Vicology

      Besides this class, I have juniors in every one of my other classes. That means I get to listen in on their conversations that I remember myself having last year. The one I hear the most at the moment is, "I can't believe I have to write an essay every week in English, it's literally the worst thing ever". Sounds familiar right? Whenever I hear them freaking out about 11 AP, I laugh internally, reflecting back on the essay-every-Monday days. I thought last year was the peak of my writing arc but looking back on this semester, I realized that there's so much I've learned about my writing style and reading beyond the surface level.     Writing blog posts in addition to in-class essays helped me recognize how to write differently in order to cater to a specific audience. While in-class essays carry a formal tone with more challenging vocabulary, I find myself writing in a friendlier tone in my blogs - replacing much of the "smart" sentences with c...

       Have you ever been in a situation where your opinion didn’t match the majority opinion? What did you do in that situation? Did you stand your ground? Or did you conform to everyone else’s opinion? Solomon Asch asked the same questions. He conducted an experiment – in what is now known as the “Asch experiment”. He showed his participants this picture…      He then asked which one of the three lines on the right was the same length as the one on the left. To test conformity, 7 out of the 8 participants were instructed to purposely give an incorrect answer. The real participant was seated at the end, unknowingly forced to give their answer last. Asch wanted to see if the test subject would conform to the majority view or give the right answer. The results were shocking. Asch’s data concluded that about 75% of test subjects conformed at least once out of the 12 trials (McLeod). Even when there was a clear right answer, participants chose to do what ...

          Smh. Abbreviation for "shake my head". It's used to convey disappointment and dissatisfaction. The avoidable tragedy of Othello had me "smh"ing for sure.           The story of Othello reminded me of a movie I watched over Thanksgiving break. It's called Love, Rosie. It follows the life of Rosie, specifically her situationship with her best friend Alex. Rosie and Alex are best friends since, practically, birth. Like any romantic comedy, Rosie obviously starts to develop feelings for Alex as they grow and mature together. From the audience's perspective, we clearly see that Alex has the same feelings, but Rosie can't see that because they won't communicate with each other. Their miscommunication leads to them going to their annual school dance separately with other dates, which leads to Rosie getting pregnant by a different man, which leads to Alex going to college abroad alone (they had agreed to study abroad together but ...

      I just finished 1st quarter of senior year. My last 1st quarter of my pre-college academic career. It's crazy to think about. 3 more quarters and I'm out of here for good.       Here's a short little reflection. Was it a good quarter? Meh. Did I have a mental breakdown? Um... next question. How many times did I cry? I'd say only a few... I think. Is senioritis hitting? It's been hitting since day one and I've never looked back!      But the real question I'm asking myself now is  "Will I graduate with all A's?". My answer is "does it really matter?".     If this past quarter has taught me anything, it's that grades really don't define who you are as a student or person. I know you've probably been told that literally a million times now by your teachers, parents, friends, etc. but I truly believe that statement. Here's why.     AP Calculus BC, the home to all my blood, sweat, tears, and stress. God can anyo...

             From the differing environments of adolescence to external factors of adulthood, perspectives are unique and ever-changing. We’ll honestly never truly know what is right or wrong because our different subjective lens creates different stories. Our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, imaginations, dreams, and theories are changed by our views of the world. Some people will have a broad understanding of the world while some will have a limited lens that cannot see past certain points. So, how does restrictiveness change the way people view the world? In our society, perspective shapes reality and limiting that perspective will negatively affect outside relationships.             Where the Crawdads Sing  follows the life of Kya, a girl who knows the feeling of abandonment like the ABCs and lives a life of isolation. Her world only has one constant factor and it’s not a human relationship but her relationship with natu...

     Humans. We are the only species capable of feeling and experiencing all kinds of emotions. Unlike other animals, we have the ability to create emotional connections.      When I was younger, I used to be scared of emotions. I thought that happiness was the only valid emotion to feel without being judged. But now, I let my emotions run wild. If I'm sad, I'm going to choose to be sad. If I'm mad, I'm going to allow myself to be mad. If I'm happy, I'm going to let myself be happy. I'm not scared to publicize my emotions because I know we are all binded together by human connection. The human mind was created to feel different emotions and I believe that we should all embrace that.      On the contrary, the main character of  Where the Crawdads Sing,  Kya ,  lacks this emotional connection to people after being abandoned by her family at a young age. She must navigate through life by herself with little help from outside sourc...

    Hubris is arrogance, overconfidence, and overambition all wrapped up in one word. I'm guessing we are all familiar with the word pride. Well, just multiply pride by 10 and you will get hubris. It relates to excessive pride that becomes so big that it gets blown out of proportion and leads someone to their downfall. I experienced this once and I swear to myself that I will never, ever go through it again. 6th grade. Fresh out of elementary school. Entering the world of 6 different classes every day. 6 different teachers. 6 times the amount of studying. Actually, in my case 5 times the amount of studying. Why only 5? Because my dumb 11-year-old self thought I was a math genius.     Coming out of 5th grade, I was put into the honors 6/7 math class, the honors math class for 6th graders. Being put into that class made my ego WAY too big for my liking. I relied too much on my prior knowledge that I didn't necessarily study for my first test. I only put minimal effort ...