I got my license!

Last Thursday I took my license test and passed. I was so excited. I could now drive to school without my dad having to take me. That Saturday my parents came home from their meeting with a car for me! It is a black 2008 Impala. It is the sport edition which is nice. On Monday I drove to school for the first time. My mom over exaggerated it too much. She was like oh honey, I need to take a picture of you to put it in the scrapbook about your first drive to school. Haha. The only thing that I'm nervous about is the parking lot. A ton of accidents happen there and I am one of those people who park the farthest away from all the other vehicles so I don't get door dings or scratches. Well anyways, I am just really happy that I got my license. It is so nice.

There is NO I in TEAM

I looked up the dictionary definition for the word "team" and it said that it was a number of persons forming one of the sides in a game or contest. I was thinking about this definition and there is so much more to the meaning of a team than just that. A team is always or always tries to be positive and have a good environment to work in. When someone on a team is not doing very well, the other members will lift up that person. On game days, the team shows positive sportsmanship and is united in one. Their goal is to win but if they don't, they don't beat themselves up about it. If the team loses, they don't come up with excuses for why they didn't win, they instead learn from their mistakes to go out and win next time. In a team, it isn't just one person doing all of the work, it is a group united as one. This is some of my jumbled up thoughts of what a team is.

ACT Test

The ACT test will be here sooner that any of us can probably expect. I want to do the best that I can on the test, so preparing early will hopefully reflect in my score. I am in a prep class for the ACT right now and it is not the greatest. I have learned some things but not a lot. I have learned more from 700 page ACT prep book that my mom bought me over the actual class. I want to get a good score so that I can get into the college that I want. Some of the colleges that I am looking into is Carleton College, Gustavus Adolphus, Macelester College, Concordia, and a couple others. I think that the better I score on the test, the better college I can get into and I think that I can acheive this by having myself prepared.

Reputation

Reputation is the estimation in which a person or thing is held. When I think of reputation, I think of it mostly being a positive subject but can be negative. Reputation can be very positive for example in businesses. Businesses want to have their name known to the consumers that they are know for their quality, friendliness, reliability, etc. Businiesses take lots of time in wanting to build up their reputation because if they don't have a good reputation, their business would fail. This is the same for people, too. When I think of reputation used in a negative way, various classmates pop into my mind. Some kids think that since they are popular, or have a high reputation; they think that they are better than everyone else. This is where repuation is abused. Reputation is good, if used in the correct manner.

This Weekend: Show Choir

This weekend we had a show choir competition in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Now, show choir is not my favorite thing in the world but it was kind of a fun trip. There were a ton of amazing groups there. Groups all the way from Ohio to California were there. It is ridiculous that some of these groups have kids paying up to $2000 to be in a show choir. Even more shocking, some school's budgets are one million dollars! Wow. There were really awesome groups to watch. They must practice for hours. They make our group look like complete crap. We entertained ourselves from Uno to watching Show Choirs to stuffing our faces. Overall, it was a fun time watching all of the wonderful groups.

Springtime

I have been so sick of winter. It has just been dragging on and on. It is cool when it cancels school but not when we have these storms and we are still in school. I just want to be able to go outside and not have to bundle up in a thousand pounds. This past week has really been quite reassuring that springtime is for sure right around the corner. Ohh . . . I just remembered today is the first day of spring, I think. The 50 degree weather has been a treat for us but I hate it when all the snow melts and everything is so dirty, soggy, and disgusting. Springtime is also when all plant life rejuvenates itself again. I can't wait to smell the fresh, crisp smell of the flowers and hear the running of the waterfall again. I think everbody is ready for springtime.

NO Swimming

Swimming is now over and I don't know what to do with all the time that I have. I have like an extra three hours of free time now. Well, I have occupyed some of that time now with cleaning my room, which makes my mom happy. When mom is happy, everybody is happy. Also, I can spend a bit longer on my assignments. Otherwise, it has been really nice. I need to stay in shape though for swimming, so I will probably start running. Also, Andrew and I are planning on swimming club again up in Faribuilt with Mark. I am really excited for that because we have not swam with him in a very long time. It is nice now having a break from swimming because it got to be super long.

Respect

When I think of respect, I think of showing consideration to someone or something. Respect is such a huge part of our day to day lives and ALWAYS is abused. As a student body, we need to work on this topic to make us, the student body, have a better image. The world has categorized teenage kids working into their adult ages as dierespectful brats, excuse my use of words. It is true and I am embarrassed for people that are direspectful. For example, last Friday when there was a lock down during the passing time, I was in the architecture room and it was packed full. Some kids thought that it would be cool if they could go on the computer and listen to music on Youtube. We had a substitute teacher that day and they totally disrespected her when she asked them to please shut the monitor off during the lockdown. It is simple, just SHUT THE MONITOR OFF and don't lip off. We can change the student body image if we show a little respect.

Sections

Sections was this last Thursday (pre-lims) and Saturday (finals). We took a total of about 10 kids to pre-lims and about 6 kids to finals. I did terrible at pre-lims. I psyched myself out and could not swim at all. I didn't have any energy and added time to all of my events except for the 50 backstroke in the medley relay where I took a half of a second off. At finals we had a total of 4 events. The medley relay, Preston in the 100 fly, the 200 free relay, and the 400 free relay (I added a second to my backstroke, otherwise I would have been in finals). In the medley relay we got about the same time all together but I took a second off personally and Preston added a second :( and the 200 free relay got their best time and so did the 400 free relay. Swimming is now over and I am really excited. I have been needing a break!

