Talent Show Committee 2015

At our school, there was an annual Talent Show and every year the ones put in charge of pulling it off were the Seniors. Being a senior myself this was a huge deal - how it went was how the Class of 2015 would be remembered. We made up our Talent Show Committee just a few weeks before it went on, and it took us nearly a week to think of a theme, which was titled "The Grand Act".

We then began to give out roles for the seniors to do, from the Tech Team to the backstage crew, the hosts, and even the set and program designers. I was the program designer and the host, and working together with the girls was probably the most fun (and stressful) I've had in quite a while. There was a bit of procrastination that went on, however, and by the time we realized that the talent show would be in a week - we panicked. But you know how they say, "Some people work well under pressure."? Yes. That's exactly what happened. 

In a matter of a few days the entire auditorium was decorated with the grandeur (HA!) theme, the program design was made and sent out to the printing press, and the final revisions for the program and the scripts were completed. It was like watching those time lapse videos, where you could see everything move in a fast-forward motion and it was pretty cool knowing that I was a part of it.  

One thing I've learned, is that pressure and the desire to do good at something, is what brings people together. Amidst all our differences, and our conflicting ideas, we all managed to collaborate and work together to make "The Grand Act" a success.

The Survival Guide to Senior Year

Dear juniors, 

this blog post is dedicated especially for you - coming from a senior graduating with the Class of 2015. Take my advice as a sort of warning for those of you who are especially ambitious and wish to tackle a few AP classes whilst applying for college. Don't even think it. 

I thought taking AP Biology and AP Chemistry my senior year was a brilliant idea since, after all, I went two years taking all Honors classes. Boy, was I so wrong. The first semester was filled with confusion and frustration and dread as I practiced for my SATs, and tried to make all projects due by deadline. Trust me, as ambitious and capable you are, don't. Just don't. Take it from me. I'm graduating in 4 weeks and all my creative juices and motivation have most likely reached the basic scale on a litmus paper. Not good.

When applying for colleges, consider going out of the norms and apply at schools that have your ideal environment. And by "norm", I mean not listening to anyone's opinions of where you should go - be it from your trusted teacher or your parents. You wouldn't want to spend another 4 year trudging your way through the school year just because you chose to follow someone else's choice. Also, a key tip in applying to colleges is looking at who they want. Let's say, if Columbia University were looking for a biology major who could play the trombone because their orchestra lacked a member - and that person sounds an awful lot like you - then there's a great chance you'll be picked. It's all about knowing where to look.

And last, just relax and take it easy your senior year - but do not get lazy and allow your grades to fall. Your last semester grades count towards the college's decision, and sometimes a sharp drop might be enough for them to revoke their acceptance letter. You wouldn't want that. But really, it's your last year.

So have fun. Spend time with your friends because it may be forever until you meet them again, and plans to meet over Winter break and Thanksgiving could be broken. So cherish your senior year. It's basically the last time you'll ever be this free.

Sincerely,
Arielle Esteban

The Life of a Pre-Collegiate - Plans for the Future

College - cue the sound of a million other high school seniors sighing as they sit in a class.

May 1 is finally here, aka it's also the deadline date of college decisions in the U.S. of A. To most people, this date is rather frightening - unless you've been accepted to an Ivy League school or have a generous amount of scholarship money. When you're past that stage, however, it's time for the college dreams to commence. And for me, it's been a good few weeks since I've started. Ahem.

I'll be attending Simmons College, an all women's college in the heart of Boston, MA. I met the girls of the Class of 2019, and talked to them through Skype and Facebook. Speaking of the latter, colleges make making friends so much easier through college Facebook groups. It also makes the decision-making more easy, since you'll get a feel of the kind of people and atmosphere in that particular school. They also let you meet future roomies. Hehe.

I met my roommate through the Facebook group, and we'll both be taking the same major + she likes the same things as me, and she's traveled to Europe a lot. Brownie points! We've already made plans to visit NYC together this summer, too. 

