According to my countdown on iGoogle, graduation is in 14 days, 20 hours, and 30 minutes. After five years of late nights doing homework and endless stress, it's all coming to an end. If you had asked me a month ago how I felt about graduating, my answer would have been something along the lines of "I can't wait!" But as fitness testing starts and teachers begin to assign final projects, it has finally dawned on me that this is really the end. After living in this bubble for the last five years, I am finally going to make my way out into the real world, and it's really scary.
People always talk about how they are really good at playing sports or musical instruments. Well, I pride myself in being good at going to Uni. It's a weird concept, but I know how to play the game of attending Uni. I know how to balance my homework with other outside-of-school activities; I have figured out exactly how late I can start a paper or start studying for a test and still get a good grade. All of my friends are here! How am I going to survive without them? I've been able to vent to them when I am angry, laugh with them to the point of tears, and just be myself around them. In a few weeks, this security blanket is going to be gone. And when August rolls around, I'm literally going to be starting from scratch. After climbing what seems to be an endless staircase, I've finally gotten to the top: being a Senior. But when I head off to college, I'm just going to be at the bottom again, all by myself.
I'm literally going to have to relearn how to go to school. Just today during class we were talking about how Uni "babies" students because so many teachers allow extensions. Although I never abused this privilege, it was nice to know that I still had this cushion to fall back on. Once I go to college, where I may have hundreds of kids in my classes, there isn't going to be a teacher to constantly check up on mw. It is up to me to get all of my work done. Another thing about going off to college is making new friends. After living in Uni's bubble for five years, I can't even remember the last time I made a new friend that didn't go to this school. What if everybody in college hates me?!
Clearly you can tell that I am nervous about going to college. Although I am happy with my decision, I am scared to venture off into the unknown. When graduation finally rolls around in what is now 14 days, 20 hours, and 11 minutes, it is definitely going to be bittersweet. I am pretty burned out from hours of work every night, but at the same time, so much of my teen experience has been made by Uni. I've told myself many times that I will not shed a tear during graduation, but as the number of days till graduation gets closer to zero, my sense of nostalgia has grown. I wouldn't be surprised if a few tears are shed as I say my final goodbyes and embark on the next chapter of my life.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Perfecting the Art of the English Language
Lately I have been receiving massive amounts of emails from random Indian groups in the community with invitations to local prayers and get togethers. This is not actually weird considering I am Indian, and normally I wouldn't be annoyed but every single one of them (I am not exaggerating) is filled with either spelling or grammatical errors! Now, I don't consider myself to be an expert of the english language, but I like to think that I can speak and write relatively correctly. It drives me so crazy now whenever I get these emails that I am tempted to email them back with comments/corrections, but I know that it would be considered rude because they are older than me and I am supposed to respect them.
Most of these people have been living in the US for at least five years, hold a job where they interact with other English speakers, and have studied in schools where English is the primary language so I'm not sure why they can't write a decent email. I can understand a couple of mistakes, but when there are multiple mistakes in every sentence I begin to question how they are able to live in the US. My parents aren't as bad as the people I have described above, but they still make some mistakes and they know it. To fix it, they ask me to proofread their emails so they don't sound incompetent when they get sent out.
Similarly, many Indian people have trouble pronouncing some English words. My guess is that they learned the "Indian" pronunciation while they were studying in India and now it is just stuck. My mom for instance struggles with pronouncing city names like "Indianapolis" and "Minneapolis". No matter how slow I say it or how many times I correct her, she just can't do it. Now, for the most part, she just says these names quietly or finds a way around it so I won't laugh or get angry. Another one that Indian people struggle with is "Connecticut". They think that they second "c" is supposed to be pronounced and say it the way it is spelled. Throughout the NCAA tournament my mom and other friends would talk about how successful The University of Connecticut has been, and every single time they said the name I would flinch or cringe so I finally taught them that they could just say UConn instead. But the funniest thing that I have heard is from when I was proctoring a spelling bee with one of my friends. Apparently my friend's mom got an email from an Indian parent that said that her child was having trouble differentiating between the word "flour" and "floor" because many Indians think that they are pronounced the same way. I had trouble containing my laughter after I heard about this.
