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This year... ugh. I am so glad this year is almost over. At the same time, I wish it were still like 2nd quarter or something. Mostly the former, though. Part of me wants to go back to August 3rd and choose no, but I know that will never happen. The year started off good, great even. I did everything in the first quarter fine. I was on probation for a couple weeks, but I was fine other than that. I went to the retreat over fall break. In second quarter, though, things began to get bad. I am of course talking about the yearbook. deadlines came, and then passed. I never finished my spread. Right before winter break, I got everything taken away–my vest, my chair tag, my cubby, my yellows. Third quarter then came. I never finished my spread. Matthew did. Next, I turned my focus to Orientation. At the same time, I went into the concert band. So, when we had after-school Orientation practices, I couldn't come on any Tuesdays. I had appointments on every single consecutive Wednesday except the first one. this brought my grade in Leadership down to a C. Then, I was busy after school for the rest of the quarter. That was tutoring for me. We also had Orientation practices during lunch and advisory. I missed my precious time with my friends. I also had to choreograph the boy's dance. It didn't go particularly well. I had no idea what to do. How do you even choreograph a dance? What counts as a dance move? I still don't know. About halfway through the choreography, I just started to do random things for the dance. Really simple and really silly. Days melted to weeks. I got everything but my cubby back in that time. Pretty soon, it was 4th quarter. In 2 weeks, it was Orientation. That went well, for the most part. I just kind of did nothing until like a day before the Graduation slideshow was done. Makes sense that I'd get an F for that assignment. Now, with Graduation right around the corner, (a really really short corner) I'm really hoping for a miracle. And yet, I feel confident that I won't mess anything up–after school at least. I'm not sure about in the morning. I really went on a downward spiral in the middle of second quarter. I've been on probation in all 4 quarters, tutoring in 2. It hasn't really been the best year for me. But literally everything outside Leadership is better. I really love band, and I'm keeping up with my core classes. Leadership brought all this to me. Thanks a lot. And that's the year for me.

A highlight of the year was definitely First quarter. I was pretty happy the whole quarter. Nothing bad happened at all. I felt right at home, stress free. Another highlight was the Retreat. I didn't talk about it in the previous paragraph much because I wanted to talk about it here. I really liked the Retreat. I enjoyed the activities, swimming was fun, I took a decent chunk out of Jurassic Park. The cooking thing was the best part. Retreat was the best part of this year. No doubt about it. Except maybe one of my concerts for band. It was probably one of those concerts. Now, for the lowlights. A lowlight of the year was Yearbook. I didn't take enough pictures. I procrastinated. I did everything possible wrong. I was stupid. So stupid. Another lowlight was lunch/advisory Orientation practices. I didn't get to see my friends outside of class for like 2 months. Friends, that's something I forgot I had. I FORGOT I HAD FRIENDS! Yet another lowlight was the Graduation Slideshow. I messed up even more than yearbook because I procrastinate for more time. Also, I didn't really know I was supposed to do Yearbook for like a week or 2. I had no excuse for the slideshow. And that's the year for me, in a different way.

This year, I learned that life is like a beautiful meadow. A beautiful meadow that is also a minefield. You prance around the field until you accidentally step on one. Or, you're so careful not to step on one that you can't do anything once a mine inevitably is detonated at your foot. I've had my fair share of mines blow up in my face. It looks like I hit a cluster of them here. That's because I just kept prancing around after I was blown up by a mine, not thinking there would be another one right where I stepped. If you take a second to determine how that mine detonated, you could learn how to avoid and mitigate the damage these mines could cost you. The successful people know how to skillfully dance around the mines; they se the changes in the soil. I'll do anything to do that. And that's the year for me, in yet another way.

