Good morning everyone!
Hopefully all of you have gotten off to a good start in the school year and are beginning to settle back into a routine. I’ve been writing my posts on the weekends and scheduling them in advance since school has started, and every time I sit back down to type, I realize what a wonderful outlet it is. There’s definitely a lot of things going on in my life right now, so I figured I would talk about them!
First of all, school takes up a ton of time, especially with homework and studying. As I’ve mentioned, I have a full course load of honors/an AP class, Spanish 3, and yearbook as my elective. I’ve had my first big tests in almost every class so far, and I have my first two assignments for yearbook. Weirdly enough, homework hasn’t been taking me TOO long since I usually have to just quickly get it done at the end of the night after cheer/other extracurriculars.
I’ve still been volunteering weekly at my local animal shelter, and I’ve recently gotten more involved with Assisteens, a local volunteer program. I went to some events with them over summer, but I just went to my orientation meeting about a week ago. We have our first official meeting later in the month of September, so I’m looking forward to that and getting into more service projects! Key Club meetings haven’t started yet, but I’m kind of questioning if I want to stay in it. I do most of my service that goes towards my Key Club hours outside of the club events/on my own and I already have a lot on my plate, so it’s definitely something I’m thinking about.
As far as school commitments and clubs, I’m doing a decent amount right now but I may sign up for more- which is why my plate is so full. Football season is in full swing for cheer; we have practices three times a week after school and a game every Thursday or Friday. I’m still a member of Key Club as I mentioned, and I’m also part of the special needs program my cheer team organizes, which is technically a club since we meet at lunch every Tuesday. I applied to be in the Spanish Honors Society, and I’m a tutor in the Social Science Center one to two days a week. I’m a member of our school’s CSF chapter, but I don’t believe there’s any meetings for that or other significance.
Outside of school, I recently joined a program called Youth and Government through my local YMCA. It’s an opportunity to learn more about politics and improve my public speaking/debating skills, which I really wanted. I’ve always been really shy and horrible at public speaking, and I’ve made it my goal this year to improve. It’s a great environment to practice in, and the subjects we talk about are so interesting. The program is just getting started, but I can make a couple posts dedicated about it as I learn more and get more involved.
Other than that, I have a few writing-related things I’m doing. I’m still a First Reader editor for Polyphony Lit and I get submissions to write feedback on every few days, and I’ve been keeping up with this blog. I really wish I had more free time to write, but I’m still working on fitting it into my schedule. I hope to submit to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards this year, and a few smaller contests/publications. I love to write and I’m realizing I need to make it more of a priority, since it’s such a good outlet for stress.
Club rush at my school is coming up soon, and I hope to join another club or two if I can manage it. I’m looking at FBLA, JSA, LaunchX, the English National Honors Society, a literary magazine club, another writing club, and a tutoring club; I’ll have to see which ones I like the best before I commit to one or two. I kind of wanted to start my own creative writing club or some form of club, but I just had too much going on and I think it would be easier to take on a task like that as an upperclassman. I also wanted to join the Mock Trial team, but it was too big of a time commitment and it wouldn’t have been fair to me or the rest of the team to try and make it work.
I don’t think there’s any other programs outside of school activities that I’m looking to join aside from the arbitrary service commitment, but I am beginning to research summer programs I may want to apply to. I also might get an internship once cheer season is over in the spring, since I do not think I will be doing cheer my junior year (another thing I’m debating!) and therefore won’t be worried about prepping for tryouts and starting the season again. As you can tell, I do not currently have any leadership roles in my activities; I’m hoping to start my own personal project at some point based on something I’m passionate about, and/or use this year as a building block in my activities to possibly get some leadership next year.
I hope you guys enjoyed hearing a little bit more about my life and what I’m up to. I’m currently brainstorming more content for you guys and trying to decide what direction I want this blog to go in. Let me know if you have any questions or requests for future content, I’m always here to listen!
-Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 