January 3 Blog 3

The SAT’s are something that every high school student barley knows of as a freshman, hears about as a sophomore, worries about as a junior, and is terrified of as a senior. The SAT’s were always something that had worried me. I have never been the type of person to do very well on a standardized test because of the pressure and anxiety it causes. I walked into my first SAT test in May of my junior year, petrified, sweaty hands gripping a bottle of water, a calculator, and my pencil attempting to mentally prepare myself for the test. As I took the exam to my surprise I thought that I did very well, until I received my scores and they were not where I wanted them to be, at all. Many hours of studying, SAT classes, and two tests later, my scores finally came to a 1700, which I was pleased with. After I received that last score I finally could hand in my applications. Nothing felt better than pressing send on the application website and the SAT website which sent my scores. Or so I thought. A few weeks go by and I decide to check my email that I created specifically for applications. I was horrified when I opened the inbox to see dozens of emails asking where my scores were and that they have looked over everything but cannot make a decision until they review my SAT scores. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach as I checked the online recite on the SAT website, stating that none of them had been sent. I hurried to my phone calling my mother crying, with her reassuring me that we had in fact been billed for the shipping of the SAT’s, but to go ahead and send them again. I sent them on rush straight away to all of my schools but the feeling was not the same when I pushed the send button. 

Janurary 3 Blog 2

I was born in the small town of Newark, Delaware and was very comfortable in my hometown of Newark, Delaware, riding my bike along Main Street and going to ballet class every Tuesday night. However, my world changed when my family moved to Maryland. Even though the move was miniscule, the effect of separation from my friends and life I was custom to, made it feel a million miles away. However, just as I began to adjust to my new life, my personal nightmare repeated itself. My family packed up and relocated to the sunny sands of Jacksonville, Florida. I felt out of place in a paradise that was supposed to make one feel warm and welcomed. Even though I felt out of my element, I adjusted, and eventually became good friends with wonderful people. Although difficult, by adapting to change I made myself successful during my time there. After moving to the Sunshine State, my family once again transferred to a more frigid place. Michigan is seemingly more uninviting than Florida; however, because of the skills I gained during my experiences, I enjoyed the winter wonderland. I met unique people, adapted to new situations, and felt comfortable in an unfamiliar place. Through moving around the nation, I found myself. I found the outgoing person who gives those skills to my community in many ways. I am involved in multiple associations within St.Mark's, with almost all of them containing leadership roles. I am now the captain of the cheer team, a sport that I had never done before entering St. Mark’s. However, the confidence and skills that I had acquired during the moves I had made gave me the self-confidence to try out for the team. Another way I applied the experiences to my younger life was attempting to meet people through running for student council. I have been on student council for four years now and I cannot imagine what it would be like to not be involved in the association. These experiences not only gave me the courage to be involved in all that I am and helped me develop the skills that I now acquire. I plan on taking these aspects of myself with me when I take the leap into college. I am excited about using these life-changing skills to meet new people, becoming involved at a new place, and opening a new chapter in my life.

Blog Jan 3

I had always enjoyed my science classes during my younger years of schooling. I particularly enjoyed the study of biology. I found the unraveling of secrets that make up the human body, word, and universe exciting and captivating. However, throughout my education I have always seemed to be someone who is creative minded rather than a logical or numerical thinker. I often arrive at conclusions that are outside of the box, by enabling creativity to take over. This became more apparent to me as I matured in my studies throughout high school. I found myself enjoying my English and social studies classes far more than I was my mathematic and science courses. I did not loose my lack of interest in the sciences, but rather understood the idea that my mind is not quite programmed to think that way, and that those classes would take more preparing for. For these reasons, in my senior year at St. Mark’s I made the decision to take two English courses. The two courses are, Creative and Critical Writing and World Literature. The curriculums the courses contain are not the only differentiating quality the two have. Two very different teachers teach the classes. In addition, these two teachers have extremely different teaching styles. My World Literature is a class taught by one of my favorite teachers who has planned and structured way of teaching. However, this class is not all notes and power points, there is fun involved too. She does not jump from one subject to another without depicting all of the necessary material from it. However, my Creative and Critical teacher varies completely from my other English teacher. His style of teaching is more chaotic and sporadic. Subjects change quickly and it is a fast moving class. This has its positives and negatives. A positive quality would be that it is entertaining and keeps the students focused. However, a negative would be that some material might not be covered as fully in class as it is prepared for the students on exams. Neither teacher is better than the other; nevertheless, I enjoy the style of teaching of my world literature teacher greater than my other. However, it is interesting to observe that even though both are teaching the same core subject, they both do it in such different supporting the idea that the creative mind truly steers an English driven mind.