Today I am officially signing off of this blog (unless Mr. Phillips has us do another assignment with it :)). As my final post, I wanted to do a small reflection of my senior year. Moving the summer before junior year, I was very nervous for senior year because I wanted to be with my old friends to celebrate all the "senior" things like last homecoming, last prom, graduation etc. Now that I am almost done, I can honestly say that while this was not the dream senior year experience I always imagined, I am extremely proud of how much I have grown.
I started this year with a lot of anxiety about college placement exams, applications, etc. and have never felt more accomplished as I did when I sent in my last application. However, I pushed through the stress and am so proud of where it has gotten me. I never thought I would be accepted into a school as great as NC State and I can not wait to start my next adventure there. I am definitely feeling a bit nostalgic as these final days of high school come to a close, but I know that my friends and family by my side, I will be alright. My senioritis is at an all time high right now and my brain is completely blank. So with that, I will bring this final post to a close. Thanks for a great year! :)
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Yesterday, as I was looking for a quote to put in the slideshow for the senior NHS chord ceremony, I stumbled across one that stuck out to me. It read, "today is the beginning of whatever you want". I think that as a culture, we tend to live life by looking forward to the next thing; graduation, summer camp, starting college. etc. However, maybe what we are looking for is simply in front of us. What if people stopped waiting for the future and started making today into what they wanted it to be? This is definitely a concept that I have struggled with recently. With so many things to look forward to in the months ahead, I haven't been waking up in the morning and thinking about how I can make this day great.
As this school year comes to close and summer is in the near future, I am challenging myself to think about the NOW rather than what is yet to come. After all, that is the only thing we have the power to control. Even as I sit here writing this blog post, I am simultaneously receiving texts from my friends about how excited they are for camp to begin in a few weeks, and my mind begins to crave the future. I think living in the moment is one of the most difficult things to do as humans. We look forward to things in the future to keep us going through hard times, but maybe it is in those hard times that we need to be most present. Today is the beginning of whatever you want, so stop looking for happiness in yesterday or tomorrow. One of the main messages that I got from my choice novel "Working Class Hollywood" was that before there was an obsession with only portraying perfect, happy families and upper class people in the media, there was a time where the media was filled with realistic portrayals of the working class. The novel talks about films in the early 1900's that not only portrayed hard working people's daily struggles but also displayed things such as worker unions.
Reading about the discussion of unions being a part of early media really caught my eye with the struggles teachers have been facing lately seeking reasonable pay. I feel especially bad for teachers in my own state of North Carolina and other states where teachers are not allowed to form unions. I am very excited to see what happens with the teacher rally occurring in Raleigh this Wednesday and I really hope that it brings awareness to the issue of unfair pay. Teachers are the people who educate the future politicians, doctors, lawyers, etc. and they deserve to be paid in a way that compensates for how much power they have in the future and how hard they work. I feel like the media is slowly starting to return to more realistic shows with comedies such as "The Middle" which exposes real life problems of middle class families. Honestly, those are the shows that I find most enjoyable because I think there is a part in all of us that wants to see other people facing issues similar to ours so we don't feel as alone. I also think that is why reality TV is so popular these days. This weekend I will be working to finish up my last (I think) performance task for the year. Then, I will move on to writing my essay about the film "I Feel Pretty" and the physical-appearance obsessed female culture today. Happy Friday! The more I read "Working Class Hollywood", the more I realize what a strange social construct the idea of Hollywood is. Honestly, I don't really love the book because I find the writing does not hold my interest very well. However, I do find the overall idea to be quite intriguing. Similar to my last blog post, I am now finding myself looking deeper into when I subconsiously think about going to the movies or a concert on a Friday night. I realize now as I come to the conclusion of this novel that the idea of going to any sort of theatre on the weekend is a relatively recent phenomenon which is now enjoyed by the middle class rather than just the upper class.
As the year is coming to a close, all the responsibilities and due dates that I thought were so far away are slowly creeping up on me. However, I am just happy I made it to the end. I will begin (I know, I know, i'm a procrastinator) working on my book project this weekend and am trying to figure out a unique way to display the information I have learned from reading this novel. I really liked my last performance task because it was so personal, and I hope I can add that touch to this task as well. Additionally, I have started doing some research for my research paper on the film "I Feel Pretty" and I think it will be a relatively fun essay to write (as fun as writing an essay can be with Senioritis). I am excited to write about something that I actually care about, as I really do care a lot about female stereotypes, especially when they deal with being appearance-obsessed. I feel like being obsessed with physical appearance is an issue that most women (including myself) have dealt with at some point during their lives, and I am intrigued to do more research on the scientific explanation behind it. That's all for now. Happy Friday. |
AuthorAmy Granick is a senior at Leesville Road High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. She plans to continue her studies at North Carolina State University in the fall with a major in Psychology. Archives
May 2018
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