Yearly Recap

As a high school student, junior year had been the toughest year for me. However, with hard work comes dank rewards. My journey in AP Language has specifically been the most rewarding. In Mr. Ziebarth’s class, I’ve acquired an extensive amount of knowledge as well as a chance to sharpen my skills. In the beginning of the school year, my essays were extremely boring and disorganized. My old English teacher told me he wasn’t able to finish grading my essay because he kept falling asleep. On rare occasions, my essays would get graded but always received an unsatisfying score because of how disorganized it was. Some assignments that really stood out to me was  the descriptive essay. It helped me develop my descriptions of certain situations. It made me realize how important it was to paint a clear image in your reader’s mind. Not only that, but the descriptions also helped me in real life. After the essay, I began to notice all the details in the world around me.

I favorite assignment out of the whole year was the sidewalk drawing. I still remember this project because it was like no other. I never thought that I would be drawing images on a sidewalk with chalk in high school. This unique assignment meant a lot to me. It reminded me of the childhood I once had. It made me realize how precious my childhood was before I lost it. Not only did this day remind me of my childhood, but it was also educational. It was simply a highlight of my year. It forced me to look deeper into The Grapes of Wrath. When my group examined the text more carefully, we discovered a life lesson. When Tom left the family to go on his own, it was a message that Steinbeck was trying to convey. My group concluded that we should “keep calm and move on.” This could obviously be applied to real life. There are certain things that we should just forget about and move on. The past is in the past and we should focus on the future that is ahead of us. We should prevent dreadful things from the past from holding us back from our full potential. The sidewalk drawing was a great experience for me. I’m grateful that Mr. Ziebarth planned it.

Throughout the year, we also wrote many essays. These essays aimed to improve our overall writing and literature skills. Many of them were effective in allowing us to find our strengths and weaknesses and improving upon them. One of my main strengths of my essays is that is very clear. Many people have told me that my essays get to the point and everything is where it needs to be. All of my descriptions are clear as the sky and understandable.  My weakness is my focus. More than often, when my group revises my essay, they suggest that I stick with the prompt more. Half way through my essay, I tend to drift away from the prompt and go off topic. As a writer, the class discussions helped me improve the most. I was pressured by everyone else and this helped me to try and push harder when I wrote my essay. I was careful to specifically organize everything and have a good thorough description. I also made sure that I was following the prompt. This made me realize how to improve my writing and please the teacher.

To be honest, there were times when the class was boring. Sometimes I would fall asleep during discussions. Most of the time, people were saying random things about the book to simply get a participation point. The big question for our book “The Catcher in the Rye” was “how do holden’s words reflect him, his life, and his relationships?” To answer this question, we can look at how Holden describes other characters in the book. Holden often calls others “phony or dumb.” This illustrates his personality because it shows how he is negative about everyone. As a result, this pushes him  away from others. Holden’s words forces him to distance his relationship with others because he has a negative feeling about them. However, we can see that Holden is confidence throughout the book. He tries to talk to many girls about his personal life. Like Holden, I became confidence because of this class. I became so confident in myself that I was able to fully express how I felt about a topic during discussions in class. Even though I get roasted, I am still comfortable enough to say my answer to the whole class. My best improvement was my confidence and social abilities.

Vietnamese Superstar or Mr. Vinh?

Photo Credits to Model Vinh Nguyen

Some of us want to be models when we grow up. However, some people just aren’t made to be models. The blessed ones such as Vinh Nguyen was born with the perfect genetics. Although his Overwatch skills may not be the best, his aesthetics definitely makes up for it. Superstars are the ones who get the most fame and drama for doing small jobs. For example, if Mr. Vinh gained 2 SSR, he would be referred to as a “god.” However, if his rival Nick Lee got his head out of his butt and grinded his way out of bronze and into gold all by himself, then he is still a piece of tumor. I believe that superstars should be getting this much attention because it’s what they deserve. They worked hard to get to where they are today. For example, Vinh had to work hard to get his fame. Although him speaking makes me lose brain cells, he still goes out of his way to volunteer everyday in Ziebarth’s class. Many strive to be like this young man, but many fail because of the uniqueness of this man. This outstanding young fellow is definitely something special; that’s what I like to hear.

Food Waste?

Photo credits to Countdown with Fresh

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/85832288-132.html

Every year, food is being wasted. In the US alone, 2 billion pounds of food are thrown away each year. In a video by LA Times, Rebecca Richman Cohen interviewed the governor about food. The main reason why edible food is being thrown out is because of its expiration date. These dates are just numbers that suggest when foods should be thrown out. However, most of the time, these dates are inaccurate and people still thrown them away. Study shows that these expiration dates are just numbers that are slapped onto the food. There is no scientific support behind these numbers. They are just plain estimates of expiration times. I believe that we should do something about this expiration dates. We should require the dates to be supported by scientific evidence. This way, less food would be wasted and more food would be consumed. The main problem is that most people are scared to eat food that has gone past its expiration date, even thought it actually isn’t expired.

