In this post, 21CCCS Senior Hannah B. offers up a few tips to help combat Senioritis!

Senioritis

Written by Hannah B.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Quarter 4 of the school year!

 

 

By this point of the academic year, most students are itching to ditch their endless studying, writing, and test taking to enjoy sleep and sweet, oh-so-wonderful summer vacation. Graduating seniors are experiencing this utter anguish to an even further level of misery, believe it or not. Indeed, I can say with complete certainty that the majority of the 21CCCS Class of 2014 are suffering from the crippling, weighty, draining battle known as senioritis.

 

 

Senioritis:

Noun: A crippling disease that strikes high school seniors. Symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, athletic shorts, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as “Graduation.”

 

 

For those of us who are graduating in the next few months, the senioritis mindset can very easily creep into our normal routines. College application are done, our acceptances are known, our past three quarters (and years!) of grades are behind us, and most of our difficult decisions for next year have been made. If you’re feeling anything like me, all you want to do is listen to music, go outside, hang out with your friends, shop for summer clothes, take a roadtrip, Facebook/Twitter creep on people, attempt to take every quiz on Buzzfeed, obsessively daydream about Hunter Hayes (alright, that last one might just be me), and literally do anything that isn’t school work.

 

 

Commiserate with any of these symptoms or behaviors?

 

 

Yes.

 

 

Yes!

 

 

 

YES!

 

 

 

If you’ve identified with any of these descriptions (seriously, who are we kidding here?), then you are most likely suffering from senioritis, my friends.

 

 

While senioritis can really bog us down, make us lazy, make everything seem pointless, and create general feelings of apathy, there are a few ways to beat this malady! Here are a few tips and tricks to conquer this beast of dispirit so we can make it to GRADUATION!

 

 

• Make “To-Do” lists:

 

Writing down a list of everything you have to complete for the day, week, month, etc. is a great way to make all of your work seem more under control. Being organized and knowing exactly what you have to do to finish a task can immediately ease your stress levels and even increase productivity.

 

 

• Find your productive place:

 

Experiment with different locations and environments until you discover where you feel most comfortable, motivated, and industrious. Whether you enjoy working in your room, sitting in your kitchen, going to a coffee shop, blasting upbeat music, working in complete silence, staying in one spot all day, or moving all over the place every hour, find what makes you feel good and immediately dedicate a study session.

 

 

• Sweat it out:

 

It should come as no surprise that movin’, shakin’, and sweating can relieve stress. Thank goodness for endorphins! Having a fun workout not only increases your health, but exercising can also clear your head and reset your motivation.

 

 

• Go to class/visit the VO:

 

Believe it or not, skipping out on classes and avoiding the VOs can actually distance you from your schoolwork. If you’re feeling upset, worried, or apathetic about your work, talk to your teachers! They will undoubtedly make you feel a smidge better. That’s what teachers are for, you know.

 

 

• Don’t procrastinate:

 

Although pushing work aside to have some fun is extremely tempting, don’t allow yourself to fall off the wagon. Once you are behind in your work, trying to catch up is even more dreadful than doing your schoolwork in the first place. Try to fight off your gnawing desire to burn your books and crash your computer for just a few more weeks!

 

 

• Start a countdown:

 

Make a virtual countdown clock or mark your calendars for June 5^th! Seeing exactly how many days are left in this school year and being able to cross off the next two months one day at a time can be quite liberating.

 

 

• Reward yourself (and maybe go a little crazy):

 

While continuing to work hard is vital at this point of the year, don’t forget to reward yourself for all your effort. Do something that you love or try something new! Take a walk, play guitar, make some art, go see a movie, crank up some music, take a drive, climb a rock wall, sing into a hairbrush (badly, if you’re me), or scream to the sky. Let yourself be free for a moment in time!

 

 

REMEMBER:

 

Every piece of research you find, every study session you live through, every test you take, and every assignment you submit makes you one-step closer to graduation and, most importantly, nearer to summer freedom!

 

 

~ GRADUATION 2014 ~

PSSAs, Keystones, the BIG spring field trips, just a few weeks left of school and summertime around the corner—with all of these distractions during the fourth quarter, it is easy to forget all of the school work that is left! Many of these assignments include short-answer questions, five-paragraph essays, and for some students, research papers. These may seem like daunting tasks, but have no fear! The English Department has developed a list of tips, tricks, and reminders for all of your writing worries. Check it out!

