As Junior year is coming to an end, I feel myself having mixed feelings. On one hand, the end of Junior year means the end of a year of schoolwork and 6:30 am wake ups, allowing for three months of free time, assuming my parents haven't completely booked me for summer camps. On the other, that means in less than a week, I will be considered a Senior in high school. This is a pretty nerve wracking and depressing thought for me. I don't particularly like school, mind you, I mainly just like the people in the school. When I become a Senior, that means I only have one year left to be around all my friends and cram in as many memories as I can. Becoming a senior will also mean that the final stage of the college process will kick in, no doubt bringing tons of anxiety and stress along with it. I feel as though at some point I might just give up and decide I don't really care where I end up going, as long as I don't have to deal with the college process anymore.
One big thing I am dreading about becoming a Senior is that it will be my last year in my high school sports. Only one year to prove myself, play my heart out, etc. This is kind of unfortunate since I frequently during sports (especially towards the end of the season) I tend to play worse than the beginning of the season, merely because I grow tired of the sport, or I just get lazy. I definitely don't like this phenomenon that seems to grab me in nearly every sport, and I really don't want it to happen as it did Junior year. I don't want end my high school athletic career with a half-assed season. Sports seasons are generally my favorite part of the year. I love going out after school to get food before a basketball game and hanging out with everybody on the bus. The season always seems to go by quickly, though. One day it'll be the start of the season and we're having "tryouts", then the next it'll be senior night and I'll be playing on my home court/field for the last time. This part I'm dreading the most. I really don't like goodbyes.
Goodbyes are the part that I'm really dreading. Senior year is all about "Last" everything. The Last fitness class, the Last full day, the Last high school test, the Last bell, among a long line of the Lasts I'll have to go through as a Senior. Everyone in my class is going to go on their own separate paths, though some may cross. Saying goodbye to my classmates and teachers is going to be the hardest. I know I'll see them again and all, but I'll still miss them all the same.
These past four years have already gone by so fast; I'm sure my final year will go even more so. I just hope I find time to enjoy it and savor it.
Have a great summer y'all!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Motherboy XXX
Some of you may have chosen to read this post because you saw the "XXX" in the title, and curiosity overcame you. Perhaps others actually recognized the reference. Truth is, I'm not creative enough to come up with interesting, random titles. "Motherboy XXX" happens to be an episode name of a television show that I have recently become infatuated with. I would argue this show is by far one of the wittiest, funniest, and most creative TV shows ever. It even tops The Office in my book, which, if you know how much I like the Office, is saying a lot. I have two words for you: Arrested. Development.
I have a dim memory from a while back of coming across the Season 3 DVD amidst the clutter of our movie shelf in the basement. It was a hot summer day and I had grown sick of infomercials and Roseanne reruns, which is all there really is to do at my house in the middle of nowhere, and decided to recline in the basement, the only place in my house that isn't scorching, and watch an episode or two. I don't remember what episode, or really anything special about the experience. It didn't have much of an impact on me then. I probably had no idea what was going on in the show, and most likely the jokes were far too clever for me so I didn't get them.
Fast forward three years in the Uni lounge during a 6th hour free period where a friend decided to bring in a TV show to watch (this was before Super Smash bros took over the lounge), It was Arrested Development season 1. I vaguely recognized the name and recalled that I might have watched an episode before. I didn't remember it being such a good show, and told my friend this, but he insisted that it was really funny, so I'm like okay, why not I'll watch some. It was freaking hilarious. I was hooked on it. I borrowed the first disk of the season from him and took it home that weekend. All I really did that weekend was watch those eight episodes over and over again, along with season 3 which I had dug out of the basement.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of watching Arrested Development, the basic gist if the show is that this guy, Michael Bluth, has to keep his father's company afloat while his father is in jail because the authorities think his father has been doing some shady dealings with a country that the U.S. isn't on great terms with. He has this really dysfunctional high-class family that's just so ridiculous in everything that they do that it's absolutely hilarious. One of my favorite characters on the show is Tobias, which is Michael's sister's husband whom she married as an act of rebellion to her parents, who quit being a psychiatrist to pursue his dream of becoming an actor, which leads to many funny auditions and roles he takes on, once even going into drag impersonating a nanny, Mrs. Featherbottom so that he can still be with his family after his wife Lindsay kicked him out.
