I Miss Winter

                This winter has not even been a winter. It has been warm and green. Real Iowa winters are white and cold and almost unbearable. We have only had one snow day so far, which is nice, but also really weird. I love waking up and seeing a note from my father on my night stand saying that here is a delay or no school. That has only happened 3 times this year. That kind of makes me sad.  I look forward to those lovely little surprises that let me sleep in. I wish I got more this year. We only really have one more month of winter left, but there normally are not many snow storms in March.

                I have been able to walk home this winter after school. In past years, I would wait at school until I could get a ride home because I could not stand the walk the few blocks to my house. This year I walk home no problem. Sometimes I was even able to walk home in only a light jacket. I like that, but I do not like that at the same time. It is weird. It is not the Iowa that I’m used to. I wish that this year was more normal.

                I also love the beauty of winter. The gross green/yellow, dead grass is terrible. It is ugly and the dead tree do nothing better for the scenery. The Iowa winter I know has trees caked with snow. There is about a foot of snow on the ground all the time and you can see in people’s front yards where the little children made snowmen, went sledding, and make snow angles. Sure, the dirty road snow was ugly, but everything else was so pretty. I never got to walk around in the snow all bundled up in a cute hat, scarf, and mittens. (That is one of my dreams. I want to walk around in the snow all cute and bundled up with coffee or hot chocolate in hand with my boyfriend or someone like that. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?)

                I miss Iowa winter. I hope it comes back next year.  (360 words)

Leadership

                In Kennedy dance team, we have one major tradition that can never be broken. We have this thing called the leadership crown. It gets passed on from year to year to the girl who shows the most promising leadership skills. At the end of the year banquet, the senior who currently hold the crown passes it down to the junior who holds the most promise of being a leader the next year. IT is an actual crown. It’s a cute little crown with light pink fuzzies on it and heart rhinestones. It’s the cutest thing ever and everyone hopes to receive it.

                The junior who receives the crown need to have leadership skills. They need to be able to take charge and get this done. They need to have a thick skin, but be understanding too. They need to be able to keep a positive attitude and a level head, especially in times of conflict. They don’t need to be the most talented dancer, but they need to set an example. They need to be the one to whom the younger dancers look up to. They must be determined and never give up. They can never quit and can never be off their game. They have a big responsibility and need to know how to use it. They must never abuse their power. Holding the crown gives you a little bit more authority. The crown-holder needs to know how to be authoritative and make decisions in times of conflict, but not be able to abuse it. The holder needs to know how to use their power. They can’t just think about themselves, they need to be thinking about what is best for the team. It is a very large responsibility meant to be held by a very strong senior.

                I fell very honored to be the holder of the leadership crown for the upcoming year. I hope to live up to all of the expectations that come with the crown. I will try to remember the leaders before me and copy all of their great leadership skills. I do not take this title lightly and I hope to help bring my team to a very successful year filled with fun, hard work, and sweet rewards. (376 words)

Jerk

                I believe that all boys go to jerk lessons while they are growing up. They start out nice but then one day they start lessons that teach them all the same jerk moves to use the rest of their lives. They all learn how to mess with a girl’s head, make her feel like crap, and be confusing. I think they all go to secret classes that their fathers take them to but keep it a secret from the mothers. The nice guys either fail the class, or have nice fathers who don’t bring their son to them. Some guys eventually grow out of being a jerk face, but that normally takes a long time.

                Why do guys feel the need to confuse girls? Is there a lesson in Jerk Class that teaches them how to act so weird that it defies all logic? I think their teacher gives then strategies to confuse girls. They tell them to go back and forth every few days with paying attention to the girl. They flirt a lot one day and then the next they are to not pay very much attention to the girl. It drives her crazy which is great for you.

                They also get taught to be a player. One girl is not enough. If you aren’t attached to anyone, flirt with as many girls as possible. If you are in a relationship, it’s okay to have a little something on the side. That’s like double points. You end up hurting the girl you are in a relationship while messing with another girls heart. You string them both along and in the end you rip both of their hearts out. Great.

               

The nice guys are the ones who are genuinely sweet. They actually care. They don’t make stupid sexist jokes and they don’t go along with the guys who are CONSTANTLY commenting about girls’ looks. They can be jerks, but they don’t mean to be. They apologize and they pay attention to you. They would never intentionally hurt you or mess with your head.(344 words)

Fail...?