 

Grammar Reminders:

1. Homonyms. One of the most common homonym mistakes we see are “their” vs. “there” vs. “they’re.” Make sure you are paying attention to what form you are using.
2. It’s and Its. This apostrophe is no joke! The form “it’s” means it is, while “its” is the possessive form of the word.
3. Sentence structure. Make sure each sentence has a subject, a verb, and a complete thought. Keep an eye out for comma splices and run-ons, too!
4. “I” vs. “me.”  There is a great trick to remember when to use “I” and when to use “me”;  Take out the other part of the subject, and see if the sentence still makes sense.
5. Consistent tense. If you start writing in past tense, make sure that you maintain the past tense. Avoid switching between tenses.
6. Active voice. Be sure that you are always using active voice. For example:

Active- The teacher gave the student an A.

Passive- The student was given an A from the teacher.

 

Editing Tips:

1. Wait a day. Give yourself a day between finishing a paper and editing it. This allows you to look at the paper with fresh eyes and catch mistakes.
2. Read it aloud. There might be missing or extra words hidden in your sentences. Reading your paper aloud will allow you to hear any awkward sentence structures and phrases.
3. Read it backwards. This will help you to catch any small errors because it makes you really look at each word individually.
4. Watch your contractions! Especially for students that are completing research papers or formal papers, you want to avoid using contractions.
5. Avoid the phrase “I think.” When you are writing a persuasive or opinion piece, it is unnecessary to say “I think” or “I believe.” Because you are writing the piece, the author can assume that it is your opinion.
6. Pay close attention to tone. You wouldn’t want to write a research paper in the same way that you text your friends. Make sure you are using the proper tone!

 

Hopefully this list helps you in all of your writing endeavors this quarter! Best of luck!

Frustrated and trapped in by all the winter snow, Junior Delenn Fingerlow found a silver lining in having so much “inside time.” In this blog post, Delenn tells us about some very unexpected benefits to reading.

 

Have you ever had a bad day? Not like, a relative or pet died, or you failed all your classes kind of day (that qualifies as horrible and sad) but the kind of day where nothing goes right. You wake up an hour late and miss a doctor’s appointment, put on a shirt that you later find out has some “second connotation” that an old lady points out to you, and in your bathroom you step on a Lego. It is on these types of days that I present to you the following list for your enjoyment. It consists of reasons to read books and reasons why characters in said books are having a way worse day than you.

10. You aren’t competing with 23 other contestants in a fight to the death with a drunk for a mentor and a president who hates your guts. Coming in at number ten, The Hunger Games make for a great start in our “silver lining for the day you’re having.” I can guarantee you that most of the time your day will be better than Katniss’ day. Partially because you are probably an optimist and you see sunshine and rainbows as good things, and she hates anything that breathes, and partially because you don’t actually have to fight 23 other people in a game to the death.

9. You aren’t in love with someone who might be your brother. Our next entry is from the Mortal Instruments series. This is one of those books that borders on creepy for a number of reasons, this one just happens to top the list. In their defense, they didn’t know, but neither did Luke until the end of Star Wars and that was still awkward and uncomfortable.

8. You aren’t Bella Swan from the Twilight series. Thanks to Miss Meyer, Miss Swan is on every top ten most hated fictional characters list you can find, including Time Magazine.  Faith in humanity = restored.

7. You haven’t wasted three days and twenty dollars to read Allegiant. Or if you, like me, already did so, I’m so sorry. It gets better, I promise. Betrayal can only go so deep. Have some chocolate, watch a funny movie and dream that Veronica Roth got thrown into a top security prison.

6. You aren’t any of the characters from King Lear. Really, this should probably be higher on the list, but remember, the moral of the story: lie to your parents. (Ok, hold on, I’m being texted and told that actually isn’t the moral of the story, but it should at least come in a close second).

5. You aren’t currently committing perjury and jury manipulation. This gem is from John Grisham’s legal thriller, The Runaway Jury. If you are doing any of these things, get off the Internet. I mean, come on.

4. You aren’t part of a genetic experiment that results in you being hunted down by the government. As with all James Patterson novels, the Maximum Ride series ends up with the protagonists being chased by a shady government corporation. Oh, and all the main characters have wings. Which is pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

3. You aren’t immortal with an aging picture to show how awful you’ve become in your decadent, murderous life. But, that would be kind of cool, minus the insanity part in the Picture of Dorian Gray.