It blows my mind how clever this show is. Everything is planned out perfectly, even the characters are named specifically to be tied in to later jokes or plot lines. They use a lot of word-related humor that's subtle yet hilarious, unlike shows like Family Guy (still a great show) where they really diverge from the plot to bring you humor in "that one thing that happened one time" clips. To sum things up: It's simply the best show on earth.
Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but my show's on. Toodles.
I have a dim memory from a while back of coming across the Season 3 DVD amidst the clutter of our movie shelf in the basement. It was a hot summer day and I had grown sick of infomercials and Roseanne reruns, which is all there really is to do at my house in the middle of nowhere, and decided to recline in the basement, the only place in my house that isn't scorching, and watch an episode or two. I don't remember what episode, or really anything special about the experience. It didn't have much of an impact on me then. I probably had no idea what was going on in the show, and most likely the jokes were far too clever for me so I didn't get them.
Fast forward three years in the Uni lounge during a 6th hour free period where a friend decided to bring in a TV show to watch (this was before Super Smash bros took over the lounge), It was Arrested Development season 1. I vaguely recognized the name and recalled that I might have watched an episode before. I didn't remember it being such a good show, and told my friend this, but he insisted that it was really funny, so I'm like okay, why not I'll watch some. It was freaking hilarious. I was hooked on it. I borrowed the first disk of the season from him and took it home that weekend. All I really did that weekend was watch those eight episodes over and over again, along with season 3 which I had dug out of the basement.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of watching Arrested Development, the basic gist if the show is that this guy, Michael Bluth, has to keep his father's company afloat while his father is in jail because the authorities think his father has been doing some shady dealings with a country that the U.S. isn't on great terms with. He has this really dysfunctional high-class family that's just so ridiculous in everything that they do that it's absolutely hilarious. One of my favorite characters on the show is Tobias, which is Michael's sister's husband whom she married as an act of rebellion to her parents, who quit being a psychiatrist to pursue his dream of becoming an actor, which leads to many funny auditions and roles he takes on, once even going into drag impersonating a nanny, Mrs. Featherbottom so that he can still be with his family after his wife Lindsay kicked him out.
It blows my mind how clever this show is. Everything is planned out perfectly, even the characters are named specifically to be tied in to later jokes or plot lines. They use a lot of word-related humor that's subtle yet hilarious, unlike shows like Family Guy (still a great show) where they really diverge from the plot to bring you humor in "that one thing that happened one time" clips. To sum things up: It's simply the best show on earth.
Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but my show's on. Toodles.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
ADD, Chai, and Padthai
It had been about a month and a half since I went to the initial career testing session. My dad decided it was high time that we make the trek up to Glen Ellyn for the second time during one of my school breaks, so before we headed to Florida for spring break, we stopped by for my analysis session. Following much of the same procedure we followed the first time, we got up early in the morning and I watched Arrested Development on the way up, and when we arrived in Glen Ellyn, I got another chai tea latte.
When we walked into the career center, I was the only person there. The secretary greeted my dad as though he was an old friend. I suppose after three children through their program, he kind of was. A lady I recognized from the first visit led us into a small office with a table and comfy spin chairs. Me, my dad, and the lady all sat around the table while the lady pulled out the thick folder of my results. She started by showing us the statistics of the results of the tests of how they measured up to other people's results. I did pretty high in most, but a few were REALLY low. One of them was left hand dexterity, which wasn't a huge surprise, I know the left side of my body is practically useless. Another one was grip strength which was a little unexpected, since we do grip strength testing for P.E. and I'm usually around the average if not a little above. Now for the analysis of these results and what they say about my personality. With my curiosity piqued, the lady started to go through each test and tell me things about myself.
