Well, this is my third year at Clear Horizons Early College High School, and I had almost forgotten I had this blog, and was apparently too busy to make a post in... what, MONTHS now?! Whoa! I guess Horizons has kept me busy during the school year, not to mention the summer kept me busy having fun as well! But anyway, we're back in full force, and I'm officially a junior! Oh, and things have changed a lot since I first started going here. A LOT of things. There's quite a few new teachers, the busing at some locations has changed (again)... there's a lot that I could talk about on just that particular topic.
But I can't, and won't, get into everything that I possibly could. I'll only talk about a few of the definitely noticeable differences, one of them being that there have been quite a few changes in what teachers are at Horizons. It changes every year, but every now and then, there's a noticeable change, and it's happened this year. Some of the awesome teachers, like Ms. Nylen, Mr. Martin, and Ms. McGill, have left us... and for us students who have had those memorable teachers, we will always remember them in our dear hearts, just like I will remember Mr. Martin deeply in my heart. And when awesome teachers leave, another takes place. But when it came to finding another ISM teacher because Ms. Nylen left... it was actually a rare moment. They got a freshman teacher who had been teaching at Horizons for a while and let her be the ISM teacher because she was licensed and capable of doing so. So now, the old English I teacher is now our new junior ISM teacher, and Ms. Kahlich is our senior ISM teacher. This change of teacher positions will be quite interesting, but we'll all miss those who left us...
And it seems that as I go up grade levels, something else also changes... and in this case, it's the freshman, not just at Horizons, but this time.... it's everywhere, and it's not good. The reason I say that is because at Clear Springs (where I wait for the morning bus), the freshman have quite literally taken over the cafeteria during the morning... freshman are stealing an excessive amount of chairs from the wrong table, and believe it or not, it's mainly the boys this time. Like today, actually, I sat down on a table and waited for my best friends who go to school at Springs to get here, and while I was waiting, I had several freshman steal chairs from my table. I actually tried to stop one of them the first time and tell them "Hey. You can't take the chairs at this table. I have friends wanting to sit here"... and guess what they ended up doing instead?! They actually went and stole the vacant chair from the OTHER SIDE. Wow. I actually got pissed and said "Of course. Of course the freshman don't listen", so I got up and stole a chair from a table that had too many chairs, and then replaced that particular chair. Then I had several MORE freshman boys go and steal MORE chairs from the EXACT same table, and I was like "I put the darn chairs back for a REASON." So I had to repeat the process. And in the end, the table behind me was far too crowded... there were at least two dozen freshman, ALL BOYS, sitting at the table behind me! Yeah! Not a good sighting at all! They have taken over Clear Springs.... it's supposed to be the other way around, where either the seniors or the staff are "in charge" of the campus. Oh, and did I mention it gets loud in there just before 7:00 AM? Like, c'mon... we just woke up. We need some peace and quiet around here.
The freshman at Horizons, thankfully, aren't so bad this year. I haven't met many of this year's freshman yet, but I can already tell they are a lot more well behaved. I haven't seen an excessive amount of hallway blocking yet, the voice levels aren't ridiculously loud (and it used to be that way), and they're nice in general. I can't wait to get to know some of them, as soon as I figure out who everyone is and who would actually be willing to be friends with me.
And now that I'm a junior, it seems I'm starting to have some more free time during school. I now have an 80-minute tutorial period (Tuesdays and Thursdays, shorter on Fridays), I'm free for lunch, I have passing periods, and I have the free time I get when a college class lets out early. But that's not to say that you should flat-out waste your time during the free time that you have here. It is possible to survive Horizons that way, but it's not recommended at all.
Oh, and the Horizons routes for me have changed a lot. In the morning, Clear Springs now also drops off at Clear View, which means it doubles as a Clear View AND Clear Horizons bus (route 127), and surprisingly, it makes sense, given that Clear View is basically on the way to Horizons. But that change also brought a change in the afternoon part of the run, and route 105 now runs it, and for some weird reason, we don't really have a main driver for that route, which may potentially mean lots of different drivers and different buses, which'll be interesting, because I love it when I get to ride a different bus than normal, especially if it's a newer one. For me, the neighborhood buses are still the same, except for a new intermediate driver that I get to ride with in the afternoons, and she's really nice, which is great to hear, because I keep being reminded myself countless times of the not-so-great times we had on the Horizons bus for most of last year, when route 119 was still running the Horizons routes for Clear Springs, Creekside, and Victory Lakes. If you were a CHECHS student and rode that bus last year, you know who I'm talking about. She wasn't a great bus driver in many ways. She doesn't really drive a bus that well... a little slow (understandable), late in changing lanes, may often times leave the turn signal on, and... yeah. She also once singled an innocent rider out for having bright hair (she was forced to sit up front) and that didn't go well. From the looks of it, that rider *almost* got written up for something out of her control. And when the driver stopped so that the innocent student could be moved, she ended up stopping in an active turn lane, which highly concerned me and the safety of other drivers, not to mention anyone who was possibly waiting behind would get annoyed at the delay. Riding with her was basically a nightmare... and she also drove an older bus that seemed to be nothing but problems, but that was out of her control.
Anyways, this post just goes to show you that a LOT has changed at Horizons in the two years I've been here. I'm just starting my third year here, and it'll be my second to last round at school. And Hurricane Harvey came through and made us lose two weeks of school. It also made several families suffer house/water damage, and some lost everything in it. And for those who suffered any type of damage from the recent Hurricane Harvey, I feel really, really bad for those families. Thankfully, our house wasn't flooded at all, and neither did the other houses in my neighborhood, and we didn't suffer any damage. My family and I are totally OK.
