Staycation 2013

Oh Spring Break, gotta love it. This break in the middle of the trimester really decreases the stress level. For seniors, it’s the chance to go to Mexico, or anywhere else, and get CRAZY. But for the rest of us we get to stay in the beautiful Cedar Rapids and enjoy the wonderful, warm weather as we soak up the dirty snow. As much as I would love to go on a wonderful vacation, its nice to stay home and relax. I'd rather be relaxing on a beach in paradise but what can ya do? It seems like almost everyone went on some form of vacation. Lots of beach pictures. Too many beach pictures. So instead of laying in the beach like the rest of the American population, I laid in my warm bed and watch movies. 

I spent much of my spring break doing nothing, literally nothing. I would wake up at noon and just lay in bed for the whole afternoon. I never get the chance to do that, never. Being a competitive hockey player, I rarely have a weekend off so spring break was my chance to relax. I caught up on one of my favorite TV shows: Boy Meets World. I think I watched at least three seasons. I started to read A Prayer For Owen Meany (thanks Ms. A). I didn't socialized much but I needed to get away from everyone. So I basically went on vacation... to my bed.

One great thing about staying home on spring break is house sitting those who went on vacations. I've been house sitting my neighbors house for a week and a half now and I'm making BANK. Its easy money and you get to hang out at someone else's house and eat their food! What's better than that? 

So, we are at the end of spring break and I'm ready to conquer the next two months of school. Who ever invented this break is a smart person. Its much needed for everyone. Today is another Sunday of homework that I procrastinated majorly on. Its time to get back into the swing of things. Peace out Staycation 2013, see ya next year. (403)

Smile Every Day

Many people don't think about it, but there is one trait that we all share. We all want the same thing in life, and that is to be happy. I don't know anybody, and I hope there isn't anybody, who does not want true happiness. We need happiness in our lives because that is what keeps us going, keeps us looking for tomorrow. It is a natural human quality. What is happiness? My definition of happiness is to be enjoying every second of being alive.

You can control your own happiness, because only you can control your reactions to whatever life throughs at you. The first key to finding happiness is knowing how to react. No matter how bad an even is there are no set rules on how to react. Your response is the greatest thing in your life that you have control over. Either you can break down and say “I'm done,” or you can suck it up and deal with it. Either way, life goes on. How your life goes on and how happy you are is in your control.

On the other hand, a person cannot be happy all the time. I'm not saying that we should be happy 24/7. There are incidences that will make us question everything; for example, a death in the family or of a close friend. There is just no honest way to be happy about that. At first, you shouldn't be happy about it. A time of mourning essential. But, mourning should not last a life time. To accept what happened and to move on is the cure to heartache. This is where true happiness comes.

I hope you don't think that you can only be happy when your life is what you imagine as perfect, because most likely, you will not reach that point. So, either you can change your ideas of perfection, or accept the fact that true happiness can be felt without perfection.  (395)  

Spring in our Step

Spring time is almost here and in my opinion, it is the best time of the year! In Iowa we have dreadful winter, absolutely dreadful. This year has been especially bad. It seems we have had snowstorm, followed by record low temperatures. Yeah, global warming? I don’t think so. When it’s -30 degrees F outside, your car won’t start, and you can’t feel any of your limbs, it’s not a time that I support the environmental crisis. This week, just when thought we were done with snow for the year, BAM another storm brings six inches. March is not the time for snow! This is just too much. I snow day in March? I ain't about that life. 

Well HOPEFULLY spring will arrive soon. I can already hear the birds chirping. I think that's a good sign. Spring is the best season for so many reasons. After our long winters, the warm (warmer) weather is like a gift. Even 50 degrees feels warm! The snow starts the melt and you can finally see the beautiful, dead grass. Once the snow melts and its gradually getting warmer, the plants start to grow back. Things don't look so dead anymore. 

During early spring, its just so much more pleasing to go outside. The sun rises earlier and sets later. This makes it easier to get up in the morning because it isn't so dark and cold. The sun seems to shine a litte brighter and the animals seem a little happier.  Everything is better. Then as spring goes on the grass is soon very green and the weather is beautiful. In Iowa, our summers are super humid but the spring is so nice. When May roles around, its hot but not too humid yet. 

Spring couldn't come fast enough. This winter has drug onnn and ooooooon. I can't wait to walk outside and not freeze to death. I can't wait to wake up to sunshine and birds chirping. Until then we will just have to suck it up. (410)

I'm a Surviver

We did it fellow students, we survived finals. The worst week and a half of the term is OVER. It feels good, oh so good! I am both relieved and proud that I made it through the endless hours of studying and stressing over final grades. There is no better feeling than hearing the bell ring at 12:05pm, Thursday afternoon. For me, I didn’t feel relaxed until the next day. I woke up Friday and realized that I didn’t have anything to do, nothing at all. There weren’t any concepts to study, math problems to complete, or papers to write. I could just lie in bed and watch movies. It took time to fully relax because I was so wound up from the week but before I knew it I was in heaven. I didn’t care about my grades anymore because I did my best and there wasn’t anything I could change now. What’s done is done.

Looking back at the days following up to finals I was just a big ball of stress. It’s weird how during finals you actually want to study and you want to have more time to do it. This is definitely not the case during any other time of the year. I was so motivated to do well on my tests and projects that I felt like  superwoman; running on little sleep while shoving three months of information into my brain. The motivation to succeed is crucial to survive during finals because it’s the only way you will get everything done.

