This Crazy School Year by Miranda Doller

Next year is going to be Junior year. I've heard that Junior year is the most stressful year of high school for everyone. Two things go through a Junior's mind: SATs and College (they kind of go hand in hand). It's not even the end of Sophomore year and I'm stressing out about how stressed out I'm going to be next year! Don't worry, I'm not going to keep talking about Junior year anymore because I'm getting a little anxious now. I've only been in high school for two years and let me just say that sophomore year is definitely my favorite year. I made some really good friends that make me happy every day, my grades were better than expected, and the best part is that I learned to be a better student. Yes, I still procrastinate a lot, but I learned to study better throughout the year. I used to just go upstairs, look over my notes and memorize the material for the assessment and forget about it. I guess that's the lazy way of learning something, but now I actually understand it so it sticks in my brain forever. (That'll hopefully be helpful twenty years from now.)
             My classes this year were all a lot of fun. In History, Mr. Merrill makes the class 10 times better by being his weird self, I did a lot of cool things in Biomed (my favorite was to dissect a sheep heart), in English, I became a better writer and I sit with a bunch of amazing people, Math is never fun, but Mr. Dugan plays 60s music all the time in there and perhaps got me obsessed with it. Then comes lunch, where all the mischief happens. I sit with my friends, Lianna, Brooke, and Fiona. Not the biggest group, but you know what they say: quality over quantity! French class is a little boring, but my best friend Alex is in there with me. Gym is not fun. Yes, a bunch of my friends are in gym with me (thank God), but fitness days (the days where you run pacers, the mile, practice push ups, etc) are the worst! Some people, like me, aren't athletic at all and want to sit on the bleachers and take a nap. I guess I'm definitely not looking forward for another two years of gym.
          After gym, my next class is sculpture, where I make the worst art anyone can ever imagine. I am the least artistic person in the planet. To give you some perspective of how bad I am, I can't even make a clay box. In the beginning of the school year, we were assigned to make a clay box for the first project (sounds easy, right?). Just make six squares and put them together to make a box... anyone can do that! I was taking some time on the project so I decided to take it home and suprisingly, it turned okay... but I forgot to wrap a paper towel around it to stay wet until Monday because it was the weekend. So the smart person that I am, I put it in the sink with running water on it so it can get wet (it was rock hard so I was desperate to make it normal again) and I forgot to take it out. Not 15, not 10, but only 5 minutes later I return to see that perfectly made box... into nothing. Did it cross my mind that clay disintegrates when mixed in water? No. As I stated before, I was desperate. Don't worry, I got an extension to finish it, but I am still made fun of for not being able to make a clay box. In October, my friend Sam and I went to the MET for an art trip and it was the best trip ever because we got to roam around for three hours looking at beautiful art made by much more talented people.
          My last class of the day is biology. Just recently, my biology class went out to the stream next to Station Park to find the creatures living in there. My friend Emma and I decided to hop in the stream for a little while and so we did. She took off her Birkenstocks, I took off my Adidas, rolled up my leggings and jumped in. Once again, did it cross my mind that I have no towel and it wasn't last period yet? Nope. It was worth it though because I found three crayfish and something else that looked gross and slimy. When it was almost time to head back, Emma and I were in the middle of the stream and were panicking. The flow of the stream itself can knock down anything in its' path, not only that was an issue, but the rocks were all slippery and slimy. Emma and I were holding onto the long poles of the nets that were planted on the bottom of the ground for dear life. To make it a bit worse, our science teacher was laughing at us along with Alex (my friend from french class) and Kyle (my only really good guy friend). Eventually, after two minutes of helplessly crying out loud, we made our way back to the good thing we call solid ground and headed inside.
          If I can describe by sophomore year in one word: crazy. Scratch that. Two words: crazy fun. I'm hoping next year (even with the stress), it will be as fun as this highschool year was.




--> Emma and I in the stream

--> Me holding onto Emma for dear life

--> Fiona and I being weird during lunch