High School

As exams approach and graduation creeps closer, the reality of every seniors' situation is becoming more clear: high school is coming to an end. We're all preparing for the rest of our lives and getting ready to take a step into adulthood. Although everyone had a different high school experience, I'd like to spend this blog reminiscing on mine and how it changed me for the better.

Freshman Year: 
The first day of high school I was nervous. I was going into a foreign environment with only a few of my friends from middle school. My parents had set high expectations and I knew I would have to work hard in order to meet these demands.While living up to these standards, I was also trying to meet new people. Although I was a little worried about making friends, it all turned out alright. My best memories from freshman year are easily the football games. Every Friday night I'd go out to the games with my friends and we'd try to meet girls. It usually didn't work.

Sophomore Year:
Sophomore year I was much less focused on school and more interested in hanging out with my friends. I lost sight of the bigger picture and my grades started to slip. I knew I should have done something to change this but the fact of the matter was I just didn't care about school. Eventually, my brother in college gave me a call and told me I was letting my future slip through my fingers. This served as a huge wake up call for me and I hoped more than anything that it wasn't too late to make the people who cared about me proud. Although sophomore year was a major lapse in responsibility for me, I'm glad it happened when it did. By the time I was getting ready for junior year, I had reevaluated my goals and I was more ready than ever to do big things.

Junior Year:
I knew I was looking for a challenge and that's why I chose to do the IB program. I had never experienced anything even close to as rigorous or demanding as the IB program and at times I thought I had made the wrong choice. However, the program also had its perks. I was surrounded by like minded students who valued their education and this was a drastic change compared to the academic classes that I was taking the year before. I was able to get in with a good group of friends while also flourishing academically. Although during many times throughout my junior year I was ready to give up, I kept going and was able to reach all of the goals I had set for myself.

Senior Year:
Whoever said senior year is easy is a liar. This was by far the hardest year of my high school experience. However, it has also been the greatest year of my life. Some of my best friends today are people that I never even talked to before senior year. I learned that even though your friends will joke around and give you a hard time, they've always got your back when it comes down to it. I've become extremely close with all of my friends and leaving them next year is going to be difficult. However, senior year isn't quite over yet and I'm looking forward to the time we have left.

Next year will be the start of something amazing as we all go our separate ways in the world. I don't necessarily think it will be sad leaving all of my peers because I know that each and every one of us is moving on to better things in life. There are a lot of people that had a significant impact on my life over these past 4 years and whether it was positive or negative, I'd like to thank you all for making me the person I am today. Although leaving everyone after summer will be difficult, I think it is important to cherish your high school memories. That being said, I'd like to urge you all to not get caught up in the past, but to look forward to the bright future that each one of us holds ahead.

Whitman's Notebook

Part 1: Black
Part 2: Red

Upon initial reading, Whitman's notebook appeared to be very messy and unorganized. The impression that I got was that he was writing his ideas down in a very hurried fashion. This caused many of his words to be illegible but I was still able to make out some of them. On the first page there seems to be some different names. On the second page he mentions what looks like, "two characters as of a dialogue" (Whitman). Although this sentence doesn't make sense by itself, I almost feel like Whitman was writing the baseline for a story. After examining his poetry, I can see that many of his poems seem to tell a story and have a much deeper meaning. It is very interesting to think that Whitman may have initially wrote his poems as stories before transferring them to poem format.

After reading what the notebook ACTUALLY says I discovered that the names on page 1 are names and various addresses of people that Whitman knew (Including a tailor). I feel like these may be significant people in his life that have led him to contemplate various ideas or they could simply be written there so that Whitman would not forget where to get his shoes polished. I also discovered that the dialogue that Whitman speaks of is an imaginary one between himself and Abraham Lincoln. Whitman must have felt like Lincoln was a very knowledgeable man and this shows that Whitman was interested in politics to some extent.

As I read further into his journal, I felt like he was trying to convey some sort of life message to me. He uses words such as "you" "questioning" and "liberated". I almost felt as if Whitman was trying to get his readers to evaluate themselves and what they want in life and think critically of each situation. These passages make me think that Whitman was an extremely inquisitive person and that he sought the answers to many of life's mysterious questions. I also think that he wanted his readers to take what they deserved in life and enjoy it to it's fullest.

It was revealed to me that in this section of Whitman's notebook, he is discussing problems that the Union is facing. This once again shows that he is interested in politics and the well being of his country. One word that sticks out is "Libertad". This stands for liberty and I believe it goes along with my idea that Whitman thought each individual should have what they deserve. Whitman was writing for the everyday person and he believed that everyone should have freedom. This excerpt shows that Whitman was a free-thinker and that many of his ideas were edgy. While his ideas may not have been accepted at first, they eventually became respected for the message that they contain.

The last few pages of the journal consist of five different pictures. In the first picture, Whitman appears to be very normal. However, as the pictures go on I feel as though he is portraying himself sadder and sadder. His eyes begin to close and his facial expressions become more serious. The second to last picture is a drawing of him with a hat on looking down and it appears very dark. The very last picture is of a harp and I associate sad music coming from a harp. I think that maybe these pictures symbolize Whitman during a certain time period. He may have become depressed with the realities of life and he was trying to show these in his drawings as he aged.

People who have analyzed Whitman's journal believe that these pictures were not self portraits. It would make sense that he would have someone else draw them. Although this may come across as conceited or cocky, I do not believe that is the case with Whitman. I think he wanted to see himself from an outside perspective so that he could see situations from a different angle. After all, Whitman was writing about himself in many of his poems but he was attempting to make the reader see themselves in him.