I was listening to my iPod the other day and came across the song "I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw. It reminded me of how high school is a time in one's life where they have to essentially "find themselves."  Some students may know exactly what college they want to go to, what their major will be, and they even have a financial plan to supplement their journey to success. Other students have absolutely no idea what they will do and go into a mediocre college with an undecided major, thinking that they will pay off college debts later. And then there are students like me, who are in the middle.  I know that my parents will support my decisions, whatever they may be, but where do I want to go? Should I stay in Kentucky or go out of state and give up in state scholarship? What should my major be?

 http://robertcheeke.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/college-application.jpg

DeGraw's song really reminds me that we should be ourselves only think of our "peace of mind." Sure, it's certainly important that we take advice from more experienced people around us, but this ultimately our life. We should decide our life and we should just want to be ourselves. I think that this is crucial to all of us as seniors because the world is filled with so many influences. I've certainly had a lot of trouble finding my own identity as I grow more mature.  My life is filled with influences from more than just my peers, but also my culture.  My career choice will be influenced by my culture as well because I feel like I need to choose a field that is supposedly "acceptable." It's going to be a great adventure, but hopefully it will be well worth it!  

Communication

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_quK9SEGYE

After the discussion about summer reading in class today, I thought about the novels we read in class last year in AP English.  One that resonated with me the most was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. (If you haven't read the book, I've attached a movie trailer, which is pretty accurate.) After we finished this novel, we had many Socratic discussions about the theme of this novel: miscommunication. Pretty soon, we found ourselves arguing about certain aspects of the book. I don't remember who it was, but someone interrupted the argument by stating, "It's so weird that we're arguing about because this book is about miscommunation. So basically we are miscommunicating to each other about the miscommunication in the book." As I was thinking about this book, I realized that this statement applies to our blogs too. What one person blogs about can be misunderstood by someone else, even though the purpose of a blog is to provide clarity through a form of communication. So what's the guarantee that what one student sees as an enjoyable can be misconstrued by another as controversial? I like exploring intricate connections in literature and forming an opinion about it. Hopefully, this blog will be the first of many! :)