Right off the bat she goes right in and asks if I'm ADD. Feeling sightly shocked, annoyed, and amused by this question I told her I didn't think so. My dad immediately said, slightly defensively, "No. No, we don't think she is". The lady smiled, nodded, and continued. She then outlines my statistics pointing out how high I scored with some and saying how great that was, before she went on to the lower ones. She told us the low grip strength score told her that I didn't have very high endurance, so I needed to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. This was dead on, I've always highly valued my sleep. i don't think I've ever stayed up past 11 doing homework. I wasn't entirely sure how one could determine that from a grip strength test, but I didn't have time to question because we moved right along.
The rest of the session she merely told me things about myself, and most were dead on. From my answers from one of tests she determined that I have the type of personality where I look at the pros and cons of things and tend to focus on the cons, which I could see evidence of. I also apparently really value my work and when people critique my work I take it more personally than some. Again, some truth to it. She applauded me for my ability to type well on the computer, of which I told her I type with one hand mainly, and I accidentally used both on the test. She said that was fine, but highly recommended a typing program. Whatever. My typing is fine, woman.
Right before she was going to suggest possible jobs for me, she had one more aspect of my personality to reveal to me. Through one test she was able to determine that I really didn't like to work hard if someone else could do the job. Bulls eye. I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm sure it's probably true of a lot of people, but the fact that it's built into my personality explains a lot to me. I've always been a big fan of shortcuts and cutting down my workload. It also slightly explains why cross country season was such an internal struggle. Though I'm sure it was for everyone else, they somehow managed to keep their complaints during races nonverbal.
I wasn't so excited about the jobs she outlined for me. She insisted that they were high paying jobs that had flexible hours (so I could get sleep), and they wouldn't take a ridiculous amount of time in school to get (perhaps satisfying her notion that I was ADD). She put down three different engineering careers, optometrist, and zoo keeper. Engineering I already decided I wasn't into, I had no interest in eyes or cutting into them, and I actually wouldn't mind being a zoo keeper since I'd get to work with animals, but I'm not so sure that's all that high paying. When I told all of this she said triumphantly, perceiving that her analysis of me was true, "See! You automatically focus on what you don't like about the jobs. You aren't going to find a job that you like everything about". I was annoyed at her for no real reason, but throughout the last half hour of the session I was less than engaged in her little lecture.
When we finally got out of the career center, we stopped by Noodles and Company for a quick lunch since I was really craving some padthai. While munching on my noodles, I contemplated all that the session had brought to light. The session had left me with a couple job possibilities, but more than that, it taught me something about myself, and affirmed things I already suspected. As we headed home, my dad asked me how I thought it went. I said it was good, but expressed my surprise in her assumption I was ADD. He agreed and let me be for the next two and a half hours as I watched more Arrested Development. I still don't think I'm ADD, but there sure are times I wonder.
SQUIRREL!
When we walked into the career center, I was the only person there. The secretary greeted my dad as though he was an old friend. I suppose after three children through their program, he kind of was. A lady I recognized from the first visit led us into a small office with a table and comfy spin chairs. Me, my dad, and the lady all sat around the table while the lady pulled out the thick folder of my results. She started by showing us the statistics of the results of the tests of how they measured up to other people's results. I did pretty high in most, but a few were REALLY low. One of them was left hand dexterity, which wasn't a huge surprise, I know the left side of my body is practically useless. Another one was grip strength which was a little unexpected, since we do grip strength testing for P.E. and I'm usually around the average if not a little above. Now for the analysis of these results and what they say about my personality. With my curiosity piqued, the lady started to go through each test and tell me things about myself.
Right off the bat she goes right in and asks if I'm ADD. Feeling sightly shocked, annoyed, and amused by this question I told her I didn't think so. My dad immediately said, slightly defensively, "No. No, we don't think she is". The lady smiled, nodded, and continued. She then outlines my statistics pointing out how high I scored with some and saying how great that was, before she went on to the lower ones. She told us the low grip strength score told her that I didn't have very high endurance, so I needed to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. This was dead on, I've always highly valued my sleep. i don't think I've ever stayed up past 11 doing homework. I wasn't entirely sure how one could determine that from a grip strength test, but I didn't have time to question because we moved right along.
