♔ An eighteen-year-old lass named Khae who was born and grew up in the Philippines and now living her life in the U.S. I am nowhere near perfect, but I can always be true to myself and be forever grateful that I have a perfect God who has blessed me with not just a beautiful life but also with a wonderful family and friends. Big dreams will someday be fulfilled by an ambitious dreamer like me, who has yet to make them all finally come to reality. Good books and photographs, white roses, baby's breath, sticky notes, sunsets, and dandelions are only a few of those things that make me simply happy. I'm one of those teenagers who desires to learn horseback riding and would love to receive a handwritten letter someday from the one who owns my heart.
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
The school musical—The Mikado—ran for 6 days, which also meant (for me) six days of putting make up and costume on and six days of curling my hair.
Today…marked our last musical performance.
After 3 months of coming back to school 3 days a week at 7 PM for the rehearsals and not getting back home until 9 PM (or later than that), it’s officially over. I would not say that I loved the idea of late night rehearsals because I really did not, especially when those nights were school nights. That gave me less time to do my homework or to study for a test. I didn’t get enough sleep. And these were probably the main reasons why I was glad, in a way, that this musical has ended. It’s a bittersweet good-bye because I was, at the same time, sad to see this musical end. The experience, the joy backstage and on stage, the new friends I’ve made…being in this musical was a lot of fun. And you know what, the sacrifices that I made for this show was all worth it, so worth it.
It was my first day of school today! The new 5x5 block schedule—which is basically an A day, B day schedule—was confusing. I was worried that I’d get lost and come to the wrong class, but thankfully, I did not.
Back to the 5x5 block schedule (I just thought I wanted to explain it a little bit more, you know, haha). Instead of having 7 classes like what we had last year, we have 10 classes this year; first 5 classes on A day, then the remaining 5 classes on B day. With 5 classes a day, each class is an hour and 10 minutes long. Oh, it is long, all right.
My A day classes went well. But—okay, I’m going to be honest here—except for my U.S. History class. Unlike with my other classes, I don’t have any friends in this class. Sucks. There are more boys than girls in it, which I do not like very much. My Honors English class, on the other hand, is the total opposite. There are only 4 boys in that class; the rest are girls! Now I like that. (Well, I just don’t like having so many boys in the class. I think it’s awkward. Hahaha.)
And tomorrow is Thursday, our short day! Yay! I am really looking forward to my Select Chorus and Wildlife Biology classes, which are two of the five classes included in my B day schedule. I can feel that these two are going to be fun!
Today was just the beginning, and I survived. Although I wasn’t entirely glad about being back to school, I was absolutely happy to see my friends again! I’ve missed them so much. With them, this school year, guaranteed, is going to be more fun!
I just got home from school! Got everything done and I am registered for this school year. All went well, if you don’t count the fact that I got a bottom locker, again. I should have known. We have the biggest class so, of course, the top lockers were all going to be taken. And I was right. I should have gone there much, much earlier. This is my fault. I hated having a bottom locker last year. It really sucked. I hated stooping down just doing the locker combination to get my stuff in/out. And again, this year, the same thing? Oh, I just don’t want to think about it anymore.
On the brighter side and on a happier note, my chorus teacher showed me a sample of our new chorus dress for this year and the next year! My, I must say it was such a pretty dress. I really, really liked it. A long dress that falls to your ankle and it looked more formal than the last year’s chorus dress, which was just plain, no accessories and all that. This year’s chorus dress, on the other hand, has a patent belt that goes around the waist. The top color of the dress is black, and all the way down from where the belt is located has the color same as last year’s (a color between maroon and red velvet), but looking more formal this time. And it will look good on photographs, daddy added. (What made me really happy about this, though, is that I got all my expectations wrong about the new dress. I expected that it was going to be a knee-length dress—which would really suck for me if that was all true because I have these stretch marks that have appeared on the back of my knees—, the effect of overhearing the conversation of my chorus teacher with the other teacher about the new dress last school year. So I got all worried after. I’m self-conscious, all right. Haha. I don’t want my stretch marks to show. Well, I guess I was all wrong about what I’d overheard before because when I finally saw the new dress before my eyes, I felt so relieved! I thought, I don’t have to worry about my stretch marks. Oh, happy day.)
