The Future

This past year has been a dandy one. The defining idea of this year, or at least what I will remember in twenty years, was the acquisition of a car. Having a car means a sense of independence and freedom (and happiness) that I never had before. Being dependent on someone to take you everywhere restricts what you can and will do, and having a car lets you do what you want and go where you want. I guess my only regret involving this is not taking more advantage of this situation. In my opinion, life is about doing what you like or what will make you happy, and I maybe could have gotten out more and been more involved, but all around this was a good year. Academically, this year has been a hard one. There has not been extensive work but the material in most classes was much harder to understand than it has been in the past. Not too many people can do well in classes like AP Chem or AP US History without studying, and that includes me. My goal for senior year and beyond is just to have a better handle on my classes and not let one or two of my grades slip until the end of the semester. This next year is my last in high school, so I want it to be memorable.

Playlist: Road Trippin

There is no better time for a playlist than when you are on the road just watching the pavement fly by. A few of these songs I would listen to on no other occasions, but a road trip just would not be the same without them. So, here you go:
 Convoy- C.W. McCall
Nobody except for CW McCall could write an entire album about truckin'. On the same tune, nobody except for me would own this album on vinyl. The vinyl never makes it onto the road, but any self respecting road trip begins with this song.
Truckin'- The Dead
Sticking with the trucking theme, this song cannot be taken off of this list. On a long trip this will probably be played five times. This presents the question: how long can you be on the road listening to this song on repeat before you lose your mind? about 4 hours.
Johnny Cash- Walk the Line
This song like the next is a placeholder in the playlist to represent a much larger selection of this artist that would actually be played. Cash is the best country musician ever and one of the only I enjoy, so I find myself listening extensively to him any time I am on any long trip.
Pink Floyd- In The Flesh (The Wall)
Pink Floyd is the best music ever, and the wall the greatest album. However, it can only be truly enjoyed when listened to in full, and a long trip is perfect for this.
Rush- Freewill
Road trips are the perfect time for nostalgic music, and this is a placeholder for this. My parents' favorite music was rush, so this is personally nostalgic, but I love listening to anything old and classic, because it never gets old, and a long trip is the perfect time to break it out.

Future

            I am only a 17 year old boy, so the amount that I have figured out what I want to do with my future is rather minimal. I have vague and overly romantic views of the future that lies in store for me; they are what drive me to do my best and to try new things. I want to go to college to get a degree in history or anthropology. Then I hope to attend graduate school and get a PHD so that I can become a professor when the right time comes around. I, unlike most, to not think it is some kind of horrific aberration to want to learn for the sake of learning. After graduate school I would like to learn a trade. This summer I am doing a long-term project with a carpenter with hopes that I will gain at least a basis for the kind of skills and appreciation needed for this type of work. I want to build a small house -no a tiny house- movable by trailer hitch and I want to move around the country. You can’t be a professor in one place for four months and then move on, but there’s always a need for skilled craftsmen. I plan to spend the span of just a few months living in each place, never big cities, just small towns. While I stay in these places I want to throw myself into local life, do all that I can to make myself useful, whether it be attending town hall meetings or chopping and hauling firewood for the family whose property I stay on. During this phase of my life I plan on living very modestly, working hard during the day with my hands, giving to others my creations, and earning for myself the satisfaction that comes with that creation. I want to come home at night and sit up in my small, cozy abode, listening to records out of a milk-crate and reading all the Dostoyevsky I haven’t yet. This way life is not conducive to settling down, it is a phase and it’s not that phase. This period, I hope, will give me vital insights into the inner workings of man’s relationships with one another and will bring me to an intimacy with life which I have not yet experienced. Maybe I’ll meet someone I want to marry while I’m out travelling around, and have a son who will be able to live like a young boy should, out of the city and one with the earth. And they’ll be precious to me and I’ll devote myself to them. After this period draws to a close, after I’ve gone from east to west and north to south and tried to see what it is that makes a man a man, I hope to find a job at a small liberal arts school like the one I attended. I want to share with my students the same love that I had for history and mankind’s ways when I was a student. I hope to raise my child to adulthood in this time, a time of relative security and stability. He’ll live the son of an eccentric mother and a more eccentric proffer for a father.  Maybe I’ll have some revelations along the way, maybe I’ll write some great novel, or write the poem that saves the eternal soul of mankind from its imminent self-destruction.,  Most likely I’ll become old and I’ll give back to the students that pass through my classroom what I got out of life. When the time comes to call it quits, when my son is through school and ‘making it’ and I no longer feel that I can contribute to the college what I once had, I wish to retire and move with my wife to India, out in the northwestern country there. To live out the rest of my days in coarse linen robes, eating with my hands and looking back upon a life full of stories. 