The rest of the session she merely told me things about myself, and most were dead on. From my answers from one of tests she determined that I have the type of personality where I look at the pros and cons of things and tend to focus on the cons, which I could see evidence of. I also apparently really value my work and when people critique my work I take it more personally than some. Again, some truth to it. She applauded me for my ability to type well on the computer, of which I told her I type with one hand mainly, and I accidentally used both on the test. She said that was fine, but highly recommended a typing program. Whatever. My typing is fine, woman.
Right before she was going to suggest possible jobs for me, she had one more aspect of my personality to reveal to me. Through one test she was able to determine that I really didn't like to work hard if someone else could do the job. Bulls eye. I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm sure it's probably true of a lot of people, but the fact that it's built into my personality explains a lot to me. I've always been a big fan of shortcuts and cutting down my workload. It also slightly explains why cross country season was such an internal struggle. Though I'm sure it was for everyone else, they somehow managed to keep their complaints during races nonverbal.
I wasn't so excited about the jobs she outlined for me. She insisted that they were high paying jobs that had flexible hours (so I could get sleep), and they wouldn't take a ridiculous amount of time in school to get (perhaps satisfying her notion that I was ADD). She put down three different engineering careers, optometrist, and zoo keeper. Engineering I already decided I wasn't into, I had no interest in eyes or cutting into them, and I actually wouldn't mind being a zoo keeper since I'd get to work with animals, but I'm not so sure that's all that high paying. When I told all of this she said triumphantly, perceiving that her analysis of me was true, "See! You automatically focus on what you don't like about the jobs. You aren't going to find a job that you like everything about". I was annoyed at her for no real reason, but throughout the last half hour of the session I was less than engaged in her little lecture.
When we finally got out of the career center, we stopped by Noodles and Company for a quick lunch since I was really craving some padthai. While munching on my noodles, I contemplated all that the session had brought to light. The session had left me with a couple job possibilities, but more than that, it taught me something about myself, and affirmed things I already suspected. As we headed home, my dad asked me how I thought it went. I said it was good, but expressed my surprise in her assumption I was ADD. He agreed and let me be for the next two and a half hours as I watched more Arrested Development. I still don't think I'm ADD, but there sure are times I wonder.
SQUIRREL!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Carrers, Chai, and Chipotle
My parents over winter break forced me to go to a three hour career testing session to help get an idea of what jobs might best fit my personality. I was pretty skeptical about the whole thing. I mean, how can paper tests help determine what jobs I would like? Well, I suppose if my parents wanted to waste their money, then they could, but I wasn't so lenient with my time. It didn't help that it was in Glen Ellyn which is three hours away, meaning that I would have to get up early to go to this testing that I wasn't so crazy about in the first place.
The day of the career session came and me, my dad, and my sister (who was only coming along because she wanted to visit a friend in Glen Ellyn) got up at 6 am and piled into the car. The ride itself wasn't such a waste, I merely watched Arrested Development on my portable DVD player and slept, which is what I probably would've been doing anyway. When we arrived in Glen Ellyn we still had fifteen minutes to spare, so we hit up Starbucks, which was a nice treat. Non-fat chai latte in hand, I headed over to the career center on the second floor of a small business building. They took me into a room with computers and two other kids who looked like they were about my age were already there. I took my seat and began the testing.
There were a lot of tests. I had to go through a list of about 150 careers and rank whether or not I would like to do that job. Then I did typing tests, which I accidentally cheated on one since we were only supposed to use one hand, but whatever, it won't change my life. I went through and did a bunch of other tests on the computer and after about 2 hours we were given a lunch break. This other girl who was also testing and I went to Chipotle. We chatted for a bit about college, our school, and the career testing over our burritos then we headed back to the career center. We got back a little early so we decided to start testing right away (might as well get it over with, right?). The next tests were a little more fun; there was shape assembly, grip strength, and dexterity testing with putting little rods into holes and seeing how many you could do in one minute. Right after dexterity testing she mysteriously handed us each a piece of candy then walked out of the room. I eyed it suspiciously. Was this another test? I glanced over at the other girl, she shrugged back at me, so we ate our candy.