2. You’re not responsible for the repossession of prized relics and the tracking down of murderers. Although that would be kind of cool. Any of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon novels are worth a read, or twelve.

1. You aren’t being married off to a dead person in a ritualistic ceremony. In Yangsze Choo’s novel Ghost Bride, the lead character’s father tries to marry her off to a rich family’s dead son. Truly creepy, and definitely worth the read.

So, do you feel better about your day now? No? Ok, well, have some chocolate, read Pride and Prejudice, watch Megamind and take comfort from the thought that sometimes we all step on a Lego.

On March 5th we inducted our newest National Honor Society members.  Delenn F.  gave the impressive speech below and we really wanted to share her message with our entire school community.  Thanks Delenn for your inspirational words!   

 

Hello! My name is Delenn F, and I am a high school junior and a member of the NHS. I’d like to start off with a quote from Dr. Seuss, in his incomparable work, Oh, the Places You’ll Go.

 

“You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest. “

 

Am I the only one here that thinks that sounds daunting? It sounds sweeping and impressive and inspiring when you hear it as a group and think about how wonderful and amazing your contribution can be. But when you think about it by yourself, it’s kind of scary. I mean, I don’t know about you, but the other day I put my leggings on backwards and didn’t realize it until about three hours after I’d been wearing them. This was kind of an off day, but still, it’s kind of hard for me to rectify this picture of myself with the awe-inspiring and life changing person who I want to be, and who I think everybody who is willing to undergo the long process of joining and remaining in NHS wants to be. So I’m beginning to take a different mindset, a mindset that NHS has helped me to do, and that 21st Century Cyber Charter School has helped me to do. Has anybody ever seen the movie, What About Bob? If you haven’t, it’s about this guy named Bob, played by Bill Murray who has many, many psychological issues, and who is trying to fix them all at once. He wants to be better, but has a hard time getting past his insecurities. And Richard Dreyfuss’s character says to him, “baby steps.” It’s kind of a neat idea, baby steps. The idea that the little actions that we choose to do can influence us and the people that surround us in ways that we can’t always expect and would do well to pay attention to. And this is not just my excuse for not having a big project – I actually believe this. We live in a world and a culture where bigger is better. We supersize our lives in the hopes that we can make our mark on the world. I met somebody who once said, “I want to be as great a leader as Napoleon or Caesar.” You can perhaps see how that might not be desirable. But really, this isn’t the mindset we should embrace. I don’t know if any of you or all of you has ever been to Disney. There are people there whose sole responsibility is to smile and wave at you when you come in. They are there to make the world, and our experience a little bit better. The people in this room are the best and the brightest that this school has to offer. They don’t need advice on how to do well in school, or how to impress people because they have already proven that they’re more than capable. But perhaps we all need to consider a change in mindset. I began at this school because I wanted a challenge. I wanted something new and different, and I definitely got it. I envisioned being head of all of these clubs and moving forward to make a grand student contribution. In my daydreams lots of exciting things happened, and then life kind of got in the way, as it is wont to do, and it made me reconsider just what type of contribution I should focus on making. It made me consider that perhaps we need more smiling people in the world. More people to volunteer a couple of hours a week doing something they love, more people to remember that the biggest things come in the smallest packages and that by doing something as simple as holding the door open for somebody else we can have a positive impact. I’m not saying don’t have grand ambitions. In this room we have teachers, superintendents, board members, future scientists, doctors, communicators and I showed up too. So dream big. But also don’t forget that in order to make a difference, you have to be here now. Having great and fantastic plans for the future may sound perfect at the time, but sometimes the best thing to do is to show up. To show support. We are who we are because of friends and family, teachers and staff, and because of people who smile, open doors and offer to lend a hand doing something they love for a few hours on the weekend. Some of my best memories come from helping out with a bake sale on weekends to benefit CPAA or planting trees in a church. Every year the fire department has a big chicken barbeque to benefit the firefighters, and the boy scouts sell popcorn outside. These little things are things that we can help out with and look forward to. It’s not always about being the best and the brightest. The underlying message of community service, character, leadership and scholarship isn’t just about being at the top, it’s about helping others to get up there with you. It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top. Because everything we do, big and small, has an impact, and I would like to thank all of you for the impact you’ve had on me, on my family and on the school that I now hold dear.

