When I used to hear the words “country music”, images of a cowboy-hat-wearing, middle-aged man singing about how much he loves the good old red, white, and blue would pop up in my mind. Back in April, however, my friend brought me to the Rascal Flat’s concert. I was very reluctant to go but I ended up enjoying myself more than I ever thought I would. Now I am proud to say that I am addicted to this genre of music. Despite the stereotypes country music seems to have, a lot of the songs and artists do not seem to fall under these generalizations. One thing that I like about country music is that each song seems to tell a meaningful story. In my opinion, this is one of the things that rap music, which is very popular with a lot of teenagers, seems to lack. Listening to country music has made me realize that my ears deserve better than the “went to a club, danced with fine girls, got drunk off Patron” message of a lot of rap music. If you are a newcomer to the county music genre, I would recommend giving Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift a listen. They are both amazing and their music is more country-pop, which might make the transition a little bit easier.

Today was the unofficial senior “ditch day” at my school. Like the wonderful student I am (that was sarcasm), I dutifully attended school and ignored my friends’ requests to take a day trip to the Boardwalk at Santa Cruz. I will admit, however, that I probably would have skipped school like most of the other seniors if I hadn’t had my AP Government exam this morning. Looking back on it though, I’m glad that I did attend my classes today. With my graduation 20 days from now, my time is high school is coming to an end very quickly and, as cliché, as it sounds, I should strive to live my few remaining high school days to the fullest. I will try my best to keep this pleasant thought in my head and try to refrain from asking myself “when’s summer”.

One of the perks of being a senior at my school (Carondelet) is that, once school resumes after spring break, we get free dress until the end of the year. Although the idea of choosing your outfit probably does not seem so attractive to the majority of the population, this is a big deal for the all-female students in my grade. In my case, I have been wearing a uniform since Kindergarten. I never thought that selecting what clothes to wear everyday would be such a challenge. On the first morning of free dress, for example, I woke up at my usual time and was almost late to my first period class since I had gone through about 27 outfit changes. Believe it or not, I actually miss my uniform. It was so easy just throwing on the standardized plaid skirt and navy-blue sweatshirt. My school calls the senior free dress a privilege but, for me at least, it is more of a burden. Some advocates of free dress in schools say that allowing kids to choose their own clothing gives them an opportunity to express themselves and be individuals. In my opinion, however, uniforms encourage students to express themselves in ways beyond their physical appearance.

True: I love my parents to death.
False: My parents never do anything that embarrasses me.

It is a fear that plagues most teenagers: embarrassing parents, specifically in public or around friends. Sometimes it is difficult to get mad at my parents because I know that they only have good intentions in mind when they do things to try and be cool, like using slang. I know that they are trying to be hip but a highly awkward situation cannot be avoided when your 50-something year old parent asks one of your friends if they are going to “bounce” soon or if they will stay for dinner. For me, my humiliation comes less from things like my parent’s clothing or their word choice and more from their behavior. Last Saturday, for example, I was woken up at 7am to the sound of my cell phone ring-tone. On the other line was my mother. She works the night shift at the hospital and she was having breakfast with some of her coworkers before heading home. She apologized for waking me up so early but she said that she was only calling to see if I wanted one of her friend’s son to be my date to Senior Ball. She had apparently told all her coworkers that I didn’t have a date yet for this dance and one of them offered to let her son (who I have never met before in my life) go with me…

I guess I can take comfort in knowing that, as teenagers, we are all fighting the same battles when it comes to parents and mortification.

I love reading but when you stick the word “required” before it, the appeal of books just seems to disappear for me. The repulsiveness of required reading is only added to when the book is written by a certain William Shakespeare. My English class just finished reading Hamlet and the experience was, to say the very least, painful. I guess I can understand why schools make students study the works of Shakespeare. After all, the man still continues to influence our language and literature, despite the fact that he has been dead for almost 400 years. Some of my favorite films, in fact, like “West Side Story” and “Kiss Me Kate” are based on two of Shakespeare’s plays. But despite Shakespeare’s positive impact on the writing world, his plays and poems are still wearisome to comprehend, especially for the modern teenage reader. Getting through a single page of “Hamlet” was a grueling process for me. I found myself having to constantly look up foreign words in a dictionary or search for the meanings of archaic sayings on the web. Thank goodness for Sparknotes’ “No Fear Shakespeare” series!

America’s education system is renowned throughout the world but, in my opinion, it is going down the drain. Besides obvious issues such as class size and funding, I think a major problem with our education system is the overblown focus on earning good grades. Instead of an emphasis on the joys of learning or on how to develop good learning habits, society seems to encourage students to be superficial when it comes to education. We live in a world where very few students are truly engaged or even mildly interested by what they are being taught. Rather, countless amounts of teens spend their days stressing over getting the perfect grades. They seem to think that, if they can only get a 4.5, they will get into that perfect college, secure the perfect job, and live a perfect life. I can’t even begin to tell you about the countless amounts of students I know that desire only to get a good grade in a class and could not care less about the knowledge aspect of school. While nothing is wrong with wanting a high GPA, it is disappointing that these students are so motivated to learn because they want to see an “A” on a piece of paper instead of wanting to study so that they can discover new things about the world.  From now on, I’m going to try to not get so stressed out about my grades and focus more on actually enjoying my learning experience. I think students should leave high school with the feeling that they have learned something- not the feeling that they were constantly defined by their GPA or test scores.