It was soon four o'clock and time to go. I waited in the lobby for my dad, who ended up being 20 minutes late. He asked how I did, as though it were an ACT or something. I merely said "it was fine" and proceeded to pop in my ipod ear buds. It occurred to me that I would have to come back later for the three hour analysis of my results, but oh well, maybe I'd get another burrito out of it. I suppose the testing wasn't a complete waste, but I'll remain a skeptic until I see their results.
The day of the career session came and me, my dad, and my sister (who was only coming along because she wanted to visit a friend in Glen Ellyn) got up at 6 am and piled into the car. The ride itself wasn't such a waste, I merely watched Arrested Development on my portable DVD player and slept, which is what I probably would've been doing anyway. When we arrived in Glen Ellyn we still had fifteen minutes to spare, so we hit up Starbucks, which was a nice treat. Non-fat chai latte in hand, I headed over to the career center on the second floor of a small business building. They took me into a room with computers and two other kids who looked like they were about my age were already there. I took my seat and began the testing.
There were a lot of tests. I had to go through a list of about 150 careers and rank whether or not I would like to do that job. Then I did typing tests, which I accidentally cheated on one since we were only supposed to use one hand, but whatever, it won't change my life. I went through and did a bunch of other tests on the computer and after about 2 hours we were given a lunch break. This other girl who was also testing and I went to Chipotle. We chatted for a bit about college, our school, and the career testing over our burritos then we headed back to the career center. We got back a little early so we decided to start testing right away (might as well get it over with, right?). The next tests were a little more fun; there was shape assembly, grip strength, and dexterity testing with putting little rods into holes and seeing how many you could do in one minute. Right after dexterity testing she mysteriously handed us each a piece of candy then walked out of the room. I eyed it suspiciously. Was this another test? I glanced over at the other girl, she shrugged back at me, so we ate our candy.
It was soon four o'clock and time to go. I waited in the lobby for my dad, who ended up being 20 minutes late. He asked how I did, as though it were an ACT or something. I merely said "it was fine" and proceeded to pop in my ipod ear buds. It occurred to me that I would have to come back later for the three hour analysis of my results, but oh well, maybe I'd get another burrito out of it. I suppose the testing wasn't a complete waste, but I'll remain a skeptic until I see their results.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
I'm a Belieber
I used to mock all victims of Bieber Fever. I even used make fun of his hair, but I didn't know any better then. I had a change of opinion when I saw the movie Never Say Never, a true masterpiece. I went in thinking it would be a fun movie and I might even get a few laughs out of it. I tend to go into movies with low expectations, that way I never feel as though I've wasted my time. But this was no waste. First of all, he can actually sing. Not like all those people whose voices are all auto tuned. His singing is all him. The way he became famous was pretty cool too, he wasn't just a rich little brat who wanted an album. He actually had to work a lot to get his music out there.
He honestly seemed like a real person in the movie, and he was pretty cool and funny. I think one of his concerts would be really cool to go to. Especially if I was chosen as the "one less lonely girl" for the song. Holy shit that would be crazy. Besides a charming personality and dynamite hair, his songs are pretty good too. I must say his first hit "One Time" may be my fave, though "Never Say Never might have trumped it. I think people when they learn that a sixteen year old boy wrote a song, people try to pretend like they don't like it or it's "stupid". Yeah, okay, whatever you say guy-who-has-"Baby"-on-his-ipod. People just hate on him because he's rich, talented, and girls love him. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT NICK CHO.
