The amount of work that we, as teenagers receive, is ridiculous.
Most of it isn't even real work that's going to benefit us or help is any way humanly possible. Most of it's just busywork that teachers assign because it's their job. I'd so much rather be taking classes that I'm really interested in, and pursuing my hobbies that matter to me instead of doing tedious work that really isn't gaining me anything in the long run.
Some work, I enjoy at school. Overall, I like my classes and I gain at least something from all of them, but what's really frustrating is how there are so many nights that I stay up far too late, doing homework that I really have no need to be doing in the first place.
I'm not the kind of person that would be satisfied if I dropped out of high school and earned my GED, because I've always been somewhat hardworking and I feel like since I've gotten through almost 10 full years in the public school system, I can definitely deal with two more. And senior year isn't really a full year anyway, so that makes it even less time.
I can't wait until college, where I can pursue my interests and not be up until 2 in the morning doing homework. That would be really nice. But until then, high school is high school, and I guess I'll just have to make do.
For our documentary project, we were assigned something a
bit out of the ordinary, and different than the project that the other students
and groups were expected to do. Originally, our plan was to do a documentary
about homelessness in D.C., including street artists, musicians and to
interview people that made their living on the streets by performing. The plan
was to get interviews of these people, and hopefully be able to share their
stories with the world.
Unfortunately,
that plan didn’t end up working out, and we realized that our subject matter
was a bit sensitive and impractical for the task we were trying to accomplish
due to privacy reasons, etc. We ended up creating a documentary to welcome the
British kids, who were part of a CAP foreign exchange program in which about 12
students from a school in England came and stayed with us for a week.
Our
documentary centered around Blair, and the different aspects of the school. We
interviewed a lot of different students, both in CAP and outside of CAP, and
asked them what their favorite parts about Blair were, whether or not they
enjoyed the school, etc. We filmed a lot of the building itself, and made sure
to include shots of all the different sports field- one of Blair’s most
prideful elements!
The overall
experiences of filming, editing and producing our own short documentary was
probably one of the most enjoyable things we’ve done in CAP thus far. The
creativity that we were able to channel to make this project worthwhile is
something that I think all of us in CAP are going to try and use with all the
projects to come. The biggest challenge our group faced was probably the
decision making, figuring out how we were going to change our topic/film and
how we would get it all finished in time.
If we were
able to make another, brand new documentary, I’d want to do one that revolves
around a more serious topic that I’m really interested in. It was a lot of fun
making the documentary for the British students, but I think we could’ve
probably benefitted and learned from the project more had we been able to
choose a different topic. Even though this was a challenge for a group, and we
were all pretty frustrated at first with the changing of our ideas and plans,
we were able to persevere and create the best thing we could, which, in the
end, turned out pretty well.
As the
teacher, I think Mr. Mayo did a phenomenal job encouraging and supporting us
through the experience. It was really helpful that he assisted us in choosing
our topic, etc. but he also allowed us to do the project ourselves, and I think
it would’ve been really frustrating had we not been able to do so. I think it’s
really important to find the balance between guiding a group, and doing the
project for them, and I really think Mr. Mayo did an excellent job balancing
that. Overall, this was a fun, interesting and wonderful project. I’m glad I
got to do it.
It's a bunch of irritated, stressed out teenagers crammed into a building and forced to deal with each other for 6 hours every single day except for Saturdays and Sundays. And on Saturdays and Sundays, said teenagers sleep, and complain about homework.
Granted, school is obviously extremely necessary and helpful in putting us youngsters on our life paths. We need it, no doubt, because we need to leave high school, and go to college, and pick a career path and have successful, fulfilling lives. None of which would we possible without 12 years of education.
I don't even think it's school itself that's so frustrating. It's more my lack of time management and ridiculous tendency to procrastinate more than anyone in the history of ever. And I know it's a big problem and I really have tried to fix it! But it's hard.
I really like CAP. I loved CAP 9, I love the community, the kids, most of the teachers, and the environment. I really think I'd be a different person if it wasn't for CAP, given the size of the school and how many kids really are floating about Blair Blvd. everyday.
Sure, sometimes the work load is extreme and we're up late a lot of nights, but I think us CAP kids are really fortunate to be able to be in such a program, in such an excellent school system. And despite how stressful it can be, school is school.
We're gonna have to deal with it for a really long time, so we might as well make the best of it!
Here it is. My Silver Spring video. Including a bunch of ugly selfies at the beginning, because you know, selfies are a great part of American culture. Also, my dog is too cute for lifeeee.
Today, I found my old bright pink iPod nano that I got for my 13th birthday. I found it hiding beneath a dusty old picture of my grandma and I, taken in the hospital a few hours after I was born. This might seem insignificant, but finding that iPod (I looked for that thing for MONTHS) kind of got me thinking about a lot of stuff. Mostly about like fate, and destiny, and how I believe that everyone was put on this Earth for a purpose. I have no idea what my purpose is. But I know that I have one. Because why else would I be here?
