Me as a Writer

This year, I've learned to wright as myself. I've developed a voice that isn't imitating anyone else or trying to be some boring, factual robot. I've figured out that you can just basically put what you're thinking on a page, and that's fine.. sometimes the result is actually pretty good.  I've also learned that I'm not quite as bad at writing as I thought. It's been so much fun to have people actually read my writing for the first time, and to watch their reactions.

I'm going to say pretty much the same thing I said in the last "Me as a Writer" piece. I really liked the journal projects, I think they helped me more than anything in just figuring out how to write. And though I didn't like the timed writings, they did really help me learn to write under pressure without freaking out. I think as time goes on I'll want to keep writing journals occasionally, just because they're fun. I'll also keep working on vocab, because just having a bigger vocabulary really helps in writing. For me, the most meaningful parts of the class were the lectures more then the assignments. In 5 years, I'll probably still remember Ms. Smith's talks about how grades don't define you, and how she helped me calm down about a lot of stuff. I also loves when we talked about books like Great Gatsby and Huck Finn, and things were pointed out that I hadn't even thought of.

For the most part, I really liked the class as it was. But since we're supposed to give constructive criticism here, I guess I would probably say towards the end of the year it might help to just give a quick refresher on all three essays, including argument, so the kids don't have a brain fart on the AP exam.

Thanks Ms. Smith, this year has been great. Rough at times.. but great all the same. Thanks for helping me learn to love writing.

Morning Pracrtice

I'm really tired.. as you can probably tell by the miss-spelled title.. Soo in this post I would like to talk about the thoughts that go through my head on days I have morning practice-- just for kicks.

3:50 A.M.
*alarm rings obnoxiously in the background*
"Crap."
*presses the snooze button*

3:59 A.M.
"Fine, you win. Stupid alarm."
"I wonder how mad Neil would be if I skipped?", "yeahh, he'd be mad."
Reluctantly climbs out of bed and makes zombie-like motions toward the bathroom.
"You know almost 4 hours of sleep is pretty good! It's more than I usually get.. Maybe I can trick myself into thinking I got a full night's sleep."

4:10 A.M.
Slings swim bag onto back and heads downstairs.

4:14 A.M.
Goes to load the car. Tries to pick up school bag, mesh bag, swim bag, and books all at once.
"OH MY GOSH, WHY do I have so much stuff?"
Drops swim bag and books, puts everything else in the car then then comes back to get the rest of it.

4:19 A.M.
"Crap, I have to go!"
Jumps in the Jeep and heads out.

4:23 A.M.
Gets to first red light, no one is coming in either directions.
"Okay. This light is never going to turn. It doesn't even sense the car. This is so not cool. No one is coming in the other direction, why do they have a green light? I should just go. But what if there's a policeman or something? Screw it, I need to get to swimming."
*light turns green*
"okay, whatever."

4:30 A.M.
Turning onto 400 North.
"I'm tired"
*blasts the radio*

4:34 A.M.
Passes Exit 12

4:39 A.M.
Passes Exit 13
"I like 400 much better when I'm the only one on it"

4:41 A.M.
Passes Exit 14
"Kay almost there"

4:42 A.M.
Passes Exit 15

4:43 A.M.
Exits off at 16

4:45 A.M.
*Turns into the poool parking lot*
"Yay!! I beat Neil!"

4:46 A.M.
*Neil pulls in*
"heh heh heh heh. I win"

4:50 A.M.
*progresses into the giddy phase of exhaustion.*

4:52 A.M.
*Miranda, Michael, Riley, and Katherine arrive*
"YAY!! HI FRIENDS!!"

5:00 A.M.
*looks at the practice.*
"Crap this is going to suck."

6:00 A.M.
"okay, halfway done, this isn't that bad"
Riley says "Your mom isn't that bad."
Everyone else in the lane: *facepalm*

6:30 A.M.
*swimming*
"I'M SOOOO HUNGRY"

6:35 A.M.
*still swimming*
"Crap, I forgot to do my math homework.. again"

6:40 A.M.
Coach Neil: "500 free all out for time."
*sings in head*
"If I die young bury me in satin.."

6:45 A.M
"Okay, last 50. I got this. "

6:55 A.M
"Warm down, yay!!"

