Senior Year

SEEENNNNNIIIIOOOORRRSSS !!!! Can’t believe today is the last full day of high school. We have complained all year about hating the school, the rules, the work, and just about everything possible. We claimed senioritis whenever our parents called us lazy and counted down the days until the last day of school. Now it’s basically here and I wish it would slow down. I’m just now realizing how fast time has gone writing these blogs, and it’s kind of sad. At the same time I’m not because I know there are only better things ahead. This year has been so different than the other three. From the very beginning, everyone gave up on the cliques and all became one big group of friends. My group of friends now consists of about 3 different groups, but we are all friends and I love it. This year is the last for everything that has to do with high school. For homecoming and football games we would say “Aw this is the last one”, but it’s just now setting in. We’ve had our last pep rally, last mass, last precalc class, and last research papers. This year has been all about having fun. We have all had the mentality that enjoying this last year is much more important than spending a million hours studying like last year. However, we did have to get serious about one thing… COLLEGE. I started all my visits this year and stressing about whether or not I would get in to my top school. After I did, all the stress was relieved and I FULLY gave in to senioritis. Every event and special occasion has been so fun because everyone is friends now. It’s just going to be 10 times better for the last things we have left: prom and senior week! Somehow we have 45 people in our group for pictures and riding our bus. This year has been so much fun and I need to go enjoy my last 10 minutes of my last lunch at St. Mark’s!  AAAHHH!

Junior Year

Junior year is supposed to be the year you buckle down and do the best in school because it’s hardest and most important year.  As it turns out, junior year was a million times easier than senior year. Junior year was so much fun because I developed my close group of friends and so many new things happened. Driving to school was a huge change, and it made me feel so grown up not riding the bus. I carpooled with my best friend and we had so much fun every morning singing, telling stories, and stopping at Dunkin Donuts all the time. This led to numerous visits to welcoming but we didn’t mind. The new freedom of being able to go wherever whenever was a huge deal since I live so far away. However, it soon became really annoying driving 40 minutes to see my friends and dealing with traffic. Sophomore year you cannot wait to be able to drive and then when you can its annoying. School went by way too fast and before we knew it we were getting our class rings and going to prom. Prom was so exciting because it was my first and I could not wait to wear my dress. We had a small group that took a limo and it was so worth the money because it got us so pumped for the dance.  I remember the food at prom was terrible and teachers literally weaved in and out all over the dance floor. After-prom turned out to be so much more fun than we expected and the whole night was just great in general. Another new experience for everyone was taking the SATs. People went crazy taking classes and paying $50 an hour for tutors. I bought a SAT book to “study” and only looked at it twice. I have some funny memories from this year including one sleepover where we did not sleep at all. Instead we took a million pictures that are too ugly to put on here, I gave my friend cornrows, and we went to Dunkin Donuts at 4 in the morning. I don’t know why, but that was a really fun night. I also remember staying at my friend’s house for 3 days straight during one of the many blizzards. When it had cleared up a little bit we decided to walk to the McDonalds on Kirkwood Highway right by Mainstreet. It worked out fine on the way there, but on the way back we had to walk in the snow that was piled up from snow plows that was about 3 feet deep. So every car on Kirkwood highway saw us stumble and sink past our knees in snow. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard in my life. There were so many more good memories like this that I want to remember. I would love to go back and replay junior year because it was so much fun.