Original Title

Junior year actually wasn’t as bad for me as everybody seems to be saying (although I haven’t taken any AP tests yet so my opinion could change). My junior year consisted of Procrastination and sporcle (which is mentally stimulating so not a waste of time). I like to go into each new environment with a plan, and for this year my plan was to get straight ‘A’s, expand extracurricular activities, and have a direction for summer so I don’t sit around and do nothing. I think that I have accomplished all of these and also figured out where I want to go to college (at risk to my own life [Abby]), which is something I was planning on doing this summer. I have a great opportunity for this summer and I think that it’s going to be very productive and fun. I am greatly looking forward to senior year and getting beyond the pervasive stress of college admissions. I can see myself getting senioritis pretty bad, so hopefully you all won’t see me getting expelled or something because I was so done with this school.  Anyway, that’s all for now.

Junior Year and What It Has Meant To Me

Ugh, this year has been difficult. I expected it to be tough. After all, life seems to become tougher with every passing year, but I never believed junior year would be this chaotic, this overwhelming as it has been. I've had to juggle four demanding AP classes; I've had to deal with multiple standardized test (including the PSAT, SAT, and ACT); I've participated in sports; I've tried to keep up with numerous clubs and other extracurricular organizations; I've had to consider potential colleges; and I'm about to take four exceedingly difficult AP tests which I hope to do well on. While this year has been challenging, it has nonetheless been rewarding. I mean, I'm one step closer to my senior year—and after that, college (which I am both anticipating and dreading).

In fact, now that school is almost over, I've realized that this school year hasn't been so bad. Sure, it's been difficult, but that's just a part of life to which we all have to adapt to. I will now attempt to describe, rather concisely, my year as I have experienced it. I had many successes... and many failures. I improved tremendously in some areas, and disappointingly regressed in others. I made new friends, even when I thought it to be implausible this late in my high school career. I talked to people who I'd never really talked to, and I wondered why I had not talked to these people sooner. I made countless mistakes, which I have hopefully learned from and will never repeat. I learned more about myself, my passions, my convictions. I developed new interests, new strategies, and new methods of perceiving the world that I never before considered. Most importantly, I faced my fears (reluctantly): I wasn't always successful, but believe I'm one step close to achieving my goals. As I sit here contemplating this year, I now see that it has been a constructive one, albeit difficult. I didn't believe I could do it, but I at least got through another year.

Now, on to my   plans for the summer, after this school year has finished. At the moment, my plans for summer are still somewhat in the developmental phase. I know that I'll be busy with my mentoring project, which will most likely take up a significant portion of my summer. For my mentorship, I've decided to work in a lab with a chemistry professor at UK researching and developing various chemical substances for practical use. Considering I'm more of a science-type person (I adore math and science), this mentoring option is perfect for me. I also plan on studying for both the ACT and SAT (I plan on retaking them at some point in the future), and I plan on continuing to run and remain active for next year's cross country season. Finally, my family  and I are planning on taking a vacation to Italy, a vacation that—honestly—all of us really need after this year. I've never been to Italy and I don't remember my time in Europe (I was about 2 when I was last over there), so this should be a unique and totally awesome experience.

Since this year is almost over, I've lately been curious as to what next year will be like and what the future, in general, holds in store for me. Where will I go? What will I do? What will I learn? Will I be successful? These are all question that I constantly ponder, even more with the end of junior year so close. It's hard to believe that by this time next year, I will be preparing for college. I've looked at many colleges and I've narrowed down my list of possibilities, but it seems that I am more confused than ever about where I will eventually end up... they all seem like fine colleges to me, and I've always been bad with decisions. It it scary to think what the future holds in store, yet I am prepared to deal with it the best I can; I will never give up.

Overall, it's been a pretty crazy year, but through all the pain and tears, through all the stress and sleepless nights, through all the doubt and feelings of hopelessness, I have endured, and I am one step closer to the end of this particular stage of my life. Whatever the future holds in store for me... well, let it come. I'm ready.

Congratulations everyone. We're almost there.

It's only up from here!

Basically I can sum up my junior year with two words, late nights. Between teaching, taking class at least four nights a week, extra rehearsals, late nights nit picking solos, oh yea and school, sleep is well it doesn't always happen. My junior year would not have been the success it was with the huge support from my friends. I could not have made it without them. There were late night break downs and freak outs thanks to the oh so fabulous stress, but my best friend was there for me and I got through it. Although my year has had highs and lows, it was pretty good. I don't know how much I would change since life is one big learning curve, but things can only get better, right? I am known the dream big, which only slightly reflects in what I want to do with my life. I kinda think I can be superwoman and do it all, but I can't and I am coming to that realization. Ultimately my goal is to settle down with a family and be a doctor.

jdbujbddfdohi <- junior year

I’m gonna have a really tough time not swearing when it comes to talking about this year

This

Damn

Year

My

god.