7:00 A.M
"Crap, I have to go, I'm going to be late for school."

7:15 A.M.
*Leaves swimming*
"BYE MICHAEL!"

7:45 A.M.
"I. Hate. Traffic."

8:00 A.M.
"I'm so hungary!! but if I get food, I'll be late to school. Decisions, decisions."


8:05 A.M.
"Still hate traffic."

8:15 A.M.
*pulls into the Junior parking lot*
"Finally!"

8:23 A.M.
*school starts, exhaustion really starts to set in*
"Well this will be fun."

Yep! that's pretty much how my mornings go.. swimming is great.

Horrible Tips for Dealing with Horrible People.

There are many different kinds of people in life, and each kind requires its own unique method of interaction.
There are the amazing best friends who can make you smile even when you think you don't want to; and on the opposite end of the spectrum are the horrible people. You know who I'm talking about: the arrogant ones; the mean ones; the ones that you wish would be sentenced to "75-years-to-life" in federal prison, now, as a preventative measure, simply to escape the inevitable-- that they will probably murder you someday.
Although we all wish we could only spend our time with the awesome ones, life makes sure we get to spend a good, solid amount of time with the awful ones too. So, because of that (and my overactive imagination..), I've compiled a list of horrible ways to deal with horrible people. Enjoy!

1. Two words: Rocket Ship
2. If you're not quite a billionaire and can't afford to send your problematic person to pluto.. excuse me, asteroid number 134340, then you could always go with the less expensive: hiring of a hit man to break their jaw. This would be a good solution because it would require their jaw to be wired shut for several months, disabling their ability to talk to you. Warning: the effects of this solution will eventually wear off, and they may not be to pleased if they find out you hired a hit man to break their jaw..
 3. Pull a Taylor Swift and wright a song about it. 
4. Blog about it.
5. If the above suggestions are too extreme, or you just feel like embracing your inner second grader, go Batesian and mimic! Sink to their level and beat them at their own game. To do this simply repeat every single thing they say back to them and nothing else, the rest of the time stare blankly at them. Continue this for several hours. Hopefully they'll get so creeped out, they'll never want to talk to you again.
6. I suppose you could always be the bigger person and ignore them... but I don't know. I kind of like being short. Plus big people are more likely to hit their head on stuff. 
7. Do something that would get them in trouble and frame them like the Mona Lisa.
8. Find a way to make everything they own smell like old pickles. I don't know how that would help your situation, but it seems like fun.
9. Pull a Hermione Granger and punch them in the face. 
10. Actually ignore them and focus on the amazing people that you hang out with instead. 

well, this has been fun.. I know this probably makes me sound like a horrible person, but oh well. Please don't make everything I own smell like old pickles.. thanks. I'd really appreciate it:)

Disclaimer: though there are times when I would love to do some of this stuff, I do not recommend it... you'll probably get in trouble or something.. hence the name: Horrible tips for dealing with horrible people.  

Pollen

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Oh! I'm sorry I was just trying to count the grains of polling on this little one square centimeter portion of my window.. what was I talking about again? *Sneeze* Oh yeah. Now I remember.

SB 2013

This years spring break was, insanely busy. I saw more than a few kids walk in today with their fresh tans and new brightly colored clothing. I, on the other hand, came in with the same shade of skin I left with.
Instead of the typical beach-bound spring break, my parents and I headed north to look at colleges. I saw Davidson, Washington and Lee, Sweet Briar, William and Mary, College of Charleston, SCAD, and Florida southern.. I think I left out one.. I don't know.
Well anyway, I went on 8 different campus tours, sat through 8 different information meetings and met 8 different coaches.
What I would like to focus on is the information sessions. They were all exactly the same. With the exception of SCAD, I went to see all Liberal Arts Schools. The Irony is, the one thing I remember them saying at every single meeting was: "What sets our school apart from any other school is the Small class sizes, the sense of community, and the opportunities to really get to know your professors"... yeah. They're really setting themselves apart there. Sure, I did really love some more than others (W&M and W&L were the best!) but that had nothing to do with anything said in the information session.. It was because of the campus, the coach, the friends I have who already there, etc. If they really wanted to make their school stand out, they should consider food. Everyone loves food. If you give me free food, I will most definitely keep your school in mind.