 

After reading an interview with author J.K. Rowling, senior Kezia W. was inspired to write about the attachments readers and authors develop to the characters in a story. Kezia takes Creative Writing at 21CCCS and is taking a Journalism class as well. Mrs. Vice thinks we might see Kezia’s name at our local bookstores someday!

As some of you may know, JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, recently released an interview for Wonderland magazine in which she reflected on the happiness of two Harry Potter characters who ended up married to each other. (21CCCS posted about it on the school Facebook page.) If you haven’t yet read Harry Potter and you’d like to keep the minor spoiler of who the main characters end up marrying, then skip the next few paragraphs. The same goes for those who’d like to keep their enjoyment of Harry Potter untainted by the author’s opinion. It’s not really that big of a deal, but it did make some waves in the news.

So now that I’ve got your curiosity piqued, I’ll briefly go over what Rowling said in the interview. Rowling stated that she believes she made a mistake in putting main characters Ron and Hermione together as a couple, and that Harry and Hermione are a better fit in some ways. The basis of her decision to write them together was a “form of wish fulfillment. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me [Rowling] clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron.”

Rowling went on to say that although she is persuaded that she’d made an error in coupling Hermione and Ron in the series, she also thinks that in the end, they’d be okay together, with perhaps a little marriage counseling.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you all of this, wondering if there’s a point to me ruining your view of the limited romantic portion of the Harry Potter series. And there is, believe it or not, a point. Not to ask you if you agree with Rowling or not, or if Rowling should have shared her opinion in the first place knowing it might ruin the series for some fans, but to pose to you a literary question that I flatter myself borders on the edge of deep and philosophical (even though I know it isn’t, really).

The question is this: How much does the author’s opinion, habits, or lifestyle factor in to your assessment of their work? Should literature be taken and judged on its own merit, or subject to the controversies and opinions of its creator? And why do we, as readers, want our authors to agree with what they’ve written?

How much does Rowling’s opinion on her own characters factor in to your appreciation of her stories? Will you change your opinion of Ron and Hermione primarily due to the fact that she changed her mind? And if you do, is it because she made a valid point, or because you hate to read the book with the knowledge that she disagrees now with what she wrote then?

And if that’s still confusing, here’s another example:

You’re all, I hope, familiar with the literary detective Sherlock Holmes. He and Dr. Watson have been around for so long and have been so wildly popular that they’re well established as literary characters, movie characters, and television show characters, along with the innumerable character spoofs and cultural references.

I for one am a Sherlock Holmes fan. I love reading the mysteries, and I love being blown away by Holmes’ interpretation of data and deductive reasoning. But when I found out that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes’ creator, after he had grown to dislike the character, whom he believed diverted attention from his other, more “serious” works of literature, intentionally killed off the detective so that he’d be taken more seriously as an author.

Of course, this backfired on him, as the public had grown far too fond of Sherlock Holmes to allow him to die with Professor Moriarty at the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls. Eventually, Conan Doyle brought Holmes back, probably due to a combination of needing a reliable source of income and the outrage of the detective’s fans.

I discovered this while I was in the throes of a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, and I admit it caused some disillusionment for me. I could hardly enjoy the stories as well as I once did because I knew that the author that wrote them didn’t even like his own character for a certain period of time. It cast shadows on how I perceived the character in my head, and whether or not I ought to have let it bother me remains a mystery.

And so I ask again: should we as readers allow such revelations from the author to influence our opinions of their work? My opinion of the Sherlock Holmes stories didn’t change because I knew Conan Doyle didn’t like them, it just put a slight damper on my enjoyment of them. And my opinion of Ron and Hermione’s relationship hasn’t changed much either after Rowling’s comments; it only served to persuade me that I was perfectly happy with how the series ended despite Rowling’s misgivings.

But if it happened that one of my favorite authors did something that I didn’t agree with morally, could I still take their writing the same way? I think it comes down to what the writing is and what it means. I could love a story for its writing style, for its ability to conjure words (some of you are aware of my weakness for good writing), but the essence of most writing isn’t in its quality, but in its ultimate meaning to the life of its reader. So if the morals of an author’s work disagree with my own morals, no matter how much I like the writing or the way the author told the story or made the point, ultimately my opinion of its core material depends on how much I agree or disagree with it.