I happened to have a dream last night involving Justin Bieber. In my dream, I went to one of his concerts in this small, flowery-patterned (I don't really know why) arena and it was packed. I don't remember much from this concert, but apparently we went the next day again and there weren't very many people, so me and my cousin got to go on stage. It was super great, but the best part was I got to hang out with him after the concert (I distinctly remember a part walking in the grass across from near a Steak N' Shake and hoping we wouldn't go in since I had recently sworn off Steak N' Shake food due to its high calorie count), and I invited, and slightly begged, him to come over for dinner and he, amazingly, agreed. So we went to my house, and I swear during all of this I was convinced it wasn't a dream, so I went upstairs to get my camera to get pictures with him. Then I woke up. I was quite upset. Not only did I not get to eat dinner with him, but I also didn't get pictures with him.
I mean, honestly, just look at what I missed out on.
I happened to have a dream last night involving Justin Bieber. In my dream, I went to one of his concerts in this small, flowery-patterned (I don't really know why) arena and it was packed. I don't remember much from this concert, but apparently we went the next day again and there weren't very many people, so me and my cousin got to go on stage. It was super great, but the best part was I got to hang out with him after the concert (I distinctly remember a part walking in the grass across from near a Steak N' Shake and hoping we wouldn't go in since I had recently sworn off Steak N' Shake food due to its high calorie count), and I invited, and slightly begged, him to come over for dinner and he, amazingly, agreed. So we went to my house, and I swear during all of this I was convinced it wasn't a dream, so I went upstairs to get my camera to get pictures with him. Then I woke up. I was quite upset. Not only did I not get to eat dinner with him, but I also didn't get pictures with him.
I mean, honestly, just look at what I missed out on.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
A Week Down Yonder
While contemplating what to write for my next blog post, I happened to grab the school laptop labeled "Mississippi". How convenient. I recently spent a week down south in the Mississippi Delta area in Clarksdale, Mississippi on a habitat trip, so I'm going to accept this little prompt from the universe and take this opportunity to tell you about it.
I initially thought it was going to be pretty straightforward: go down to a really poor town in Mississippi and do some good and help build a house. It turned out to be so much more. Yes, we did help to build a house and got pretty far considering we only were there for a week, but we also got to experience a whole different side of how people live. The first thing that really struck me was how welcoming and nice everyone was to us. When a couple friends and I spent a morning volunteering at the Care Station, a soup kitchen, the head of the kitchen, a woman named Vern, hugged us all and told us she loved us when we were about to leave. That was so crazy and cool to me; she had only known us for four hours yet she treated us like we were practically family. It was hard not to be sucked into it all and start returning all the love you received to other people you would meet.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was playing with the neighborhood kids that would hang around the house. Even after we were all tired from working hard at the work site or just spent our entire day around kids while helping out at the school, we would still go out and play with them and let them climb on our backs and try to run as fast as we could around the house however many times they begged us. They were all too sweet and adorable to say no to. This one girl that came out to play with us on the third day we were there was my absolute favorite. Her name was Nateria, but she wanted to be called Coco (they all had their little nicknames), she was five and was the cutest of them all. During hide and seek games she would run up to me and grab my hand and say "Come hide with meee!", then we would run off to her favorite hiding spot behind the abandoned semi truck. She was so sweet and affectionate and wanted to be with us all and liked to do our hair and never got tired of riding on our backs. I kept asking her if she would remember me when I came back next year, and she invited me to her Justin Bieber themed birthday party. Though she probably won't remember me, I know I'll remember her.
Though we went to give, we inevitably took a lot away with us as well. Seeing all the poverty and the conditions of some of the houses that people actually live in really convicted me and made me feel grateful for what I have and where I live. Even the poorest neighborhood in Champaign is in better condition than alot of the houses in Clarksdale. I felt really complete and happy in Clarksdale. They really let us into their community and treated us as their own and were so thankful to us even though we were only down there for a week before we went back into our own rich town, nice school, and luxurious homes. I was really sad to leave, but I know I'll be back. I can't wait to be back.
