The Importance of Being Bored

Just recently, the idea of boredom was discussed in my English class and there was a huge variety of answers. Some claimed that boredom was amazing and actually kept them distracted and entertained, while some claimed that boredom was the worst thing that anyone can experience.

To me, boredom is probably one the greatest things to experience. Being a crazy and adventurous person, there are plenty of times where after I do something, I get extremely bored because there’s nothing else to do anymore. And this is when the magic happens. The boredom kicks in and my thoughts and ideas go into overtime. When I’m bored, the brainstorming starts and this is where my  next adventure begins.

Being bored also allows me to actually get away from things like my phone or laptop. Nowadays, I seem to realize that whenever I get bored I whip out my phone and immediately go on my skateboarding game. After the discussion in class, I realized that I should refrain from using technology when I get bored. Just a few years ago, I had no phone and no laptop and I had so many more adventures and ideas then I have now, and I realized that this isn’t right. Becoming older and more independent, I should actually be having more fun and enjoying my high school years more, instead of watching endless hours of YouTube and wasting my time.

Not only do I see this in my situation, but I also see this problem with my little cousins. I remember when I was a younger and the best thing I had to keep me entertained was my own imagination. Nowadays, every single one of my cousins, whether 3 years old to 21 years old, all have iPad, iPhone, tablets, or some sort of device that distracts them. Sure having one of these devices is helpful and handy, but many don’t like to go outside anymore and just have fun.

Overall, being bored is one of my favorite positions to be in. It allows me to think and just have crazy ideas that I can later turn into reality.

 

AP Testing

Since the beginning of the school year, my chemistry teacher has had one saying.

– “There’s not a moment to lose.”

By this, he means there isn’t a day that we aren’t preparing for our ultimate test, the AP exam. The AP exam is designed to fully test what the student has learned and is formatted in the same way a college would give an exam. It’s pretty much the ultimate test to see if you have learned and ready for a college class in that subject. For many student, AP classes are way to hard and many rather just take the normal high school classes to pass. However some students do decide to take these classes and give themselves a challenge.

AP classes are designed to be difficult. Its designed to make your really think and put in extra work and push yourself to the limit. From personal experience, some weeks your schedule may be just studying for that one AP class. Sometimes I am forced to stay up and only get 3 hours a sleep just so I can do decent on a test. Or some other days  I would spend another 4 hours at school doing a lab. There are so many more sacrifices that you have to make just to maintain your grade or just keep up with the class. And in the end, the grade of the class doesn’t matter as much as what your score on the AP exam. That score on the AP exam is what you work countless hours for and if you don’t do well its like wasting a whole year of studying for nothing.

You only have one shot to prove to colleges and yourself that you should get college credit for taking the class and that you are ready for college. So without a doubt, there is a lot of stress involved with any AP class. With the upcoming AP exams, we are slowly reaching the dreaded day of May 2. This is when testing officially begins and stress builds up till that week. So is the AP test really worth it?

I honestly think that it is. Sure there is a lot of sacrifice that comes with an AP class and an AP exam however if you try your hardest and really learn the material, you will do fine on that test and in the long run you will save time and money in college.

 

My Hero

Every since I can remember, my grandpa has always been yelling at me. I remember him coming into our room at three in the morning to yell at me and my brother for staying up so late and playing games. Or when we would mess around outside and accidentally break a vase, we would always run because we knew he was going to yell at us.

Even though we would get yelled at and punished all the time, we continued to do it, not because we like to cause trouble, but because we were kids and that’s what we did best.

Growing up in a family of four kids, and being the oldest son, I came to realize that I got yelled at for pretty much everything. When I was playing games my grandpa would come to me and ask me for help outside or around the house and I was always so reckless and hurried to finish that I ended up breaking pretty much everything I tried to help with. As far as I can remember, I’ve broken a patio umbrella, a shovel, two mops, and so many pots and vases that I’ve lost count.

However, every time I broke something and got frustrated over it, my grandpa was always so calm and understanding about it. He would tell me its okay and that we can always fix it no matter how badly broken it is, you just have to be patient and work diligently. I reminded him of his youth, always in a rush to do something that everything else you had to do before it was just an obstacle. He would tell me that your just young and careless but one day you’ll have to step up and be the responsible one.

As time went by, I started listening more and more to him and what he told me. I started to realize that I do need to grow up and start taking things seriously. Life isn’t just about playing video games and fighting with my siblings all day, but instead I have to prepare myself for the future and sacrifice a little bit to be successful later on in life. He thought me how patience and working hard are two of the best qualities to have.

The one thing I’ll never forget is his most famous quote. “It takes a lifetime to become a good and honorable person, but only a couple seconds to be a criminal and dishonest  person.”

My grandpa is and will ever be my hero.

 

Time Flies By

Three more semesters and I’m officially on my own and off to college. Am I physically and mentally ready to leave?

