So Long, Farewell!

Yes, as you've been able to tell by my recent blogging, this school year has been simmering down to an end, and with it my blog. I'm not sure if you're one of my original blog-readers, but in my first post I did mention that this was a 9th Grade English assignment, so as much as I truly do love blogging, A day in the life... will live in memory, along with all of my other 9th Grade experiences.

Through blogging consistently, it's given me such a freedom to write about what speaks to me, and in doing so, giving me so much opportunity to channel my voice into the words I've been typing on the screen. I've felt that my voice has really come through more and more with every post I've written. As a follower, I'm sure you've begun to see more and more through my writing each time you read. This blog has tracked my through my freshman year, it's documented what's been impactful on myself throughout this school year, and even sometimes I entertain myself by revisiting my older posts; mostly because I see how much I've changed in just this year.

By changed, not only has my voice and literal writing grown and improved, but I see the change in myself as a person. Remembering the thoughts dashing through my head when writing some of my old blog posts makes me giggle. Something that may have seamed like a life's crisis when I was writing in October is something I can now laugh about and reminisce on.

A day in the life... was absolutely a day in my life. My blog absolutely reflected me from the first to the last post. It was an amazing opportunity to not only vent about my daily happenings, but to improve my writing by experience. I believe in the saying of practice makes perfect. This blog was a slightly more nonchalant way to just... write. It was an amazing opportunity to be able to write about whatever I felt would be cool to get out of my head. Since this was an open-ended opportunity to write about whatever I wanted, what I chose to write about reflects me as a writer as much as the writing did itself. I believe that what I wrote about transformed towards earlier dates as much as the writing itself did, maybe even more so in some cases.

Thank you thank you thank you, thank you, reader, for joining me on this adventure. This blog all in all was really good for me, and I've gained so much experience from it. I really appreciated the hand along the way, and just knowing that people are on the other side of the screen was really neat. Hopefully you enjoyed a day in my life, through the ups and downs, I think it's safe to say that we made it.

Actually maybe I should wait to see my final grade before it's safe to say that we made it. Whatever, you guys made it by this point, we'll see how I do when grades come in.

Photo Courtesy plzrtpodcast.com

Standardized Testing

The month of May is always paired with end of the year finals, core testing, and now introducing AP, ACT, SAT, and SAT2s when winding down the school year. I guess I can understand the reasoning behind these assessments and all this testing, it's coherent that there has to be some way of evaluating what we've comprehended from the school year; although sometimes, a lot of the times, all these multiple choice questions become painfully tedious, stressful, and escalate to dreadful.

I understand that it's important to do well on every test you take, because you never know how it could somehow effect you and you always want to put yourself in the best position for success. When it comes to the core testing at our schools, it's always been a tedious process, but never something to truly worry about. Those scores just go to the state for teacher, school, and district assessment, for the most part; it's always something I try my best on, but I won't loose any sleep over guessing on a question I truly didn't understand.

On the other hand, tests like APs, ACTs, and SATs are starting to affect our collegiate futures and rankings, in other words these tests actually start to "count". These are some of the tests that have been feeding stress and anxiety over the past month, and month-to-come... who am I kidding I guess it never really ends. Between now and the moment I finally get an acceptance letter, I don't think the stress of getting into college will ever really settle, especially the anxiety of it directed towards taking these standardized tests.

Photo Courtesy hbculifestyle.com

When walking into a test room, a wave of tension seizes me. The way the desks are arranged all differently than usual, spread apart from each other as much as possible while still maintaining the linear grid-like pattern and spacial evenness between each desk. While taking a seat I tend to always imagine what I'll be doing when I'm done with the test, and I foresee the moment in the future when I'm looking back at the moment I'm in right then, thinking about how relieved I'll be once I just get the whole thing over with. The worst part is writing my name on the bubble sheet. I just hate those Scantrons so much; they make me feel nauseous by this point.

I think that one of the challenges of staying focused for up to hours at a time during these tests. I honestly think that's 50% of the test, is just maintaining your composure, especially on a test like the ACT, or an AP test, which can be up to three hours long. Just after a few minutes the room seems half the size to me, and continues to shrink the longer I'm in that testing room. The mere sound of someone tapping the pencil in the desk or erasing an answer can make me want to scream.

Testing feels like the end of the world right now, but in truth of it we'll all live. Hopefully another breakthrough of assessing students besides these standardized tests will be relevant soon enough, but for now I'll be filling in those bubbles with a No. 2 pencil, not mechanical of course.

