Senior Year 1st Semester

Hey guys.

It has been a whole 8 months since my last journal. Sorry about that. I wish I had some great excuse, but I don't really think I do? Mostly it's just me thinking that my life hasn't been eventful enough to warrant a journal entry. Of course it has nothing to do with my innate laziness. 

To any junior who claims that his/her life is the absolute worst, I laugh at you. I laugh because next year is going to be one hell of a ride. Senior year has, so far, been fairly miserable. There are few things more terrifying than college apps, and my deadlines are coming up :] Not at all panicked. I actually get a pseudo-panic attack every now and then as I think about my future. I suppose if I stopped procrastinating, it wouldn't be so bad. 

Now before I descend into a vortex of despair, I'll talk about some of the cool things from this year:

1.) I got into CSSSA, and I spent July down at CalArts meeting cool, artsy people with rainbow hair and great personalities. I wish I could go back, just so I could pretend that art was the only important thing in my life and ignore my responsibilities (e.g. college apps). Shout-out to , , and , three of the awesome people I met there. Might as well give a shout-out to as well, my fence-sharing neighbor and archenemy, who also went to CSSSA with me. We roomed together, and it was terrible because I had to interact with her hideous person every morning. Oh most pernicious woman! Woe is me.  

2.) Before going to CSSSA, I went to a pre-collegiate studies program at Stanford. There, I met a bunch of overachieving, yet really chill people. I made some friends who I still message and skype with, despite the fact that they're scattered all over the world. Okay, by world I mean Jakarta, Hong Kong, Maryland, and SoCal, but close enough. It was a lot of fun. I miss them qq. Our facebook message group is affectionately titled "Stanford B*tches." Mind you, that wasn't my idea

3.) I entered a fan-art competition for the Falling Kingdoms series, hosted by the author herself, Morgan Rhodes. I love Falling Kingdoms. Such a great plot, wonderful world-building, and a particular romance that I am very very into. I ended up winning grand prize for my drawing of my ship, which meant a bunch of cool book-themed swag. A tote-bag, some beautiful pins, a pen, a signed copy of Morgan Rhodes's latest book A Book of Spirits and Thieves, and other cool stuff. I was just so giddy with happiness the day I found out that I won. 

4.) Back in April, I and two of my classmates won the National Japan Bowl 2015, and for that we got a free 8-day trip to Japan. I went there and bought lots of nice things for myself and ate good food and visited some historical sites that made me very happy. Spoke with the actual Caroline Kennedy (waaaaaaa) and met Princess Takamado. Threw up a lot of peace signs because I'm Asian. Visited the Ghibli Museum and nearly died from happiness. 

5.) Cried a few times because I started reading YA lit again and I got major feelings. I joined the booklr side of tumblr and wow, I love it. I've rediscovered my love for books after having been on hiatus for a year due to junior year troubles. Several booklr blogs and abookutopia convinced me to try reading Throne of Glass, and I am so glad I did. I love everyone, except for a few (cough Chaol cough), I love the bad-ass covers, and I just love the inter-character relationships. The plot is good too, but it's really the characters themselves that stand out. I've read a lot of YA lit, and I'm so used to bland characters (cough Fallen cough wheeze). It's been a while since I've found myself really getting into a book series, and Sarah J. Maas is a master. There was one point in SJM's A Court of Thorns and Roses  when I cried because of a certain plot element, because I really gave a crap about the characters and they're my babies and idk I have a lot of feelings okay leave me alone--

6.) I got 5s on all three of my AP tests (APLAC, APUSH, and AP Biology). Thank goodness. I'm probably going to fail my AP Calc BC test, though, since I'm doing so poorly in my calc class rn. 

7.) I started collecting more and more Funko Pop! dolls. I used to only have Drogo, Daenerys, and Tyrion, but then I went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron and I left with a lot of feelings okay so I now own the Vision, Ultron, Scarlet Witch, and Captain America. I also have Peggy Carter (Agent Carter is amazing) and the Flash (Grant Gustin, people). 

I guess, in retrospect, my year hasn't been that terrible. There have definitely been good parts, which I will cherish 'til my demise at the hands of the college-application process. I'll try to enjoy myself while I can...