Well, I've typed a lot, and I can't think of much more to talk about, so I should probably wrap this post up. I'm sorry I haven't made a post since January, but.... life keeps me busy on a regular basis. I hope y'all will have an awesome school year. And if you're reading this and you haven't ever talked to me, or have never been friends with me, feel free to come talk to me, especially if you're a freshman. I could use some new friends now that a new year has started, and things are not at all how they used to be. I'm not sure when the next time will be that I'll end up posting another post on this blog, but hopefully it'll be soon, along with me talking about something different! I hope y'all will have an awesome school year with good grades, and all I have to say now is, good luck in school, have fun, and have an awesome day!
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Happy New Year! + Friendly advice on how to be happy at Horizons
Sorry, guys! I had meant to post earlier during the break, but got tied up because of holiday matters... On the bright side, social media has told me that most of you seem to be having a great winter break! Unfortunately, it went by so fast, it feels almost like it never happened. But let me tell you, 2016 has honestly been quite a year. There's been a lot of stuff going on, like the recent deaths of well-known people, the presidential election (don't get me started on that one), the good music that was introduced this year, and I'm sure there's a lot more. Writing this blog post is one of the first things I'm doing in 2017, and as this'll be the year that I turn 16 (on February 9), I'm sure there'll be a LOT more interesting things to come this year. We'll have to see what happens, though!
Now a bit about the Horizons family... Let me just start by saying that if you want to be happy at Horizons, you HAVE to make LOTS of friends. Not just a few friends, but a lot of friends, preferably from different grades. I just recently started interacting with some freshman (no, they're not boys), and it started by us saying "hi" to each other in the hallways. Believe it or not, during finals week, we eventually found ourselves in a study room, and that's where we really got to become well-known friends. Actually, I now consider those people my best friends. Honestly, I'm now super glad that I did that before the break began, because guess what? On the last day before break, I found out that TWO of my sophomore best friends are leaving CHECHS (one got kicked out, and one dropped out), and since I have known those two best friends for a while, it made me really sad. They really made a huge difference in what happens in our classrooms.
As soon as I found that fact out, I figured that this might be the last time I will ever see them again in person unless they do something about it... so I, by default, decided to spend my last few hours with those two. I wasn't told to leave, so I knew they wanted me there (after all, we're still friends!). We walk to the winter celebration roundup, and watched quite a few interesting things happen onstage. (We even moved away to a different spot as soon as a LARGE group of teenage freshman get seated next to us.) I became a little uneasy, but thankfully, the friend group I was following did the same thing I wanted to do, and that was move to a different spot. As I was doing that, one of the teenage boys sitting right next to me (note: I said no words to him whatsoever) said "Aw, I was just getting to know you!" Since I knew my best friends were leaving, it gave me an immediate excuse to say to him, and I believe that was something like "I need to sit with some of my best friends who are leaving us."
Once winter celebration ended, we headed back to our advisory classroom, and that's where we said our final words in person to our best friends. I can't count the number of times I stressed to them "I am legitimately going to miss you two" and "It won't ever be the same without you guys!", because I feel like I said it quite a few times. I even told them that if they need any kind of support at all, or if they just want to talk to me, they know where to find me on social media. Nonetheless, some of us played a few rounds of hangman, and they were Christmas-themed. Man, was that a blast. We even had a final small talk with our teacher, because I know the two of them will deeply miss him.
When advisory finally ended, I knew it was time for the big moment. I had about 25 more minutes to be with them before I had to go to the buses, so I followed them to the Student Center and told one of them "Do whatever you want to do with me now, as you might not be able to do that later!" Ten minutes in, one of them says she's leaving, and thus the sadness begins. The final words are said. After all of that, she then leaves. But hey, I got about 12-15 minutes to spend with this other best friend before she leaves us, so I do that. She's now saying her final goodbyes to anyone she likes as a friend, with me following her (because I'm such a nice friend.) I knew she was totally going to need my support, as she was in my advisory class, and since she won't have anything electronic to communicate with (not even her school laptop, as that's a sad part of changing schools, plus her phone was taken quite a while ago), she'll be almost entirely disconnected from the media for about two weeks.
After finding nobody else she wanted to say a final goodbye to, the two of us head back to our advisory and geometry classroom, and we have a good final goodbye talk there. Even the teacher totally agrees that it won't be the same without her. My best friend told me how she does the entire "annoy the teacher the friendly way" deal, and tells me I should probably do it, as that's how the entire classroom gets engaged the fun way in the first place. I still don't think it'll work out the same way without the entire group there, though, as we all had the power to do it together, with each one of us having our OWN special ability, and trying to take over a different one is an entirely different story. I still think it'll be interesting to see how these future classroom meetings play out, though. But for now, sadness arises as I realize that I'm finally having to leave my best friend, as if I'm not on the bus in the next few minutes, I'm stuck here until I get picked up. Yes, I was very sad that I had to leave her, and that it wasn't the other way around... but things had to be how they had to be, and that really hurt my heart for a few seconds. How I didn't cry during any part of this, I don't know.
Even though I literally just wrote a sad story, my point is that friends at an early college high school like Clear Horizons probably won't last forever, so it's probably wise to makes lots of friends and several best friends, preferably in several different grade levels. That way, if someone gets kicked out, or if they dropped out (like in my case, two best friends had gotten kicked/dropped out), you can still interact with more friends, and also have some best friends! That way, you don't have to be an entirely sad sack. I also want to tell you that this applies to administrative staff members as well, such as your principal, assistant principal, teachers, bus drivers, etc. I wanted to say that additional point because on my Horizons bus route (route 119), we got a different bus driver to replace our driver (who is now a substitute bus driver). The only reason that was sad for the riders riding that bus was because our students loved that bus driver. She was very calm, very lenient, drove this same route for 9 years, I managed to make good friends with her, and she drove quite a nice bus (it was a 2010 Thomas C2). Now, we have a bus driver who says next to nothing, and now the riders feel a bit indifferent about this bus driver. On top of all that, her bus is just a normal older bus (a 2005 IC CE powered by a CNG engine). I'm pretty sure the older buses ran on diesel the first few years they were running, because their odometer readings are a little low to have been used on CNG their entire lifetime (this year, I've seen them anywhere from about 48,000-73,000 miles). Either way, both buses have A/C, but the older bus doesn't have as good A/C as the newer ones. Go figure.