I've always been a strong believer in fate and karma, and I'm not really religious so that doesn't have anything to do with it. It just makes sense to me, that if you treat someone badly, something bad will happen to you. And same for positive things, if you treat people with kindness and make it a point to do something generous and good for no particular reason, that kindness will circle back towards you. It makes sense, doesn't it?
But there's also fate. It's defined as, "The development of events outside a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power." Now, I'm not really sure I believe that definition. I do think that everything happens for a reason, and that if something bad happens, it's meant to, because something else is supposed to happen after, kind of a chain of events kind of thing. Slippery Slope, if you will. (Rhetoric Devices a la Ms. Fillman) but anyway, my point is that something so small like losing that precious iPod turned out to not be a big deal at all. It sucked for a while, but it's not like I had no other way to listen to music or anything, and finding it over 2 years later made such an impact on me that I feel like it was almost supposed to happen.
I don't know how many people out there are like me, who believes in fate and destiny and that everything happens for a reason. And at the same time, I feel like it's also kind of scary to just accept that some greater force in the world is controlling your life, but it's kind of cool to me. Like, you're not entirely in control. So it's okay if you make mistakes. Because we're humans, and I like to think we're meant to.
For my documentary review, I wanted to watch something interesting and out of the ordinary. I've seen most of the classics, and while I could easily sit here and review a documentary about the fast food industry, I decided instead that I would find one that caught my eye, and that I genuinely wanted to see. The documentary I ended up watching was "Born Schizophrenic - Jani's Next Chapter". This film depicts the story of 9 year old Jani Schofield, a schizophrenic child that had made an appearance and told her story on Oprah, but was later interviewed and had her story made into a film.
The documentary talks about Jani's personal experience dealing with schizophrenia, and how she's experienced strange hallucinations in the forms of numbers and animals. Some of these hallucinations are harmless, but some, such as "Wednesday", the imaginary rat, tells Jani to harm herself and her family. Jani's parents struggle on a daily basis to care for her, as she needs constant supervision and may lose control at any moment. Her schizophrenia is so severe, that at a certain point the family had to move into two seperate apartments, one for herself and one for her little brother, Bodi. Fortunately, Jani's disease mellowed down to the point where her parents felt it safe for Jani and Bodi to live in the same apartment again. The film also describes Jani's parents, Michael and Susan, and their personal struggles trying to raise Jani and Bodi, who later begins showing signs of childhood schizophrenia as well.
The film itself is very interesting, not only the story but the cinematography, such as different clips of Jani in her state of hallucination, where it's clear Jani isn't functioning like normal children should. Another key filming technique portrayed in this documentary is the scenes of her talking to and interacting with her imaginary animals, named numbers and days of the week, primarily. These scenes help to emphasize the point of the documentary, and they really make a statement about the severity of the disease, and how devastating it is, especially in children.
Everyone involved in the documentary has a clear concern for Jani and her mental health, and it's clear through the different interviews with her parents, and psychological experts, that Jani's case is dangerous and very severe. These literary elements also help emphasize the documentary's theme, as her parents are clearly very concerned and aren't really quite sure where to turn at this point. With everyday being such a struggle, it's obvious that Jani's parents are at their wits end.
The film is primarily shot at Jani's apartment, where her parents are seen on film in their everyday lives, behaving and interacting with their children as they normally would. Jani's personality, while charming and lovely, shifts so quickly into her state of hallucination is disturbing, but at the same time, so interesting.
Overall, I highly recommend this documentary. It gives such a personal, inside look into the world of childhood schizophrenia, and how devastating raising a child with this kind of mental illness can be. Speaking as someone who's always been very interested in psychology and matters of the mind, this documentary is definitely one worth seeing. It's definitely a little disturbing, but once you get past the general idea, I found myself eager to learn more about the illness and how the Schofield's cope on a daily basis.
I realized today that I'll have to change my blog's theme once winter's over. But for now, I really like it. Which is really kind of contradicting, because there's nothing I hate more than cold weather. But I love everything about the holidays. I love snow, and hot cocoa, and family, and egg nog, and christmas trees, and lights, and mittens, and hugs, and laughter and singing and just everything about the holiday season. I love the seasonal drinks from Starbucks. I love everything about the holiday season. But mostly, I love my grandma. Her name's Nonnie. She's Italian. And she's definitely the most important person in my whole entire life. She lived through the great depression, so she knows not to take things for granted. She's the kindest, funniest, strongest woman I've ever known. I wish I could spend more time with her.
Nonnie lives in New York, so I usually only see her for 2 weeks at Christmas, and when she comes to visit at random times in the year. She got here yesterday, and I haven't seen her in almost a year. That's a long time not to see your grandma. For me, anyway.
I guess family is a big part of the holidays for me. I don't really spend that much time with my family, because when we do see each other, we're arguing, or getting rides, or passing each other on the way to a practice/rehearsal/show. I wish I was closer to my siblings. But I love the holidays, because I get to spend quality time with them that isn't conflicted with school, or any events. And Christmas morning is always a really special morning for my family. I get woken up at like 6:30, but I don't even mind.