That, I think, is the core of the matter. Because Sherlock Holmes and Hermione Granger are fictional characters, I’m free to have whatever opinion of them that I want. Their authors shared them with a community of readers, and therefore gave up any control over them. Now that the “facts” have been published, we’re free to interpret and think and discuss them as much as we want. The author’s opinion on the work no longer matters more than the average reader’s, though it does hold considerably more sway, just like a judge’s opinion is of the same value of anyone else’s, but has more power to make changes.

Ultimately, in regard to literature, John Green (you might know him as the author of The Fault in our Stars) puts it this way:

“They [his finished books] belong to their readers now, which is a great thing–because the books are more powerful in the hands of my readers than they could ever be in my hands.”

I guess that about sums up the answer to this problem. It’s up to the reader to decide how he or she will interpret the work. A book is a thought, a human opinion, and because of that we’re free to agree or disagree with it, depending on our personal beliefs and thoughts and convictions of right and wrong, and all those trivial opinions in between.

12th grader Breanna G. recently completed a “30-minute blog” in her Creative Writing class. Breanna and her classmates were given quotes by famous essayist Joan Dideon and had just 30 minutes to get inspired and write and edit a blog post. Lucky for us, Breanna was brave enough to share her wonderful piece, “The Human Condition.”

 

The Human Condition

By: Breanna G.

 

“We are not idealized wild things. We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of the mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very own complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves”

– Joan Didion

 

            In my opinion, one of the best things about humanity as a whole is our vehement refusal to accept “good enough”. Rather than merely focusing on survival, we demand contentment and comfort in our lives. What some may attribute to the existence of a soul, the idea of the human condition is what sets us apart. We as people have emotions; we have complex thoughts and a sense of wonderment and curiosity unparalleled in any other identified species. We maintain this incredible ability to slight the idea that, one day, we will all meet our demise. The black cloud of mortality that unyieldingly looms overhead is translated into that tiny voice in the back of our heads, only making an appearance when our ultimate survival is drawn into question. And it is wonderful. This ignorance allows us to live with abandon, to experience and feel and hurt and love; this is the embodiment of the human condition.

Of course, our blind eye does not endure without its shortcomings. We’ve become idealists–always working, yearning for something harder, better, faster, stronger. We block out the inevitability of death with the gleam of our ambitions. When we mourn the loss of a life we have in some way been impacted by, we also mourn ourselves because, in that moment, we are forced to face the only thing we are assured about life–that it will end.

One of our talented students, Donna Saboori, is a teen writer for The Reading Eagle. In the interview below, she explains her experience with journalism and how it has contributed to her education.

 

1. How were you approached about this opportunity?

My local newspaper, The Reading Eagle, placed an advertisement looking for new teen writers for their “Voices” section. I also knew of some other teens that wrote for the section and thought it was a great opportunity. I applied in August, and became a writer in September.

 

2. Did the employees at the newspaper ask you to write about a specific topic, or were you able to choose your own topic? What did that process look like?

Every month, the writers are encouraged to attend a “Voices” meeting at The Reading Eagle headquarters. We are given a list of possible stories that we can offer to cover. Writers are also encouraged to find stories on their own. Whether a writer prefers to report on current news, book reviews, or pop culture, there is a story for everyone!

 

3. What was the editing process for your articles? Were you asked to submit multiple times? Who were you working with?

Every article has a due date. Once I submit my story, it goes through an editing process. My editor is Stacie Jones, editor of the “Voices” section of The Reading Eagle. I do not resubmit articles, but instead she may cut out unimportant information.

 

4. What are the biggest differences you found in writing for journalistic purposes and class purposes (essays, research papers, etc.)?

One big difference I have discovered between journalistic and classroom writing is the format of the writing. In articles for the newspaper, the writing is short and concise. In my articles, I interview teens and adults that can offer information or an opinion for my story. In school writings, I am encouraged to cite sources from a book or website and use a five paragraph format.

 

5. What role did your prior writing experience play in helping you become published in the newspaper? What was it like to finally see your article in the newspaper?

My prior writing experiences played a role in my being published because I learned how to make interesting introductions to a story that would draw readers in. I also had to adapt to writing in a different genre. The editors helped me condense writing and keep information precise.

 

6. Is journalism something that you would be interested in for your future? Is it a career path that you had considered prior to this experience?

Journalism was a career path I thought about before the experience. It has been a great experience, and I think it would make a very exciting career path. I’m interested in a lot of careers though, so I am not sure if it is the one I will choose in the future.