                Today I asked my friend to the WPA dance at our school. I had a cute way planned out and was really excited because I knew I’d have a fun time with this guy. He said yesJ, but things didn’t quite go according to plan.

                I’d been trying to think of a cute way to ask this guy for a little while now, but I couldn’t quite think of a way to do it. I knew I wanted to do it in my AP LANG class because my teacher’s pretty chill and I have a lot of friends in it, but I didn’t know how. I considered making a big sign and he’d see it when he walked in, but I thought that was sort of common. I finally got my idea when I talked to my teacher. I went to her room during lunch for a paper conference and we had some time left over so I asked her if I could hang a sign up in her room. She got all excited and said of course I could! I we started talking about other ways I could do it and she gave me a pretty good idea. Since we were doing peer reviews for our papers I could ask him that way. I got a “Peer Review” form and filled it out just like my normal essay. I then Printed out 4 sheet of paper with W P A ? on it. My plan was to give it to him during class and then he’d read it and say yes blah blah blah…

                When we got to class and Mizzay turned us loose to work, I told Snook that he needed to revise my essay.  a bunch of other people went to the computer lab to work and it was just Me, Snook, Mizzay, two others, and My friends Maddy and Kylie who knew what I was about to do. I gave Snook my essay and he set it down on his table. He didn’t even look at it. My friends and I started to laugh. I was like “SNOOK! Read my essay!” and he said “Ok one sec I gotta add some stuff to my calendar first.” This took forever and then he looked at the front sheet and asked Maddy to revise his essay. He went to give it to her and then sat back down with my “essay” in front of him. He looks at the front sheet and then literally opens the paper so my friends and I could see the W and then he closes it and says “Crap I need to fill out a front sheet for my essay!” my friends and I burst out laughing!! It was pretty hilarious but I just wanted him to read the stupid essay already! It took him about 5 minutes to fill out the sheet and then he gave it to Maddy. Finally! I think. He goes back and sits down and then starts to just talk to people and not even glance at my paper! I can’t help laughing now and Mizzay and I just share a look. She keeps saying “Alright let’s get down to business and do what you’re supposed to be doing!” He just ignores her. She says it at least twice more. At this point, I have given up waiting and start to read my book.  Mizzay gives one final warning and he apologizes and finally looks at my paper. He opens it. Sees the W, looks around, and then turns the pages very slowly. Once he realizes that he just got asked to WPA, he got a big smile and walked over to me! Haha it was fantastic! Everyone in the room was watching him and started laughing. He was like “oh My Gosh that was the first time I read that! I’m sorry of course I’ll go with you!” YAAAY J He gave me a hug, people gave us a round of applause (haha cheesy), and then we all proceeded to give him a hard time about taking such a long time to read it!

                I was quite proud of my method of asking, even though it was a bit of a partial fail. I’m really looking forward to WPA and I’ll definitely remember this for a long timeJ (721 words)

The Great Escape

                When I was growing up, I could not picture myself driving at all. I never thought I’d actually reach age 16 and get a license. I thought it’d be too hard and too scary for me.

When I was fourteen and got my permit, I still didn’t believe I was ever going to drive.  When I was about 13 ½, I got the book of driving rules form the DOT. I was really excited at first and started to read it, but then I got bored and it sat in my room until a week before my 14^th birthday. When April 5^th finally drew near, I decided to read the rulebook, but never actually did. About two days before my birthday I flipped through the book and looked at what all the road signs meant and things like that, but that was the extent of my studying. The first time I took the test, I failed. My dad was really mad at me and he almost didn’t allow me to retake it the next day. I convinced him that I just was distracted by the other people and read the questions wrong so he took me back. I memorized the questions from the first try and didn’t miss a single one on my retake.

I put off driver’s ed for a long time. I drove every once in a while with my dad or my brothers, but that was still hardly ever. I took drivers ed 3 months after my 16^th birthday. I was so scared the first time I had to drive with an instructor. I believe I had to drive six times with and instructor and was so scared for every one of them. The day I was done with driver’s ed, I got my license. I still was not allowed to drive alone for a few weeks, and I didn’t want to. The first time I drove alone was to my physical for sports. I was so scared because: 1. it was my first time driving alone, 2. I was driving my grandpa’s brand new truck, 3. I had no idea how to navigate downtown Cedar Rapids. It was a pretty traumatic experience, but both I and the car made it out just fine.