I also signed up for two clubs/organizations. That should be three, but the one organization that I was planning on signing up for wasn’t there. So I guess I’ll wait until the school starts.
Summer has gone by so fast! I go back to school in 8 days. This is really happening. This is really happening! I am 50 percent excited and 50 percent not ready. Although I don’t want to see it leave, I must say good-bye to summer soon.
(Physics) summer classes are finally over. The last four days were okay, I guess. We spent the entire 5 hours each day building robots, mouse trap carts, bottle rockets, and paper cars—making all of them to work. Unfortunately, our group wasn’t really lucky because everything we made, well, did not work quite well. Too much stress. I’m not very good at constructing something anyway, so I wasn’t much of a help to them. Shame on me (I hate the feeling of being useless). But I help, of course, when I can. Haha.
Summer classes were fun somehow. I got to hang out with my friends. I’ve made new ones. And, the free food (oh, yeah).
It was weird being at the school during the summer. It was quiet, unlike when there’s school, a bunch of kids are all over the area, making the place overwhelmingly noisy. I loved seeing the empty hallways. And the janitors were everywhere, cleaning the entire school and making sure it’s all tidy. It was nice to see the unusual.
Although there are no more summer classes for Physics, I still have to go to school tomorrow and participate in a review class for the Math ACT. Yes, I have to do this. With the ACT testing already on Saturday—that’s in 2 days!—I crucially need this. I need to have a score of 23 and above to get into College Algebra class. Ugh, stress! I am actually so nervous right now. (Help me, God.)
This has been a really busy week for me. I cannot wait for all of this to be over.
Yesterday, Wednesday, all Spanish I and II students who passed the test for this out-of-the-campus activity went to eat out at a Spanish or a Mexican Restaurant in Mt. Pleasant. I was there, my friends were there, and that was what made it fun. And of course, the bus ride.
We were technically excused the whole day, but actually, we left after second period.
The place was really nice. Cozy even. We had to order in Spanish just because that was what our teacher said, or else the servers would not take our orders. They did anyway. I mean, we ordered in Spanish—almost having a hard time thinking what was the Spanish of this word and that—but mixed it with English. And in that moment, we spoke Spanglish. Haha. The servers were really nice. I liked them in fact. I ordered chicken strips and fries and salad. Actually, I and my friend ordered the same kind. The funny thing was that, we were in a Mexican restaurant; you’d think we’d order Mexican food. Well, that was what I thought too. That was what our teacher was expecting for us to do. Wrong. Hehe. But the truth is, I’m not really a fan of Mexican food. I’m being honest here. My point was, when I leafed through the menu, I couldn’t find any Mexican food that I would like to try. So to be safe, I ordered chicken strips, fries, and salad. Oh, man, was it good. I didn’t regret a single thing. Even though my teacher was making an issue about it. Well, a little bit.
But wait, hold on, I ordered a Mexican food: fried ice cream! I never had it before, and when I saw that on the menu, did my eyes go wide. I was already sure I would order it for dessert. I had been thinking about fried ice cream before I got the chance to try it. And yesterday, I just had one! Muydelicioso.
When we got back from the restaurant, I headed to my seventh period, my last class. And my English teacher welcomed us with a sad news: she is not going to be teaching in our school next year. I guess she’s found a better job, a job that would give her more time to spend with her children. I can’t blame her. But I’ll surely miss her, though. That’s for sure. She is one of my favorite teachers. She’s one of those teachers who always gives me compliments about my skills and abilities. Ugh, this is really sad. Oh, well. Things happen for a reason.
Last Tuesday was my choral audition. I definitely tried out because I really want to be in the Concert/Honors Choir next year.
My audition was at 4:20 p.m., and when I got home from school, I went straight to the computer to practice my required solo song, which I could find online. I was busy getting ready and preparing myself for the try-out that I didn’t notice the time—it was 4:15. 5 minutes until 4:20! I totally lost track of time! Thank goodness our house is not that far, and I was partly sure that I could get there at school in time.
It was 4:19 when I was running towards the entrance door, making myself run so fast because I was a minute away until my audition time, only to find out that the doors were all locked! What am I gonna do, I thought.