I know I just wrote quite a lot about various topics, but 2016 has been such a wild year! I also wanted to get some of these stories off of my mind and hopefully be able to start a fresh 2017 having done what I've been wanting to do forever, and that is to write this blog post. With that being said, I'm going to go ahead any say that's all for now. I hope you can forgive me in being late writing my own blog posts, and I hope you have a great and wonderful 2017!
See some of y'all on Tuesday!
Now a bit about the Horizons family... Let me just start by saying that if you want to be happy at Horizons, you HAVE to make LOTS of friends. Not just a few friends, but a lot of friends, preferably from different grades. I just recently started interacting with some freshman (no, they're not boys), and it started by us saying "hi" to each other in the hallways. Believe it or not, during finals week, we eventually found ourselves in a study room, and that's where we really got to become well-known friends. Actually, I now consider those people my best friends. Honestly, I'm now super glad that I did that before the break began, because guess what? On the last day before break, I found out that TWO of my sophomore best friends are leaving CHECHS (one got kicked out, and one dropped out), and since I have known those two best friends for a while, it made me really sad. They really made a huge difference in what happens in our classrooms.
As soon as I found that fact out, I figured that this might be the last time I will ever see them again in person unless they do something about it... so I, by default, decided to spend my last few hours with those two. I wasn't told to leave, so I knew they wanted me there (after all, we're still friends!). We walk to the winter celebration roundup, and watched quite a few interesting things happen onstage. (We even moved away to a different spot as soon as a LARGE group of teenage freshman get seated next to us.) I became a little uneasy, but thankfully, the friend group I was following did the same thing I wanted to do, and that was move to a different spot. As I was doing that, one of the teenage boys sitting right next to me (note: I said no words to him whatsoever) said "Aw, I was just getting to know you!" Since I knew my best friends were leaving, it gave me an immediate excuse to say to him, and I believe that was something like "I need to sit with some of my best friends who are leaving us."
Once winter celebration ended, we headed back to our advisory classroom, and that's where we said our final words in person to our best friends. I can't count the number of times I stressed to them "I am legitimately going to miss you two" and "It won't ever be the same without you guys!", because I feel like I said it quite a few times. I even told them that if they need any kind of support at all, or if they just want to talk to me, they know where to find me on social media. Nonetheless, some of us played a few rounds of hangman, and they were Christmas-themed. Man, was that a blast. We even had a final small talk with our teacher, because I know the two of them will deeply miss him.
When advisory finally ended, I knew it was time for the big moment. I had about 25 more minutes to be with them before I had to go to the buses, so I followed them to the Student Center and told one of them "Do whatever you want to do with me now, as you might not be able to do that later!" Ten minutes in, one of them says she's leaving, and thus the sadness begins. The final words are said. After all of that, she then leaves. But hey, I got about 12-15 minutes to spend with this other best friend before she leaves us, so I do that. She's now saying her final goodbyes to anyone she likes as a friend, with me following her (because I'm such a nice friend.) I knew she was totally going to need my support, as she was in my advisory class, and since she won't have anything electronic to communicate with (not even her school laptop, as that's a sad part of changing schools, plus her phone was taken quite a while ago), she'll be almost entirely disconnected from the media for about two weeks.
After finding nobody else she wanted to say a final goodbye to, the two of us head back to our advisory and geometry classroom, and we have a good final goodbye talk there. Even the teacher totally agrees that it won't be the same without her. My best friend told me how she does the entire "annoy the teacher the friendly way" deal, and tells me I should probably do it, as that's how the entire classroom gets engaged the fun way in the first place. I still don't think it'll work out the same way without the entire group there, though, as we all had the power to do it together, with each one of us having our OWN special ability, and trying to take over a different one is an entirely different story. I still think it'll be interesting to see how these future classroom meetings play out, though. But for now, sadness arises as I realize that I'm finally having to leave my best friend, as if I'm not on the bus in the next few minutes, I'm stuck here until I get picked up. Yes, I was very sad that I had to leave her, and that it wasn't the other way around... but things had to be how they had to be, and that really hurt my heart for a few seconds. How I didn't cry during any part of this, I don't know.
Even though I literally just wrote a sad story, my point is that friends at an early college high school like Clear Horizons probably won't last forever, so it's probably wise to makes lots of friends and several best friends, preferably in several different grade levels. That way, if someone gets kicked out, or if they dropped out (like in my case, two best friends had gotten kicked/dropped out), you can still interact with more friends, and also have some best friends! That way, you don't have to be an entirely sad sack. I also want to tell you that this applies to administrative staff members as well, such as your principal, assistant principal, teachers, bus drivers, etc. I wanted to say that additional point because on my Horizons bus route (route 119), we got a different bus driver to replace our driver (who is now a substitute bus driver). The only reason that was sad for the riders riding that bus was because our students loved that bus driver. She was very calm, very lenient, drove this same route for 9 years, I managed to make good friends with her, and she drove quite a nice bus (it was a 2010 Thomas C2). Now, we have a bus driver who says next to nothing, and now the riders feel a bit indifferent about this bus driver. On top of all that, her bus is just a normal older bus (a 2005 IC CE powered by a CNG engine). I'm pretty sure the older buses ran on diesel the first few years they were running, because their odometer readings are a little low to have been used on CNG their entire lifetime (this year, I've seen them anywhere from about 48,000-73,000 miles). Either way, both buses have A/C, but the older bus doesn't have as good A/C as the newer ones. Go figure.
I know I just wrote quite a lot about various topics, but 2016 has been such a wild year! I also wanted to get some of these stories off of my mind and hopefully be able to start a fresh 2017 having done what I've been wanting to do forever, and that is to write this blog post. With that being said, I'm going to go ahead any say that's all for now. I hope you can forgive me in being late writing my own blog posts, and I hope you have a great and wonderful 2017!