When in college, I'll probably sign up for a lot of clubs and join a language class - Japanese or Chinese, perhaps. I also plan to volunteer at a local orphanage or at a charity organization, since I do like helping people for the greater good of the world. Heh.

But for this summer, all I'll be doing is planning for Move-In Day and shopping at vintage thrift stores and meeting up with my future coursemates and roomie. I can't wait!

Does Your Generation Have Too Much Self-Esteem?

When the term, “millennials” comes to mind, most people often immediately think of the “Selfie Generation” or at least, “The Generation with Too Much Self-Esteem.” While most people think too much self-esteem is harmful – especially when a person used to succeeding at school isn’t coddled like an infant – it’s actually better to have a strong and confident individual rather than a meek and scared one.

There is a fine line between having too much confidence and being arrogant - or in other words egotistical. A confident person is looked on positively, and I completely agree with that. An egotistical person on the other hand, is often regarded as annoying and a bit aggravating. So to restate the question, instead of self-esteem, I believe the question should be: Is Our Generation Confident or Egotistical?” The song by DJ Khaled, “All I do is Win” can best describe a few kids I know at school who’ve crossed the fine line between being confident and egotistical, where getting an A on a test for which they didn’t study is a guarantee that the tests they do study for and fail is entirely the teacher’s fault because they made it too hard. Now that is egotistical. Studying till 2 A.M. for that A.P. Chemistry test the following morning and feeling like you’ll be able to do it, however, is confidence. And I believe that my generation is a generation of confident people.

Confidence is the ability to believe in oneself – that you are able to achieve things through your own ability; It isn’t about impressing others or showing just how good you are – its to simply give what you’ve got to the thing you’re good at. My generation is the generation of high schoolers winning Grammys and Oscars, and starting up their own magazines and even achieving Nobel Peace prizes for global activism and for standing up for our human rights. I highly doubt it’s egotistical or “too much self-esteem” but rather, I think it’s a more vibrant confidence that every person ought to have – and I think most people my age have that. After all, who do you think is more likely to start a business and try again despite failing once? A student fresh out of college or a retired citizen? I vote for the former.

Works Cited

1.      Bekore, Lynda. "Are Millennials Too Big to Fail? Why Self-Esteem Is Blocking Our Kids From Success." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 Mar. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynda-bekore/are-millennials-too-big-t_b_6416502.html>.

2.      "Does Your Generation Have Too Much Self-Esteem?" The Learning Network Does Your Generation Have Too Much SelfEsteem Comments. 3 June 2010. Web. 6 Mar. 2015. <http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/does-your-generation-have-too-much-self-esteem/?_r=0>.

The Glass Menagerie - A Review

"I didn't go to the moon, I went much further—for time is the longest distance between two places" - Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

I've been reading a few plays by Tennessee Williams the past few weeks in our American Literature class, and one that has left quite a "mark" on me is "The Glass Menagerie". 

The Glass Menagerie is a quick and easy read as a play, but is memorable at best because of how the characters are written so intricately and of all the deep and beautiful quotes. The characters are also quite easy to relate to, in a sense, from the ever so anxious and shy Laura, to the realistic dreamer Tom and even the strong and proud Amanda. 

The story is a memory play, from the perspective of Tom Wingfield, who is stuck working at a shoe factory for most of his life trying to support his mother and sister in their St. Louis apartment after his father left. However, his picture still sat on the fireplace mantleplace and is often mentioned in the play during climatic moments. Tom is a man who often goes to the movies a lot, and notes that "people often go to the movies instead of moving" and yearns to leave the life he has behind, which he eventually did but cannot bring himself to forget the guilt of leaving his family behind and so he is stuck trying to "find what in motion what is lost in space" showing that he is still trapped.

Amanda Wingfield is reminiscent of Blanche from Tennessee Williams' Streetcar Named Desire, who once had gentleman callers from every corner of the state lapping up after her for her hand in marriage and also came from a prominent family in the South. Alas, she gets married to a man who "fell in love with distance" and that was the last she heard of him. I found her quite ironic as she, like Tom, yearns for another time and place - a time where she was a southern belle. She often scolds Tom for "living in a world of manufactured illusions", which ironically, is where she lives as well. 

