Hannah Uler - Post 7

An abbreviated list of things that I do because I'm gay:

• Sit on the floor/desks/places where I'm not supposed to sit
• Say "I'm gay" in explanation to everything
• Try to make friends with every LGBT+ I meet
• Have a girlfriend

Prisha Naduthota - Week 7

Someone roasted another person on the livestream chat, saying "Dating you is like communism - better in theory"

I have no idea what lead to this, nor why such a scathing remark was needed, but it was hilarious

Week 7 Laura

For a creative writing class during a free writing block, there is an alarming lack of typing sounds.

Mehlhorn Week 7

Poems have always had a therapeutic effect on me. I felt weird one day during my history class so I wrote a poem and this is it.

the way the blues
in the sky
mingled with
the ravenous
oranged of the
sunrise
reminded me of
You.

they seemed to
flirt,
mixing in
parts of
the open sky
yet
diverging in others.

they seemed to dance
with each other,
to waltz
a gentle push and pull
across the
sun lit floor.

i always saw
the same beautiful blue hues
within Your words,
yet You saw
no orange
in mine.

Isabelle week 6

It completely baffles me how some people expect respect but don't give any back. I've heard people talk about this sort of thing but I've never experienced it for myself until recently. I don't understand how someone could be so rude and disrespectful and get mad when you stand up for yourself. I will respect you if you respect me, just because you're an adult doesn't mean I need to praise you constantly. 

Week six Anthony

The energy which courses through us as we live, does not pass away as we die, it remains here eternally amongst the new.

Week Six Laura

Something feels absolutely, viscerally wrong about walking around school without a backpack. It could just be walking to the bathroom after dropping off my bag, or being alone in an empty hallway after school. There's something about the feeling that sets my nerves on end.

week 5 Anthony

In the morning try to get out of bed as quick as possible, this will wake you up quickly and then follow it with cold water on your face. The early morning also yields a clear state of mind.

Mehlhorn Week Six

I'm beginning to forget your voice. The smooth sounds it made is falling out of my brain. All that remains now is the sound of your laugh. I wish I either still hear it all or hear nothing. I'm not really sure what I can do. How can you force yourself to forget something? How can you remember a sound you haven't heard in what feels like years?

Week 6- Nick

It is nearly impossible for me to go to sleep early. I'm not sure if its a lack of ability to break routine or some other force but it takes a true level of complete exhaustion to truly get me to go to bed early.

Ali -Week 5

The song Feeling Whitney by Post Malone has me inspired right now. I’m not exactly sure why my heart feels this way but I feel hopeful and content. My heart feels full and the guitar fills my ears. I feel like I’m sitting around a fireplace with my friends and someone’s playing this song. I feel loved and happy. The song speaks of peace and content and relaxed feelings.

Ali -Week 4

Her little sister Oakley gave an inspiring and powerful speech today that inspired me. She spoke of her sisters kindness and perfection and her words flowed like silk into the ears of every person in the room. There was not one person who’s heart didn’t melt at her words. This left the audience tearful with aching hearts. Her message was powerful and I am so so so beyond proud of her it was truly incredible.

Ali -Week 3

The wind was cool and felt like it was burning my face. But we had the heat on in the car so it rushed against us then out the window to mix with the cool air. He lit up like a Christmas tree when I played one of his favorite songs. The music was everywhere and the stereo makes the whole car shake. It made the side mirrors tremble like the drivers around us did.

Ali -Week 2

I babysit every day after school and the younger of the two kids is 9 and had severe focus issues. He gets frustrated easily and upset and I told him he needs to be listening more and today he had a difficult homework assignment. He had to find poetic devices in a poem and write them out. Which is hard for a 9 year old. I challenged him to find them on his own and I would check them. He wasn’t responding to that so I challenged him to tell me what each poetic device was. One that was extremely challenging was repetition. At first he really didn’t understand that so I showed him root words and helped give him hints. He tried to look again and still didn’t understand so I told him to look at the poem as a whole and he started figuring it out. At first he said it was something from the beginning, then I told him yes but there’s a bit more to it and he said the word “I’m”. I was ecstatic!!! “I’m” is a word repeated throughout the poem so I encouraged him to tell me what it was about that word and he finally said it’s repeated!!! And I gave him 3 double high fives and we both lit up we were so excited and relieved that he finally got it!! I explained to him the hints I had given him earlier and we figured it out together!!!! Such an amazing moment.

Ali -Week 1

Today I saw empathy. It poured out her eyes and dripped down her face. It melted off of her and radiated deep within me making my heart burn. I wasn’t a fan but it was powerful. People like that either make you think.

Olive 6

Distance is one of the most hurtful, difficult, and arduous obstacles in life that people have to confront. I spend my life racing from A to B as fast as I can, and the distance between is painful. The distance between a broken relationship hurts more than any race. And the distance one must go when they don't know how long it will be... That is the most painful.