See some of y'all on Tuesday!
Saturday, November 19, 2016
We finally made it to Thanksgiving break! Yay!
It has come to my attention that I don't post much, but so far, I've only posted on this blog once a month. I intended for it to be more frequently, but unfortunately, it didn't happen, and I didn't even realize it was that bad until a student during one of my tutorial periods had asked me when I was going to update my blog. That's when I realized "Oh wow, I don't post as often as I'd like", and the reason is because I have lots of homework to do, and I never actually have a lot of time to do other things like write on this blog, because that time is taken up either on social media, homework, or just doing random stuff other than this. But rest assured, I'll always know that I have this blog, and I'm always thinking about what to write on it. But man, it was a pretty busy and interesting few weeks.
I'm proud to announce that apparently I've built up a great and positive reputation among basically everyone at CHECHS, and as of right now, it seems to only be getting better and better. I'm realizing that more as I make more friends. Now I'm interacting with tons of different people, and not just dominant to a friend group of only a few people. That positive reputation was really evident when I had the unfortunate situation of being absent on Thursday. I don't know what in the world their reactions were, but I'm sure everyone was very surprised that I was gone, and wanted me back there ASAP. Especially considering that I do a lot for this school... I'm a funny person who just tries to have fun when I can, I'm one of the student helpers for the printer room (speedy printer computers needed, anyone? I even wrote instructions for how to use the computers), I write the Quote of the Day that I get from a website for the freshman in the English I teacher's classroom, and more. You can even ask for the time when I'm nearby, and if I hear it, I'll announce to time to whoever I think said it. I get that request on a regular basis. The WHAP teacher was even jokingly telling me that since I wasn't here that day, they decided to cancel their test because of that reason, and they just sat in the room quietly for the next hour and 20 minutes... but of course, since I said he was joking, it didn't happen. But yeah, normally only a few people would care if you show up or not, but when it comes to me (and I always want to be here whenever I can), all of a sudden there's a change in the Force... as if there's no me, there's no one bringing positivity to this school, and there won't be a pretend car around! But I came back Friday, and was welcomed to quite a few people who noticed I was gone and cared about me. Someone even asked me if I was feeling better, and I replied, "Yep. Or, at least, I'm getting there." That person knew I had been sick probably because I had posted on Twitter that I wouldn't be here Thursday because I was sick, and she saw that and noticed it. If you're someone who cares about me, thank you so much. You're a positive influence in my life and mean so much to me.
Sounds like the teachers and principals finally have the volume of the freshman under control... as now they're in their classrooms a few minutes before class starts, and the hallways haven't been as loud as they were the beginning of this year. Some of the freshman still seem to act a little wild at times, though, which is unfortunate, as this school was intended for responsible students, and not for those who are clearly immature and may as well be in a regular high school. (If you're one of those responsible freshman, please don't think I'm targeting you, as I'm not... I actually know some of you as friends. I'm mainly talking about the boys. It's always the boys who are immature.)
But as of right now, it's not all about the problems I see with this school (and they're tolerable problems, thankfully) and me being an important student... I heard some news I actually wasn't willing to hear until after I stop riding the bus, especially on a daily basis. On the Clear Springs Horizons route, I've heard our current bus driver might be becoming a sub bus driver in the near future... it's either that or she might get her own route (which'll be a different one)... and that's about as far as I remember in that matter. But either way, she's eventually going to be leaving us, and it's just a matter of when. We don't know that factor at all. It was sad news for the driver, and so was the students who ride our bus. Our driver's been driving this route for nine years (basically since Clear Horizons started), and I don't think she wanted to stop doing this route for as long as she's a driver. Since we were known as bus riders who are very nice and respectful, we were thanked for being that kind of rider, and hopes that we'll give the same respect to the new bus driver when he/she does get this route. This new driver could get this route as early as after Thanksgiving, but I hope it doesn't happen that early. Our current bus driver's really nice, typically gets us to Horizons pretty fast, and knows me really well as a rider who sits up front. There are a few instances where I've helped her, like when she tells me to remind her not to take a particular road that's busy, and when we're running late, I get what intermediate bus routes need to wait for us. I've done this for about a year and a half so far, and I hope this new driver will be as nice as she was. I really hope I can make good friends with the new bus driver. I've done it with everyone I've ridden with more than a few times, so maybe I can do it with the new driver as well! We'll have to see, but I know when we get this new driver (assuming we get to ride the same bus), our bus will not feel the same way as it did when I started riding.
We still made it to Thanksgiving break, however! I'm proud we did, actually! The only odd things I see about it, though, is that there are those teachers who give homework over the break... like, really? You expect us to do work over a break that is supposed to be relaxing? I can't stress that enough. Another odd thing about the break that is exclusive to Clear Horizons is that the college doesn't have break on Monday and Tuesday, so you have to arrange your own transportation there just to attend only your college classes! I know, the College is no fun... but at least CCISD got it right when they were thinking of how long the breaks are supposed to be.
That's all I have for now... Have an awesome Thanksgiving break! I'll miss y'all! :)
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
CHECHS seems to have been busy this October! We're still busy; PSAT tomorrow for grades 9-11!
Sorry that I haven't posted on a consistent basis. I had thought about attempting to post daily, but after realizing that's too much to ask, I then thought about attempting to post weekly, but I also haven't had time for that, due to me wanting to do certain other fun things but never actually do, and my (and probably lots of others) seemingly natural trait of procrastination (that means putting things off until the last minute. Some of us are good at it, some of us not.) Anyway, sorry for the inconsistency, but just know that I'm thinking of you guys and that even though it may not seem obvious when you normally talk to me, I'll eventually be thinking of something new to put on this blog.
With that being said, let's get to this post, because why not? It's what you came here for!