Hopefully these grammatical/spelling errors that are so common among Indians can be fixed because I am tired of my inbox being flooded with horribly written emails. Most of these emails come from younger parents who have young kids, so hopefully their kids can grow up to be like me and help their parents write good emails. And if worst comes to worst maybe I will go through with my plan and email them all back.
Most of these people have been living in the US for at least five years, hold a job where they interact with other English speakers, and have studied in schools where English is the primary language so I'm not sure why they can't write a decent email. I can understand a couple of mistakes, but when there are multiple mistakes in every sentence I begin to question how they are able to live in the US. My parents aren't as bad as the people I have described above, but they still make some mistakes and they know it. To fix it, they ask me to proofread their emails so they don't sound incompetent when they get sent out.
Similarly, many Indian people have trouble pronouncing some English words. My guess is that they learned the "Indian" pronunciation while they were studying in India and now it is just stuck. My mom for instance struggles with pronouncing city names like "Indianapolis" and "Minneapolis". No matter how slow I say it or how many times I correct her, she just can't do it. Now, for the most part, she just says these names quietly or finds a way around it so I won't laugh or get angry. Another one that Indian people struggle with is "Connecticut". They think that they second "c" is supposed to be pronounced and say it the way it is spelled. Throughout the NCAA tournament my mom and other friends would talk about how successful The University of Connecticut has been, and every single time they said the name I would flinch or cringe so I finally taught them that they could just say UConn instead. But the funniest thing that I have heard is from when I was proctoring a spelling bee with one of my friends. Apparently my friend's mom got an email from an Indian parent that said that her child was having trouble differentiating between the word "flour" and "floor" because many Indians think that they are pronounced the same way. I had trouble containing my laughter after I heard about this.
Hopefully these grammatical/spelling errors that are so common among Indians can be fixed because I am tired of my inbox being flooded with horribly written emails. Most of these emails come from younger parents who have young kids, so hopefully their kids can grow up to be like me and help their parents write good emails. And if worst comes to worst maybe I will go through with my plan and email them all back.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Let the Madness Begin...
Most of you probably don't know this, but I love watching basketball. Although the NBA is good, I've invested myself into college basketball which means that March is one of my favorite months. Along with the great weather that we have been experiencing, March means that the NCAA basketball tournament is going to begin. It's like a new beginning for a lot of teams; records don't matter anymore, rankings mean next to nothing, and everybody begins with a fresh slate. Cinderella teams that nobody has ever heard about can finally make their mark during March. All of this fares well for my favorite team, the Illini.
Illinois started the season ranked in the top 15 and expectations were very high. The team has four experienced seniors, an athletic sophomore class, and on top of all of that a highly touted freshman class. It seemed like a recipe for success, and for much of the season it was. They started off with a great record of 13-1, beating teams that they were projected to beat while pulling out a few surprises along the way. But then things started to fall apart. For whatever reason (the media claims that outside distractions, lack of competition in practice and unhappiness over the how many minutes players played per game), the team just stopped winning games. They lost against lowly teams like UIC and Indiana and were unable to win consistently. Since the beginning of January, the team has been unable to win consecutive games and it really seemed like the sky was falling. There were questions of whether the Illini would even make it into the tournament, and after finishing with a 19-14 record, I had my doubts as well. Luckily, the state of college basketball this year has been weaker than usual which means that when March rolled around the team found themselves comfortably in the tournament with a 9 seed.
Like I said before, March is like a new season that is five games long. Win five games and you are the champion. Doesn't sound too hard, does it? But apparently it is, because yesterday marked the first day of real competition, and man did madness rein free. Of the16 games that took place yesterday, seven games were decided by five points or less. Louisville, a team that many expected to reach the elite eight, lost against a 13 seed. Princeton, who got into the tournament off of a buzzer beater against Harvard, almost pulled off the upset against Kentucky. The so called "top dogs" of college basketball had their hands full yesterday against supposedly inferior teams. And as the Illini get set to play tonight, they go into the game as an underdog. With how abysmally bad the season ended, it seemed like a sure thing that they would lose. But after watching yesterday's games filled with drama and upsets, I have a lot more faith that they can come out on top tonight.