Car or Hitting the Bars?

Photo Credits to Alex Tran

For most people, cars are just a mean of transportation. Their sole purpose if to transport an object to another location. However, for other, they are life. Some people are interested in the hobby of cars. They often fine tune cars, trying to make it faster, or making it look good. This wallet swallowing hobby is fun and dangerous. Most car enthusiasts say that it is well worth the risk because cars are such a beautiful thing. I believe that the hobby of cars is obviously worth the risk. There had been many stories that involve multiple deaths during street races. However, the aesthetics of cars is just beautiful to look at. For example, my friend Alex’s car is an absolute beast while looking like a Miss Universe. Another controversial topic is that car enthusiasts often break the law. They recklessly drive, perform street races, donuts, and burnouts. However, I believe in the phrase, “it’s not illegal until you get caught.”

Farm Labor

Farmworker Leobijildo Martinez tends to the grapevines at Silverado Farming in Napa Valley. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farms-immigration/#nt=oft09a-7gp1

In the article, Wages rise on California Farms, I found many interesting facts. This article taught me that not even would work out the way it seems. Since wages went up, more and more people should be applying for the job, however, there is still a lack of labor in this case. Many farm workers are Mexican. With trump’s new plan these Mexicans have left and job spots had opened up for the Americans, which was the plan. However, Americans ares till not satisfied with these jobs because of the large amount of physical labor required. This interests me because these Americans are given a chance to get a job and live a normal life. Yet they would rather live in poverty then work a simple job. This gives me the conclusion that most poor Americans today are rather lazy and don’t want to work hard. Obviously, everyone wants money without working, but in real life, this isn’t the case. It just bothers me on why the Americans won’t take the jobs on the farms even though the pay is still higher than minimum wage.

Zines

Sushi Distro Zine Photograph: Tukru

In class, we are learning about a new thing called zines. They are mini flip books filled with pictures and small texts. I like to call these zines mini meme books. Are are meant to be more interesting for people to read. There should be less words and more pictures. Are they actually more effective than books when it comes to delivering information? Books may contain way more information and facts, but they are truly difficult to obtain an audience. Most kids these days wouldn’t just sit down and open a book. However, zines contain entertaining content that more people would enjoy, thus promoting them to be read.  I believe that zines are way more effective because people actually pay attention to them when reading. They aren’t dozing off or being forced to read. This makes it a useful tool for delivering crucial information to a group of audience.

Making a Living

Photo credits to Tiffany Tran

At spring fest, there were a large amount of people that emptied their wallets. Most clubs sold snack items such as Korean Barbecue or spam musubi. Other clubs sold drinks. These were expensive drinks such as boba. They required a lot of preparation and planning. My club, however, decided to sell bottled drinks. This was the greatest decision of my life because we didn’t have to prepare for anything. Other clubs spent more than five hours cooking and preparing their meals. My  club simply stopped by Costco to buy our drinks. Since we were the only club selling cheap and simple drinks, we got the most sales. At the end of the day, we sold out and made a profit of $300. It was out perfect plan to work smart and not hard. Our club had made  a big amount of profit without spending a lot of effort. The lesson of the day was to work smart, not hard.

Rewards

Photo credits to me

During the weekend, I went to take my first SAT. It was an intense five hour session of suffering. The entire time, brain was getting wasted and dying. Someone this intense and hardworking should always come with a reward. I believe that hard work should always be rewarded. If this wasn’t the case, then people would have no motivation to work hard and being successful. Because of rewards, hard work is constantly being emphasized and the world is turning into a better place. After I had to work my butt off studying for the SATs, I got a reward. My reward was eating my favorite food, sushi. Right across the testing center was the sushi restaurant. This was meant to be. My reward was purposely located next to the testing center. That afternoon, I was satisfied and happy that my five hours of suffering was over.

 

Knocked Out

Photo creds by me

During the intense week of finals, I managed to snap a picture of my friend sleeping in class. He was only tired and sleepy because he was up all night trying to study and do homework for finals. This demonstrates the intense conditions that students go through to get good grades on their finals. The big question is, “is it worth it to give up some of your health for a better grade on the final?” Heck yea it is. I believe that it is absolutely worth it to give up some sleep for a better grade. Grades will determine your GPA, which will ultimately influence your chances of getting into your dream college. Getting a high GPA would help you get into a better school, and ultimately a better job.

Poverty

Photo Credits : (A boy looks for discarded materials to sell in a northern Baghdad squatter settlement (MEE/Hadeer Al-Sayeed)

I believe that our main economical concern today is poverty. Poverty is an undesired condition and does not feel good. Since more and more rich people are hoarding money, the poor get poorer. As people get driven into poverty, they get more and more desperate. When people are desperate, they tend to do illegal acts. A hungry homeless might steal for food or trespass for shelter. As they get hungrier, they go into survival state of mind and do whatever it takes to survive. This is a big problem because people tend to commit crimes or do bad things when they are trying to mainly survive. This can endanger society and ultimately lead to the worst of the worst.