Yes, CHECHS seems to have been busy for quite a while now. It's a pretty popular belief among high school students in the district who don't go to Clear Horizons. Apart from being busy, as I start doing things at CHECHS sophomore style, I end up visiting freshman teachers quite often, and so do others. The reason why we visit them is because the freshman teachers have been so amazing, especially last year. I still remember being a freshman, and am now seeing once again some of the assignments and projects the class of 2019 had to do last year (like the Socratic Seminars in Human Geo & English I, the Cell Tweet project in Biology, etc.), and that's partially bringing me back to the memories of being a freshman in high school. But, now I'm a sophomore, and I'll tell you right now, things have CHANGED since last year... mainly not who the friendly staff is, but rather the classes you have, the paths you take to your classes, and the difficulty of your college classes. Taking all of that into account amounts to a huge difference. I haven't EVER seen two days play exactly the same way.
For me, life as a sophomore student has generally been amazing since I started. I'm not a freshman anymore, and that means no more being stuck in the BQR during lunch and having to check-in - you can roam freely around the approved places by CHECHS on campus. Whenever I have free time during lunch (when I'm finished eating), I always find myself roaming around somewhere on the campus. Just the past few days, I've been taking quite a few different paths and ended up quite a few different places, some of them unfamiliar. Yes, you read that correctly - I've been exploring SJC's South Campus, because why not? I can't be bothered to do any more than I have to at school, so why not take the free time I have when I'm not under stress to go explore something? I'm sure that may be rebellious, but really, who cares nowadays? I'm a responsible kid - I'm not as bad as those who seem to be flipping water bottles everywhere for a living, nor am I as bad as the LOUD freshman.
Speaking of water bottle flipping... Yes, I know it's been a trend on social media for quite a while now, and it was a cool challenge the first few days it was going on. But this is November now, and apparently people are STILL trying to flip water bottles. Unfortunately, I can't really take the constant noise and distraction of someone flipping a water bottle anymore, and have been that way for a few weeks now. It's so bad, it's gotten to the point that every time I see someone flipping a bottle, and I see an opportunity to get that water bottle they missed because it fell on the floor, I'm taking it and eventually throwing it away. Sure, they can be mad at me all they want - but now it's just irresponsible behavior when you do it in the classroom. Also, when we were getting free donuts and water bottles for Student Appreciation last Friday, I told everyone in the same room I was in that if they were going to get a water bottle, to NOT get one if you're going to be flipping it, as I've had it. I ended up saying that right in front of Dr. Lemley, our principal at CHECHS, and he praised me for saying that, as we both agree that's now irresponsible behavior.
And the volume of the freshman? Don't even get me started on that topic, please... I don't know WHAT in the world has gotten into them, but the freshman seem to have overall gotten louder and a lot wilder than how I've seen it when the class of 2019 were freshman. It seems to have only been happening after lunch, so maybe they're pretty hyped up with lots of energy because they can't really roam around the campus. I totally understand that, but the volume nowadays has been getting a little loud and unreasonable. Not only that, but they're wilder than the sophomores! Like, what is CHECHS?! I thought it was a school of responsible, grown-up students in all grade levels (including freshman), not some irresponsibly loud people like the freshman! A few of the sophomores are a victim of this, but they're not as bad as freshman. Even a sophomore teacher agreed with me that freshman are annoying. Sorry freshman, but you saw that coming. We typically hate y'all when we're not in your level. But that DOESN'T MEAN I'm not friends with any of them; in fact, I have quite a few sophomore friends, some of which I made in Geometry class. I'm also friends with a few juniors, and a few seniors.
Sorry if those last two paragraphs sounded like a rant, but I've seen and heard both of those things happening, and I HAD to get that off my mind. Now y'all know why I've been so bothered by a few of you lately. But, I still like the school either way! If it means graduating with a 2-year degree, I'm up for it! I'm having a lot of fun in the process, too! Thanks to the CHECHS teachers and students for being who you are! Keep it up!
And if you don't think you're learning something new every day, think again. You really are learning something new every day, whether it be something you realize at school, something about your friends, about your computer, etc. I'm only saying this because the geometry teacher eventually made me realize that.
The whole reason we've been busy is because since I last posted, we've done 9-weeks tests, more general work up until Halloween, then we did Halloween-themed stuff, like me giving out candy in a costume at my own house (I posted on Instagram at that time), and then now. We're actually about to take a PSAT, and that's tomorrow for grades 9-11. What's a PSAT, you ask? It's a CollegeBoard standardized test cosponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) in the United States. Unfortunately, the PSAT is not something you can study for, but you'll just have to try your best. It's a test designed for juniors, so don't expect to do great on it, especially on the mathematics portion. Normally, in a regular high school, you'd have to pay for this, but at CHECHS, it's free and is a test grades 9-11 will have to take. What test the seniors take, I don't know as of the time I wrote this (someone actually asked me that today). I'll have to ask or look it up locally. But good luck to those taking it!
I know I've just written a post that's probably pretty large, but it's not just a post. It's a special post written by me and my brain using a laptop. The most important part is that it's written by me... xD
Everybody knows me nowadays... I'm the one that frequently acts like a car. And I've had my share of fun at CHECHS. I hope to have many more exciting days at this special early college high school named Clear Horizons! (It's even more fun, as I'm FINALLY learning more names of people I know!)
That's all for now, I guess. See y'all later!
With that being said, let's get to this post, because why not? It's what you came here for!
Yes, CHECHS seems to have been busy for quite a while now. It's a pretty popular belief among high school students in the district who don't go to Clear Horizons. Apart from being busy, as I start doing things at CHECHS sophomore style, I end up visiting freshman teachers quite often, and so do others. The reason why we visit them is because the freshman teachers have been so amazing, especially last year. I still remember being a freshman, and am now seeing once again some of the assignments and projects the class of 2019 had to do last year (like the Socratic Seminars in Human Geo & English I, the Cell Tweet project in Biology, etc.), and that's partially bringing me back to the memories of being a freshman in high school. But, now I'm a sophomore, and I'll tell you right now, things have CHANGED since last year... mainly not who the friendly staff is, but rather the classes you have, the paths you take to your classes, and the difficulty of your college classes. Taking all of that into account amounts to a huge difference. I haven't EVER seen two days play exactly the same way.
