Junior Year

As I promised before, I will devote this entire post to this past school year.

So where do I start?
O i know...

During February of my sophomore year (2006-2007), when all students are required to select their schedules for the next academic year, I happened to think that I am super bright and went on to choose one heck of a schedule. It consisted of 3 APs and the rest were Honors (with the H :P), excluding gym and one elective. Why I did such a ambitious thing I could not recall, but it probably had something to do with raising my GPA. Any how I ended up getting into all my classes and according to previous juniors at the time (now college bound), my teachers were the best possible ones I could get for each respective subject. So I came into the school year feeling quite confident. Despite the somewhat heavy schedule, I had "good" (which means easy most of the time) teachers to go along with them. But I soon would find out that my naive thinking is completely off ._.

I clearly remembered the first day of school. I had only returned from mother China for 3 days and I still had some left over jet lag. It was not a good feeling at all. Anyways as I wandered around the library looking for recognizable faces I heard a familiar voice from afar. It was blair! She came up and threw her arms around me and told me how much she missed me over the summer. So thats how my school year started :)

Hmm so I think I am gonna switch off between bulleting and paragraphing, cuz theres just wayyy to much to be included.

Fall:

• XC season was a success, I was flirting with a Varsity spot but couldn't quite get it :( I almost won a JV race but instead I finished 3rd cuz i took the wrong turn at the last 100 meters.



• Being a peer counselor at LYF retreat was special. LYF retreat was okay, could of been better


• Academics rlly stressed me out, hated AP bio


• Got made fun of because of my puffy hair (see pic)
  
• Took the PSATs and failed to qualify for National Merit Scholarship :(
  

Fall was an adjustment period. After I went back to China for the summer, I felt connected to the relatives and friends over there once again. But this time when I came back I did not throw much of a fit. I guess it had something to do with maturity and age. Last time (13 yrs old) I visited, I came back and had a very difficult time adjusting, and I released my emotions externally. This time, it was alot of internal stuff. It seemed like everything I saw reminded me of China. It was a rough period of time but I eventually got over it without creating too much trouble :)

Winter:

• No longer had intense feelings for mother China, and started to return to my normal life


• Started to slack off in school and its only winter?


• Jack come over for Christmas, it was good times, also the last time I had a sleepover :(


• Was not motivated to study for SATs at all. Got a bad score


• Went to the Celtics Vs. Rockets game, absolute blast, C's won, Yaos huge


• WTC 2008...simply amazing (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=17555596507)


• Got my red baby, I couldn't do without her, small sized sedan, 5 max capacity, old school doors and windows, chya...
  

Snow. If I could use one word to describe this past winter. It had to be that one. Its not the most original word, but it definately fits well. 8 snow days I believe. Winter was the time when I began to renew some of my friendships, I seemed to have gotten over the China hunch and my social life was starting to improve. Also once again my top 25 most played playlist had an American song in it. WTC was sensational, read the note if u wanna know how awesome it was :) Spring track sign ups soon followed and before I knew it, it was spring time!

Spring:

• Decided I would go to Costa Rica missions trip


• Spring Track Season was phenomenal, sub 5 mile, varsity letter, distance team bonding, what more could i ask for?


• Playoffs basketball, celtics rlly got me scared with those 7 game series against atlanta and cleveland.


• AP exams - stressful, not sure whether I did well or not, scores should come soon. AP bio exam was the monday following cotillion


• Cotillion - one of the best nights of my life, driving 90mph on the highway and getting honked with someone screaming in the passenger seat was quite an adventure, not recommended. looked awful in my pics, which was when I discovered the need for me to practice smiling.


• SAT i (again) - turned out to score worse than first time :( no more comment


• SAT ii - fueled and furious at my SAT Is, I made up my mind to destroy SAT IIs, which I didnt exactly succeed in doing, but still managed to do decently well
  
• Finals - bad


• BANNER 17!
  

People said that junior spring is the toughest part of high school. I beg to differ. While academically it was stressful and I pulled many late nighters, I actually felt less pressured. Like, all the stress and pressure pushed me to complete my tasks with more determination and effort compared to a chill situation. Thats probably not a good characteristic cuz that means I will always need an enormous amount of pressure in order for me to do well. Idk...weird._.

So yea, that was a brief overview of this year. Senior year is gonna be different and I am determined to make it one of the best years of my life.

~Shuxin