Category Archives: Academia

I Love Public Education as Much as I Hate It

I’ve been in a bit of a foul made lately, and the main reason for that is probably because of school. I can’t wait to get out. I cannot wait to graduate and just get the heck out of there.

I never really understood the whole reason why towards the end of their year, seniors always get so antsy to graduate or why they get “senioritis.” But now that I’m a senior, oh my goodness can I relate.

A lot of the reason is just my school itself. We have all of these dumb rules and regulations that don’t do or prevent anything. For example, no one is allowed to wear a backpack unless it is clear, nor are they allowed to wear a large purse – large defined as being able to fit a notebook into it. This rule was instituted last year when a student brought a gun to school. No one was injured, but to prevent this from happening again, this rule was drawn up and applied.

Now, I do commend them for trying to do something so that that situation would not arise again, but I don’t exactly commend them for doing something just so it looks like they’re doing something, if that makes sense. This rule prevents nothing. If a student is determined enough to bring a gun to school, then they would fit it in their pocket or jacket or, if it were a female (unless some males like to wear their “satchels”) they could easily fit it in their smaller purse.

So anyways, a frustrating rule because I have to go to my locker twenty kajillion times a day because I don’t have a backpack and because I like to take challenging classes which require a kajillion textbooks. And I happen to like cross-the-body bags which I can no longer wear. So I had to go find a new purse that would fit the rule and spend $30 on something I didn’t really need. Argh.

And then the classes themselves. I feel like I’m only learning anything in about three of the seven – my Calculus, AP World History, and French class. The rest are really just a joke. :/

In my English class, we are currently doing an art project. Why teachers feel that they need to incorporate art into some of their classes kind of baffles me. Sure, in elementary and middle school, but in high school? There is a reason why there are classes entirely devoted to art. Basically I have to create a diorama of a scene from my novel. Why I can’t just quickly draw a picture on a piece of paper, or even better, imagine it in my head, I don’t know. :-?

And the people, oh my goodness. I can’t tell you how just completely stupid people are. I think that I am generally a nice person and I’m pretty patient with people. But when people ask why our teacher who has a doctorate in bio-chem isn’t working in a hospital, my patience runs a little short. Or when people like, oh my gawd, talk really like loud, and say like over and over and like, over again. And won’t stop talking about themselves. And how cool they are. Like, oh my gosh. :angry: I’ve been around the same people for the past twelve years of my life, and while I’ve made some amazing friends, I’ve also met a lot of people I don’t ever want to see again. I am so glad that I’m going to a college three and a half hours away from here.

All of these things just make me so apathetic towards school. I hate going and I feel like I’m just wasting my time at the moment. I am thankful for the public education that I have received and am still receiving, but at the moment, I’m not seeing a lot of benefits.

Sorry for such a cranky post, but I’m a bit cranky. And don’t want to do this dumb art project. I wish I was born with a bit more artistic skills at times like these so I would enjoy these projects.

In other news, my dad’s doing great. Thank you all for your lovely comments and concerns on my last post. :love: He starts chemo and radiation treatment on Thursday, and honestly, you can’t tell that anything at all is wrong with him. He’s just as happy as ever and I think the rest of us are all over the initial shock. So, things are pretty good.

Self-Conscious Words

I am not a big football fan. In fact, I know very little about the game besides the fact that you get points for scoring a touchdown. Apparently though, everyone around me is obsessed with football. The SuperBowl was last night, and needless to say I didn’t watch it. Though, I did later look up Kelly Clarkson’s performance of the national anthem, because I adore her and think she’s amazing. :love:

It’s kind of funny because everyone keeps asking me if I watched the SuperBowl last night. I just kind of laugh and tell them no and then they seem all disappointed that they can’t discuss the game with me. I mean, I guess they could, but there really wouldn’t be much of a response on my side. And then they proceed to ask me what my favorite commercial was. Which makes me laugh again, because I’m not going to suffer through half of a football game just to watch commercials. Silly people. I’ll youtube them later. :P

I mentioned a couple posts ago that I was taking a Web Design class and so far I’ve been kind of disappointed. It’s not exactly what I thought it would be. All we mainly do is familiarize ourselves with Dreamweaver, a program that does all the coding for you, and we have to complete small assignments like:

  1. Make a table.
  2. Have a link in each cell.
  3. Make the links purple using CSS.

So not exactly building a layout or anything. I often find times where I have nothing to do because I’ve already completed all my work and the teacher is just waiting for everyone to catch up. I’m actually writing this blog post during this class. :P But, I am learning some things that I didn’t know before and I’m becoming a lot more familiar with CSS, which is nice. That is one of my goals on my 101 in 1001 list, which I haven’t been really keeping up with much.

I’ve received a few comments recently remarking about me completing NaNo and editing my novels, etc. I’m currently working on two; one I am editing and the other I am still writing. However, I’m not sure I plan on publishing either of them. NaNo offered all winners five free copies of their novel through CreateSpace and you can publish it through there. I’d like to do that – I mean being able to hold in my hands a paperback novel that I wrote would be simply amazing – but the whole selling it to the public thing, I’m not so sure about. I was just talking to Kris about how I’m really self-conscious of my writing (ironic enough because I own a blog) so knowing that the entire public had access to my novel, makes me a bit nervous. Soooo, thinking all that over still. What do you guys think?

My NaNo novel is called Murky Waters, and in short, it’s an adventurous story about a young barmaid and pirates. During NaNo, when I was writing it, I thoughit it was the worst thing ever. But after going back and editing it, I’ve become really proud of it – especially since it’s my first completed novel. There are some parts where I’ve laughed aloud at something I wrote – and that’s one of the greatest feelings, knowing that you wrote something really good.

My other novel, that I am currently writing, I have no plans to share it at all. I started it in 2007, so when I was in the seventh grade (!!!) and I just want to finish it for the pleasure of finishing a novel. It’s pretty bad, but I enjoy writing so this is more of a project just to keep me writing and my creative juices flowing. Plus, it’s keeping up with my new year’s goal to keep writing. :)