New Color Scheme

I like it, at the moment. I think it's a bit more eye catching.

I just tried to wipe an apostrophe off of my screen using my sleeve. Needless to say, I was unsuccessful.

The S.A.T. this morning was easy, but that's all I'm legally allowed to say, since I copied that silly paragraph in cursive. Avon was in my testing room, but I haven't seen her since. She will be pleased to know that she took more practice tests than Bryant (the smart twin whose first name contains none of the letters in Bryant), who took 8. I was sitting next to Dino, as always. It's the last name proximity, I guess. Fortunately, he's not a loud test taker. Otherwise, I probably would have done poorly on my Saturday Science admissions test, my CAPT tests, and, now, the SAT. He's the only person I've discussed the test with thus far, and he said the same thing I did. I did hear him talking to Jeremy afterwards, though, and Jeremy said he didn't even finish. Ha. I'm hoping that means he won't get into the Saturday Science next year (not that I would ever ill-wish anybody....*shifty eyes*)

Also, I just read Evil Genius, by Catherine Jinks, which I positively loved. Cadel, the boy genius in question, is a wonderful character. I kept expecting him to be a caricature of an overly smart teenage boy, but he really rounded out in the second half of the novel. The whole thing was very funny, as well. I love the fake schedule in the front and back. For instance, Cultural Appreciation is struck through, with "Forgery" scribbled above, and the teacher named "Art East." How fabulously punny. There are also a few subtle (hopefully intentional) Harry Potter references, which also made me smile.

All in all, a good day.

In addition: this is my This I Believe statement, and the introduction to my portfolio.

I wrote a This I Believe essay once before, back, so very long ago, when I was fourteen. “I believe in questions,” I wrote. “I once dreamed of being omniscient, but as I’ve grown and learned, everything seems further away. For every answer I find, a thousand more questions appear in my mind. There are also times when I don’t want the answer, when I would prefer to continue my life oblivious to the suffering around me. I like to have questions, gaps in my understanding, that, although I will never fill them, will forever provide me with a sense of comfortable emptiness.”

I’ve grown since then, far more than I would have thought was possible in a mere two years. When I first started high school, I loved questioning for the sake of questioning. Now, however, I prefer answers. A large part of this originates in my expanding understanding of science. Where I once saw questions, huge blanks in my understanding, I’m beginning to find answers. While these answers still inspire more questions- knowing that zinc finger proteins help stem cells resist viruses sends me on to how they work, why they evolved, and how they could be improved- these questions are merely another step in my path towards answers. I have a habit of doing in math class whatever the teacher has just informed me is impossible to do. Even though I can never answer everything, I can’t say that questions are better and stop trying. I have to look for answers, in school and in life. So now, I believe in answers.

In U.S., I started the year believing what I read. Then, we were taught to doubt it all, searching for bias. However, even though I can’t trust everything I read, I still need to use what I have to search for the truth, piecing together the answers I so badly desire. I can do this by reflecting, thinking, and looking inward. I also search for answers in science and math, trying to learn about how the world works, why things function, how all the little cogs within me fit together to make a living, breathing human being. In this portfolio, I’ll be using what I’ve learned from my science classes this year to explain what I’ve learned about myself in U.S. History.

Enjoy.