Still don't know how to put the pictures on here, but I will at home for the last 3 blogs

Sophomore Year

What makes sophomores think they suddenly are so much more mature than freshmen and they know everything? For some reason, we get really cocky and think we rule the school when really we were still awkward weenies just like the freshmen. Sophomore year is when everyone started to branch out and get a little crazy. Looking back, I think this was my least favorite year. It started off getting cheated on by my first high school boyfriend. I was also still riding the bus which made me feel like an even bigger loser because sophomores are too cool to be riding the bus. The friends from freshman year started to drift apart as I made new ones. My perspectives on people began to change as I saw who the genuine people were. The highlight of sophomore year had to be getting my permit even though it didn’t give you any more freedom because you had to drive with a parent for 6 months. We all thought we were so cool having driver’s ed and getting out of class to drive for 10 minutes. Another highlight was having my first real “high school” relationship, which was great for a while. I do wish I spent more time with friends rather than focusing on my boyfriend for so long.  Some people started to have parties this year which we all thought were so cool. We had a lot of fun thinking we were cool sophomores though. Unfortunately, this year is more of a blur than freshman year. I just remember wishing all the time that I was older and that the summer would come sooner.

 ( I had pictures to put on here but I can't because I'm in school.. I will later !)

freshman year

For my four blogs this quarter, I just decided to reminisce on each year at St. Mark’s. As the school year comes to an end I keep looking back at how much has changed. It makes me sad to think that the people I have surrounded myself with for four years are soon going to be completely out of my life. Many people I probably will never see again. I hope to stay in contact with my closest friends that I have been with since freshman year but because I’m going to college 4 hours away it will be hard to do. I remember the beginning of freshman year seeing 1600 new people and knowing about 3. I went to Caravel Academy for middle school so only a few people decided to leave for high school. I’m pretty sure the first week I didn’t say much but rather observe and try to take in the new environment in which I would be in for 4 years. I knew nothing about anyone so I had no opinions or perspectives like I do now. I made a great group of friends and we were all so dorky and awkward now that I think about it. Most people were freshman year. I remember we didn’t have the same lunch so we would feel like rebels when we would switch lunches to all sit together even though that wasn’t allowed! We all played field hockey together with Dr. Bushey as our coach which was so much fun. I don’t really remember what we did for fun on the weekends, mostly just had sleepovers and went to Sallies dances. The most fun and annoying times freshman year were riding the bus. I met some of my best friends there but hated it at the same time. We had so much fun with our crazy bus driver Don who is about 80 years old and hit a curb at least once a day. We talked about the funniest stuff and made inappropriate signs to get people to honk. Since I live so far away I spent 2 and half hours with those people every day. It’s sad that freshman year is kind of a blur. I barely remember what I did; I just know we were all awkward and looking for the swimming pool on the 4^th floor. Time is going by way to fast and I just regret the times when I would complain “I can’t wait till summer” or “I can’t wait till this weeks over”. I would go back to being an awkward freshman in a heart beat.

Cute right ?

Q3

My Readership did improve for a short time after the start of the second quarter . From October to November my page views jumped from 11 to 57. It decreased steadily until February it picked back up again. I can recognize where the posts grabbed the most attention because of their subject matter. The most commonly viewed page had harsh facts and a controversial issue that everyone can have an opinion on. My frequency did not play a part in helping get more views. Because I have not been able to get on the blogging website, the blogs I wrote had to be posted close together when I could finally figure out a way to get on. Adding a little media did not make any improvement so I could try to learn how to incorporate more media.

My most popular post was the post titled “yummm…..”. This blog was the most popular because it presented a controversial issue that everyone has an opinion on. Since most people eat meat it is very easy for them to comment and leave their opinion of a common food that they eat. Anyone can read that and say “I’m sorry, I’ve always eaten meat and always will”. I think it grabbed readers attentions because of the disturbing realities of the meat industry. Unfortunately, I hate to read these things but it grabs the attention of people who aren’t as disturbed by the killing of animals this way. My second most popular post was “ghost stories”. I’m thinking people saw the title and assumed I would have some crazy/scary ghost story to share.

I think people are reading my blog on accident because I have no followers besides my classmates. My blog must come up when searching for something related to my topic and they happened to read it.