What would I do if I time traveled back to August 7th, the day school started? First of all, I'd spend my free time making friends with Mr. Ing and the 8th graders. I'd finish my AR as soon as possible and keep my grades up, in all quarters. My desired outcome for 1st quarter would be to not be on probation or tutoring at all, therefore going to the Retreat. In 2nd quarter, I'd start working on the yearbook as soon as conveniently possible (as soon as previous deadline done or day 1 if 1st deadline.) I'd start working on the boy's choreography as soon as I got the start of it. For 3rd quarter, I'd spend my free time working on Orientation choreography. I'd schedule the after school practices to Wednesdays and Fridays. This would avoid the entire grade dropping scenario. I'd focus on teaching the boys and learning the other dances for the Orientation practices. For 4th quarter, I'd not procrastinate for my tour outfit. I wouldn't change much for Orientation itself, except maybe remembering stuff better. As soon as I could work on the Graduation slideshow, I would. I'd do it until it got to 40 minutes. I'd do it all my myself if I had to. Throughout all the quarters, I'd spend more time with everyone in Leadership. I might even have stayed for 8th grade. Right now, I'm in the "not fitting in" group of people in Leadership. I might actually belong in Leadership if I could redo this year. I'm fine with my current path. I'm really loving band right now; I couldn't have this year without it. But being an 8th grader would be a nice experience I'd never forget. I hope all of my classmates go far in life. I expect to see one of you guys on the news one day. Don't let me down. This has been my year. goodbye to all of you. 

(BTW I have a YouTube channel I'm going to start uploading stuff this summer here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEuyRbTPavnuhfsjSbUv-IQ

Quarter 4 Blog []||||||||[]||||||||||||||[]||||||||||||[]||||||||||[]||||||||||||[]|||||||||[]|||||||||||[]||||||||||[]||||||||||||[]||||||||||[]||||||||||[]||||||||||[] Yes it is Because I Said So

This quarter... ugh. I am so glad the year is

 almost over. I'm just losing my mind by now. Life for me has been on a downward spiral since 2nd quarter. This quarter started with me wanting to get out of Leadership. I didn't want to be in Leadership anymore. how deluded I was in the summer. Anyways, Next was Orientation. Day one was good. Day two was also good. Day three, however, not the case. We messed up on a lot of stuff. The parent Orientation was better, but still not great. I also had a few concerts for band. Those were all fun! Probably the best part about my quarter. After Orientation, the cracks started to show. We, the 7th graders, were officially given the task of doing the Graduation Slideshow. I, being the incredibly responsible person I am, didn't take any pictures. I also kind of didn't work on the slideshow at all. Now I find myself getting a big fat F for all the slideshow and programs stuff. A few days ago was Awards Night. That was good until after the awards ceremony itself. We just kind did nothing, I guess. As we get closer and closer to Graduation, I'm getting exponentially more stressed. I have a campout this weekend. That should get rid of some of it. I'm really glad that I'm not doing anything in some of my classes. I'm sure not going to miss these parts of the year. It's going to feel so great to have fun again.

A highlight of the quarter was the first part of Orientation. It felt like exactly what we were supposed to do, like we did everything right. That was probably the last time I had 

fun. I feel like I haven't had real fun 

since. Another highlight of the quarter would be everything between Orientation and mid-quarter. That was the last time I've been truly happy before I turned to what I call, "Graduation is in a few weeks mode." It didn't really affect how much work I did on the slideshow, though. My final highlight is the band concerts I had. Those were all great. I can't wait for band next year. Now, for the low lights. One lowlight for this quarter is the second half of Orientation. I still don't understand how it got so much worse literally overnight. That was really confusing to me ever since it happened. Another low light for me was not working on the Graduation Slideshow. I feel bad for making everyone else do the work. Sorry other 7th graders if you're reading this.

This quarter, I learned that you don't need to be happy to get stuff done. Nearly everything I've done before 4th quarter was either good because I liked it, or bad because I didn't. Everything is different now. I can do things I don't want to now, at least better than before. For example, I didn't like Orientation that much. I still did it, though. Now, I know what you're thinking, "But you said Orientation was the last time you had fun!" I didn't like all of Orientation. I didn't even like most of it. I only liked some parts. That's also helped with my classwork, like my English project. Now, time for a nice, relaxing weekend.