So I tried the other doors at the other side of the school building—I was running faster this time—locked. But my luck started to work when I saw someone there inside beyond the glass doors, and he saw me trying to open the door but figured I couldn’t. He opened it for me, and I was inside the school. But then again, the doors leading to my choir room past the cafeteria were also locked. I am dead! I was already late, didn’t know what to do—yeah, go figure.
I could only think of one thing that time: the outside door of my choir room. Yes, I thought, I could do that. I went there, no luck, it was locked too. But the good news was, there were students inside. I knocked and knocked and knocked until they saw me. I signaled for them to open it for me, and then this one guy walked towards the door and opened it. Oh, I was so, so thankful for him. And to that first guy who opened the entrance door for me. Because of them, I was able to try out (even though I was 2 minutes late). God is good, I thought to myself.
The second I got in my choir teacher’s room, the first words I said were I’m sorry, I was late. I told her the doors were all locked. I was literally running out of breath from running from one place to another. It was exhausting—but worth it.
My choir teacher hates tardy people, but I guess she understood why I was late because she didn’t look mad at all. She even made sure that the doors were all open and not locked after I told her about it.
My choir teacher slash choir director is strict. And I like that. That’s what makes her a really good teacher to her students. I always get nervous around her. I got more nervous when I was in that room with her, only the two of us. An audition with a strict teacher; who on earth would not be nervous?
About my audition, I felt good about it, I think. Enough said. Haha. I hope I made it, though. I really, really want to be in that choir.
Today’s Monday, first day of the week for school. And guess what time I woke up today? I woke up, oh, at exactly 7:45 a.m. My first period starts at 8:00 a.m., and yes, I was definitely running late for school!
It was entirely my fault. I kept hitting the snooze button to a point that I just decided to turn my alarm clock off just because I wanted to sleep in more. (Wicked child, not the smartest idea at all.) I had another number of minutes to sleep until I heard someone knocking on my door. It was my dad. He thought I was already ready to go to school but wrong—he saw me, still out cold, enjoying the comfort my bed had given me. When he told me the time (15 minutes till 8), just like that, I was wide awake and was moving around inside the house like crazy. My dad, he told me, has never seen anyone move so fast in his life. Oh, dear; I could not believe myself either.
Since my school is not too far from our house, I wasn’t that late when I got to school, fortunately. Only a minute late. I was that exact. Haha. But my teacher didn’t check the attendance, not until about a couple of minutes after I entered the classroom. Yes!
A minimum of 50 students of my school signed up and traveled to Richfield Campus today for the Career Day, and that included me. We had to be at the high school before 8:00 a.m. to catch the bus to go to the said campus. And since it wasn’t until 3 o’clock in the afternoon that we got to go home, we were school-excused the whole day of school. I only got to see my school this morning for only 20 minutes before I boarded the bus.
It was a lot of fun, Career Day was. From the bus ride to the activities they had organized and the new knowledge and ideas I have gained from the different choices of careers today and, last but not the least, free lunch!
The one and only thing I regretted today, though, was that I totally forgot to bring my camera with me! It was all planned that I’d bring my camera; I even charged the battery last night. Like, seriously, Khae? There were such a lot of subjects to shoot: the sky was very beautiful today, the campus, the people, the nature, the landscapes. Honestly. How dare I? I was a bit ticked actually, to be honest.
Back to the event, not just our school was there today but also other students from other different high schools. (I didn’t see any cute guys, though. Haha.) I participated to some of their activities: I won a bubble (so happy like a little kid) on this game that I don’t remember what it was called, got a score higher than a rate of 50 on timed-writing and a free blue wrist band, built a “bridge” using a blank paper (which should carry loads of pennies, the paper over two wooden-stands placed a foot long apart, without collapsing) with my two friends. All day long I was carrying my backpack. And man, did my back hurt from that while walking and roaming around the campus all the time. It was heavy, too.
We got home before the expected time: a little over 2:30 p.m.. I wasn’t able to take pictures, yes, but at least, I didn’t go home empty-handed. Right? And plus it was really fun. I was real glad I signed up for this career day.
/more about me