Olive 5

If everyone in the world focussed on just themselves would there be conflict? So much of conflicts throughout history has been caused by external feelings cast upon others. If everyone just focussed on themselves, and nourished the light within themselves, wouldn't we all shine brighter? That goes for philanthropy too - because when you rely on others for happiness, you run a very high risk of heart break, and if you spend your life trying to give light to others that could be used to ignite your own, then everyone just walks around as a dull, unreliable, flicker of a flame that is more vulnerable to a gentle breeze than a roaring fire.

Week 4 - Olive

I have a hard time letting go of the past. I often have hope that if I hold on tight enough to what used to be - I can bring it back. One minute, I'm holding the rope and I think "I can do this." then the next minute, "it's too heavy". It's a vicious cycle of bobbing up and down that leaves my heart torn and hands burnt.

Olive 3

One of the most upsetting things to me is when people forget all the good things that have happened in the past and instead label you by your one slip up. It makes me regret caring for others when I should've spent the time on myself. Like Thoreau says: The price of anything is the amount of life you spend on it.", and I have spent a fortune on others... Now I'm bankrupt.

Samiul Week 6

Sometimes life be suckish. Things be dark and they cannot be changed. Positivity blinds truth, not optimism.

Samiul Week 4

A half day means that I have more things to get done quickly. But, I can never figure out, what I have to do. An even if I do, I know that I'll waste more time. DO I really care about getting stuff done?

ALA Week 5

You know when you yawn
And suddenly
the world is so much louder?
-
These past few weeks, I've been periodically fighting off a cold, so my ears keep getting blocked up. But then I yawn, or shift, or move in the right way, and my ear pops, and sounds just hits me over the head. Sound is such an integral part of my world, and to be both partially deprived and then painfully reintroduced to it, inspires me to explore different worlds with different soundscapes.

Zach Week 5

One time when I was little, a TV could have fallen on my head while I was sleeping. There was a box TV mounted in my room, right above my bed, and above where my head would have been. The day before the TV fell from the mount, we had moved my bed to the other side of the room. If I didn't decide to move my bed, the TV would have fallen on my head.

ALA Week 4

Reactions
Several times in the past weeks of mad cap rehearsing for the band concert, someone has dropped a mallet or a cymbal or the like. And while there's always the usually moment of silence from everyone in the room, as they think on their sins and regret their life choices, Mr. Soo has taken to saying something to break the silence. Make it less of the Upperclassmen reliving their Satiric Dances nightmares(just thinking about that moment gives me shivers), and more of a meme.
Memorably, someone dropped brass mallets on the bells, which isn't just traumatic, it's discordant. Mr. Soo just gave the bells, the instrument, a half-amused, half-disgruntled look, and said, "Bless You." Or when someone dropped a cymbal, and the band room went silent(which should be impossible, but traumatic memories do that), but Mr. Soo just yelled, "Yahtze!"
It feels kinda stupid to write, but Band sometimes takes itself too seriously, especially as concert stress kicks in. That there's still these moments of levity is really nice, and really interesting to go into, because we already treat our instruments as sentient beings. This just goes a little further.

Zach Week 4

I remember back in my freshman days not having a chromebook in school, and now as a senior I have one. It's weird to think about, I still would prefer to have pencil and paper, but honestly chromebooks are really convenient. It just kinda makes me a little weirded out because I feel like sometimes people rely too much on technology, and I know I'm guilty of that.

Zach Week 3

I don't understand why people feel the need to litter. It's convenient but it's not that hard to throw your trash out. The earth is beautiful and it doesn't need your litter.

Zach Week 2

There's something comforting in music, and I mean of any genre. If I'm ever stressed out about anything, I listen to music. If I ever need to work hard on school work, I listen to music. If I go for a long drive, I listen to music. It amazes me that there's lots of different music out there, and there is a lot of good music that isn't popular at all.

ALA Week 3

Ship Happens. Anchor Away!
My mom has a ton of sayings that just randomly come out of her mouth, but this one brought to mind all of the different ways we don't say swears. I usually revert to various baked goods(muffins are a favorite), my sister just slurs the first letter, and my dad is the funniest of them all, because his first reaction isn't to swear at all, but to say crap, shoot, or on one very memorable occasion, "poopies!"

Prisha - Week 6

Today, I had a substitute in biology. I was whistling during class (because why not).
When I left, he told me to keep whistling. He said that it'd make the world a better place.
That was unexpectedly sweet

Hannah Uler - Post 6

I wish I were better at communicating. My friend and I aren't talking (yet again) because she's in busy and in a weird mental place, and everything I say seems to set her off, so I'm trying not to say anything. I'm giving her space to take a break from me if she needs, because she'll text when she wants to talk, right?

Week 5 Leila

I'm very indecisive. I always have been, but its recently been a problem with deciding where to go to college. I think I know where I'm going, but I'm still going to other accepted student days because I'm afraid that I will regret my decision.