For me, life as a sophomore student has generally been amazing since I started. I'm not a freshman anymore, and that means no more being stuck in the BQR during lunch and having to check-in - you can roam freely around the approved places by CHECHS on campus. Whenever I have free time during lunch (when I'm finished eating), I always find myself roaming around somewhere on the campus. Just the past few days, I've been taking quite a few different paths and ended up quite a few different places, some of them unfamiliar. Yes, you read that correctly - I've been exploring SJC's South Campus, because why not? I can't be bothered to do any more than I have to at school, so why not take the free time I have when I'm not under stress to go explore something? I'm sure that may be rebellious, but really, who cares nowadays? I'm a responsible kid - I'm not as bad as those who seem to be flipping water bottles everywhere for a living, nor am I as bad as the LOUD freshman.
Speaking of water bottle flipping... Yes, I know it's been a trend on social media for quite a while now, and it was a cool challenge the first few days it was going on. But this is November now, and apparently people are STILL trying to flip water bottles. Unfortunately, I can't really take the constant noise and distraction of someone flipping a water bottle anymore, and have been that way for a few weeks now. It's so bad, it's gotten to the point that every time I see someone flipping a bottle, and I see an opportunity to get that water bottle they missed because it fell on the floor, I'm taking it and eventually throwing it away. Sure, they can be mad at me all they want - but now it's just irresponsible behavior when you do it in the classroom. Also, when we were getting free donuts and water bottles for Student Appreciation last Friday, I told everyone in the same room I was in that if they were going to get a water bottle, to NOT get one if you're going to be flipping it, as I've had it. I ended up saying that right in front of Dr. Lemley, our principal at CHECHS, and he praised me for saying that, as we both agree that's now irresponsible behavior.
And the volume of the freshman? Don't even get me started on that topic, please... I don't know WHAT in the world has gotten into them, but the freshman seem to have overall gotten louder and a lot wilder than how I've seen it when the class of 2019 were freshman. It seems to have only been happening after lunch, so maybe they're pretty hyped up with lots of energy because they can't really roam around the campus. I totally understand that, but the volume nowadays has been getting a little loud and unreasonable. Not only that, but they're wilder than the sophomores! Like, what is CHECHS?! I thought it was a school of responsible, grown-up students in all grade levels (including freshman), not some irresponsibly loud people like the freshman! A few of the sophomores are a victim of this, but they're not as bad as freshman. Even a sophomore teacher agreed with me that freshman are annoying. Sorry freshman, but you saw that coming. We typically hate y'all when we're not in your level. But that DOESN'T MEAN I'm not friends with any of them; in fact, I have quite a few sophomore friends, some of which I made in Geometry class. I'm also friends with a few juniors, and a few seniors.
Sorry if those last two paragraphs sounded like a rant, but I've seen and heard both of those things happening, and I HAD to get that off my mind. Now y'all know why I've been so bothered by a few of you lately. But, I still like the school either way! If it means graduating with a 2-year degree, I'm up for it! I'm having a lot of fun in the process, too! Thanks to the CHECHS teachers and students for being who you are! Keep it up!
And if you don't think you're learning something new every day, think again. You really are learning something new every day, whether it be something you realize at school, something about your friends, about your computer, etc. I'm only saying this because the geometry teacher eventually made me realize that.
The whole reason we've been busy is because since I last posted, we've done 9-weeks tests, more general work up until Halloween, then we did Halloween-themed stuff, like me giving out candy in a costume at my own house (I posted on Instagram at that time), and then now. We're actually about to take a PSAT, and that's tomorrow for grades 9-11. What's a PSAT, you ask? It's a CollegeBoard standardized test cosponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) in the United States. Unfortunately, the PSAT is not something you can study for, but you'll just have to try your best. It's a test designed for juniors, so don't expect to do great on it, especially on the mathematics portion. Normally, in a regular high school, you'd have to pay for this, but at CHECHS, it's free and is a test grades 9-11 will have to take. What test the seniors take, I don't know as of the time I wrote this (someone actually asked me that today). I'll have to ask or look it up locally. But good luck to those taking it!
I know I've just written a post that's probably pretty large, but it's not just a post. It's a special post written by me and my brain using a laptop. The most important part is that it's written by me... xD
Everybody knows me nowadays... I'm the one that frequently acts like a car. And I've had my share of fun at CHECHS. I hope to have many more exciting days at this special early college high school named Clear Horizons! (It's even more fun, as I'm FINALLY learning more names of people I know!)
That's all for now, I guess. See y'all later!
Friday, October 7, 2016
Service Learning Field Trips? They aren't so bad...
The freshman and sophomores went on their Service Learning field trip today. The freshman went to the Houston Food Bank, and the sophomores to the Armand Bayou Nature Center. I'm sure some of the students enjoyed this trip.
When we arrived at the fields, we were given instructions on what to do, although I was half expecting to have to walk through at least some prairie grass during this trip. But no, it turns out they just need us to dig and plant some... well, plants. After all, we do need to preserve this habitat! (Did you know that in our state, 99% of those prairies are gone? I know... Crazy, right?)
Since I was a sophomore, I was going to the Armand Bayou Nature Center. I thought I was going to be in for a walk through very tall prairie grass (just like the teachers had been trying to indicate to us), but NO! It was totally different than what I had been expecting! (OK, not totally different, but we were still outside.) Here's a breakdown of what we did...
When we arrived, because we were told that there were no bathrooms where we're going to be doing our service learning, we were told to go before going out there. When that was finished, we were given safety instructions for when we go out in the fields, as we were told that there are going to be bugs out there. We then started about a 15-minute walk from where we arrived to the fields.