Win this game against UNLV and the seniors who have never won a tournament game have redeemed themselves. Win the next game against Kansas and it will compensate for the past four years without a tournament win. Because it's March, these crazy ideas aren't actually as obscure as they seem. There is a reason that it is called March Madness, and hopefully the Illini can fully embrace that and win a few games. With all of the craziness that happened yesterday, all I know is that you should always expect the unexpected (which in this case is the Illini actually winning a game).
Illinois started the season ranked in the top 15 and expectations were very high. The team has four experienced seniors, an athletic sophomore class, and on top of all of that a highly touted freshman class. It seemed like a recipe for success, and for much of the season it was. They started off with a great record of 13-1, beating teams that they were projected to beat while pulling out a few surprises along the way. But then things started to fall apart. For whatever reason (the media claims that outside distractions, lack of competition in practice and unhappiness over the how many minutes players played per game), the team just stopped winning games. They lost against lowly teams like UIC and Indiana and were unable to win consistently. Since the beginning of January, the team has been unable to win consecutive games and it really seemed like the sky was falling. There were questions of whether the Illini would even make it into the tournament, and after finishing with a 19-14 record, I had my doubts as well. Luckily, the state of college basketball this year has been weaker than usual which means that when March rolled around the team found themselves comfortably in the tournament with a 9 seed.
Like I said before, March is like a new season that is five games long. Win five games and you are the champion. Doesn't sound too hard, does it? But apparently it is, because yesterday marked the first day of real competition, and man did madness rein free. Of the16 games that took place yesterday, seven games were decided by five points or less. Louisville, a team that many expected to reach the elite eight, lost against a 13 seed. Princeton, who got into the tournament off of a buzzer beater against Harvard, almost pulled off the upset against Kentucky. The so called "top dogs" of college basketball had their hands full yesterday against supposedly inferior teams. And as the Illini get set to play tonight, they go into the game as an underdog. With how abysmally bad the season ended, it seemed like a sure thing that they would lose. But after watching yesterday's games filled with drama and upsets, I have a lot more faith that they can come out on top tonight.
Win this game against UNLV and the seniors who have never won a tournament game have redeemed themselves. Win the next game against Kansas and it will compensate for the past four years without a tournament win. Because it's March, these crazy ideas aren't actually as obscure as they seem. There is a reason that it is called March Madness, and hopefully the Illini can fully embrace that and win a few games. With all of the craziness that happened yesterday, all I know is that you should always expect the unexpected (which in this case is the Illini actually winning a game).
Thursday, March 3, 2011
From Paper to the Big Screen
One of the perks of being a second semester senior is having time to do whatever you want. One day while surfing the internet I came across the Oscar nominee list and it was crazy how many movies were based off of novels! With all of the "free" time that I have now, I decided to check some of them out.
I started with The Accidental Billionaires, the book that the movie The Social Network is based on. If you haven't heard of either, they are about the making of facebook and the struggles that occurred at Harvard between all of the people involved. Although the book was okay, I found myself comparing it to the movie and to me there was no competition of which one was better. The movie brought to life the personality of Mark Zuckerberg, the struggles of being a college student striving for success, and the sacrifices that you have to make. The movie was a little exaggerated, but it was thought-provoking and there was a clear moral that they brought across. The book on the other hand seemed more biased, and although it was informational and written as an interesting story, it just wasn't as good.
After finishing that book, I decided to read something more fun: Eat, Pray, Love. Though not an Oscar nominee, there have been great reviews about the book and it has been a best-seller for a really long so I decided to check it out for myself. I'm in the middle of reading it right now, but from what I have read it's pretty good. I can't imagine leaving everything I have worked for in order to fulfill my dreams of traveling, but that is exactly what the main character, Elizabeth, does. Recently divorced, she decides to travel to Italy and fulfill her dreams of speaking Italian, travel to India to reach her spiritual side, and travel to Indonesia for reasons that are not yet apparent to me. I've been pushing myself for so long to get good grades so I can get into a good college and become a successful person, but she proves that success isn't everything. Like the essay we just read for class said, working hard all the time makes us forget about the important things in life. Elizabeth was unhappy with all of the stress in her life, so she decided to idle for a while and just enjoy what life has to offer.
