Homecoming

As much as I want to leave this little town, I'm apprehensive. I feel like I'll miss waking up to the hum of a lawn mower. I feel like I'll miss the runs around the neighborhoods. But at the same time, I want to live in a place where I can stop by a few thrift stores on my way home or eat at a little creperie with my friends. I want to walk the streets filled with bustling people, each with his/her own story. I want to have the wind from the sea push my hair back while the sound of gulls' laughter and children's shrieks fill the air. I know that even if I end up somewhere far, far away, that this place will always be my home whether I like it or not. This little town, the shadows of places like New York City and Las Vegas, this little town will always be a part of me whether I'm here or not.

(Just as a heads up, this post will be extremely long. So much has gone on these past few days, and I've finally opened up some memory on my computer for my pictures from back in August.)

So this past week was spirit week. I explained it in one of my earlier posts, so I'll spare you from repeating myself. But it's basically one of the best weeks of school of the entire year. It's a shame that it's over already and we still have 7 months of school left before summer.

Every day during spirit week is a new theme!

 

Those were the five days! Friday was hat day, Monday was dress up day, Tuesday was Hawaiian day, Wednesday was inservice (no school!), Thursday was pajama day, and Friday was class color day.

The class colors are black for seniors, white for juniors, blue for sophomores, and red for freshmen. And each grade has to come up with an original theme that fits their class color! This year, seniors were end of the world (because they're class of 2012), juniors were milk, sophomores were Facebook, and freshmen were human/student body.

My class (2013/juniors) is pretty spirited. We came in 2nd both freshmen and sophomore year, which is a major accomplishment. This year, we tried beating the seniors once and for all! So essentially this year's spirit week was just a major battle between the junior and senior classes.

(These new two photos are Christina's. Please check her blog out! She's amazing and adorable.)

(C) Christina.

Throughout the first four days of the week, we take part in bringing in as many soda tabs, pennies, dimes, nickels, dollars, and cans as we can. The class with the most cans at the end of each day wins a certain number of points, and the other classes win points as well, just not as many. At the end of the week, the soda tabs and pennies are counted. The class with the most pennies gets a bonus, and then the class with the most points remaining wins the most points. (For the penny jar, other classes can put in other coins/dollars to try to subtract points!) In the end, we were putting $20 bills in each other's jars. We, the junior class, ended up coming 2nd in the penny/soda tab competition even though we had over $70 in pennies.

Then on Friday, everyone tries to bring as many quarters as they can to try to get the most time for foul shooting during the pep rally! We came in 2nd for that as well.

But throughout the whole week/a few weeks in advance, 10-20 of us stayed after school to help out with hallway decorating! The hallway has to deal with the class's theme, and a skit must go along with it. On Friday morning at around 6AM, the skits were presented. I wasn't in the skit, but I arrived at school before 6 to do some last minute helping out. The hallways are probably my favorite part of the whole week because of how well they turn out in the end.

Part of our skit!

I drew the cardinal! It looks so disproportionate though, but I couldn't be bothered to fix it at the time. The main thing I worked on for the week looks amazing, but I'm not posting a picture because it shows my school name on it. But take my word for it, it looks good. :)

After our skit was over, a bunch of us ran over to the sophomore's hallway to take a look/listen to their skit.

A very blurry senior class! These are just the seniors that came early to help on Friday. If you're wondering why some of the girls are dressed so interestingly, it's because on the Friday of spirit week, the senior girls dress up for "senior slut day." What bothered me was that the sophomore girls tried doing the same thing, but it's tradition that only the seniors do it.

The freshmen's alcove/hallway!

The school day was also really laid back and relaxing. I only learned in 2 of my 7 classes which is a pretty good deal, if you ask me. The picture on the right is Cory standing on a table in French class. Don't ask me why, haha. But in French, this kid from France came in, and we all started just asking him questions. HIS VOICE/ACCENT WAS GODLY. I wish I could speak French that well.

