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.

Are Your Stars Aligned?

Lately I've been seeing a lot of horoscopes around. If you don't know what a horoscope is, you may have seen zodiac signs, like Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, which are all indicators of your horoscope. Horoscopes are a prediction of your future and traits based on when you were born and the alignment of the stars and planets at that point in time. People believe that the astrology can forecast what has happened, is happening, and will happen to those categorized under the same star alignment.

Photo Courtesy wikipedia.org

Zodiacs can be super fun and exciting, the question is whether you believe in them or not. Somehow these summaries of character always tend to be spot on. It's easy to classify these "spot on" predictions as just relatable prophecies though. I find it easy to believe that zodiac summaries are just a little insight that could very well be for anyone, and that all zodiacs are universally-relatable summaries about you that you want to read about yourself, and so you believe them. To give you an example, here's part of my zodiac, Cancer's, traits (according to horoscopes.lovetoknow.com):

"The tender-hearted trait that's so prominent in Cancer is often misunderstood by other zodiac signs. To complicate matters, Cancers find it difficult to communicate what they're feeling because they shut down all emotional responses when hurt. Most of the time, they seem emotionally immature when compared to other signs. While this might be true in some cases, most of the time it's simply that they have a uniquely receptive nature."

This article states that part of a Cancer's nature it to be "tender-hearted". Referring back to my point before, zodiacs and horoscopes just tell us what we want to hear, so we begin to believe it. I sure know that I could never turn down someone calling me tender-hearted, even if they've never even met me before. The next thing that the article says is that "Cancer is often misunderstood by other zodiac signs." Yes, I have absolutely felt misunderstood before, but hasn't everybody? I could easily fly my hands to my head and say, "It's like you've read my mind! I've always felt like an outsider and like no one ever truly understands!" Because in all honesty, I have completely experienced the feeling, but that's not to say it's not normal, let alone only limited to Cancers. The article also says things like "they have a uniquely receptive nature", which makes me feel boldly one-of-a-kind and special. Truthfully though, we all want to be told that our uniqueness is often confused for being an outcast, unexpected, or not normal, which is basically what this horoscope just did. If someone gives me as much of a compliment as "You're not inferior, you're just beautifully unique!", than I'd gladly believe them.

Photo Courtesy bodymemory.com

It's easy to pick apart zodiacs and horoscopes to the scientifically of how astrology can't possibly effect human behavior and it's all a false satisfaction for people through phycological manipulation, but that takes away the fun in it all, doesn't it? All in all I think that horoscopes can be a fun way to try and prepare yourself for what life might throw at you in the future, and maybe zodiacs can be a way of trying to figure yourself out a little bit better.

Liquid Sunshine

So you'll never guess what happened... The bipolar weather is back, yet again. After almost a week of partly cloudy and temperatures climbing up to fifty-five degrees, it was beautiful outside. Although the overcast clouds yesterday started to indicate the downpour we received today.

I could hear the rain drops by the time I went to bed last night. I actually am in love with falling asleep to the sound of a drizzle outside my window. Waking up seven hours later, the chilliness was what hit me first. The coldness made me want to climb even deeper into the warmth of my heavy down comforters. Then the smell started to creep up my nose. The wet pavement and running gutters wafted through my bedroom. I quickly shut my cracked window and got out of bed.

Photo Courtesy www.howtobeadadtoday.com

Heading outside to get in the car, the reflection of the gray sky was mirrored off of the blacktop driveway, and a mist slowly fell from the air, not even enough to call it a drizzle. I ran back inside to grab a raincoat. I love this kind of weather. I like how it makes the day at school so cozy, and somehow you feel the warmth radiating off of other people more just because of the cold outside. I like looking out the classroom window and noticing how smoky the sky looks. I like how everyone shows up to school in sweatshirts and scarfs. I don't see the rain as such a bad thing on a day like this.

The rain soon turned into sleet as the day began to get colder. By this evening the precipitation could easily be classified as snow. By the end of the day a thin layer of sugar veiled the ripening grass, it should probably be melted away by tomorrow or the next day. It feels as though every time the grass begins to fade to green, and the trees begin to foliate, and the flower begin to bloom, it must snow.

The rain made me want to curl up with a hot coa-coa and read a good book or watch an old movie. The coziness of the rain is completely evident to everyone as well. The weather tends to put people on the same page like that. It's even been thought and proven that a rainy day can change your mood. This is mostly thought to have to do with how much sunlight your body is exposed to, so on a dark rainy day, for example, the amount of sun your body is receiving will obviously be significantly less than a hot sunny day. Rainy days can also effect your internal clock.

I'm not necessarily even complaining about the rain. I definitely enjoy a lazy and snug day under the clouds every once an a while. I'm just glad that the forecast foresees the sun coming back by Wednesday ;-). Until than I'm more than content grabbing some cuddly blankets and some 90s movies to wait out the rain.