I haven't seen the movie yet, but hopefully I will finish the book by spring break so I can check the movie out and not feel bad about spending two hours of my life relaxing rather than completing homework.
After I finish this book, I plan to move on to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I watched the movie a few years ago and it was too serious for me....but now that I older and seemingly more mature I'm going to give the book a chance. A discussion in genetics made me remember this book about an infant born as an old man who ages backwards. Although the plot is obscure, F. Scott Fitzgerald is a good author from what I can remember of The Great Gatsby, and now that I am losing motivation to do homework this seems like a good way to pass the time.
I started with The Accidental Billionaires, the book that the movie The Social Network is based on. If you haven't heard of either, they are about the making of facebook and the struggles that occurred at Harvard between all of the people involved. Although the book was okay, I found myself comparing it to the movie and to me there was no competition of which one was better. The movie brought to life the personality of Mark Zuckerberg, the struggles of being a college student striving for success, and the sacrifices that you have to make. The movie was a little exaggerated, but it was thought-provoking and there was a clear moral that they brought across. The book on the other hand seemed more biased, and although it was informational and written as an interesting story, it just wasn't as good.
After finishing that book, I decided to read something more fun: Eat, Pray, Love. Though not an Oscar nominee, there have been great reviews about the book and it has been a best-seller for a really long so I decided to check it out for myself. I'm in the middle of reading it right now, but from what I have read it's pretty good. I can't imagine leaving everything I have worked for in order to fulfill my dreams of traveling, but that is exactly what the main character, Elizabeth, does. Recently divorced, she decides to travel to Italy and fulfill her dreams of speaking Italian, travel to India to reach her spiritual side, and travel to Indonesia for reasons that are not yet apparent to me. I've been pushing myself for so long to get good grades so I can get into a good college and become a successful person, but she proves that success isn't everything. Like the essay we just read for class said, working hard all the time makes us forget about the important things in life. Elizabeth was unhappy with all of the stress in her life, so she decided to idle for a while and just enjoy what life has to offer.
I haven't seen the movie yet, but hopefully I will finish the book by spring break so I can check the movie out and not feel bad about spending two hours of my life relaxing rather than completing homework.
After I finish this book, I plan to move on to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I watched the movie a few years ago and it was too serious for me....but now that I older and seemingly more mature I'm going to give the book a chance. A discussion in genetics made me remember this book about an infant born as an old man who ages backwards. Although the plot is obscure, F. Scott Fitzgerald is a good author from what I can remember of The Great Gatsby, and now that I am losing motivation to do homework this seems like a good way to pass the time.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
I See Dead People
Yesterday after school I headed over to Parkland to make up some quizzes that I missed for Anatomy/Physiology. While I was there, my teacher told me that I could go to the cadaver lab and study vessels and arteries for our test on Saturday so I took her up on the offer. the first time I went up to the lab, I had no clue what to expect. Yeah, I knew that there would be dead bodies up there, but it was still shocking being up there.
For one thing, it smells horrible in there. No, it isn't the smell of dead bodies, but some preservative to keep the bodies in decent condition. Usually when you are in a room that smells bad, eventually your nose will adjust and soon you don't smell it. Nope, not here. Here it's like a haunting smell that follows you, even after you have left the room. Luckily, my class quickly learned that if you put on Vicks under your nose, it will block out the stench so now somebody always brings it. Along the same lines, looking at the bodies is kind of weird. We have pictures in our Anatomy books of how the human body supposedly looks, so when I first went in I expected something closer to that. But no, these bodies are a mess. The diagrams in books are so perfectly laid out, but in an actual body things are all over the place. But maybe that is because in diagrams they don't show you everything at once, like you would find in a real body. They show you the body with only muscles or only veins, but in a real body they are all in there at the same time, making it exponentially more confusing.