Blogging

Blogging in my opinion is such a waste of time. I only blog because I have to. This might be a bad attitude but I don't like doing it at all. Yes, it is a way to learn more about your friends and get to know them better, but there are so many other ways to do that. We have cell phones and many other technological gadgets that are much more advanced, that we actually enjoy doing. I guess that blogging is one of those deals where you like it or you don't. I see that it would be a good idea to have a blog when you go on a vacation out of the country and want to keep a "diary" but I don't think that we should use blogging for our everyday lives. I need to stop ripping on blogging. There is one good thing, we don't have to stick to any writing rubric, we can just use whatever style we want to. These are my thoughts about blogging.

Accuplacer Test

I didn't know what to make a post about, so I decided to think back to the stressful things I did this week and I thought of the Accuplacer Test. WOW! This was such a FAIL. I was soo mad. I just wanted to go in and take my test but NO, the computers had to just keep booting us off of the system. I got to question number NINE in THREE hours. What a waste of time. I actually finished the entire reading part but when it was processing my results, it kicked me off so I had to start all over. Collectively, the system probably kicked me off about 15 times. Fail! I just had to vent about my frustrations of this week.

Love

I think we have already done a post on this topic already but that's fine. Love is a passionate affection for another person. It is a feeling of warm personal attachment. With Valentine's day this last Monday, it is a perfect post to wrap the week up with. Love is such a common word in our culture. For example: we love our dog, our girl/boyfriend, our parents (most of the time), the 'things' we have, and on and on. I think love is an overused and sometimes misused word. I mean so many people use this word and do we actually think of the definition? I don't know, that's just my personal opinion. These are just my brief thoughts on love and what I think of it.

Big Nine

This last Saturday, the Swim Team had the Big Nine Championships at Mankato State University in Mankato. It was kind of one of those meets that was a half good, half bad type of situation. I swam in the 200 Medley Relay, 200 IM, 100 Backstroke, and the 400 Free Relay. Our first relay was disqualified because of a false start which stunk. In the 200 IM, I took off a second which was good, but I wanted to take more off than what I did. The 100 Backstroke was just a mess. I added two seconds and somehow, when I checked the results and it said that I was disqualified. Then I talked to my coach and he said that I wasn't and he talked to one of the officials. It was a big mess but in the end, I wasn't disqualified because they don't know what happened. Finally, we did alright in the 400 Free Relay. I didn't get my best time but we didn't get disqualified. This was our Big Nine Championship meet and you don't want to know how we did overall. Ha.

"Mice and Men": Loneliness

Loneliness is the act of having a depressing feeling of being alone or isolated. It is so sad to see someone left out or sitting by themselves. I wish that more often I could have te state of mind to go and sit next to someone sitting by themself. It is absolutely no fun to be left out. Loneliness lead to even more negative situations. For example, suicide can be a result of loneliness. It would be terrible to find out that somebody did this as a result of loneliness because all we needed to do was go and sit next to them to save their life. Loneliness is a very serious situation, and it is absolutely not fun at all.

"Mice and Men": Friendship

A friendship is a relationship between two people where they are attached by affection or love. When I think of a friendship, I think of a positive or negative situation. Friendships can benefit you in a good or bad way. For example, a positive friendship is where you hold each other accountable. Also, they are long-lasting and don't let anything get in the way, or break the relationship. Meanwhile, a negative friendship is where they let drama get ahold of each other. Drugs and alcohol are also common in negative relationships. Frienships are a very good thing, if chosen to be a positive one.

Finals Week

I'm soo excited for this coming week. I don't have to take finals! That means that I don't have to be at school half the day Tuesday, all Wednesday and Thursday. I am so excited. I think this policy is great. It rewards the student that has good attendance and punishes the student with terrible attendance. All in all, I don't have to be in school. I need a break and a change. Also, I am so ready for summer. This year has been going by super fast but I am still ready for summer. I am also sick of the cold weather. It would be different if we have already had a snow day but it is almost February and we have not had a snow day yet. I'm am so excited for a break from school this week.

Intelligence

Intelligence is your capacity for learning or understanding or even reasoning. In this day and age, I think that intelligence is what gets you along in life. I'm not saying that if your not smart, you are not going to get anywhere in life but if you have the "brains" to become a doctor, lawyer, etc. you will go places in life. Let me explain myself . . . if you become someone like this, you will make quite a bit of money and then you can use this money to raise a family, explore this world, etc. So I am saying that if you are intelligent, use it to get a good job to make some money. I'm not saying that you should be greedy and love money, but there are so many people in this world that are poor and you can use this money to give to them along with supporting yourself. I probably got off on a little tangent but this is why I believe that if you have the gift of intelligence in certain areas, use it.

Stressed

I guess that I'm writing this post because I did not have any better ideas but right now I am kind of stressed. I am finishing up like a 600 point project for history, I have two away swim meets this week, I won't have any time to get my work done, I have a huge history test coming up that I don't know anything about . . . the list is endless. I am sure everybody feels like this sometimes but right now I just want the semester to be over with. I am really sick of school right now and I am sooo looking forward for summer. Also, the cold whether is kind of stressful. You look outside and you can almost feel how cold it is. It SUCKS. I hate the cold weather. I am just kind of rambling on right now so I will just end my post.

Work Ethic

Your work ethic decides many things. It decides if you get an A on your project, if you get your chores done, if you get into the college you want, or whether you get the job you want. For example, if you don't prepare yourself for a job interview, you are not going to get the job. This is why your work ethic decides everything. No one can decide what your work ethic is going to be except for you. Having good work ethic can be time consuming but pays off in the long run. Everyone hates doing homework, but if you take your time and do a good job, your grade will reflect. Same with a test. If you rush through it, you are not going to get the grade that you want. This is why your work ethic is so important.