Song of the Week: Upswing

4 Kick Ass Workouts to Achieve the Summer Bod You Really Want

With Summer just around the corner, the short-shorts, swim suits, and cropped off t’s are resurfacing in my closet. When it comes to this attire, it does always boost my confidence to feel in-shape and as sculpted as possible. These exercises are sure to do the trick:

Exercise #1: Ball Squats

With shorts and bikini bottoms exposing your booty, it can’t ever hurt to get a few squats in. Guys this one’s for you too, a nice butt is always a good thing. Squats are a universally know bum burner, but if you don’t have the correct form this exercise can come back around to bite you in the back (quite literally). Coming from someone who has gone through countless back issues, take me seriously when I say it is so important to have good form when doing squats; this is where the exercise ball comes in to play.

Set up a decently sized exercise ball against the wall, line it up against the small and mid-section of your back, and position yourself so you have enough tension between your back and the wall to keep the ball squished in-between. When you bend your knees and sink into the exercise, make sure that your legs are bent no more than ninety-degrees and your knees do not overpass your toes. Once positioned correctly and comfortably bend your legs and squat as you would normally, making sure to engage your glutes and hamstrings as well as your quads.

Photo Courtesy momtaxijulie.com

This exercise is sure to tone your tush and strengthen your legs as well.

Exercise #2: Candle Sticks

I understand that this exercise might not look the most professional and let me warn you that you will feel silly doing it, but it truly is one that works. Start by lying flat on your back with your whole body parallel to the ground. Raise your legs up so they are perpendicular to the ground, making sure that your feet stick together. Next, engage your abdominals and crunch your back and butt off of the ground, raising your feet several inches higher into the air, then come back down and repeat.

Photo Courtesy www.cf-inc.com

Candle sticks are a great ab and core workout to define that six-pack coming in, they’re an awesome workout and you’ll surely feel it if you have the right form; make sure that you are engaging your abs to lift your legs each rep and tighten your core to maintain control.

Exercise #3: Cross-Over Toe Touches

This abdominal workout will get your stomach fired up for swim-suit season; cross-over toe touches are a fun and dynamic workout to get your abs in shape. For this one, start on your back just like you did for candle sticks. The next step is to ring your right hand to touch your left toe. Then return back to your original position and to the same with the opposite arm and leg. Repeat these steps over again.

Photo Courtesy www.trusper.com

For good form, make sure to keep your leg and arms as straight as humanly possible. It’s also important to keep your core tight and engaged to protect your back.

Exercise #4: Go for a Run

Runs are underrated. I understand, running isn’t for everyone. It does put a lot of pressure on your joints and isn’t always the most pleasant cardio, but the more you do it the better you get at it, and that’s a really rewarding part of running. Running is an amazing all over body work out and will shred calories, all-around toning your body and getting your heart healthy for the summer as well.

Photo Courtesy /www.allposters.com

Good luck to you and remember, form is everything.

Springing Into Lacrosse

As the weather started to transition into Spring, so did our lacrosse season. To give you all a little background check, my name (if you haven't picked it up by this point) is Livi Kimche, and I'm number thirty-eight, but it's the name on the front of the jersey that counts; I play attack and midfield for Park City Lacrosse. As I've previously written about, our pre-season was kicked off with an ultra fun tournament in Vegas; we took that title home with us on a high note.

Since the Las Vegas tourney, our season has been nothing but smooth sailing, to say the least. It might be more accurate to describe it as smooth sailing on the sweat and tears of the teams we have basically been demolishing every time we step on the field. Yes, okay... maybe that's a little excessive, but with a record of 12-0 and game scores coming down to 15-3, and 10-4, it's a little hard to put it any other way; Park City is a power house.

Photo Courtesy to Julie Shipman

Playoffs begin this Friday. Our first game is scheduled 7:00PM Friday night at our home field, Dozier, and yes I hope to see you there ;-) We play Juan Diego, the last time we played them was in March, and the final score was 13-5. I think it should be a better game though because everyone gets hyped for playoffs. It works like a bracket, and if you lose your out. If we win on Friday we'll move on to the next round.

Bracket Courtesy to Utah Lacrosse News

I like consistency and routine, so does the rest of our team. Having a pre-game routine is a really important part of our dynamic before a game, especially a play-off game. We start by taking a lap around the field, nothing fancy, just a light jog basically. Then we go straight into some ladders to warm up our feet, after ladders we line up for dynamic stretching. Being all lined up with my team for stretches pumps me up. After that we start one sided shuttles to pass, catch, and warm up our sticks. Then we get into 3v4s, and 3v2s, which are three people versus four or two other people in a mini half-field scrimmage until the offense scores or defense clears the ball out. Our routine helps us prepare not only physically but mentally for the game.

Park City, being the reigning State Champs two years in a row, has a lot to loose. Being a freshman on the team, I definitely feel the pressure to win. With hard work comes results, I think the hardest thing for I team the upcoming two weeks will be maintaining a strong head game. The biggest upsets are usually when a team predicted to win goes in thinking that it's going to be an easy game. If we keep the right mindsets I can see a state title in our future, but we definitely have to keep the fire alive and not let our guard down, because Park City is who everyone wants to beat right now.