Another creepy thing about the lab is that all of the bodies have names. No, not there real names, but names none the less. When I was in there yesterday, my teacher was looking for a body and she was asking, "where is Lou?". It was hysterical because clearly, he did not walk away because that would just be crazy. It all becomes so much more real because they have names, because then when you look at their faces you realize that these people were alive at one point, doing things that you do and just living their life. One of my least favorite things is looking at their faces, because those are always unique. The way their lips or nose are positioned just makes me think, what if they died with this facial expression? It's a creepy, sad thought.
Even though the cadaver lab is gross and disturbing, I still want to go back. It's fascinating looking at all of the things that allow your body to function normally and understanding how they all work together to keep you alive. I appreciate all the people who decided to donate their bodies to science, and although I think about donating my eyes or organs after I die, hopefully I don't find myself in that position soon!
For one thing, it smells horrible in there. No, it isn't the smell of dead bodies, but some preservative to keep the bodies in decent condition. Usually when you are in a room that smells bad, eventually your nose will adjust and soon you don't smell it. Nope, not here. Here it's like a haunting smell that follows you, even after you have left the room. Luckily, my class quickly learned that if you put on Vicks under your nose, it will block out the stench so now somebody always brings it. Along the same lines, looking at the bodies is kind of weird. We have pictures in our Anatomy books of how the human body supposedly looks, so when I first went in I expected something closer to that. But no, these bodies are a mess. The diagrams in books are so perfectly laid out, but in an actual body things are all over the place. But maybe that is because in diagrams they don't show you everything at once, like you would find in a real body. They show you the body with only muscles or only veins, but in a real body they are all in there at the same time, making it exponentially more confusing.
Another creepy thing about the lab is that all of the bodies have names. No, not there real names, but names none the less. When I was in there yesterday, my teacher was looking for a body and she was asking, "where is Lou?". It was hysterical because clearly, he did not walk away because that would just be crazy. It all becomes so much more real because they have names, because then when you look at their faces you realize that these people were alive at one point, doing things that you do and just living their life. One of my least favorite things is looking at their faces, because those are always unique. The way their lips or nose are positioned just makes me think, what if they died with this facial expression? It's a creepy, sad thought.
Even though the cadaver lab is gross and disturbing, I still want to go back. It's fascinating looking at all of the things that allow your body to function normally and understanding how they all work together to keep you alive. I appreciate all the people who decided to donate their bodies to science, and although I think about donating my eyes or organs after I die, hopefully I don't find myself in that position soon!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The Woes of Being License-less
With almost a week left until my seventeenth birthday I still find myself without a driver's license. It has been about a year and a half since I took driver's ed., and yet I'm still in the depressing situation of having my parents and friends drive me around everywhere. Up until this year I haven't really seen the need to drive, but now the activities that I do outside of school take up a lot of time and I realize how convenient it would be to have a license.
I am a really impatient person and I hate waiting for other people. I'm always the person in my family rushing everybody out the door because I just want to go. But anyways, every Saturday I find myself at Parkland for Anatomy & Physiology, never knowing when class will end. There are days where it takes the full three hours, and others where we take a couple of quizzes, go over some notes and are done within two hours. There is such a varied range that I don't know what time I should tell my parents to come pick me up, and even though I know it isn't there fault, every time I leave Parkland I am so pissed off because I have to sit there doing absolutely nothing for fifteen to twenty minutes. Yeah, I could do homework of some sort, but it's Saturday and after spending hours with dead bodies, all I want to do is go home and relax. What is even more depressing is the fact that almost everybody else in my class drives there, so I get to watch them all rush out while I get to sit inside a dreary, empty building.
I am trying to think of the last time that I was behind the wheel, and I'm pretty sure that it has been over six months. I'm too scared to drive now because of all the ice and snow. Considering how little experience I have, I would probably crash our car and then my parents would never take me to get my license. I've contemplated waiting until I am eighteen to go so I can avoid having to finish my "behind the wheel" hours with an instructor. I've heard that it is hard to get in touch with them, and I'm going off to college anyways. The only helpful thing about having a license would be if I went to the U of I, because my parents are trying to bribe me into staying in town by offering to buy me a car. But considering I want to leave town, I don't really see the point.