In three words I would describe this year as

“wihdihwhdriweghf8uegfh”

“????”

and

“no”

About sums up the range of emotions I’ve had.

No, but let’s talk about it seriously.

It’s been a roller coaster, and yet looking back on the whole it hasn’t been as tumultuous as it probably felt when I was in the midst of some of its more trying moments. Still, I can’t help thinking about how funny it is that vulnerable little me on the night before school began had no clue what was about to happen, and how I wish I could have at least told her to prepare herself.  This year has almost felt like taking a shot: short, painful, leaving behind numbness, but in the grand scheme perhaps beneficial. Time will tell, I guess. The personal and academic pressure has certainly robbed me of sleep and of sanity, but it remains to be seen whether or not it was all for the better.

I have made a lot of mistakes. If I am being honest, this year has felt like mistake after mistake after mistake. I have accumulated my fair share of failure: failure in developing good character, failure in doing well academically, failures in maintaining interpersonal relationships, failure in maintaining my own health, failure to do my best.  It has been discouraging. But perhaps I can salvage something from all of that. Perhaps change will come after I have had time to reflect on my mistakes.

In the summer, I need to do something to improve myself and try to move forward.  I have woken up after the events this year. I need to change, and I need to grow up.  I need to learn how to steer my life in a different direction, because it’s been going the wrong way for a long, long while. I have made baby steps toward improving my life already, but so many closeted problems that I have failed to deal with remain that I feel a little – a lot – lost as to where I’m going in my future. I know I’m meant to say I have clear goals, but really the map has been so muddled for me that I’ve hidden it away and tried to forget about it; and yet now I know I have to look at it, and begin figuring out what I’m going to do from here on out.

What senior year will be like…I don’t know. But I have to take control of it this time and not let it pass me by as I have done with other school years. I don’t want a repeat of this year. I couldn’t take it. I would fall over. I’m trying to make it to college relatively unscathed. But if anything is going to change I have to get rid of the lingering poisons of my personality: suspicion, distrust, resentment, and hopelessness.

There isn’t much else to say. My most fervent hopes are that those who have had patience with me will continue to do so and that they will stay by my side despite my mistakes.

Junior Year Reflections - Kono

Whoever said Junior Year was the hardest in all four years of high school was right. I most definitely should have studied more.
I can't say I've changed much since the beginning of this school year. But I've put myself out there a lot this year. More than any other year before. I still don't like talking in public. I didn't magically become a social butterfly. But this year I've done a 5 minute speech in front of my peers, I've attempted to achieve leadership positions (something I never would have done last year - although I can't say I've achieved any positions at all), and I've started from scratch on my swimming career.
There's a whole list of things I wished I could have done differently this year, but I don't have the time nor the patience to type it all out. What I would loved to do this year was get over my fear of putting myself out in the crowd and not be afraid of being judged. I am constantly aware of any judging looks or whispers behind my back and it's been keeping me from reaching my full potential.
This summer I'll be driving to Seattle and then to Yellowstone National Park where I will hopefully, by some miracle, find something that will boost my confidence level. And I will also most likely start on my mentoring thing. Of course it would be nice if I got a job, finished all my summer homework with plenty of time to spare, received all 5s on my AP tests, and got my driver's license this summer. I'm willing to take it all.

Junior Year

 Looking back on the past year I have truly realized how important this year is. And just now figuring this out makes me wish I could do it aall over again, both educationally and socially. However this was still a great year, having spent countless hours with my close friends and many more countless hours studying for exams. I feel like I have matured a lot form my first two years a Henry Clay. All I used to think was that college is gonna be easy to get into as long as I don't screw up any of my grades, but now I know this isnt true. You need good test scores, clubs, acivities etc. for those tough colleges to even look at your application. Hopefully next year though I am getting those letters from the schools of my dreams that say congrats on them. The only thing I wish I could've done differently was try to be in more leadership roles but thats not a huge deal.

Junior Year and Forward - Evan Caldwell

The future is scary and I don’t particularly enjoy talking or writing or typing or even really thinking about it. But I’m certainly glad that there have been people in my life that have made me do it anyway. First, I’ll start by saying that this year was actually quite good. I expected the infamous junior year to be homework, food, homework, sleep, homework, and tests. However, with the challenges that Junior year brought to me, it also came bearing many rewards. I’ve developed some of the best relationships I could think of, my grades got better, even though it didn’t really feel like it, and I enjoyed myself greatly.

As for the summer, I’m going on a mission trip to England. While it’s not such an impoverished and miserable place as Bolivia or Honduras, It’s been a dream of mine to serve others in a foreign country, and I’m very excited to see what the big man upstairs has in store for me.

My goal for next school year is to get into college and have fun doing it.