On My Mind

1. High school- it's new, it's exciting, and I'm doing well, even though I'm playing tennis and I'm taking the hardest classes offered to me. I've joined two clubs: Amnesty International and our school's newspaper. I'm thinking about joining Chess Club. I'm also continuing my position as a student ambassador, which means I get to tour new families around the school.
2. Tennis- I'm really enjoying playing it at school with my team as well as watching and obsessing over the U.S. Open.
3. Writing- I have several writing projects going on right now. I have a dystopian novel that I've been working on, and I've decided to revise Keep Running (last year's Nano novel) more. I've been researching tips on revising and rewriting.
4. Change- everything that's happened since middle school. More on that on another blog post coming soon. By the way, sorry I haven't been able to post frequently. :/ I'll try to be better at being more consistent.

-Cora

Nostalgia

Nostalgia.
The last weeks of school this year.
The last days of middle school.
The last hours of homework,
The last minutes of classes,
The last moments before ...
The last time I hear those sweet sounds.
The last time the children tap their feet in anticipation and stare at the clock, and, when the time comes, jump up and scream.
It's the last time they are children.
We'll all be older next year,
expected to be more mature,
to behave properly,
to not be childish.
The last time we steal each other's lunch boxes,
The last time we lay in the Commons and stretch,
The last time we jump down from bleachers,
The last time we have fun at the playground,
The last time we have a middle school dance,
The last time we're all together,
All of these last times …
Nostalgia.
Will I ever forget?

Acts of Good #61, 62, and 63

1. Yesterday, I jogged for an hour and twenty minutes (with a few breaks in between). I really don't like running or jogging, but I figured that I would do it just to get some extra exercise. :)
2. I did extra (and probably unnecessary) Mandarin studying for a dictation quiz, which will definitely help me in the long run. :)
3. I organized my bathroom with my Mom today, which REALLY helped. I'm extremely glad that I did it, and it'll make everything easier to find. (I have a lot of drawers and cupboards that were SO cluttered!)

Act of Good #60

I got second in my grade in a math competition! Part of it was probably just luck, but I feel like I did really well for what I expected before I took it. I just wanted to commend myself for that. :)

Acts of Good #56, 57, 58, and 59

1) Today, Mollie couldn't come to school because her plane was cancelled, so I took the time to email her the homework, though it was quite a tight squeeze with Student Government, and I was actually a bit late to the meeting, but I'm still glad that I wrote her. :)
2) Speaking of Mollie, she usually announces for people to remember to compost, so I took over that role for her- though now that I think about it, I'm not sure if anyone remembered to even bring the compost bin out... *sigh*
3) We took a math contest during math class today, and surprisingly (since I hate those things), I think I did pretty well, and I made sure to take my time in finishing it up, though the other people in my class had already left to go to our next class (which happened to be Gym). It made me late compared to everyone else, and I took much longer to run the laps required of us, but I dealt with it. I actually ended up coming out on time, and it worked out fine. I'm glad that I spent an extra few minutes trying to finish it up to the best of my ability.
4) We have some kids who are younger than us in our gym class, so I took the opportunity to try to socialize with them a bit, but I'm not sure how well that worked...

Acts of Good #48, 49, and 50

Happy belated Valentine's Day, everyone! Yesterday, a guy in our grade gave every girl a flower. Isn't that really nice? Anyway- by the end of the day, someone's had shriveled up, and they threw it away, so I took it over to the compost bin.

I also made an effort to help as many people who were younger than me as possible with their homework during study hall, which made me feel really good. I guess that's one of the benefits of doing acts of good!

Today, I made a sandwich for my mom and went shopping with her. I don't usually go shopping, since I really dislike the activity, though we were looking for toys for my younger cousins, so it was a technique to persuade me to do something I didn't want to do.

That was my 50th act of good! Yay! I think I'm going to do something nice for the 100th that I do.

Anyway, now I have to go do homework. Talk to you later!

-Cora

Update and Acts of Good #32 and #33

Acts of good that I did recently:

1) I collected a bunch of leftover food from home and brought it to our school's compost bin: three cheers to Mollie for setting that up!

2) I turned off a lot of lights today, around the house, and at school. Yay!

Anyway, a short update:

• Our school play is going to have its opening night tomorrow, and I'm kind of scared because a lot of people aren't ready since we missed two days of school because of the snow.
• Umm, I kinda touched on that up there ^. We had no school for two days because of our weather- thick black ice, drifting snow, etc.- and power outages.
• The end of this trimester at school is coming to an end, so I have a feeling that I'm going to have to start bracing myself against the tests that will probably come rushing my way- which means that I might not be posting as often as I usually do, so just a heads up on that. Is that phrase even proper grammar?
• I'm reading Night, by Elie Wiesel, in school, and I'm extremely depressed about it. By the way, if you were wondering, the poem that I posted on here earlier, the Other side of the world, was inspired by that book. I'm also going to probably post something else that I wrote today as a response of Night.
• On a happier note, we're having an advisory- which, in case you don't know, is like a small group of students from different grades that basically hangs out twice a week together and has a teacher who is basically the head of it who you go to with any questions or concerns you have- ice cream party tomorrow!

So... I have to go for now, and this weekend is going to be extremely hectic... so, I'll write to you whenever possible!

-Cora

Studying: An Update, and Acts of Good #18 and #19

Just letting you know: I've been really busy recently with studying for tests and quizzes and I had a migraine and fever yesterday, so I might not post for a while.

I also sent miss-you wishes to an Oxford friend and helped a teacher at my school by taking down extra chairs. Small, yet worthy acts. :)
-Cora

Act of Good #17

I couldn't sleep knowing I hadn't written this, plus I have a headache. I'll try to make this quick.

I recently was selected as a student ambassador at my school, which basically means that I show people around and tell them everything that's great about the school I attend and tour them around on special occasions- for example, today was Open House. It was a really organized event- a few faculty members and high students at our school made speeches, most of the teachers were there, and we all got official printed name tags.

I led around a group along with Mollie. It was just a boy and his mom wanting to know what our school was about. I really loved the experience of talking to them and taking them around to all of our different classrooms and showcasing everything that I love about my school. It was great, and I really felt like it was an act of good. By this student making this choice of switching to our school, if he follows through with it, it will make a difference in his life, no matter what happens, if he likes it or not. But I absolutely adore my school, and I know that it was an act of good simply by going to the school- making the effort to even go to the school, though my weekend was completely hectic, with tennis, SAT, homework, and rehearsal. On top of that, the Open House event seemed a bit strenuous, but I made it work.

It felt like an act of good to me, one that I hope will benefit others as well as myself- for I certainly learned a lot from talking to other people about the place I spend a lot of my time in. It's not just a school for me. It's so much more. As I talked more and more, I realized exactly how passionate I am about my school and what aspects I enjoyed the most- its small, nurturing community, the closeness of the people around you- friends, peers, teachers... the list goes on. I'm thankful for that, and that I was given this wonderful opportunity.

Thanks for reading this, and good night!
-Cora