Reflection

     I have always been a huge fan of blogs. Growing up, as I was further exposed to the great pool of information known as the Internet, I found that I was reading more and more. I am not a big reader, but when I do read, I am reading blogs. I am attracted to this style of writing because it abandons all rules about grammar and ethics. Anyone can write about whatever they want and you can either choose to read it or not.
     As an eighth grader coming up in the ranks, I was intrigued when I found out when we get to blog for ninth grade honors English. I always wanted to start a blog, but at the time I did not think my life was interesting for anyone to read about. I still don't think my life is interesting enough to read about, but I have some page views so I call that a success. I feel like blogging has helped me evolve as a writer. Even though I do not apply the same grammar/mla rules, I am learning what is important and not. So I think this assignment has helped me evolve as a general writer when it comes to importance.
     I think blogging this year has helped me develop my own voice.  If you read academic essays, you may notice they all follow similar styles and rules. When you blog, you can use your personal voice and write in a similar style to the way you speak. Blogging has helped me develop my own voice. It has made me realize the way I sound to others. I have found words and phrases I am constantly using. I have no used this voice in my daily life and I am trying to become unique as a person.

I got this image from here.

     Writing blogs has also encouraged me to read my friends blogs. I have noticed their individual voices and ways they express their feelings. If you look at the blogs from my friend group, they are all very interesting, yet very different. It has made me notice things they say often while talking usually. I have learned more about my friends from their stories they tell. For example, I have learned a lot from Nash's blog posts about biking. I am excited to keep reading their blogs.
     Not only has it helped me learn about my best friends, but it has also taught me more about my classmates I barely knew. Who knew that shy girl in the corner of the room was a national athlete? It is hard for me to make assumptions about people without getting to know them and I feel reading their blog is an intro to how they live their life. To conclude this topic, blogging this year has not only taught me more about myself, but it has made me learn more and appreciate my friends and those I barely know.
   

Fencing practice

     We just got out of fourth period and now its time to go to the gym. Cole pulls out his laptop and starts to play me the latest hits in the world of bad white-guy rapping or a new branch of music called pirate metal. Before I continue I wanna really quick put out a shoutout to pirate metal, it is actually pretty sick. Anyways, we make our way over while babbling about school, teachers we hate, girls, and of course fencing. We walk passed the front desk at the MARC with the usual greeting, "hey boys, your bags are right here." We pick up our body bags and walk over to the lounge area. Cole has his lesson first so I take a seat and wish him luck, "please make her tired, I don't wanna have to do much footwork in my lesson. He then trails down the stairs and into the depths of hell.

     It has started to become a trend to walk straight from school to the gym and wait before practice. There are a few newbies I try to make conversation with but they are too invested in their anime T.V. shows and online games. That's okay, I have homework to do anyway. I work for half an hour and walk down to the gym to Coach Elaine screaming away. Who knows what she is screaming about or who she is even screaming to. Hopefully she won't try to kill me.

     We talk about the ethics of the fencing world and the disputes I had with the Irvine family at the tournament the weekend before. She laughs and we get to work. We start with standard warm up. I go on guard, she parries, I disengage and riposte. This goes on for a while and happens without thinking. We move on to attacks and move quickly to something new of the day. Usually whatever she has planned is super fun. She doesn't teach her other students these, what we call fun moves. She shows me them because she knows when I fence, I like to play and I like to experiment with different fun moves. We finish with a salute and a we shake hands.

     I get some water and grab my coaching jacket so I can start to give some lessons. Noam arrives and I run him through his warm up. I show him some of my favorite moves and then he goes and warms up with the rest of his team. I get dressed in my knickers, yes they are called knickers. I go run laps with Sean then we go stretch with the kids. Elaine makes us run drills and we end up trying to lunge at each other with the correct distance. After we are completely dehydrated, she lets us get water and set up our strips. Cole, Sean and I lift the heavy boxes and let the little ones run cables. We fence for a while and usually stay after practice time to keep working.

                                               This is a box btw. I got the pic from here.

     An hour after practice is supposed to end, we leave and I finally get to eat and shower. Gotta love fencing nights.

The Normal Day

BEEP BEEP my alarm rings.

Picture from here.

     I roll over and contemplate whether I have what it takes to get out of bed. No matter how many times the answer to that question is negative, something always drags me off my ass. It's now 6:45, and I have 30 minutes till I need to be at school. The speed in which my shower reaches maximum temperature usually results in the coldest five minutes of my life. If I wasn't awake before, I am now. Grab whatever pants are clean and a generic flannel I probably wore earlier this week. Pack a lunch which has a higher chance of killing me than anything else I plan to do today. Well, at least I am ready to go, hopefully I put my contacts in the right eyes...

     I walk down the hall to see the normal road-blocking pack of friends, loud and obnoxious. It's way too early for this. I try to pack my junk in my locker before Sean sees an open shot and nearly closes it on my fingers. I walk with Sam to bio and I sit in my seat regretting my decision previously made this morning. And now its time for the regular scheduled program. First, Mrs. Duis is gonna talk about how she is unprepared this morning and is completely out of it (Imagine how we feel). Next we will take some notes and I won't be able to see the slideshow, guess I have to look off of Rachel's paper. She will forget how long class is and plan an assignment we won't have time to finish. Anyways, off to the high school.

     This is probably the highlight of my day, the walk to the high school with a few of my best friends. Luckily, we are all nerdy enough to have the same math class. We enter the room with the usual greeting, "look, its the freshman." We get it, you're a sophomore, congratulations. We always arrive after they have graded the homework. Our answers are all the same, maybe we did it right. We take some notes and I refrain from raising my hand after every question she asks. Those questions result in one of two ways, either I get it correct and receive a few dirty looks or I get it wrong and someone in the back row shares their opinion with a classic, "ha, the nerd got it wrong." After class we stop by the vending machines to let Nash spend his life's earnings on frozen pastries that have a higher chance of killing you then my home-packed lunch.

     We run into some friends on the way back and walk into AP as Shannon is telling a classic story about how he got shot or the way he acquired his girl-scout cookies. It's casual. We take our seats and get ready for the most confusing 90 minutes of our lives. After an entire class period of confusion, Nash making random sounds, and Annie playing Harry-Potter character guessing games on her computer, we realize we have learned a ton. And thank god, because we have a test later this week.
I grab whatever is left in my sack lunch, I have probably already eaten half of it, and I look for the loudest table in the lunchroom. Annie and Christian are getting in a debate as Olivia stresses out and Nash and Cris are acting like rams locking horns for the appeal of the desirable mating partner.

      Annddddd here comes the headaches. I walk into Spanish as two particular freshman are making complete fools of themselves. Luckily, Mrs. Aplanalp makes fun of them enough that I don't have to. We play some games, I get some candy, and I still learn Spanish. It's crazy how different teaching methods work. I walk down the hall to meet back up with my friends and we all break away to our separate lives, except I am stuck with Sean and Cole. Time to go to practice, but thats a whole different story.