Kim/me/Berenice in English class. :)

Then in chemistry class, Emily and I spent the entire time staring at the clock, waiting for the pep rally to finally arrive. We started freaking out when we heard the marching band play through the halls. :)

The pep rally was my favorite part of the week. :) The juniors/seniors tried to out-cheer each other the entire time, which was just really fun. The male cheerleaders weren't as good as last year (hahaha), but it was still extremely interesting. When I got home, my throat felt sore from screaming/cheering so much. We ended up coming in 2nd place overall, but we still think it's rigged. THAT'S OKAY because next year we're going to dominate! AND we came in 1st place for hallway decorating which is really incredible because that's typically a senior-win. :)

Then on Friday night, it was our homecoming football game! I didn't go because I wasn't feeling very well/I didn't plan it with people, but it was against our school rivals. And basically if we won, we were going into the playoffs, and if we lost, we would be done for the year. And we won, 17-10! :)

Yesterday (October 29th), I woke up to a scene of...snow! It's only October, but for some reason, we experienced our first snowfall of the season! It was all so beautiful. (Currently there's still snow on the ground, but it's melting.) Please excuse the quality of these photos. I didn't dare go outside so these were all take through a window/screen. Sorry!

We ended up getting around 3-4 inches of snow, which is a lot for December, let alone October! Normally our biggest snowstorms here come in January. But I ended up losing power at around 2PM yesterday. I was actually dying of boredom at one point there. There was no Internet, no TV, no lights, and no HEAT. By 5PM, I was already freezing cold which resorted to many many layers. I ended up doing some calculus homework by the candlelight, and in the middle of a problem, the lights flickered back on, thank god.

And because of the snow, our homecoming dance, coronation ball, was rescheduled for today. I wasn't planning on going, but tons of people were upset about the change since it's a Sunday. I hope that everyone who was planning on going has a beautiful time. In the mean time...tonight IS mischief night...just kidding. :)

I'll be sitting at home trying to finish as much of my work as I can so tomorrow night I won't have too much homework. I'm so excited for Halloween, except I don't know what I'll dress up as yet!

Have a great weekend everyone, and happy almost Halloween!

Broken

It feels almost as if the pieces of me have shattered with no way to put them back together. I feel so broken inside; I feel as if every time I think something's going right, it falls apart the next day. Each time I think I'm rising out of this dangerous stage of life, it just gets worse. I can't take this. I can't take this.

And as sweet as everyone is to tell me, "It'll get better over time," I'm so sick of hearing it. It's easy to say that things will get better, I know that. Trust me, I've been leaving people messages everywhere telling them that the storm will pass, that better times are near. But I just want someone who's suffered, who's experienced this pain, to talk to. I want he or she to explain this suffering, this piercing of the heart. I want someone who's come out of the abyss to tell me that there's always hope. Because I know there is, but I don't know how to endure through this. I've never had to undergo something so painful before.

All I'm looking for is somebody that can be there with me while I sail through this storm.

These broken pieces,
These tears streaming down my face,
Inadequacy.

Life in Technicolor

As much as we hate admitting this, we need pain to survive. Where would we be without it? We'd be soulless creatures living in this big, vast world. The problem I see with so-called "utopias" is that we wouldn't know what true happiness felt like. Through all of these fights, these wars, these heartbreaks, these misfortunes, these losses, these hardships, we become better people. We learn through our suffering, and in the end, we're stronger. This pain that we hate so much, this pain that makes our insides twist and turn, this pain that pierces a hole in our hearts, it's what keeps us going.
                Pathei mathos. "With suffering comes wisdom."

I apologize for 1) not posting for a few weeks and 2) not having new pictures. This photo is indeed a scrap of my last "photoshoot" (if you will), but I'm still contemplating uploading it elsewhere. I've taken maybe 3-4 new pictures ever since this, but I'll upload them when I find the time.

I have so many things to say that I barely know where to start.

Well I guess first off, junior year is a pain. I find myself struggling in so many classes that it stresses me out. Physics will certainly be the death of me this year, but I think I'll somehow find my way out of this storm. We took a test yesterday on a subject that was somewhat straightforward, only for the exam to be difficult and disappointing.