My frustration and impatience has gotten to the point that I have decided to make a goal for myself. I plan to get my license by the time I graduate. I haven't made any progress yet, but hopefully the snow will melt soon and I will be able to get in touch with an instructor so I can finally be free of this torture.
I am a really impatient person and I hate waiting for other people. I'm always the person in my family rushing everybody out the door because I just want to go. But anyways, every Saturday I find myself at Parkland for Anatomy & Physiology, never knowing when class will end. There are days where it takes the full three hours, and others where we take a couple of quizzes, go over some notes and are done within two hours. There is such a varied range that I don't know what time I should tell my parents to come pick me up, and even though I know it isn't there fault, every time I leave Parkland I am so pissed off because I have to sit there doing absolutely nothing for fifteen to twenty minutes. Yeah, I could do homework of some sort, but it's Saturday and after spending hours with dead bodies, all I want to do is go home and relax. What is even more depressing is the fact that almost everybody else in my class drives there, so I get to watch them all rush out while I get to sit inside a dreary, empty building.
I am trying to think of the last time that I was behind the wheel, and I'm pretty sure that it has been over six months. I'm too scared to drive now because of all the ice and snow. Considering how little experience I have, I would probably crash our car and then my parents would never take me to get my license. I've contemplated waiting until I am eighteen to go so I can avoid having to finish my "behind the wheel" hours with an instructor. I've heard that it is hard to get in touch with them, and I'm going off to college anyways. The only helpful thing about having a license would be if I went to the U of I, because my parents are trying to bribe me into staying in town by offering to buy me a car. But considering I want to leave town, I don't really see the point.
My frustration and impatience has gotten to the point that I have decided to make a goal for myself. I plan to get my license by the time I graduate. I haven't made any progress yet, but hopefully the snow will melt soon and I will be able to get in touch with an instructor so I can finally be free of this torture.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
And the Work Never Ends!
As a second semester senior who has recently finished all of her college applications, I expected to be free. I planned on reading books for my own amusement, watching lots of movies, and just lazying around. But I'm still waiting for this to happen, though I am pretty sure that it never will. My list of things to do is growing by the minute while my inspiration to do them is pretty much non-existant, hence my lack of freedom right now.
It seems that I am suffering from a condition where it is almost impossible to do homework at home, and even when I do, it takes me infinitely longer to do because I am so distracted. Then after spending many long hours on homework that should really take me almost no time to do (considering the free time I have at school with Uni period and free periods), I have to work on things like scholarships which brings me down even more. Writing scholarship essays is not fun because first of all, it is more writing, and second of all, browsing college websites and seeing the opportunities and freedom available makes me want to graduate even more which makes it harder to stay motivated enough to do homework.
I've come to the conclusion that the status of "second semester senior" means absolutely nothing. You are always going to have work, and the more you fight it, the harder it gets. My advice to any underclassmen reading this: do not waste winter break! Finish your college applications early and start scholarship applications right after that. If you take a break, even a couple of days, the work will never end! Maybe if you finish everything college related over break you won't be in the predicament that I am in, and instead you can enjoy your "second semester senior" status.
It seems that I am suffering from a condition where it is almost impossible to do homework at home, and even when I do, it takes me infinitely longer to do because I am so distracted. Then after spending many long hours on homework that should really take me almost no time to do (considering the free time I have at school with Uni period and free periods), I have to work on things like scholarships which brings me down even more. Writing scholarship essays is not fun because first of all, it is more writing, and second of all, browsing college websites and seeing the opportunities and freedom available makes me want to graduate even more which makes it harder to stay motivated enough to do homework.
I've come to the conclusion that the status of "second semester senior" means absolutely nothing. You are always going to have work, and the more you fight it, the harder it gets. My advice to any underclassmen reading this: do not waste winter break! Finish your college applications early and start scholarship applications right after that. If you take a break, even a couple of days, the work will never end! Maybe if you finish everything college related over break you won't be in the predicament that I am in, and instead you can enjoy your "second semester senior" status.
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