Nateria (aka Coco)
I initially thought it was going to be pretty straightforward: go down to a really poor town in Mississippi and do some good and help build a house. It turned out to be so much more. Yes, we did help to build a house and got pretty far considering we only were there for a week, but we also got to experience a whole different side of how people live. The first thing that really struck me was how welcoming and nice everyone was to us. When a couple friends and I spent a morning volunteering at the Care Station, a soup kitchen, the head of the kitchen, a woman named Vern, hugged us all and told us she loved us when we were about to leave. That was so crazy and cool to me; she had only known us for four hours yet she treated us like we were practically family. It was hard not to be sucked into it all and start returning all the love you received to other people you would meet.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was playing with the neighborhood kids that would hang around the house. Even after we were all tired from working hard at the work site or just spent our entire day around kids while helping out at the school, we would still go out and play with them and let them climb on our backs and try to run as fast as we could around the house however many times they begged us. They were all too sweet and adorable to say no to. This one girl that came out to play with us on the third day we were there was my absolute favorite. Her name was Nateria, but she wanted to be called Coco (they all had their little nicknames), she was five and was the cutest of them all. During hide and seek games she would run up to me and grab my hand and say "Come hide with meee!", then we would run off to her favorite hiding spot behind the abandoned semi truck. She was so sweet and affectionate and wanted to be with us all and liked to do our hair and never got tired of riding on our backs. I kept asking her if she would remember me when I came back next year, and she invited me to her Justin Bieber themed birthday party. Though she probably won't remember me, I know I'll remember her.
Though we went to give, we inevitably took a lot away with us as well. Seeing all the poverty and the conditions of some of the houses that people actually live in really convicted me and made me feel grateful for what I have and where I live. Even the poorest neighborhood in Champaign is in better condition than alot of the houses in Clarksdale. I felt really complete and happy in Clarksdale. They really let us into their community and treated us as their own and were so thankful to us even though we were only down there for a week before we went back into our own rich town, nice school, and luxurious homes. I was really sad to leave, but I know I'll be back. I can't wait to be back.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Call of Duty
It was a last minute choice as we were leaving the Family video. I had $20 to spend on food and entertainment for the night from my parents (a rare gift) and we had only found one movie to watch for the night. “How about we get a video game?” my friend suggested as we passed the video game alcove. Sure, what the hell. “Which one?” I asked. “Let’s get Call of Duty. The new one” she said as she grabbed Call of duty: Black Ops off of the shelf. Well this should be interesting. We grabbed it, paid the ridiculously high $20 deposit and left to get our snacks for the night.
We decided to watch the movie first and popped in Takers, a non-quite original but still very entertaining film, especially due to the appearances of T.I. and Chris Brown, including a chase scene where Chris Brown gets to show off his crazy acrobatics. After the movie ended, we decided to put in Call of Duty and play a few rounds. It really helped that the movie we had just watched had lots of intense shooting scenes. We were all ridiculously, almost frighteningly, pumped to gun each other down in a game that we all barely knew how to play.
It took a little while to figure out how to get started, but once we did, that was all that mattered for the next hour. It consisted of us all running around a level checking our radars to try and find the little red dots that represented our enemy’s (aka each other), and once we finally ran into each other we would start screaming and shooting wildly then yelling out expletives when we accidentally killed ourselves with our own grenades, or when couldn’t figure out how to aim so we would repeatedly shoot at the persons feet. One of my friends who wasn’t playing decided to take a video of us with her phone at one point during our gaming session. When we watched it back, it was a little embarrassing how into it we were. It consisted of periods of intense silence which would be suddenly broken by rounds of gunfire, which were soon drowned out by us all yelling. This cycle repeated several times.
After a while we became mentally exhausted from playing and opted to put the game away for the night. As I recall this incident, it becomes even more ridiculous to me. We aren’t gamers by any means, and yet all of our energy and focus was centered on the TV screen and all that mattered was that I got more lucky kills than anyone else, and when I didn’t, I was furious and resorted to yelling and rocking back and forth in my chair violently. It’s probably a good thing I don’t play video games more often.
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