 I’m still confused how to get more readers if the people I tell aren’t interested. Some friends did actually go and read my blogs, but others don’t have time or don’t care to. Writing about something that grabs readers attention obviously will always get people to read, but it is proven in my blog with gruesome details and gory images. I have trouble thinking of these kind of topics everytime I blog because I think of it more of talking to myself than writing something I want others to read. However, when I wrote about something that I really wanted to see reader’s reactions I received great results. I will try to think of better topics in the future that I want responses to. Because of my difficulty in picking topics in the past, the quality of my blogs are not as good as they could be. Therefore, I would give myself a C+. I need to dig deeper to come up with topics and then I will be more excited about telling people to read and comment.

 I have learned what is pretty obvious, that readers are going to continue to read when your topic continues to be interesting. If you grab their attention in one or two blogs there will be a better chance of them continuing to read your blog. If you write about something that really interests you and gets your attention, it will have a better chance of getting other’s. This can be used in any type of writing, if you like the topic others will too. My persona has not changed much, I still feel like I am writing to myself rather than an audience. However, now that I am evaluating my posts and I see what I can change I see my writer’s persona changing for future blogs.

I will be so unbelievably relieved when this year is over. Just trying to write a blog about how stressful this year has been is stressing me out. I can’t even put my feelings into thoughts let alone words. The last three years I have been able to do homework when I got home until 7:30 or 8 and be in bed by 9. Life was good then. I seemed to have plenty of time for all my studying and homework which allowed me to have an A average. The only class I struggled with was math but I always managed to get an A. I couldn’t stay up past 11 if I tried and I never needed to. This year, if I go to bed by 11 I consider it lucky and a good night sleep. No matter if I start my homework the second I get home and don’t take a break, I have so much every night that I cannot get it all done before 12. To me this is ridiculous because it is senior year! I don’t expect to not have to do anything to do, but this has been my hardest year by far. No matter how hard I try, I seem to not be able to keep track of everything or do well in my classes. It’s so frustrating because I am really hard on myself when it comes to school and as much as I would like to claim I don’t care and blow it off, I can’t. Some of the added stress might come from taking an extra science class instead of an elective. I decided to take anatomy because I thought it would look good for college transcripts to see I didn’t slack off during senior year. Also because everyone thought it would be an easy A so everyone took it. As it turns out it is one of the hardest classes I have this year. My job might also play a role in taking some of my time even though I mostly work weekends and usually only one school night a week. Or maybe it’s my Blue Gold responsibilities lately? I have to keep track of other people and myself. I don’t know what it is but I can’t keep up. I feel like as soon as I have to wake up I need to write to-do lists so I don’t forget. I feel like I don’t have time to talk to friends because I’m spending all night doing homework. The last couple of years have not been like this at all so it’s disappointing to expect a little bit of a break this year and end up having the most work yet. Hopefully next year, with only a few long classes, will leave me more time to relax and get organized. There are just not enough hours in the day.

I am officially enrolled in James Madison University so the Fall 2011 semester. I just received a letter confirming they got our deposit which I was unaware my mom sent. This confirmation made me so happy because it finally feels like reality. I don’t know how the idea got stuck in my head that I would love JMU, but I think it had something to do with my sister’s husband mentioning how everyone he knew who went there had so much fun. I’ve always wanted to go to Virginia for college because I wanted to go south but not at far as North or South Carolina. Virginia seemed like the perfect in between state. Then when I started searching for colleges I had specific criteria that I was looking for: large town campus, at least 15,000 students, no more than 6 hours away, and enough of an academic challenge. Luckily I visited JMU in September to learn that I should apply early action if I really liked the school. As it turned out, I loved the school, the campus and the people. My tour guide told us you know the school for you as soon as you step on campus. Luckily I felt just like that and knew immediately this was the perfect school for me. Feeling this confident that I wanted to go there I applied early action and put off applying to my back up schools. Luckily I found out I was accepted to JMU before the deadlines for the other schools so I didn’t even have to bother applying. A lot of people give me a crazy look when they hear I only applied to one school, but I was so convinced that this was the only place I could really see myself. Now there are only 5 months until I will be calling JMU my home.