 

7. For any other students interested in writing, would this be something you would suggest they seek out? Do you feel as though it has helped you improve as a writer?

I strongly suggest that students interested in writing become active in a newspaper. It is a great experience and helps me improve my writing. I’ve been given the opportunity to write about events and interview people about their opinions and experiences.

Testing time is just around the corner.  In this post we offer up some suggestions for conquering test anxiety and setting yourself up to succeed on standardized tests.

 

A, A, C, C, B, D and another open-ended!  We know that testing season can be very stressful. There is a lot of traveling and planning involved, in addition to the hours upon hours of PSSAs and Keystones. With this chaotic time right around the corner, the staff at 21CCCS wants to offer our students some tips and tricks to calming the test anxiety that often accompanies these standardized tests.

 

1. Get a great night’s sleep. You don’t want to wake up feeling groggy and not ready to tackle all of the questions!
2. Eat a balanced and nutritious breakfast. Your brain needs food to focus and work. Don’t skip breakfast the day of the test!
3. If your test requires a calculator, double and triple check that the batteries are working! It would terrible to get to the testing site and realize you need a calculator.
4. Leave early for your testing site. This will cut down on stress upon your arrival, and you won’t feel rushed heading into your test.
5. Wear comfortable clothes to testing.  It will be a long day of testing, so comfort is key. Don’t be afraid to don your favorite sweat suit!
6. Take deep breaths, meditate, or do yoga. All of these techniques will help to calm your mind and focus your attention on the task at hand.
7. Don’t try to cram the night before. While cramming might seem helpful, it actually won’t do you any good. Developing a study schedule for the weeks prior to the test will offer greater benefits than cramming and missing out on important sleep the night before!
8. Discuss any areas of concern with teachers prior to the testing date. We have plenty of resources at our disposal to help our students prepare for the tests. Talk to your learning coach or content area teacher for some practice and extra materials!

 

Above all, know that the 21CCCS staff is rooting for you! We know that testing can be difficult and overwhelming, so we are here to help in any way that we can! Good luck and we will see you all very soon!

Senior Alycia W. has been at 2st Century for the past three years. Alycia plans to take a gap year after graduation but promises Mrs. Vice she will continue to write during that time. Alycia was inspired to write this blog while completing a “30 Minute Blog” activity in her Independent Study class. Alycia also led the charge to convince her teacher that the whole class needed a bit more time than 30 minutes to complete the blog!

 

You have a mission. Under all circumstances, you must follow instructions for the preceding minute.

 

Ready? Absolutely certain? Alright:

 

Don’t think about elephants.

 

Remove every thought of the charcoal, roughly textured skin; the tusks sharpening into a perfect cusp; the sheer resonance that quakes whatever ground they step foot upon. You’re not to think of them at all.

 

…Working?

 

Of course not. You can’t think of anything except elephants now.

Repressing what seemed natural to your brain caused the exact opposite effect. Most of us fail to realize that we view negativity the same way – and that is an arguably more burdensome elephant.

 

Western society emphasizes a crazed need for happiness as if it’s a goal, a fixed point in time and space rather than an emotion. So, what’s left besides reaching our destination? We cleanse our iPods of depressing lyrics and petition for films to trigger less despair. Everything must be happy. Advertisements for things and experiences that stimulate happiness cheer us on. “C’mon, you’re almost there! Just buy this and go on that vacation and, oh, look at that! The negativity is cured.” This is not materialism – this is simply false advertising. We are afraid of negativity. We’re afraid to be human.

 

The problem lies directly in ‘curing’ sadness. Is it a disease? Are emotions like fear and distress biologically programmed into our minds for naught? Did evolution simply mismanage its job? We forget that, by its very purpose, evolution provided our minds with the exact necessities for our souls. Being human is such a vast and wildly chaotic experience. Read a book, and you will find it evokes this law relentlessly. Stories among the greatest, most heart-swelling and astute reflections of humanity: none of them revolve around perfect satisfaction. If they do, it never lasts. Something must always ruin the fun. Why? Because this is exactly how life works. It’s chaotic, yet just how things are supposed to be.

 

Visualize the concept as a piano. White keys exist just as black keys. The white keys sound resplendent, and help produce compositions entirely within a major (or ‘happy’) key. But we tend to forget that black keys play music, too. And we cannot understand just how beautiful the major notes are until we hear the minor key.

