the life of chao(s)

ktee8:

You can do it. You’ve always been able to. You always will be able to. Just focus on your goal, and things will turn out amazing. You’ll exceed your highest hopes, stretch past your farthest limits. Everything up to this point has been preparation for this, and now that you have your chance, I know you won’t mess up. It’ll be a tough journey, one with obstacles—people that want to see you fail. They don’t want you to succeed. But you can do it. I have faith in you.

This is to everyone out there. The seniors, whether they’re college-bound or not. The juniors, going into their AP tests. The sophomores, realizing that college is a mere two years away. The freshmen, hoping to make high school the best years of their lives so far. Athletes, like Chloe and Taylor, who are hoping for college offers this summer. Scholars, like TGu and Melissa, who give their all and will be rewarded one day with some sort of academic prize. We all are different, in that our motivations stem from various sources. But we’re all the same, too. We all have one common goal. We all want to succeed.

I have faith in us.

This morning, I filled in 39 bubbles for the CST ELA Part 1, then proceeded to take out my Kaplan SAT Physics book and fill in 75 more bubbles. After a ten minute break, I filled in 39 more bubbles for the CST ELA Part 2, 15 bubbles for CCC/CSU placement test, and finally, 95 bubbles in the Barron’s SAT US History book I also happened to have with me.

That’s 261 arbitrary circles on paper…. in one morning.  And while they appear harmless, they seem to mean a world of difference.

But what’s unfortunate is that standardized testing has started to define who we are. Everyday I’m bombarded with more and more numbers: grades, test scores, GPA, SAT….

But how are these numbers supposed to speak for me? There are only five letter options…where can I write in my own answer to express my creativity and original thought? Why am I expected to conform to the Collegeboard answer. Is this what we’re trying to teach our children?

And what is going to happen in the future? We’re the first generation to live by these bubbles, and we won’t be able to see the negative societal impact until it’s too late. Since the second grade, we’ve been taught to live within the bubbles. We’re assigned numbers and our names, personalities, and individual traits aren’t given any consideration. We aren’t even allowed to think for ourselves, so what implications will this have on future generations?

Who the hell will care what my SAT score was ten years down the road. Does it matter how many AP’s I took, or what my GPA was? And what about those 261 bubbles I filled in this morning….ask me in five years and I won’t give a damn. Can I stop being labeled with numbers, and start being Ray Chao?

We need to think outside of the bubble and begin to live as individuals. That’s who we really are, and that’s how we should project ourselves to the world.

I can’t believe I just spent the last 6 hours editing and compiling video footage from State Champs. With over 70 video clips to sort through, it took a while, but I finally finished and it’s about ten minutes long (originally, an hour and a half worth of video).

Video editing is such a bitch but it’s pretty fun. I wish I was good at it, but I’m a nub who uses iMovie who makes nub looking videos but it’s okay because it’s what the video is about that matters :D

amberphunglr:

for those of you that don’t know, my mind wanders a lot, about a lot of things.

not too long ago, i thought about how people express what they feel about people when its time to sign yearbooks. but by then, it’s a little too late to take the compliment cause it’s not like we get to embrace that person anymore, right? i mean granted, you can be thankful, but either way, the moment has passed and we can’t really appreciate spending time with that person anymore (assuming you won’t ever see this person again after high school)

it was then that i thought, why can’t we just tell people how we feel the moment we feel it? we can all use a compliment every now and then, and it’s nice to know we can be the determining factor in whether someone has a good day or bad. does it hurt to express what you like about a person or the impact they make on you?

after my realization, i made it a goal to explicitly express to people what i felt about them (as long as it wasn’t awkward or hurtful) or give them a compliment that i normally would in a yearbook signing, that i will no longer have to write in their yearbook now! so yay me. it also means saying i love/appreciate you when applicable =)

in a sense, it’s like a ‘live like you’re dying’ type of mindset. and i like it. so another pat on the back for me =)

Is it just me, or has this year been especially rewarding for Arcadia’s teams? We have so many teams competing at nationals in recent weeks…

• Percussion/Colorguard
• Gov Team
• Ocean Science Bowl
• Quiz Bowl
• Speech and Debate

Who else am I missing?

I’m proud to be an Arcadian! :D

EDIT:

I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT OUR MUSIC PROGRAM HAHA THAT’S OUR PRIDE AND JOY

is so hard.  My practice test score is so bad it’s laughable.

Shoot me now.

SAT Subject Tests are in less than a week, AP Tests are in ten days, and I am woefully unprepared.

STUDY OR DIE.

Stacy’s massive spam of memorable pictures reminded me of why I love taking pictures. Memories will always be with you, but with time, they become fuzzy and less vivid. Pictures capture those moments and allow you to revisit memories with much more detail.

The screensaver on my Mac is a slideshow of pictures and sometimes I just sit and watch each picture come onto the screen, unable to move the cursor to get back to my work because I want to see which picture comes next. Although the picture library on my Mac is relatively limited, it’s awesome to look back on experiences from the past and relive them through pictures.

I wish I took more pictures, and even video (like David Yao). I saw this thing once about video diaries, and it looks SO cool, minus the fact that video editing is a bitch. I do have a small camcorder, so in the future, I’m going to try to document things better, and maybe I’ll make short video diaries after big events (I’m going to try to make one for State 2010).  It’ll be time consuming, but in the future, I know I’ll look back and thank myself. And call me a camerawhore, but, one day, you’ll thank me too :)