Now, I love driving. I don’t drive a lot, and I never drive to school. I think that’s why I like it so much. My mother is a seamstress and is home all of the time so I’m never alone. I love getting a break during driving. It’s just me in the car. I’m finally alone. I can think about whatever I want, listen to whatever music I want, and I don’t have to worry about my mom getting mad at me. Driving always puts me in a good mood because that’s when I can get away from the rest of the world and focus on me. I control where I go and what I do. There is no pressure. (498 words)

High School Love

               High school love can be classified into three groups. There are the love birds, the flirty friends, and the cute couples. They all have distinct characteristics and include a certain type of person.

                The love birds are in-your-face in love. They publicly say “I love you” and shove their affection down your throat. They constantly PDA and act like every time they part they won’t see each other for ages. You get really annoyed around them and just want to leave whenever you’re with them. They are so open about their relationship in public that you don’t even want to know how they are in private. Sometimes you may even question if they’re really “in love” or just two really needy people. Sometimes you think they PDA in public just so other people will watch. They are already planning a life together and they think they’re going to get married soon after high school. They’re the “it couples” of every clique and everyone secretly hates them.

                Flirty friends are those people who like to flirt with each other, hang out on the weekends, and do other couple-y things, but they don’t want a “label.” Everyone knows they are involved and no one dares come on to one of them because they are obviously “taken” (unless they want to start a giant drama fest). These people love drama and get in fights a lot, but it’s ok because their “just friends.” They try to make each other jealous constantly, and normally these people don’t know what makes a healthy relationship. You don’t want to know how these people act in private either. This “relationship” is constantly off and on. You never quite know what’s going on between these two people.

                The cute couples are the best kind of high school relationship. They are adorable and show affection in public, but they don’t PDA. They hang out with friends and they don’t annoy everyone. They hold hands and interact with each other during the day. Even though they enjoy spending time together and going on dates, they enjoy just hanging out with friends too. They are totally cool with the other having a girl’s/guy’s night out. They aren’t clingy and they have a healthy relationship. These are the relatively short-term relationships that everyone should have in high school. They aren’t thinking about the future, they’re just focused on having fun with their boo. (419 words)

Plan Ahead

                The decisions you make can cause so many different consequences and rewards. Some things you won’t even be able to predict. Being smart pays off big time, so don’t rush through your choices in life.

                Choosing to not do your homework can be a terrible decision. If you know you have homework due later in the week and don’t do it while you have free time, that can come back to bite you in the butt. It’s best to get it out of the way as soon as possible because you don’t know what else will emerge later in the week. Because you think you can do it later, you will have more homework later in the week. Once you get even more homework, all of it piles up. As a result, you have to stay up late to get it done. Even though you stay up late, you may only get the homework done that’s due the very next day. Once you stay up late one night, you are tired the next day. Because you didn’t finish absolutely all of your homework the day before, you still have homework to do that night. If you have activities to do then you will end up staying up late again, but this time it’s harder because your tired form the night before.  If you seek help to stay awake such as caffeine, this can keep you up later than your homework which is just a pain. Once you’re tired, you perform worse in school and have to try really hard to focus. You probably miss out on some things in class because your fatigue is just too much to handle. You could fall asleep and get in trouble. You could also make silly mistakes and lose points because you aren’t on you’re A-game. You will also not do some of your homework if you are too tired at night. Being a teenager is hard, so make sure you plan ahead. (330 words)