Secondly, yesterday was the start of spirit week! If you don't live in America, spirit week is the week leading up to the homecoming football game/homecoming dance. (It's essentially that time of year that's brutally overused in movies and books.) We, the junior class, are attempting to win this year once and for all. As freshmen and sophomores we finished 2nd, almost (or as I still believe, we actually did) beating the seniors. I hope we can pull through with everything. But yesterday was hat day! It was tons of fun seeing everyone wear their special hats, etc. All the teachers looked different/informal with theirs. I don't know. But I'm really excited for this upcoming week, needless to say. Monday will be dress up day, Tuesday is Hawaiian day, Wednesday we have off from school, Thursday is pajama day, and Friday is class color day. Beware, I'll be posting tons of pictures next weekend. :)

Other than that, I've been shopping quite a bit lately. It scares me almost to see how much money I've spent. This weekend I bought 3 pairs of shoes. I was going to take pictures of them, but I didn't get the chance to, so maybe later! I bought a pair of brown (short top) boots, a pair of gray high top Converse, and a pair of black combat boots. Both pairs of boots can be worn two different ways (flipping over the top vs. not). I think before spring I'll buy another pair of Converse that aren't high tops. I like my non-high top Converse, but they're breaking, and I really wanted to have a pair of high tops. (Does this make any sense? Sorry, I'm rambling.)

Okay, I shall go now and study for the SATs/do my truck load of homework/study. Bye!

(P.S.- I really suggest you listen to Coldplay's songs. I wasn't too big of a fan up until now, but some of their songs are simply beautiful like the one featured in the title of this post.)

Fix You

It's this constant pain inside of me that makes me think twice about the people of this world. Who wants to hurt me? Who wants to help me? These days, I'm losing touch with everything--my family, my friends, my hobbies, my interests. I can't think straight, I can't see clearly. I'm so lost in this big, beautiful world with no one to guide me. I just want someone to lean on, someone to tell me that everything will be okay. Instead, I'm trekking this vast beauty with only hope by my side.

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. <3 You will truly be missed. You show this world what it's like to be a beautiful, selfless person with an innovative and creative mind. I look up to you for all that you've been through and all that you've brought to society. You've managed to change this world while battling yourself, and if that doesn't exemplify a true hero, then what does?

I took that picture (quite obviously) a week ago. It's of my white iPhone 4, and I was just messing around with my dSLR and decided to take a picture of whatever I had in my hand. I kind of like the bokeh that came through in the background. But yes, it's a white phone, the lighting's just so bad that it looks black. I decided to put this picture in this post, even though I was going to scrap it, because of Steve Jobs' death. </3

Other than that, school's been a train-wreck. I find myself doing poorly on tests yet staying up until 2AM on a daily basis. I don't know what else to do other than sacrifice more of my time for work. I can't wait until this year is over, but it scares me to think about being a senior. I'm not ready to leave this place even though my mind is constantly wandering this earth.

On a different note, the title of this post is a song by Coldplay. I'm not a big fan of their music, to be honest. But of the whole X&Y album, this song caught my eye. It's the only Coldplay song, along with Viva La Vida, that's on my iPod, even though I have two of their albums. But I really enjoy "Clocks" as well, but I don't have my hands on it yet.

I apologize, but I'm out of pictures. So my blog will be somewhat inactive until I find the time to take more, sorry! But about the sweet sixteen I went to (as I promised I would blog about it), it ended up being formal, so I was glad that I dressed up at the very last second.

(These next few pictures were taken by Samantha. She's the person that hosted the party, along with her twin Stefani! I didn't bring my camera, so I just took some of her pictures to show you guys.)

The party was tons of fun, and I had a great time. We ate so, so much sushi, and I was stuffed by the end of the night! I also found out that there are these things called "Fun Chop" that you put on your chopsticks to help people use them better. I am still amused by them because I've just never seen them before.

With this note, I should go start homework as it's nearly 8PM. Tomorrow's Friday though which finally means a weekend full of relaxation and sleep studying for the PSATs/SATs and doing homework.