When we arrived at the fields, we were given instructions on what to do, although I was half expecting to have to walk through at least some prairie grass during this trip. But no, it turns out they just need us to dig and plant some... well, plants. After all, we do need to preserve this habitat! (Did you know that in our state, 99% of those prairies are gone? I know... Crazy, right?)
Of course, we keep working and working. We dig holes, and then plant our plant naturally, then cover the dirt on the plant back up with more soil/dirt. Every now and then, we would take water breaks, because when you're out there during the summer months, it gets HOT. It gets so hot, you'll be sweating after working for a while. Actually, this trip temporarily knocked out a few people due to being sick and nauseous (my guess is because of heat exhaustion.) Of course, it ends up happening with my friends, while basically everyone else is OK. (Funny how that works.)
That situation even happened with the partner I was working with while I was on this trip. It only took a little bit of time before our work speed suddenly started to go slower, and needing a few more water breaks, until eventually, my partner experiences a version of tunnel vision where everything just gets darker. Because of this, she had to sit down and recover for a minute (and so did I, because I needed to sit down. I've stood up way too long. I also wanted to assist her if she needed anything.)
That's how I noticed that the regular honeybees around here have been WALKING on the ground, and not flying. I asked a person why, and I heard that they may have been drugged. When I asked him if it was happening just around here or if it was nationally, he responded "nationally". That doesn't sound good. We already have a hurricane coming through some of Florida (and destroyed some places in other countries nearby) - now we have honeybees becoming an endangered species? Man, the world is now a crazy place where no one is safe!
Oh, and her tunnel vision eventually did go away, but it didn't take long before she almost completely stopped responding (yes, we took a water break when she had that tunnel vision). She wouldn't want to move anymore, so I (and another group) keep asking "Jade, are you OK??" After hearing from her that she was sick and sleepy (both in a nauseous way), one of us alerted a teacher, who then came to assist (along with another teacher.) After letting her cool down, she was taken for a ride back in the ATV they had out there, along with a few other people. Thank God it happened last-minute (I know because we were starting to pack up), otherwise we would've had to do some serious planning (possibly to even get in a decent group.)
So, long story short, even though it was warm outside (we had to wear long pants, too), and a few people being unable to handle working after a while, it was a good field trip filled with planting things, insect repellent, and for some, sunscreen. I actually got sunburned on my arms, and apparently some of my face (although somewhat minimal, as I was wearing a hat AND sunglasses today.) But on the bright side, everyone who made it to the field trip today should've gotten 4 service learning hours, even though we were only out there for about 1.5 hours! Yay!
That's all I have for now. Sorry I haven't been posting recently, guys. I haven't had the time I wanted to keep this thing up to date, but rest assured I'm still somewhat motivated to put new posts for you guys, even more now that I've noticed that someone spread the word that this blog exists... don't believe me, look at this pageview chart...
I know, right? 36 pageviews yesterday compared to something like 3 pageviews/day from unknown sources?! That's crazy! Whoever spread the word to CHECHS that this blog's link was on my Instagram bio, thank you! I feel so much more popular now.
See y'all later!
P.S. Don't abuse the comment section, please.. If you do, I do have the right to delete your comment. I almost decided not to allow anonymous users to comment anymore after one long comment about rambling (that person typed 759 words & 3,859 characters in one sentence. Has he ever heard of run-on sentences? We learned this way too long ago in Language Arts.) But, since I realized that's probably too harsh, I didn't do that. (I liked his reasoning anyway.) And plus, I had an innocent anonymous user who told me with perfect grammar that I had a great blog, so I didn't want to block out the nice people. (See, I'm a nice guy!) I try to be nice, but then some mean person has to ruin it for everyone else. (When it comes to that kind of thing, I hate the way the world works.)
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Interesting sophomore year went well
The happier thing about Fridays at Clear Horizons is that you get out of school earlier than the normal dismissal time (which is usually at 3:20 PM). OK, that's a well-known perk around here, but still... it's a great one. We need that earlier dismissal every Friday because we work so hard at that school compared to other high schools. And an early dismissal means getting home early, so why not take the time to enjoy that extra time? I know I probably would.
I've already posted a few times on some interesting stories I had this sophomore year. Well, once again, I have yet another interesting story. And of course, it happens to deal with the buses. On our way to the school on Friday, we get stuck in a traffic jam on the highway. While we're trying to get through that traffic jam, our bus engine quit working, which meant we had to pull off to the shoulder and wait for help to arrive. Or, at least, we thought we were going to have to wait, because 15 minutes later, we start the bus and was able to pull off the highway and into a nearby gas station. If we didn't try to pull off the highway, we would've had to exit through the back door (something we apparently never practiced in CCISD). I'm very glad we didn't have to do that, though. It took about 25 minutes, from beginning to end, for this whole situation to get resolved and head back on the road in another bus. And they were going to have a cop show up to block traffic so the bus evacuation would be safer, too - but we never had to deal with any of that. Thank goodness.
If you read all my interesting stories, and when you consider them all, you'll probably understand me when I say that sophomore year could not get more interesting than this (or, at least, for me). And I'm also glad that sophomore year has still not tried to split me into pieces due to rage after a week of school. I say this because I know they say sophomore year is your hardest year. I can see why.
Anyway, good luck out there to all students, especially for my friends and those in their sophomore year!
If you read all my interesting stories, and when you consider them all, you'll probably understand me when I say that sophomore year could not get more interesting than this (or, at least, for me). And I'm also glad that sophomore year has still not tried to split me into pieces due to rage after a week of school. I say this because I know they say sophomore year is your hardest year. I can see why.
Anyway, good luck out there to all students, especially for my friends and those in their sophomore year!
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Interesting good week of sophomore year + blog name & link change
OK, if you're a CHECHS student, you know this has probably been said many times before - we're not having any classes tomorrow (which is Friday) - we really just have a very long advisory period (as we wait to pick up our college textbooks) and the fall social, which basically means a lazy school day to most people! (Yay!) Besides that, I've got to say... I think I've had a very interesting sophomore year so far. In my case, it's mainly with either the bus ride or the technology people.