How to be an Effective Dance Captain Part 2

• Seek advise from those more experienced than you. You should constantly be asking people how you could be better. There will always be people who are better at your job than you are. Alumni dance captains are great sources of input. If you’re having trouble with something, seek their advice. They’re older and wiser and have probably dealt with it before. Your director is an excellent source too. You should feel comfortable talking to him about anything. Be sure and ask his advise and even ask for help if you need it. Don’t be too proud for assistance. Plus, having a fresh pair of eyes look at a dance can open up new flaws, ideas, and things you could work on. Expert advice is priceless.
• Come prepared to practice. Don’t walk into a practice and wing it. You should constantly have a running list of things to do. If you can keep it in your mind, that’s good, but you should write it down. Once you write it down, you can keep track of everything and you don’t waste time trying to figure out what to do. If your director catches you off guard and gives you cleaning time you didn’t expect, be able to use it to its fullest potential. When you have time, look at your list, determine what to do based on the amount of time you have, and then do it. Come to practice with goals for what you want to do and if you accomplish those you can move on to new things because you have your list handy. If you have to go back to something, its super easy to remember because you just take note of it on your list. Plus, if you have to remember something like an idea that was said, you just jot it down by the task and then you will automatically remember. When you look flustered at practice, that doesn’t get you respect.
• Never use sarcasm. If you’re frustrated, get frustrated and use a sharp tone. Using a sharp tone is way scarier and more respectable than sarcasm. Sarcasm makes you sound weak and it’s just unflattering. No one will take you seriously so just don’t use it. Don’t use derogatory language either. It’s not necessary and it honestly just pisses people off.  It’s okay to get mad, but be smart on how you express your mood. Pick a way that gets respect and gets things accomplished.
• Don’t lecture unless absolutely necessary. Keep your words short and sweet. Don’t add filler words. If you want people to stop talking, you say, “Guys, stop talking”. If you want more energy, say “guys you need to be doing this full out!” The absolutely incorrect way to say these things is by saying, “guys you really need to stop talking because if you talk then you wont hear and then we’ll have to do it all over again and then we’ll just have wasted so much time and you might have the same question so listen.” or “guys you should be doing this full-out because we need to see what it looks like and if you don’t do it full out, we can’t see and we’ll all end up looking like crap.” All of these filler words just make people roll their eyes. Also, once you lecture, people tune out. If you make a long speech, people just think you’re really egotistic and they don’t pay attention. If you feel like it’s absolutely necessary, make sure you think about what you’re going to say before you say it. Don’t just pull it off the cuff and ramble on. Also, never talk about personal things. All of this will just get the eye roll reaction and you will lose respect instead of gain it. (636 words)

How to be an Effective Dance Captain Part 1

These are some helpful suggestions on how to be a better, more effective dance captain for show choir. Though these are directed towards the show choir world, many of these suggestions can be applied to other activities or things in your life. 

• Have the proper mentality. Once your director gives you the title of dance captain, your attitude should change right away. Personally, you need to hold yourself to a higher standard. Don’t think you’re better than everyone, but make yourself be better. I’m not saying give yourself a big head and be snooty, I’m saying you need to put pressure on yourself to be the best dance captain you can possibly be. Once you get this mentality, make sure it shines through and be sure of yourself. If you’re timid, the other members of the group will walk all over you.
• Establish your authority right away. Don’t let little side conversations slip. Crack down. People will be annoyed at you at first, but they’ll change and realize that they can’t talk at practice. If you let those chatty people slide under the radar, they will never take you seriously and will never stop. Don’t let lazy people get by either. Demand energy from the start and you’ll get energy. It can be kind of scary to be authoritative right away, especially with your peers, but you have to do it right away or else the coming year will not go well for you.
• Always be focused. Try your hardest to focus on show coir during show choir and to not let any other things get in the way. When you’re at a choreography camp, your brain should be working overdrive to soak in all that it can. You need to store all of the choreography and all of the little things that may seem unimportant at the time into your long-term memory. You need to know what your doing and set an example for everyone else on the way they should be acting.
• Know the choreography. This should be obvious. You were appointed to clean and clarify the dance so you need to know it yourself. You shouldn’t need to ask someone else a question about the choreography. This rule can be a little relaxed in the first two months or so, but after that, there is absolutely no excuse. If you don’t know it, how do you expect everyone else to? Plus, if you don’t know it, how can you do your job? Should you even have that job?
• Consider suggestions. While you’re going through dances, especially during the first few months, there going to be some people who think the way they are dancing is right. It doesn’t matter who they are or if you know for sure that they are wrong; you need to think about their comment. Especially if they are a reliable source, you need to think. First, make sure that the way you’re doing it is clear. Then, have them clearly explain to you what they think is right. Next, take a few moments and work it out in your head. Go through the move and see if it flows with the rest of the choreography. Don’t pick the one that’s simpler (unless one is crazy complicated) and don’t automatically pick your way. Think about what’s best for the group while you make your decision. This isn’t about you; it’s about your choir.

Set an example by fixing your mistakes. If you clean something, make sure you are clean too. You may think you are, but have someone watch you just in case. Except critiques. You are far form perfect and you should not think you are perfect, because no one is. Also, make sure that when you put the whole show together, you remember to do all of the little changes. If you’re not thinking about it and you mess up, that’s not cool. If you don’t do a move right after you made everyone work it over and over, first: you’re a hypocrite, and second: you just set a terrible example. Even though you’re the one in authority doesn’t mean you will automatically get it. You have to work too. (705 words)