4 Year Reflection

    Freshman year, I was so optimistic. I had a ton of fun in robotics and exploratory. English was a little stressful, but it wasn’t too bad in the end. Sophomore year could’ve been better. And Junior year was ok. There was a lot of writing, and I am not at all confident in my writing. I eventually made it through and went on to senior year, and senior year is great so far! Except the very first day, for some reason they put me in anatomy. I do not like anatomy, and I had asked for physics anyway. So, I had that changed and now I’m in physics. Finally, English is fun! I am no longer stressed now that I’m in a lower class. We’re reading stories such as “The Things They Carry” by Tim O’Brien, and various dystopias in “Brave New Worlds.” The collection of short stories, not “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley.

    I think I was so optimistic freshman year because it was a new school, I was making new friends, and exploratory was fun. I did eventually get Computer Science, which was my first pick. My classes were good, except for Math and English. Math was too easy, I should have been in Algebra 2 but by the time I learned I could move up, it was too late. I blame it on the school making me take the placement test before the school year was even done as we hadn’t gone over some of the material that was on the placement test yet. Biology wasn’t bad, it isn’t in my area of interest, but as sciences often do, it overlapped with some of my interests. But English was bad for most of the year. The only good thing was my teacher did help me better answer open response questions.

    In sophomore year, I took AP Environmental Science, which was easy. It was basically biology, but with some geology and chemistry. The AP test was also easy, I got a 4 and I think almost ran out of time on the second writing portion. I took AP CSP in shop, which was also really easy. That I attribute to having about 4x the time in class compared to the average person taking it. I also got a 4 on that test.

    In Junior year I took Algebra II. It was fine, mostly just a review of Algebra 1. It was interesting enough that I wasn’t bored. But it was still too easy to not make me want to be in a higher class. I had fun in chemistry because it’s interesting and playing with chemicals is fun with proper safety precautions. I learned how chemicals are named and the various properties of elements. I also learned about intermolecular forces, electron levels, and why certain elements are the colors they are.

    Senior year is going good so far. English doing great. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien was good. It showed me a view of the soldiers’ experience during the Vietnam war. None of them were happy, and one even committed suicide due to the depression caused by the war and the lack of help from the government post-war. We then watched the movie “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” which is a movie based on the story of John “Chickie” Donohue who went to Vietnam to deliver beer to friends of his. My favorite dystopian we’ve read so far was “The Minority Report” which is about John Anderton who is the founder of Pre-Crime, an organisation designed to prevent crime before it happens. He is predicted to kill Leopold Kaplan, a former military general who wants to take down Pre-Crime and replace it with a military state. I’m taking AP Pre-Calc and so far it’s not bad. The material isn’t too difficult but it’s enough to keep it interesting.