Even though I myself am a teenage girl, I will admit that it seems like all we have on our minds sometimes is hair, fashion, and make-up. The students at my school, the all-girl Carondelet, proved my judgment wrong, however, on February 5. As people all across California and the other 23 states holding their primaries and caucuses exercised their right to vote, 83% of students at my school voted in the mock election for the presidential candidates using computers in our labs and inner court. Although I’m sure that some girls only voted so that they could get to wear jeans to school later in the week, I was nevertheless shocked by the high turn out of voters.

Since Super Tuesday, my classmates have continued to leave me open-mouthed when it comes to their infatuation with politics. In the weeks leading up to February 5th, members of the Political Club had to raise awareness on all of the presidential candidates. It was an unforeseen shock when, on the first day of “campaigning”, I ran out of the 60 copies of my “Where Obama Stands” brochures by 4th period. I was taken aback that so many of my classmates actually wanted to inform themselves on the candidates and their stances on various issues. On Friday, my friend texted me to say she was watching McCain speak on CNN. This came as a shock for me since I knew that a “Grey’s Anatomy” re-run was on at the same time and she has, to put it kindly, an unhealthy psychological reliance on this series. Even though I will probably continue to be amazed by my classmates’ enthusiasm for politics, I hope their interests continue to grow. This is very important, in my opinion, since all of us, even if we cannot vote by November 4, are the voters of tomorrow.

How is it at your high school or with students that you know? Are teens displaying a growing interest in the elections or do they remain oblivious to what is going on in the political arena?

About a month ago, I was on “Wikipedia.org” and clicked on the link that brings you to a random article. The piece I was directed to was all about Jenkem, a hallucinogenic recreational drug popular with Zambian street children that is apparently gaining acceptance among teenagers in the United States. I won’t paraphrase the article (since I might regurgitate my dinner if I attempt to) but here is a link to the Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenkem

When I first read the article I was disgusted and nauseated. After getting over my feelings of queasiness, however, I began to feel a bit offended with the fact that adults would actually believe that teenagers would resort to using their waste to achieve a high. In a way, I can’t blame the older generation for accepting these media reports as the truth since teens do do some pretty stupid things for “recreation” (ie. the fainting game). I just hope that this whole human waste thing is one big hoax.

            The deans from my school sent out a letter last week to all the parents of senior students. The gist of the 3 page correspondence was that the administration and teachers at Carondelet do not believe in a little thing called “Senioritis”. When my mother let me read the letter, I could not suppress my amusement at my school’s lack of common sense. How could they deny the existence of Senioritis? In my opinion, it’s the same as saying that the Holocaust never happened or that politicians are not at all corrupt. The reality is that Senioritis is a bona fide aliment.

            Though it is not a genuine medical condition, the effects of Senioritis can be just as drastic for a student. Throughout my senior year and especially now in my second semester I can look around in any of my classes and see at least one student fast asleep on their desk. I know that, for the first time during my high school career, I have started going out on school nights for non- academic and non-extracurricular reasons. Last week, in fact, I went out for dinner once with friends and out to the movies twice during the week. I also find that I am pushing the limit when it comes to doing my homework. Although I have always been a procrastinator, I find that I don’t start my homework now until the class period before it is due (if I can even motivate myself to do it at all). I know a lot of people who have shifted their focus from academics to “livin’ it up” because they have already gotten into their first choice college. I think it is safe to say that the majority of seniors I know, and perhaps a fair amount of juniors and sophomores, have a bad case of this syndrome.

Maybe I’ll find a cure for Senioritis… later. 

              Last Wednesday I added Simon Owens’ name to my list of people I admire. To my knowledge he hasn’t found a cure for cancer or jumped in front of a bullet for someone, but he has done something that is equally respectable in my opinion.  He declared last Wednesday “International Delete Your MySpace Account Day”.  When I read about his campaign, I was glad that someone finally decided to stand up to the internet powerhouse we all know as MySpace. MySpace seems to be taking over the world. Those “You Looked Better On MySpace” t-shirts are everywhere and I bet one in every two Americans could tell you who they were looking at if you showed them Tom’s profile picture. MySpace is getting to be so huge, in fact, that as I type this the spellchecker automatically replaces my “Myspace” with “MySpace”.

  I deleted my MySpace account during the middle of junior year because it was becoming too much of a distraction. Looking back on it, I can’t believe I actually looked forward to reading my new comments or wasted so much time perusing through posted bulletins. If you still have a MySpace I would strongly encourage you to delete it (besides, Facebook is better!). There are so many other more productive things you can do with your time besides leaving your friends picture comments or re-writing your “about me” section for the fiftieth time. Though it claims to be a “social networking website”, the only thing MySpace accomplishes, in my opinion, is helping people reach stalker status more easily.