Actual Week #9

Okay no, serious talk here, folks!

Nothing really eventful actually did happen. I mean, I guess some friend drama? I know how hungry ya'll are for chisme. And I guess that drama helped me practice tenacity. I think. It was complicated and usually I'm the go-to person for them but this time I was at a loss so that didn't really help.

Friendly reminder to ya'll: if you guys are going through problems, PLEASE seek help. It doesn't have to be announced to the world or anything, just tell your parents, a friend, a doctor, anyone who can help.

Week #8

This week... let’s call it interesting.

First, we started off with some nice drama from some friends that left the school. If you thought you’re getting the chisme out of me, good luck with that.

Then, I had to cram to both study, do homework, and read a book I have a paper to write about on. Thank god Ms Merino decided to extend the due date to Monday, oof. Anyways, then we had like a lot of greek homework and stuff and I was not having it.

I probably sound like I’m just ranting at this point but honestly, I haven’t been able to practice much out of my virtues. It seems as the weeks progress it’s slightly harder to be virtuous because so many things take priority first.

I dunno, hopefully y’all are having better weeks!

Week #7

Not gonna lie, the week started a little bad but I suppose it progressively got better? I may or may not have procrastinated too much over the weekend but things worked out I guess. I didn't exactly practice much of my virtues but ya know, I made it to the end of the week!

And I've got a MUN conference this weekend in Punta Gorda and I'm carpooling with Grace so it'll be fun!

To all my debate teammates, hope ya'll do excellent this weekend! Go Archie!

Week #6

I know all my other posts have been about courage and while I have been slowly developing that in the background, I'd like to talk about excellence now.

I defined excellence as doing better than you did yesterday, essentially learning from my mistakes or from others' mistakes. If you don't know, I am in the Debate team and last weekend we had a conference at American Heritage Plantation. It was great! I really liked it a lot and it was completely different from middle school MUN conferences.

It was two days. One the first day, I was very intimidated by the high level of skills in my committee and didn't exactly know what was going on most of the time. By the time the second day came, I knew exactly what I wanted to do that day and actually managed to greatly affect the outcome of the committee. I practiced excellence and I felt really happy and proud of myself, something that's a little rare.

But also shoutout to Claudia for being my partner-in-not-knowing-what-was-going-on-at-all :D Thank god for the "filing typo" that helped us save Europe, Mr. Roper! (We were in a crisis committee about F. D. Roosevelt's cabinet in the Great Depression.)

Week #5

Nothing eventful happened this week, really. I kind of just chilled this week, preparing for debate stuff that's gonna come up in the future. It's a little stressful but I won't panic until later, so no need to freak out now.

I haven't really practiced any of my virtues since last week and stuff. Let me just be happy for once honestly.

Week #4

For any of you who sent to AMC, you'll know the overhanging fear factor used by most of the faculty and the principal. That is not to necessarily say our teachers were either horrible or excellent but the fear factor was evident and obvious.

I would always see kids casually convincing teachers to change their grades, make up assignments, and ask to postpone exams/quizzes. To me, that was a bizarre concept. I've grown up all my life fearing authority to a fault. I was scared of just talking to teachers. But I've found that AUC is different.

In AUC, I've found that the teachers are so much more relaxed than those compared to the middle school or any school I've ever been to. They look at us like adults, not as toddlers, and understand our concerns with patience. They understand that these are the years usually marked as "your development time."

In AUC, I've been comfortable talking to teachers, faculty, etc. It's only been a month. This entire week, I've noticed that I've been asking Mrs Morgante everything and anything I was curious about or had trouble with in regards to Debate. Before high school, I would only ask my friends for help in things related to school.

I know I have three virtues I want to work on, but honestly, I find that courage is my most important one. Self-esteem and self-confidence are big factors on my life and I always tend to have a very little amount of them.

I dunno, I just really want to be more sure of myself.

Week #3

Ask anyone who knows me. Go ahead, go ask anyone who hangs out with me. Go and ask them what I bother them the most with. They'll probably respond with musicals. Or they'll respond with YouTube and that's what I want to talk about right now.

Specifically about Jacksepticeye: if you don't know him, he's loud, Irish, and extremely genuine and caring. Last year, 2017, was a horrible year for him mentally. You know what he did? He started a whole movement this year called Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). If you haven't figured it out yet, I'd say my hardest virtue to practice is courage. (I think I mentioned that last week.) I'm usually a very shy person, very humble and okay with just about anything, whether I go last or if I go first in something, or if I'm assigned to a group with people I don't normally work or not. It doesn't matter all that much. I think I need to change that. 

But anyways, to my main point: I really like YouTube. I'm not talking about vloggers or the typical things people associate YT with. I'm talking about the small part of YouTube that's full of genuine creators, people like Jacksepticeye or Markiplier or Thomas Sanders. I'm in love with the stories they've created and the characters they've made. I'm a sucker for good things like that.

It's inspired 20 million people and even more. Recently, he came out with merch for this movement, to spread the message of healthy mental states. I, in love with the message, really wanted a pin for it (the hoodie was too expensive :I) but my parents absolutely hate YT. I was scared to even talk about what I like to them. They always seem to judge me.

Yesterday, I took a deep breath and I asked my mother if I could buy one of the pins. I explained to her about PMA, really hoping she won't try to shoot me down, and surprise! She really like the idea of it and told me that if it doesn't cost too much, I can buy the pin for my birthday (a gift from myself to myself lol). I opened up more about Jack and she seemed to like him, especially when I mentioned all the charity work he does.

I know gaining courage is gonna be a long process, but ya know what? I'm ready for it.