Finals definitely take days off my life, especially because we have them three times a year. Even though having to go through the hell of it, I’m somewhat glad we have more practice. Compared to schools that go by semesters, we will take four more sets of final exams. This is like having two extra years of practice. In college, finals are the majority of your grade and if you don’t know how to study for them then you will not get the grade you wanted. Practice makes perfect. Well, perfect practice makes perfect.

Many other students would agree with me that it’s so relieving to be done with finals but now another term starts and so does the worrying. We are right back at where we started. To here’s to 3^rd term; may it be all we ever dreamed of. Well maybe that’s stretching it. (403)

Standardization

The ACT, SAT, PSAT and SSAT are just a few of the many standardized test that are available to take. Many colleges require you to take at least the ACT or SAT and they base their admissions off of test scores. If you don't a certain score on these tests, you won't be admitted into the school.

Most of the standardized tests test our skills in the main areas. These include math, science, reading and comprehension. Also there is an essay section. The different parts of the test can tell you, and college admissions, what your strong points are. Many students will do better in certain categories. Usually categories like math and science seem easier. The hardest parts are probably reading, comprehension and vocabulary. I just recently took the SSAT and the vocabulary section was unbelievably hard. Some of the words I have never seen in my life.

While taking the test I got to thinking... Does this really reflect my true academic talents? Does knowing what words like axiom or nebulae mean really show how much I know? I think the answer is no. I really do not think that standardized test reflect the academic talent of a student in the right way. Many kids are bad test takers or are slower workers. This can be a problem especially when we are given limited time. I do believe that standardized tests are important to take but I think that they shouldn't be the deciding factor on whether you get into a school or not.

I know many talented people that don't do well on standardized test simply because they are bad test takers. This is a skill that can be practiced but it takes time. We usually only have a couple chances to take a test even though it has such an impact on where we go to school.

Overall, I think the test just need to be tweaked a little bit. I don't think there should be as much vocabulary but there should be more math and science. We live in a world that is constantly changing and being strong in math and science will help us keep up with a growing demand. I also think that they should keep an essay portion too. Hopefully these test will change by the time our children take them.  

Car Rides

Long car rides are just unenjoyable. There is barely any leg room, its always either too hot or too cold and the car rides seem like they will never end. The worst is when you start feeling car sick and there isn't anything to do about it. I have been on my fair share of car rides. Practically every weekend I am driving somewhere for hockey. Right now I am writing this as I'm on a 10 hour car ride to Ohio, on Homecoming weekend and I am here to share my advice from years of experience.

First, always bring a pillow and blanket. Its never a bad time for a nice nap. A pillow can always serve as a makeshift desk for school work and a blanket its the ultimate cuddly buddy. Also dress in layers. A car never seems to be the right temperature.

Depending on how long the drive is going to be, always bring things to do. A good book, homework, or playing cards. It is actually really easy to get homework done in the car because there isn't anything else to do. If you get car sick easily try not to read or do homework, it will make it worse! It is also good to bring a book light if you have one, then you can read on those late night car rides. Bring food and drinks, and also gum.

The one thing that is a must have for long car rides is an ipod/mp3 player. They are life savors! If your little sibs are getting annoying or your mom just won't stop talking, you can just put in the head phones and zone everything out. Before leaving for long trips it is also helpful to get some new songs to listen too. It spices up your normal playlists. Also bring a laptop or a DVD player so you can watch movies!

Number one tip: when in doubt, sleep. Sleeping is the best way to pass the time and who couldn't use an extra couple hours of beauty rest? If you can't sleep take some Nyquil and you'll be out in no time. Who knows, you might sleep all the way there!

These are just some of my tips for car rides. Long drives are always going to be frustrating but you just gotta make it through. Its all about staying entertained and trying not to think about how long you have left. I hope my words of wisdom helped! Happy car ride.  

Musical Therapy

Listening to music can really have a big impact. It can change your mood or even bring you to remember things that happened when you heard that song. I don't know about you but I like to listen to music basically any time I can. I listen to music the most when I am doing homework or just hanging out. I am in love with my mac book, its a amazing and I would totally recommend it to anyone. Well anyways, while I am doing homework on my wonderful lap top I get very bored. This is when I know I need to spice up my study experience with some music.

I usually don't like to listen to my itunes on my computer because I listen to it enough on my ipod. There are many websites that have online playlists for different genres or they can even play music to match your mood. Here are some examples of these websites:

8tracks:

www.8tracks.com/

8tracks is a really cool website that has different playlists. These playlists are categorized in many ways like by words like love, summer, or chill. Once you create an account you can like a playlist and then listen to it anytime. They have thousands and thousands of playlists and my favorite part is that these playlists are made by other users on the website.

Songza:

songza.com/

Songza is a lot like 8tracks except the playlists are made for your mood. When you first enter the website it will ask what you are doing like studying, having a dance party, or cooking. After choosing one it then asks you which genre you want like soft pop or rock. In the end you get a playlists that matches the mood and activity you are doing.

Pandora:

www.pandora.com/

Pandora is a classic. On pandora you create stations for different artist or songs. You can create as many stations as you want and if there is a song that you don't like you can dislike it and the song will never play again on your Pandora.

Well I hope these enhance your studying or hanging out experience. They become especially useful once finals come around. Happy studying!