Aadi's English Blog

 Honestly, without even realizing it, I use “bro” or “bruh” a lot. It’s just a way to address a friend or someone you know well enough to use such informal language (short for brother.) It’s become a part of vocabulary because I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable talking to people over the last few years in high school, especially those I didn't know before. It might reveal that I’m quite friendly and calm, more laid back.  Today we did a vocab lesson and answered questions from a book about these new words. I learned some new worlds today that I have seen before but truly didn’t understand. The questions were simple, and the reading passage was understandable after a read through once or twice.

 So far, analyzing poems has been going surprisingly well. Doing it as a class is helping a lot since I struggle with it. What’s challenging is keeping up with some of the work since creative writing is hard for me. I need to work on getting work done as soon as possible and not dwindling on assignments until the last minute to get my best work in. Today we started pulling meaning out of 10 Emily Dickinson quotes. It is going well, these Dickinson quotes are fairly easy to understand. What’s difficult is getting the theme sentence to have everything you pulled out of understanding the quote in only 1 sentence that’s cohesive.

Luckily, the people that I know best and have the biggest impacts on my life are all still alive. Some I know have passed, but didn’t have a big effect on me. But someone that will would be my 1st grade teacher. She told my parents that for me and my responsibility, we should get a dog. 10 years later, we still have him and he’s still one of the biggest things in my life. Mr. Rease wasn’t here today so we had a commonlit and finished up our heart assignment. The poem today in the commonlit, for me, was extremely difficult to understand. Even if we went over it as a class, it was still hard to pull meaning out of its odd structure and language.

 One time this happened was, honestly, when I chose to take painting this year instead of another AP as an elective. In my mind, the other AP would obviously add to my gpa, but other than me learning something a bit new, I knew it would add a lot of work this year. So I chose painting because I truly enjoy art and it’s one of the ways I’m going to have a kind of down time during the school day this year. That’s definitely a decision made by my heart. Today, we analyzed a poem called Heart, We Will Forget Him. There’s also a small assignment to go with it. It, again, was really good to analyze the poem with the class because it truly helps you understand it. The small assignment is drawing a heart separating mind and your feelings, logic and passion.

 I severely overthink and worry right before tests or exams. I end up sweating a lot and just totally overthink questions and forget important things. In reality, I know most of the concepts and the test is quite easy, or the worse happens and because I forgot important things, I get bad grades. I have learned to take a deep breath and say that as long as I’ve payed attention, studied, and done all the coursework possible, there’s no way that I could get anything less than what I’ve prepared for. Today in class we read a poem by Emily Dickinson and analyzed it. I thought today was very productive, especially the way we went over and annotated the poem. I never would’ve pulled out the meaning and analyzed it as well without going over it as a class, and I’m surprised how much meaning was contained within it.

 I’m fairly calm but smart and funny. But what makes me very special is that I enjoy high speed things but have slow hobbies. Go karting, lacrosse, and hockey are extremely fun, but at home, my hobbies are slow and relaxed, like reading a book or building Lego or a scale model, or something else small. Today we moved on from our origin myths and began reading a story and exploring themes about being normal. I’m quite tired since it’s Friday, but now we are reading a new short story. It’s about exploring the topic and concept of being normal, being called somebody, and nobody. It’s slightly interesting because it’s about figuring who you are and what makes you, you.

 I would like to go on an adventure with friends to East and Southeast Asia. There’s so much culture there, from traditional, to food, and nature. I’ve never really been too, so that would be unforgettable if I had the opportunity. There’s so much to see, and we could go up to mountains or stay in big cities in Japan and go to car meets. There’s such a blend of experiences in Asia in general.  Today I presented my visual poster, and many others did too. There were some very unique stories. I went pretty quick and I think it went well. Some people had some amazing stories that I could never come up with. I saw a lot of different personalities in the way people made their posters too, and how committed they were to the myths they made.

