooooo pretty but it was too dark to get a picture (｡•́︿•̀｡)

The food they served was actually really good! I ate like a six year old but oh my gosh the mac and cheese had to have been made with queso (like, nacho queso) and it was awesome. The brownie was also super hella, even after I got the dressing from my mini-salad on it.

I actually don't have many pictures from prom itself because the lighting on the boat was so poor D: I really love how this picture turned out, though!! We got to the community center in enough time in the afternoon that we got to mill around with our classmates before the buses left. 

I dozed off on the bus ride back to the community center where we had our after prom. I didn't expect to stay all that long, but I was surprisingly still energized and I ended up staying 'til the very end! My friends splintered off again, so I spent a lot of time just wandering around and talking to different friends at different times.

The rec room was set up like a Las Vegas casino and it was actually pretty cool! They had tables for blackjack and roulette, and I didn't know how to play anything, but my friends played for a long time.

They had two inflatable things set up in the gym of the center: one was an obstacle course with a big slide and one was a laser tag maze. My friends and I played laser tag sooo many times and I actually managed to win once!

We were really vicious with each other  \(۶•̀ᴗ•́)۶/ I ran into my friend by accident at one point and the left side of my face hurt from where he'd gotten me;; I really would love to play with my friends again! It was really really fun trying to kick everyone else's butts (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑

Somehow I managed to keep going for 24 hours straight! I didn't get to take a nap between coming home from school Friday afternoon and having to get ready, and the only real down time I had was the half-hour nap on the bus ride back. I ended up staying up until 7:30 the morning after just to be able to say I'd been up for a full day straight. (Which I guess doesn't really count with falling asleep on the ride back, but shhhh nobody needs to know that.)

These were taken at like three in the morning and after a whole bunch of laser tag games so I kind of look like a hot mess. I think I really only have selfies with one other friend, and they're on her phone because her camera was better in the low light of the boat;; 

I'm really grateful that I got to spend so much time with my friends. It was a lot different being able to hang out with so many of them at the same time outside of school, where we didn't have to worry about schoolwork or schedule restrictions. Most of my friends aren't going away to college, so I hope that we can experience something like this again ♥

I got an airbrush tattoo of the kanji for "love" on my left arm (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) There was a long line for the tattoos at the beginning, but by around 3 it had died down completely so I decided to get one. I got 愛 since I knew that it was correct -- I wasn't 100% sure that the other characters were correct, or if they were the Chinese versions of the character / meaning. I was afraid it would wash off really easily, but it's still on my arm, so I'm really happy (ؑᵒᵕؑ̇ᵒ)◞✧

I don't really remember most of the songs they played, especially because there were three different sets of speakers, but here's a little mini playlist!

They played this song at some point during the night, and I listened to it on repeat once I got home the next morning. It's so chill (୨୧ ❛ᴗ❛)✧ It matched the mood of the night for me.

One of the kids riding on my bus played this song on the way up to Baltimore and it made me really happy. I really like the feeling of the song.

They played this as we were coming back into the harbor, and both me and the guy I went with were really surprised. It was a song he'd shown me and I don't think either of us expected that it would get played! 

They played this song immediately after they announced the prom king and queen and omg it made me want to cry (｡•́ ヘ•̀｡) I'm not ready to say goodbye to a lot of my classmates. Even though my friend group is pretty small, our whole class has been together since 6th grade, and it's scary to think that we'll never really be the same group again. 

Maryland Day 2015

Last Saturday was Maryland Day, which is basically a huge open campus day at UMD where they show off a whole bunch of cool stuff. Mom said this was our 16th year going to it, which is kind of impressive.

We didn't do much this year that was different than the previous years except for going to see the science and tech stuff. I was more interested in the robotics stuff because that's our current unit in Computer Science, though I've missed a couple days of the lessons and am completely lost on what's going on;; Still, I keep saying I want to be the next Honey Lemon, so I capitalized on my chance to look at some stuff hands-on. (One of the guys that led the tour for the engineering building even looked like Tadashi.) My cousins and I got to do a laser obstacle course, which was actually really fun. They set it up to be exactly like you would expect, complete with the Mission Impossible theme playing on loop and a warning buzzer if you touched one of the laser beams.

Somehow the line for ice cream was never that long! I ended up getting ice cream twice since the line was down to nothing the second time I passed by it;; (My family talked me into it. I wouldn't have gotten a second serving otherwise.)

I usually just get strawberry, but I decided to try the vanilla one, too. I grabbed the strawberry one the first time because it was almost overfilled, and then I regretted having basically just ice cream in my stomach;; And then I ended up eating more! Not the best decision. 

We did a paper airplane contest from the portico of one of the libraries and I won somehow! My airplane went like twice the distance of everyone else's, and I almost hit someone;; A guy walking by ended up hitting my paper airplane out of the air, and I think they kept it ;o; I kind of wanted to keep it ...

 

I was on the far right of the balcony with the sign on it, and I took the picture from about where it had landed. I think the perspective got a little skewed with the camera, but it went so much further than I expected it to. I also took a picture of the directions they gave us if you guys wanna try it at all!

I ended up not really getting any free stuff. All I came home with was an origami bookmark, a pair of sunglasses, and the "Official Terp Get It Done Guide", all of which I'm pretty sure I own already from last year. And I think maybe a pencil. I think it balances out all those years I came home with twenty million pens and flyers.