This Week was a Week of Weak Week

As conflicting points of good and bad meet, it created a grey area in the conscious mind. In the subconscious mind, however, the larger, more defining moments stand out, leading to lots of small good things and a bi bad thing being bad, and vice versa. But when there are both very good an very bad things, the grey area is maintained in both the conscious and unconscious mind. The same thing happens with only little events, although with varying degrees of success. A grey area, however, is very boring, so I'm going to overemphasize the good things. I got off probation (Yay!) I got a really interesting book about Abe Lincoln. It only took me a week to read. Overemphasizing stuff is both misleading and hard, so I'm gonna stop now. On the day of Thurs, I had my last band concert of the year. It was fun I can't wait until next year. That brings us to Fridy. Definitely the most eventful day, It started with that whole Banquet shebang. The 8th grade class officers kind of messed up. Not that I could do any better. Then I presented my project for English. I said "um" a lot, not because I was nervous, but because I plain old forgot what to say. I just now realized that I forgot stuff. Now I'm most likely going to get a B in English this quarter. Yay. Then, there was this whole talk in science about how 13 people in my period are failing. I was surprised. That is a lot of people failing. The ironic part is that the rest of the people are like straight A students. And that was the week.

So the highlights of this week were kind of already listed. The low lights were too. But, for necessity's sake, the biggest highlight of this week for me was the concert. I mean, a concert should always be a highlight of your week. It's a concert! Another highlight was getting off probation. Although, it's also a lowlight for me procrastinating on my AR. Speaking of lowlights, a lowlight of my week was the whole banquet shebang because I half expected to mess up on something and get yelled at throughout the day. On the plus side, I was extra sure not to mess anything up!

 This week, I learned not to procrastinate. First, the elephant in the room. 8th grade class waited to the day of Banquet before doing all of that stuff. There's also reasons that are not elephants in rooms. Like in English, I didn't prepare a speech for my presentation. Or procrastinationing on AR so I couldn't work for a whole week. It seems pretty obvious in hindsight, but hindsight doesn't account for stress and time constraints and tiredness and pain. Hindsight only looks at what actually happens.

In a World too Often Governed by Corruption and Arrogance, it can be Difficult to Stay True to One's Philosophical and Literary Principles

That quote got annoying after a while in season two of A Series of Unfortunate Events, didn't it? There's probably a paradox based after it. That has nothing to do with anything I'm about to say. Or type. Or convey to you. If I did that, I would not stay true to my philosophical and literary principles due to the arrogance of presuming that everything I say has a deeper hidden meaning.Nothing is pure black and white, because everything becomes a thick, omnipotent layer of gray, like a fog, if you think into it at all. If you're clever, you brain becomes a prism, turning the gray into a multitude of colours that muddle things up even more. My brain used to be a pile of sand, at the start of the year. Gradually, conflicting emotions and events smelted it into a pane of glass. I expected to be hit by a wave of enlightenment, but all I got was a gray fog. So I worked to shape my brain into a brilliant prism. I made myself see colour. Now, the colours are blinding me, in a way. I don't know what to do, so I do nothing, And the colours get darker and duller, my brain melts down, until I'm back seeing a gray barrier. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm pretty sure I was only seeing in primary colours. There is no orange or purple perspective. I could barely see green. As soon as probation kicked in, I just saw dim colours, like a depressing war movie about World War I or something. Stupid books. Stupid high reading level. Stupid me. I'm too stubborn. I can't just read a boring book for points. A Series of Unfortunate Events is too ow a reading level for me. Oh well. Life will go on, impacted in no way shape or form by my mistake. Also I was sick on Friday. And I had a doctor's appointment. So that's why I was not there.

Obligatory blog picture

A highlight of this week was the part before probation. I was feeling good about myself. I guess my mind was governed by corruption and arrogance, and I didn't stay true to my literary and philosophical principles.A low light was kind of the rest of the week. Except Friday. Friday was OK. But the rest of the week was not.