 One of the most creative things I’ve ever made, as an artist it is kind of hard to decide, was a miniature house. You can buy them in kits, and they have hundreds of parts and materials to put together. One that I made had a little music box and lights, so it was extremely realistic and special to make, and it was quite big too, with fake water features. It’s my best work because it requires precision and time to look proper and nice, and it’s extremely unique. Today, we continued working on our visual poster. I just about finished with my layout. I am a bit nervous about presenting but I know everyone has to. I hope mine will look well put together since there’s quite a bit of information that must be properly summarized to not look cluttered. I’m also thinking about my visuals.

 My biggest questions about life are definitely - is the universe planned, and are there other beings out there, divine or just alien? These are important to me because if you just stand outside at night and look up at the stars, you truly wonder what’s out there. Has the universe been created by something outside of science? Was it planned? What will happen to the universe after we’re gone? These questions matter to me because they also have to do with humanity and if we can survive for eternity or if we will eventually truly go extinct, and who knows what will come after. Today, we started working on our visual poster for our origin myth. I started with adobe express and laying out my background and format Today was a good intro to adobe express and how we’ll be using it. Whether it’s to make a poster or a video, I’m sure this won’t be the only time. I’m excited to see how mine comes out and how everyone else’s will be.

 Prompt:      I adapted to the demands of this course, especially with the quiz today, by focusing on only that and reading carefully to answer the questions. One strength I have is analyzing things that have already been written. One challenge is starting things on time, especially writing, because I procrastinate a lot and can't find myself starting especially creative writing without inspiration. Summary:      The quiz went well, I only missed one question but it was one that I thought was right which is interesting. Reflection: As long as I start my work on time and not overthink things, I should be fine in this course.

 Prompt:      It helped me understand that cultures used the stories to have an aspect of society and togetherness within. They wanted stories to unite themselves and create a shared identity, but to also explain the world around them. By also only making one version of my story, it helped me to understand how actual Native American Myths could've evolved over time, the hundreds of them per tribe. I chose to explain the importance of sharing and how greed pulls everyone down into darkness, allowing it to become a myth by saying that it caused the gods to create a solar eclipse to truly put the earth into the dark during the day.  Summary:     I think today's class was interesting because it made sense to look at at more examples of actual Native American stories before making our own to understand it's simple structure and lesson. Reflection:     I could've started a bit earlier, but I enjoyed writing my own origin myth because it was short b...

 Response:      To me, being of Indian origin, it carries a lot of stories for me. All my ancestors have stories from there, and it makes me feel more full as a person to be honest. My great grandfather was a soldier, and I have 2 grandparents that are teachers/professors, and part of my family works in the metal business I believe. It would have been very interesting to hear his story, as I think he fought for the British during WWII. If we are being more specific, my grandparents house in India is significant, I go there when I travel and my mom grew up there for a while. It always brings back memories of homemade food and drinks there, and just sleeping after an extremely long flight. Summary:     Today, we read and learned about the Navajo origin story and the 4 worlds through chaos and divine figures, and learned about some lessons and themes of it, and answered some questions. Reflection:     It was interesting because we finally got to unde...

Prompt:      Like many, I've been in nature too many times to count growing up, whether through travel, camping, or just being in my backyard. But one time that stands out is when we visited Tennessee, including the Smoky Mountains. We took an ATV adventure tour. After riding up and around a part of the mountain for about an hour, we quickly slowed down and stopped at the peak of the range we were in. Once I got off and took off my helmet, everything was so quiet and peaceful, especially considering the noise of the engine I had been hearing for a while. There, I could admire the grand view of the mountains all around and in the distance. I could here the birds, squirrels, and other animals here and there, and the haze that the mountains were known for lingering in the distance. So, that transition from loud to the peaceful quiet of nature was one time I felt connected, like I was immediately part of the forest and mountains. I was even covered in rain and mud. Summary:...

 This year as a junior at Lakeside High - the first thing I want to achieve is getting all A's in my classes. I haven't gotten a B yet and after seeing people getting the award for all A's at the honor ceremony last year, I am striving to do the same. For me, this also includes getting 4's, if not 5's on my AP exams. 2nd, I want to have a successful lacrosse season when it starts. Finally, I want to develop a really good habit of studying and prepare for college entrance things, SAT's, applications, and maybe figure out what I want to major in. I still procrastinate a lot for no reason, and I'd like to fix this because it will be hurtful as I move on.