And then we meet the sweet and very shy Laura, a pretty girl who finds comfort and refuge in her glass collection. She is painfully shy, and it was a noted aspect of hers throughout the whole play, where she once vomited during a business class in college. Later in the play, after a successful attempt of her mother to get a "gentleman caller", per courtesy of Tom, she falls deeply in love with Jim - a boy she knew in high school. But later gets her heart broken when Jim reveals that he is engaged.

I liked The Glass Menagerie because the characters were realistic and one could see that each character is noble in a way, because while Amanda Wingfield may seem annoying to the point of always pestering her son to get a gentleman caller or accusing him of being a dreamer, she has rather good intentions for her children. Tom Wingfield is a character I admire and at times, relate to - with his dreams and yearnings of travel; Laura is also a character I grew attached to, rooting for her when she meets Jim and finds love and despair when he reveals his engagement. 

In short, The Glass Menagerie is a memorable play and I would not probably grow tired of reading it. Or any of Tennessee Williams' plays for that matter.

"Good fences make good neighbors."

Do good fences make good neighbors? Or so to speak, do fences make good neighbors? In Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall", we see two sides of the story where one side is adamant about having a wall between them, repeating the phrase: "Good fences make good neighbors." Metaphorically speaking, the wall can represent a sort of misunderstanding between two people, or the communication barriers that go between them.

But does having fences really make good neighbors? One can look at it two ways: it either does or doesn't. Fences are there to protect or sort of set a boundary between areas of land. Dictionary.com defines it as "a barrier enclosing or bordering a field" or "used to prevent entrance, to confine, to mark a boundary". So a fence, really, is there to prevent people from getting in; to prevent one's neighbors from getting in or knowing about one's business, setting off a sort of mysterious aura. 

Mystery thus, leads to curiosity and like the cliched saying goes: curiosity often kills the cat. So having a fence does not necessarily bring a positive result, as oftentimes people with too-high-a-fence end up having nosy neighbors who want to know everything about their neighbors. But at the same time, a fence gives a person privacy, that little bubble of comfort everyone ought to have. And so I think having fences gives each neighbor a sense of protection and they learn to respect each other's spaces and remain civil and friendly to each other. A fence is there to mark a boundary and by doing so it indicates how one shows respect to each other's property, giving them a mutual understanding.

And so I think that fences make good neighbors because it gives each person a sense of mutual understanding or camaraderie through their fences, because indirectly, they respect each other's property.

Tourist Hotspot: Green Island

In the outskirts of the bustling city of Taipei, Taiwan, lies the ever sunny island known as: Longdong Island (a.k.a. Green Island). It's an hour boat ride off the main island and is a hotspot for snorkelers and hikers, and all kinds of nature lovers in general.

The island's rocky terrain is a great place for rock climbing and hiking, and from the picture above, is a great place for taking pictures once one reaches the summit. The island is also perfect for sightseeing, as there are bridges built upon the rocks that help one reach the top, and provides stellar views of the overall island and the sea.

Another favorite pastime for Green Island fans is snorkeling in the clear, blue waters of the seas. There are three zones to snorkel: Nanliao,Dabaisha and Chaikou. Nanliao is the best place to snorkel for beginners, but Dabaisha provides the clearest and prettiest views of the coral reef below. However, Dabaisha is only for the experienced snorkelers and wetsuits should be worn as the corals can be sharp and can cut through skin.

   Green Island also has natural saltwater hot springs for those keen on relaxing on the island, and costs NT200 and is open 24 hours in March to October. It's recommended that one soak in the hot spring at night to get a good view of the stars.

Food in Green Island is also just as good as the place, with their specialty being deer meat stir fried with vegetables. They also serve shaved ice in clam-shaped bowls, and there is a 7-11 and Family Mart nearby for those who feel like they're not up to trying deer meat.