I learned that most weeks follow a pattern for the different days. Monday and Tuesday always are super long for me. Wednesday is kind of fast. Thursday and Friday, thought, are like lightspeed. Done before they started. I also learned that in a world too often governed by corruption and arrogance, it can be difficult to stay true to one's philosophical and literary principles. If you're observant and have too much time on your hands, you could go deep into the depths of my psyche and learn every minute detail from this blog, and the other ones. someone should make a video game out of that.

f

This week was OK. Mondy was pretty standard. We got new pieces in band on Tuesdy. I only remember doing TV on Wednesdy, which kinda sucked. Alize claimed to have looped the intro, but it didn't loop. On Thursdy, we messed up again on TV. Emma and Matthew never turned on the mics, and we had to start over. Then there was the graduation meeting. We kinda just sat there. The presentation sad May 17 was the third deadline, but it's the 18th. The rest of the day was normal. Fridy was normal except for those allegedly famous people coming here. I say allegedly because I've never heard of them.They danced at the assembly. Maybe it's just the kind of music and dance, maybe it's just me, but all of it sounded and looked really stupid and conceded. Like somebody woke up and thought, hey, I should write a song that I sing in a monotone voice half the time and rap the other half and add a whole bunch of base into it so it sounds like a really low-pitched fart for half the time.At advisory it was kind of boring.That's kind of just my opinion.

Jelly Beans. The most interesting
Thing I took a picture of.

A highlight of the week was going to the assembly. I got to miss math, so being bored and slightly uncomfortable for like an hour was better.Another highlight was science on Thursday. We watched a movie. A lowlight of the week was realizing that the assembly was just going to be watching a bunch of kids dancing in a style I don't like to music I don't like. It's like expecting an orchestra and getting a punk rock concert.

I learned this week that you need to be in a place where you can truly be yourself in order to truly be happy. Mr. Ing gave like a huge talk about that in homeroom one day. I forget which day. I also learned that you really can't get true art when all the masses ever want is trash. On Friday, I expected to be moved at the start of the assembly. I expected to enjoy watching kids do things I thought were interesting. What do I get? Nice, shiny, gold-covered fecal material.  A big shiny pretty turd. Under all that polish, it is still a TURD. Nobody cares because they just see the gold finish.

The final Orientation blogg | Yes it's over I am so happy

Orientation. It's over and I'm so glad it is. I've disliked the Orientation for basically as long as I've known about it. I thought it was pretty dumb when I was in sixth grade. When I was chosen to be a choreographer, I had no idea what to do. Then I needed to do choreography. I still had no idea what to do. I still, to this day, do not understand dancing. The boy's choreography, which I was in charge of, is just a series of hand and foot movements to me. The actual Orientation was actually quite OK at first. The first day was good, the second day was mostly good. But Thursday was terrible. I messed up for the bell schedule. Wait, did I? I don't remember. That was the only time I specifically did something wrong that day. So that was Orientation.

A highlight of Orientation was Tuesday because nothing big went wrong. It was the day with the least negative consequences. Another highlight of Orientation was when it ended. This was a highlight for me because I don't have to do anything really big like this until graduation. A low light of Orientation was Thursday because lots of things went wrong. Another low light was being a choreographer because it was not fun.

I learned that you have to do things you don't want to.I learned this from Orientation. I didn't like it when I was in 6th grade. I didn't like being a choreographer. I didn't like "dancing" or whatever it is. I I didn't like Orientation as a whole. I still had to do it though because it's for a grade.

I think that what went wrong was that we got overconfident. I don't really know if I made a mistake or not. I can't remember. Overconfidence is just a likely possibility. We don't really know the inner workings of our brains. We don't know why we make decisions on the fly. We don't think in split-second decisions. It's wired into our subconscious brains, a place where humans have no control over, no matter how hard we try.

#2 of Orientation yes yes

So today was kind of almost worse than yesterday. It started pretty good. I knew a few people from Iroquois. Tours were good. Fashion show was good. But I forgot that I needed to be at the computer after the Fashion Show. I wasn't at the computer when Emily was speaking. I don't even know what happened with that part. After that, the day was fine. Everything went fine. It was largely the same as yesterday.

So a highlight of Orientation today was how everything went more smoothly, besides that point I talked about. The fashion show and tours were better than yesterday. Another highlight would be seeing people I know. There were 3 people from my Boy Scout troop, and one I knew from church. A low light was that part where I forgot to be the slide person for Emily. I'm surprised that nobody said anything about it. Maybe I'm in an alternate universe where I'm not the slide person for Emily. 

I learned that you can't forget anything. If you forget to do something, you risk the effectiveness of whatever you're doing. I learned this from forgetting to change slides for Emily. There is a possibility that no one changed the slides for Emily. If I hadn't forgotten, than that would never happen.