Update
The AP exam craziness is over. Done. Finito. Complete.
I just want to take some time to look inwards and reflect on junior year as a whole. Have I met my goals? Am I where I wanted to be last fall?
While deciding what classes to take at the end of my sophomore year, it was a no-brainer for me that I would take the highest-level courses that were offered to me. I viewed anything less as slacking off, simply because I believe that you should take whatever opportunities are offered to you. There are some schools that don't offer any advanced placement courses, and there are other schools that offer many more than PV does.
I took 4 advanced placement courses (Biology, Calculus AB, English Language and Composition, and European History), an Honors French 4 course, Art Major 2, Design Lab, and created an independent study course focused on cognitive science (specifically studying metaphor and embodied cognition).
The classes that were most challenging for me were biology and my independent study, and for varying reasons.
That doesn't mean that the rest of the courses were easy, but biology and the IS class were the ones that I had to put the most effort and time into, and, consequently, they are the classes that I feel most proud of myself for taking.
Biology was challenging partly because there is an unrealistic amount of material that we are expected to know and basically be experts in, and we have only 10 months to learn that material. The curriculum should be split into two different courses which should be taken in separate school years, but that is another discussion for another time.
The greatest challenge in biology was having to self-teach it all. The teacher simply does not have the qualifications to teach an advanced placement course, as uncomfortable and rude as it sounds (all of the AP Bio students will testify to this). The course-work was very writing based (we have written more essays than students in AP English Lang and Comp have written this year), and graded very harshly, which resulted in low average grades for the class (and made us students incredibly frustrated).
We all worked our butts off to do well in this class, though, and consequently got 4s or 5s on the final exam and the AP exam - scores which I am darn proud of us for receiving.
My independent study course was and is one of the most challenging classes I have ever taken.
The main reason I find it so difficult is because I had to basically build up the entire curriculum from square one. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do and not a lot of time to do it. When the second half of the year rolled around (that's when I officially started working on the IS class - during the 3rd and 4th marking periods) and it became time to structure my course, I did what I am prone to do: I overestimate how much work I can actually do.
The study and work plan that I wrote up for myself included going through 4 entire MIT OpenCourseWare online classes as well as segments of 5 other ones, writing blog posts and making notes the whole way through. For graded assignments I planned to write up 3 different research papers - the first on metaphor, the second on embodied cognition, and the third connecting metaphor, embodiment, and communication. Each research paper had several labs that I would do (to give me some data to use as support), and each lab would require a full lab report and analysis. In addition to that I planned to read around 4 or 5 books, write double-sided readers' journals and reflections about them, and include them in my papers as additional evidence.
I also wanted to create 3 more dance videos for COMMotion.
So.... yeah. I usually pride myself with making big plans, undertaking a lot of work and responsibility, and completing the work that I set out to do, but I went a little too far this time - even for me.
I ended up going through only 2 of the MIT OpenCourseWare classes - both connected to metaphor and language - and reading only 2 books (Metaphors We Live By and I is an Other).
After talking with Mr. Heidt, I decided to scale down my original plans.
I'm going to be writing one research paper that will focus on metaphor and its influence on thought processes, and connect that to embodiment and culture.
I'm going to be doing an online Udemy course called The Mind Reader's Guide to Metaphor, taught by Judy Rees, which basically gives me all of the foundational knowledge that I need so that I can connect it to what I've read in Metaphors We Live By and I is an Other.
My other classes are okay. English Lang and Euro are definitely difficult classes, but I'm doing well in them... nothing really to report. I do believe that my formal writing has gotten ten times better than it was before because of taking AP English Lang, which I am very happy about, and I had a blast in Euro because my teacher is awesome.
French 4 was a breeze, and even though I wish it had been a little more difficult and material-heavy, I did enjoy just talking with our teacher in French about global news. We would listen to News in Slow French almost everyday, and then discuss current events like the 2016 US Presidential Elections, the French elections, terrorist attacks, etc. Even though it was a fun class to take, I feel like a lost knowledge instead of gaining it.
In terms of everything else going on right now.... I have hit a bit of a low point this month. Now that AP testing is done and studying doesn't rule my day, I'm at a loss for what to do. Part of me wants to sleep all the time, but another part of me has PTSD and makes me feel like I have work to do when I don't. It gets really annoying when I try going outside to play tennis or spend time with friends. I start getting antsy only 30 minutes into whatever leisure activity it is I'm doing, feeling guilty because I'm not working.
It's quite sad. My homework is guilt-tripping me into completing it. What has my life come to?
There are some other plans that I'll write about in a future post, but I feel like I need to cheer up before I put anything else out there. I'm going through an emo phase in which I moan and complain about everything and have a sad outlook on life (you guys I swear I heard existentialism calling my name earlier, telling me to join it on the other side).
I don't like feeling this way because I'm usually a very bubbly and energetic person, so I'm going to take a tiny hiatus and get my excitement back up, probably spend a bunch of time outside, riding my bike and listening to RadioLab podcasts and TedX Talks.
See you soon!
