Unicorns!

I visited the North Carolina School of Science and Math today, and took some aptitude tests in a process of application. It's basically a boarding school for juniors and seniors who have a strong interest in math and science. A self described "breeding ground for geeks". I thought I wouldn't like it. But after today, I am really debating between what I should do for next year... Should I stay at the school I am now, or should I take that risk and go to NCSSM?

I need to take a lot of things into consideration when thinking about my future. Wow, I sound crazily melodramatic, but I'm being completely serious: my future depends on what I do during high school! Because high school determines where I go to college, college determines what I do for a living, my living, quite appropriately, helps determine my life. My friend who goes to NCSSM has just gotten early acceptance into Yale, and won the Morehead scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill. But another from at the school I am attending now is a finalist in both the Benjamin N. Duke scholarship, Robinson scholarship (a dual scholarship to both UNC Chapel Hill and Duke), and to the full ride scholarship to Vanderbilt. Yes, I'm bragging on my friends. But they completely deserve it! It really inspires me to work hard, but at the same time, I can't help but be worried about what I should do...

But, note to self:
Things I don't like about NCSSM...
1) The mascot is a unicorn.
2) The cafeteria is built supposedly on top of a cemetery. Cooooooool.

Boots.

So, as I'm studying for my Spanish midterm exam, I can't help but notice how much I rely on little mnemonic devices (which I learned about in Psychology, yay!) to learn and remember. And I also cannot help but notice how much these little tricks really get me off task.

Take, for example... Boots.

In conjugating Spanish verbs in certain tenses, there is a pattern among the yo, tu, el/ella/Ud, and ellos/ellas/Uds forms. Apparently it looks like a boot? But not really. I think it looks more like Louisiana, which I don't think looks like a boot at all... But whether I think it looks like a boot or not doesn't really matter, because Senora Ortiz says so. And whatever Senora Ortiz says, goes!

I personally think it looks more like a 'L'.

There are also sandal verbs, for el/ella/Ud, and ellos/ellas/Uds. Why are all these tenses named after shoes?! Anyway... I forgot what I was going to even say.

I guess mnemonic devices are useful on tests, but they can be kind of distracting if you think about them in depth.

I hope this doesn't go away...

I just have this burning desire to try my best at everything right now. It is kind of draining, but for some reason, this determination is just blasting through the boundaries that sleep usually sets up for me. I suppose it could be a sort of warped adrenaline rush as my midterm exams approach, in addition to the fact that it is a new year... But I hope it doesn't go away.

Lately, school's been difficult, and it's been even more difficult to motivate myself to keep on trying, to keep on working, to wake up when it's dark, do the things I enjoy doing outside of school, to come home to do homework, go to sleep for however many hours I can get, and wake up and do it all over again.

Though I somewhat enjoy this feeling of potential success (the best way I can describe it), I bet I'll feel some sort of relief after school's over and done again for the summer.

Phew.

AP Exams and other babble.

I love Barron's.
I don't know what I would do without my AP Calculus Review book--especially with AP Exams coming up in less than two weeks! I don't feel like I'm completely solid in everything I have to know... So I'm practically sleeping with this thing in my arms. Okay. Not really. Because that would be really dorky. But it's the first time in a while since I've been so stressed about an academic thing in a while, maybe it's because of the AP Cal AB sub-grade, or the fact that I don't want to do badly? I'm not really sure.

I went to the AP Review Day at UNC Charlotte yesterday, too! I have mixed feelings about that. One of the teachers didn't really know what he was doing... But the other teacher gave me the best lecture about Euler's method that I've ever had! And she was ADORABLE. I wish MY grandmother taught Calculus in such a cute way.

I just find elderly people really adorable, not in a disrespectful way.
I know that they have a lot of experience, and lots more memories than I have in my short 14 years of life, but I still can't help but find them absolutely cute. Especially ones that are still in love and married. I see it happening, and I can't help but go 'awh!', and wonder if I could be like that one day.

But probably not.
I mean, I AM planning to go skydiving on my 60th birthday!

Midterms and Finals

Whoever thought of giving midterms and final exams after Winter Break was not the sharpest tool in the toolbox.

But on a bright note, the new semester's almost started, and we're only two quarters away from vacation! Which sounds pretty great, since it's about as cold as it gets down South here. I wish it would snow.

The week before Midterms is brutal.

You'd think that because midterm week is next week, teachers would ease up on giving tests and quizzes and other evaluations this week. Oh. Don't forget the projects.

So far this week, I've had:

Monday: a Physics Quiz, a Freshman Seminar public speaking evaluation, a timed 800m run, my informative speech project was due (with the outline, cited sources page, and visual aid).

Tuesday: another Physics Quiz, my World History Greek Alphabet project was due, as well as my World History notebook

Wednesday: a Physics Test (!), a World History public speaking evaluation

And for the rest of the week...

Thursday: SAT List 6 Quiz, World History Greece test

Friday: Into Thin Air Test, Freshman Seminar Midterm (not so sure about this one.), and probably another Physics Quiz, knowing my teacher.

And I thought Midterms were going to be bad.

I just realized how amazingly fun middle school was.