When it comes to the buses, almost every day this week so far has had an interesting moment this week. The first day got its very own post with its very own story (and we were very late getting back home that day). The second day was business as usual (nothing interesting there). The third day, however, our neighborhood bus driver in the morning found a way to dodge traffic at a light, part of which involve going straight through the light, backing up elsewhere, and turning right from the other side of the light. That's also when I heard that my Horizons bus driver was going to start assigning seats - but she'd let us choose our seats, and to start getting in the habit of sitting in the same spot every day so we'd be used to it. How nice of her to do this!
On the fourth day, we had a little situation with our morning neighborhood bus. As we leave our last stop and get up to speed in the neighborhood, the bus driver's "No Students On Board" sign fell out of the bus driver's window and into the road. (Oh no!) So, the driver had to back up the bus about 100 feet or so to get the sign back, and ended up blocking someone's driveway (unfortunately, they wanted out at the time, so she had to wait. The driver of the car seemed to understand.) After that situation was settled, all was well and normal after that.
And I want to tell you a little story about the school laptops and the interesting part about that day (which was also on the fourth day). So, on the second day of school, I turned my old laptop in to the tech because it wouldn't boot. Was told to come back on Thursday, so I was totally cool with that. Sure enough, I come back on Thursday, and my laptop's ready for me! And it turns out it's not the laptop I was expecting. Sure, it was the same model, but it felt totally different AND it was running Windows 10, not 8.1. I learned that as soon as I saw the Windows 10 loading logon screen when I powered it on. Turns out I had gotten a BRAND NEW laptop from CCISD (thanks so much for that laptop, CCISD! I really love it!), which is great, because hopefully the newer version will be more reliable! Speaking of reliable, I feel like attempting to compare the two laptops in terms of hardware, so here goes... Both models are Dell Latitude 3150, if you were curious on what the District-provided student laptops were.
The older, 2015 version had an Intel Pentium N3540 @ 2.16GHz, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB 7200RPM HDD. (Yes, they had an actual hard drive in there. Not the best when it comes to rough handling, but it still works for many students, because most of them still have this version.)
The newer, 2016 version has the exact same processor (Intel Pentium N3540), exact same amount of RAM (4GB), and a smaller (but faster) 128GB SSD. Yes, it's a solid-state drive with no moving parts, which means the newer version is almost silent, in addition to having a possible increase in reliability.
The only main software difference is that the older version runs Windows 8.1, while the newer version runs Windows 10. Other than that, the laptop models are basically the same!
So that's the end of the interesting story of my good week of sophomore year. I do want to say something about this blog, though... so keep reading. I decided to change the name of this blog from "CHECHS Survival Guide" to "CHECHS Life" and the blog link from chechssurvivalguide.blogspot.com to chechslife.blogspot.com . The reason? It makes a lot more sense to have it named to "CHECHS Life" (or at least, to me). Besides, this whole thing was still a work in progress, so... yeah. Students, good luck out there! See ya later!
When it comes to the buses, almost every day this week so far has had an interesting moment this week. The first day got its very own post with its very own story (and we were very late getting back home that day). The second day was business as usual (nothing interesting there). The third day, however, our neighborhood bus driver in the morning found a way to dodge traffic at a light, part of which involve going straight through the light, backing up elsewhere, and turning right from the other side of the light. That's also when I heard that my Horizons bus driver was going to start assigning seats - but she'd let us choose our seats, and to start getting in the habit of sitting in the same spot every day so we'd be used to it. How nice of her to do this!
On the fourth day, we had a little situation with our morning neighborhood bus. As we leave our last stop and get up to speed in the neighborhood, the bus driver's "No Students On Board" sign fell out of the bus driver's window and into the road. (Oh no!) So, the driver had to back up the bus about 100 feet or so to get the sign back, and ended up blocking someone's driveway (unfortunately, they wanted out at the time, so she had to wait. The driver of the car seemed to understand.) After that situation was settled, all was well and normal after that.
And I want to tell you a little story about the school laptops and the interesting part about that day (which was also on the fourth day). So, on the second day of school, I turned my old laptop in to the tech because it wouldn't boot. Was told to come back on Thursday, so I was totally cool with that. Sure enough, I come back on Thursday, and my laptop's ready for me! And it turns out it's not the laptop I was expecting. Sure, it was the same model, but it felt totally different AND it was running Windows 10, not 8.1. I learned that as soon as I saw the Windows 10 loading logon screen when I powered it on. Turns out I had gotten a BRAND NEW laptop from CCISD (thanks so much for that laptop, CCISD! I really love it!), which is great, because hopefully the newer version will be more reliable! Speaking of reliable, I feel like attempting to compare the two laptops in terms of hardware, so here goes... Both models are Dell Latitude 3150, if you were curious on what the District-provided student laptops were.
The older, 2015 version had an Intel Pentium N3540 @ 2.16GHz, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB 7200RPM HDD. (Yes, they had an actual hard drive in there. Not the best when it comes to rough handling, but it still works for many students, because most of them still have this version.)
The newer, 2016 version has the exact same processor (Intel Pentium N3540), exact same amount of RAM (4GB), and a smaller (but faster) 128GB SSD. Yes, it's a solid-state drive with no moving parts, which means the newer version is almost silent, in addition to having a possible increase in reliability.
The only main software difference is that the older version runs Windows 8.1, while the newer version runs Windows 10. Other than that, the laptop models are basically the same!
So that's the end of the interesting story of my good week of sophomore year. I do want to say something about this blog, though... so keep reading. I decided to change the name of this blog from "CHECHS Survival Guide" to "CHECHS Life" and the blog link from chechssurvivalguide.blogspot.com to chechslife.blogspot.com . The reason? It makes a lot more sense to have it named to "CHECHS Life" (or at least, to me). Besides, this whole thing was still a work in progress, so... yeah. Students, good luck out there! See ya later!
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