The second to last day of spring break I got one day in Disney world (as a reward for sitting through 8 information sessions). Magic Kingdom opened an hour early and stayed open until 3 a.m. that day. We went to Magic Kingdom, then to Epcot, then Back to Magic Kingdom. It was exhausting. It really made me appreciate my parents lugging me and my two sisters around there when we were little. I don't know if I could ever do it.. But I had an epiphany while I was there!! I realized that Disney world was built to be viewed from 4 feet. It's True!! I tested it.. although I probably looked a little strange leaning over and trying to walk at the hieght of a 6-year-old... but try it, it's true!

On the Topic of Dying Young

One of the worst things you can hear someone say seriously is "why is everyone dying".

I heard my best friend, Miranda say this on a phone call to her mom right after learning that Peter, a boy who I'd only met and hung out with once had been killed in a car wreck. 

Peter is the second boy my age who I've known who's been killed this year. Kyle was the first. I barely knew Kyle. He swam on a different team, at the same pool as me, and we'd only met in passing due to mutual friends. However, I'd heard a lot of stories about him because Miranda worked with him all summer and he was her ride to work from swimming. It was strange. Strange to know that that face was gone from my life and from the planet. His voice, never again to be heard joking around on the pool deck. Though I felt sad for his family and close friends, I could never get past that strange feeling. Someone my age, who was supposed to live so much longer was irreversibly gone. Kyle also died in a car wreck. 

Peter is the first young person I've ever truly known and hung out with who's died. He was a month older than me. The first time I met him was at a bonfire hosted by my friend, Adam.  Peter was Adam's sister's boyfriend. Peter and Hannah were adorable. Peter was witty, and fun. His smile and fun-loving attitude were infectious. 

On this past Friday night the world was 'cured' of that infectiousness. On the way home from dropping Hannah off after a date he "crossed into the eastbound lane, overcorrected and crashed into a mailbox on the driver's side of the car". His funeral is today. I cant even imagine what she is feeling, because I, who only met him once cried with miranda in the car as soon as we found out. 

The death of a young person is a horrible thing. In The Band Perry's song, "If I die young", they mention 'the sharp knife of a short life'. I know what that means now. It references the feeling you get when you think of them. The feeling of a knife in your stomach made up of sadness, and disbelief. It's crazy that I'll never see him again, or joke about being an adult vs. a child with him again. He was so real, I shook hands with him. That hand is now ice cold and being buried today. 

Rest in Peace, Peter

I was also in a pretty bad car accident earlier this year. It was actually so similar to Kyle's, except instead of hitting a mailbox, I hit a highway median. Why did both these boys die while I got lo live? I just don't understand.

Why is everyone dying?

In 15 years..

If I ever changed my name, I would probably make it Ari Anderson. In 15 years I will have graduated from William and Mary with a degree in buisiness. With that degree, I will eventually go on to open a buisiness, a snack shop to be precise. That snack shop will be pretty successful after a couple years, and 'in the black'. After getting my buisiness off the ground, I will finally agree to marry my college sweetheart and fellow team captain of the W&M swim team Matthew Warner.

Matt's an Actuary, and helps me with the fianancial side of the buissiness. After some saving, I put the assistant manager in charge for two years, and handle most of the affairs over the internet and with skype and stuff while traveling the world with Matt. After we get back life goes back to normal, and we have three kids: Peter, Teddy, and Evelyn (Evvey for short). We raise them in a pretty small house. The house sits on a pretty large amount of land, and we built a barn in which we now keep horshes. My Horse's name is Jack. He's a black clydesdale with a white stripe down his face. In my spare time I'll also read a lot, do triathalons, and cook.  Mission trips will be part of my traveling. I won't be famous or anything, I'll just have my close friends. Leftovers from my snack shop would also be donated to homeless shelters.
We will live in Wheaton, IL (where I grew up) in the house decribed above. It'll be about five minutes outside of downtown Wheaton, so close enough to ride my horse to work! 
I would like to be happy in the future, although I'm sure I will have to deal with difficulties as anyone does. I think my biggest priorety will be to surround myself with good friends and family.
The turning point in my life was when I was sitting in Ms. Smith's AP Lang class, reading Great Gatsby and realized that I don't want to be all alone when I grow up. Whether that means I get married or not, I just want to always have a good, constant set of friends that I can joke with, vent with, cry with, depend on, and just share life with.