Physically, yes. Mentally, no.

I’m old enough to be able to be by myself however the more I think about it, I’m still a 16 year old kid that plays with tech decks and toys. I still can’t tell the difference between ripe and unripe fruit, I cant cook any food other than cereal and cup of noodles, but I can determine a side of a triangle if you give me the two other sides.

Tonight marks the night where I determine my classes for next year and to be honest, I am terrified. With all these SAT talks and GPA averages, I’m not sure if I’m ready to move on to college. I haven’t even thought of SATs and now I have to worry about college transcripts and actually getting accepted into one.

With all theses extra obstacles to over come, I find that I also have less time to study for all of them. Homework on top of homework just piles my schedule and by the time I’m done, its already to late to begin studying for anything else.

Now I begin to look back and remember little me. Fat and round, carrying an ice cream cone and my skateboard, getting yelled at by my parents to enjoy my years now because later on things get rough. And being young and thoughtless, I didn’t take this seriously and now I really wish I did.

However, moving on and having to overcome all these obstacles are a great thing as well. Without having long nights where I have to stay up to 2 in the morning or problems that take me half an hour, I wouldn’t know what to expect later on in college. I wouldn’t develop skills such as learning how to type faster or how to manage my time.

So overall, school sucks right now and its going to continue to suck, but enjoy the little things and especially enjoy the time you have right now.

 

 

 

Global School Play Day!

When my teacher announced that our assignment in class tomorrow was to bring and play with toys, I was extremely excited and already prepared. I had my tech deck always ready to take out for special occasions like this and just the thought of not having to do anything for a whole period made me anxious.

I think that the idea of having a day where students can just have fun and not worry about their assignments is a great thing. There is so much stress that builds up as the year goes on and just having a day of fun and less homework really helps.

The overall idea of this was created by Peter Gray who argued that kids nowadays aren’t playing outside as much as before. This doesn’t just mean that kids are playing less but it also says a lot about the development of kids.

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For example, without knowing how to play and interact with other children, many kids are lacking in the ability to talk and cooperate with one another.

Personally I have seen this first hand before. Many kids in my class are so focused on just school work that they forget that cooperation and being able to talk to people is a huge deal. I don’t really have a problem with working in groups and being loud but many people such as my cousin can’t stand talking in groups and working together to get something done.

In my opinion, being able to get along with people and talking in groups to accomplish a goal is one of the most important things that people have to learn. You may be extremely smart, but by not being able to communicate, you can’t do much with your knowledge. Learning how to be cooperative helps you with almost anything. In the future, looking for jobs and working with the people in your job require a lot of communication skills, and if you not able to communicate with your coworkers, then that would be a huge problem.

Overall, I had a great time at global school play day. Being able to see everyone play together (including our teacher), and messing around for a whole period was really fun.

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There was no technology involved so everything we played was old school and it was great to go back and play all the games I use to play back when I was in elementary school. I think every school should start celebrate this day because its extremely fun while releasing some stress for the students.

 

Go Have Fun!

Sometimes we just don’t have time to do what we want.

With all the procrastinated homework that we told ourselves we were going to finish, to the book were were suppose to read and the test that we forgot to study weeks before, everything just seems to pile up©2009 Rannpháirtí anaithnid [CC BY 2.0]

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Since the beginning of the school year, my schedule has been jammed packed with homework and studying and all my favorite activities like skateboarding and basketball just seemed to be saved for the weekends. But with my busy and huge family, weekends just means more cleaning and my one day of fun (Saturday) turns into a day wasted on chores.

However, not very long ago I was able to find a way to get past this without lying to or blackmailing any of my siblings. Its extremely simple and it will save you so much time to do everything else. The secret is… turn off that social media.

Its such a simple idea and yet it saves me so much time. The reason it took me forever to do math homework in the past wasn’t because it was hard and really long. It was because I was on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter all at the same time. Turning my phone off and focusing turned my two hour math session to at the most an hour.

Ever since my change and restriction on my social media accounts, I’ve really come to realize how much this actually helps me. I communicate with more people now, I have time to go play sports, and most importantly I save time to have fun.

With school always giving me stress, I’ve finally found a way to release that stress while at the same ti

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me, making myself happy. Just the other day I took my skateboard, told my mom I’ll be back soon and just rode around the neighborhood like I used to. Jumping onto curves and taking narrow turns made me happy again to be outside. You don’t have to worry about tests or homework and most importantly the rush.

There is always been a rush factor throughout my life. I’m not sure whether its just me or if everyone living in California fells it too, but there’s just always a rush to finish things and to get places. When I was riding through my neighborhood and relaxing, again, I felt as if I had nothing to worry about anymore. Everything felt great and I wished the sidewalk just never stopped.

So sometimes its good to disconnect from the world of social media and just go on an adventure. You might discover something new, or find the one thing you’ve been looking for.