 

Happiness is elusive. Even in our most euphoric moments, we don’t have a firm grasp, and it feels as though our contentment might slip away. That’s ok. Honestly. Can you imagine how tedious happiness would grow upon constant existence? If everything is happy, nothing is.

Play the black keys. Don’t actively seek them out – but when the composition calls for them, embrace it. Savor the negative tonality; treasure it, so you can truly celebrate its opposite.  Do not make your purpose to ‘feel good’. Make your goal to be human, and welcome whatever experiences will make you a better one.

Ironically, you might find yourself – in the long run – happier.

Do you speak another language?  Do you have a goal to learn a new one?  In this post, Ms. MacLuckie interviews two of our staff members about their language learning experiences.

There are almost 7,000 languages in the world. While some languages are spoken all over and reach almost every continent, other languages may only be spoken by a small group of people in a specific area. It is overwhelming to think about trying to learn one, other than your native language. Learning another language can be a time consuming, difficult, and often frustrating task, but proves time and time again to be a valuable skill.

 

There are a few members of our staff that speak two, maybe even three or four languages. Here, they answer a few questions about their language journey and even offer advice to students attempting to learn a second language!

 

Mrs. Parvin – Spanish Teacher

1. What is your “language” story? (i.e., native language, how did you learn your second/third language) I am a native English speaker.  I studied Spanish and French in high school and college, and attended college in Spain during my junior year in college.  My bachelor’s degree is in Spanish.  I have spoken Spanish for many of my jobs, including flight attendant, community banking, and now teaching.

 

2. What do you feel are the biggest benefits that you have gained from learning a foreign language? I have learned so much more about the English language!  I actually translate English grammar questions into Spanish, figure it out, and then translate it back to English.  My vocabulary has grown by knowing many more root words.  I have a much better appreciation for other cultures and anyone who can speak more than one language fluently!

 

3. What difficulties/frustrations did you encounter along the way?  Listening to a teacher speak Spanish in class is in no way similar to hearing a native speaker speak.  I had six years of Spanish before setting foot in Spain, and I understood NOT ONE WORD for a month.  I could not even tell you where the words stopped and started.  What a wake-up call!  But I learned so much that year and improved my accent and my speaking ability.  My college professor visited me while I was in Spain and he was shocked at how much I had improved.  I also do not stick out as foreign in Spain.   Many thought I was a native speaker… until I opened my mouth!

 

4. What would be your biggest piece of advice to students that are currently studying a foreign language?  Work on your language skills EVERY DAY; Practice, practice, practice.

 

Mr. Chu- Chinese/Web Design Teacher

1. What is your “language” story? (i.e., native language, how did you learn your second/third language)

Don’t trust the spell check! A few years ago, I had an opportunity to send an email notice to the education technology directors of 13 school districts. In the message, there was a sentence “after careful evaluation…” I spelled “evaluation” wrong, but did not realize it. I ran spell check. It gave me some words. I just clicked “Replace” without even looking at it and then sent the message. The second day, my supervisor called me to his office. Guess what; the sentence became, “after careful ovulation“.   Since this incident, the department secretary must proofread all of my outgoing emails!

Many years ago, I got a rare opportunity to study German for 2 years intensively. After the 30-hour pronunciation sessions in the first week, whenever I spoke English, I would say “he ist” instead of “he is”. It was a hard time. My brain mixed German with English, and I often used words from both languages in an English sentence.

 

2. What do you feel are the biggest benefits that you have gained from learning a foreign language?

Languages are tools that help you access a lot of valuable information.  Languages are often related to each other. Once you have learned a language, you might gain some knowledge of other languages. In this competitive society, being a bilingual, trilingual, or even multilingual person increases your opportunities in many ways.

 

3. What difficulties/frustrations did you encounter along the way?

My first English class was in 7th grade, for two hours a week. It was not fun at all. We had to remember how to spell a word, then the teacher often asked us to recite the spelling. If we did it wrong, we got punished—whipped on the palm with a thin rattan stick.  Even today, I still have problems with English spelling and grammar. Whenever I write something I need to spend a lot of time checking spelling and grammar.

 

4. What would be your biggest piece of advice to students that are currently studying a foreign language?

Practice, practice, and more practice. The first step is to get familiar with the sound of the target language. Listen to songs or watch TV shows and movies of the language you are learning. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t understand anything. All you need is to let your ears (and brain) get used to the “noise.”