Dreams

You know? Dreams are a really strange thing. My dog, Digory, is currently lying on the couch next to me asleep... and a couple minutes ago, he started twitching and growling. He eventually stopped and settled int a peaceful sleep, but-- Op, he's twitching again. Anyway. That got me wondering why we dream?
Recently, I've had really vivid, life-like dreams every night and woken up thinking they were real. Which is especially ridiculous because Sunday's dream included dinosaurs repopulating the earth because CO2 levels had risen so much that the global climate was warm enough to support the lifestyle of dinosaurs (don't ask.. I couldn't tell you anyway), and in Monday's dream, my dad was convinced that my dog could drive.
Some people say that dreams are expressions of your emotions, or a result of the chemical balance of your brain, or involved in 'memory consolidation'. Some people have even tried to predict the future from dreams. All these attem0pts at dream interpretation just exemplify how myserious dreams are to us.. I mean we've explored space, and the ocean... Even the internet has been around for a while. Maybe dreams are the new frontier. Not having dreams per se, thats been around forever. But discovering the purpose of dreams. What they maen, why we have them...
But I'm pretty sure they don't tell the future.. unless dinosaurs do eventually reinhabit the world. Hmm. I wonder what Digory dreams about?

Joe

Joe was the last person on earth I expected to do that. I mean really. I went to school with the guy Kindergarden through Senior year, and never once had he mentioned anything about rabbits. He hadn't even owned a rabbit as long as I knew him, and now he has a bunny farm all of a sudden? What is that? It seems like he's that farmer from Phineas and Ferb who buys a bunny farm without bunnies then just all of a sudden bunnies fall out of the sky right on to his farm. Maybe that's what happened.. yeah, I bet that's it. I'll have to go visit him sometime and see.

2 days later:
Well, I visited Joe, and he is not like the farmer from Phineas and Ferb.. He's crazy. He genuinely believes he is a super hero.. Bunny Man to be exact. His powers include eating carrots really fast, and wiggling his nose in an attempt to be "overwhelmingly adorable to the extent that it kills his enemies" --his words not mine. But a Forty-year-old man dressed up as a pink bunny doesn't bring the word 'cute' to mind.. It does trigger the use of another 'c' adjective though! What was it again.. oh yeah. Creepy. Well, by the time I left Joe's bunny farm I'd seen everything from his bunny-mobile (a white Prius with pieces of white felt sticking up from the side of each front door, and a pink nose painted on the hood) to his bunny lair... His closet with a stash of carrots, bunny suits, and a litter box in the corner (though he says it's only for emergencies.. Ew.) The whole experience was just awkward.. But I guess I learned one thing.. Life doesn't get better for everyone after High school.

Ted Talk: One Second Every Day

       In the Ted Talk: One second every day, Cesar Kuriyama made the argument that each day we live is important and should not be forgotten. To illustrate his point he used his own personal experiences and anecdotes, as well as a video which contained one second clips of his life from every day of the past few years. The result was an inspiring speech which left me, (the audience) with a desire to follow his example and go make a 'one second a day'  video of my own.  

The video itself, spoke the loudest for Kuriyama's argument. Through his whole speech, one second snippets of every day from the last three years or so rolled past the screen, giving the audience a peak into his life. We saw glimpsed of his road trip across the U.S. and him and his family deal with the hospitalization of his sister in law. At least 10 clips were of people sitting in a waiting room or of a hospital bed. Those ten seconds-- representing ten days, give the audience something that Kuriyama couldn't have given them with just words. The video lets the audience see into his life and allows him to show them what he means by not losing a single day.

Kuriyama's speech itself was filled with personal experiences and stories which helped him explain why the project was so important to him.  He explained how in such a world as ours, where everyone wants more, cutting each day down to a single second is difficult, but makes that second so much more meaningful. Triggering the memory is the important part. He wraps up his speech with a 'think of how cool it would be', and sort of leaves the audience with a hopeful feeling for the world and the concept of living each day as best you can and never letting a day pass with out doing something memorable. 

I thought Kuiyama was really smart and efficient about proving his point, and that this one would be an interesting video for other kids to watch. http://www.ted.com/talks/cesar_kuriyama_one_second_every_day.html