New Year, New Resolutions

        Hi everyone – I hope you’re all having a relaxing break and happy holidays! I truly can’t believe that 2016 is starting in just a few days. 2016 is a big year for me, a year full of nagging unknowns, bittersweet ends, and exciting-yet-scary beginnings. In 2016, like many seniors, I will find out what schools have accepted me, graduate from high school, leave the house I’ve lived in for 18 years, and begin my freshman year of college. In the past few days, I’ve had time to contemplate the year to come…and I’ve realized that, in light of all these crazy changes, I feel happy, sad, nervous, impatient, and excited – all at once.

        My mind can’t stop swirling with questions – where will I be this fall? Who will I meet? What will I study? What will I learn? How will I succeed? How will I fail? What will scare me? What will I embrace? Will I be homesick? Will I find myself, or will I feel lost? Where will I live? (Will I like the food?) Will I embrace my independence, or will I feel overwhelmed?

        Rationally, I know that there is no possible way to find answers to these questions until I am actually in college, living my life, going to class, and finding my niche. I also know that, the more I think about all of these great big question marks, the more worried and unsure I feel.

        Somehow, I need to stop this internal dialogue of worry and self-doubt. To distract myself and reprioritize my concerns, I’ve decided to make a few New Year’s resolutions (not the most original idea ever, but tried and true for a reason, right?). So here’s my brief list of resolutions – hopefully, they’ll inspire you, too, whether you’re a freshman (just trying to safely make it through your first year of high school) or a seasoned senior (still facing the scariness of the future that lies beyond that June 12th graduation) …

2016 RESOLUTIONS

Live in the moment by:

1.     Trying something new every month – it’s too easy to be trapped in the unendingly repetitive high school routine; before I leave, I want to be able to look back and remember some awesome new things I tried in my own city, which, sadly, I have not explored enough in my 18 years (ideas: kayaking on one of the three rivers, Klavon’s ice cream sundaes in the strip district, biking downtown, etc.)

2.     Cooking more – I love to cook and bake, but I don’t have (or don’t always make) time to cook as often as I would like. However, no matter how busy I am next semester, I want to make more dinners, to try out crazy new recipes (and to invent my own recipes) for my family and friends. After all, there’s something incredibly inspiring about transforming fresh ingredients into dishes that can brighten people’s days.

3.     Writing (for fun) more – This past fall, I feel like all I did was write…but mostly only college essays and English research papers. Not that there is anything wrong with this type of writing, but, somehow, it doesn’t have the same enjoyable effect as sitting down with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. Hopefully, I’ll be able to accomplish this goal with my creative comp class next semester! But I need to remind myself that it’s important to take time to do things I love, like writing, even if they’re not “for a grade.”

I wish you all a fantastic 2016 (and I’m so thankful for all of the awesome Tapestry stuff we accomplished in 2015)!

~ Sophie

Christmas Through the Houses

        My childhood has been a blur of different countries, states, houses, schools and friends. My family has moved a lot, partly because of my dad’s job, and partly because my parents really enjoy moving and seeing different parts of the world.

Not an accurate representation of our apartment.

        The 1st House: Not technically a house. This was an apartment in Toronto, Canada, where I lived for the first six months of my life. From what I know, there was never a Christmas tree in this apartment, or very many decorations — my dad was a student in university, and my mom was the mother of a very demanding toddler, and a premature wittle baby (me). However, I believe this house still counts, because Christmas is not defined by the decorations (of which were scarce), Christmas tree (or lack thereof), or even the fireplace (or lack thereof). It is defined by the family and the love.

An image I found online.

        The 2nd House: Like the first house, this was technically an apartment. In Wisconsin. I remember these Christmases vividly. Our tiny, cramped apartment could not fit a large coniferous tree, but my ever-resourceful mother managed to get a little fake decorated tree, maybe 1 foot tall, set atop the countertop. On Christmas morning we unwrapped Barbies, train stations, and many, many books. This apartment also contained our first fireplace. It was a small affair. In it, we burned newspaper and small pre-cut pieces of wood. My parents sat around it after sending us to bed. One incident has provided endless laughter: One Christmas eve, I stormed out of my room, tears streaming down my face. I worried that my parents would forget to put out the fire and Santa would get hurt.

Captures the gist of the year's Christmas tree.

        The 3rd House: Our first real house. Still no “real” Christmas tree, but my mother’s improvisation more than made up for it. The Christmases in this house were some of the best. We decorated the tree, baked cookies, and celebrated with close friends. The tree in our house was a beautiful little three-foot-tall coniferous shrub sitting in a pot, on a really tall planter. We hung miniature baubles (perfectly in proportion with our tiny tree) and a string of multicolored lights. This began the years of Christmas cookie baking as well. If any of you can remember, Easy Bake was a trend in our childhood, and one I so desperately wanted to be a part of. My mom refused to let me cook baked goods with a “glorified lightbulb” and insisted that anything I wanted to make I could do in the “big girl oven”. Needless to say, there was no Easy Bake under the Christmas shrub that year.

Still not an actual picture of our Christmas tree.

        The 4th House: The fourth House was in sunny Florida in a lovely suburb town. This was the year we were to get our first... real Christmas tree, even though Florida is more known for its palm trees than its Christmas trees. So this actually marked the year we got our first fake Christmas tree from Home Depot. My family was super into Christmas decorations that year… we had a designated tree corner and two sets of Christmas decorations: one set red and green, and another with a silver and blue. Every year, we alternated between those. We also had two mantles to decorate above the fireplace. We bought stockings, stocking hangers that depicted Rudolph and Santa, strings of lights for our mantle, and wreaths with berries for the door. The first Christmas in the house, our stockings were stuffed with Rudolph shaped chocolates, light up bouncy balls, and fun erasers, but the tree skirt remained completely bare. Our real presents were annual passes to Disney world that my dad had left in his pocket. All in all, our first traditional American Christmas was a hit.

Over three stories tall? Basically accurate.
Renee used a LOT of paper.

        The 5th House: The fifth house is here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We moved over Christmas break, so we had to unpack beds, boxes, and more boxes. Our Christmas presents were new coats, thermal shirts, warm boots, gloves, and woolen socks. It was one of the coldest winters in Pittsburgh, and we Floridians came unprepared. It was a busy winter break, but I was extremely disappointed that our family didn’t have a beautiful tree to light up and decorate. My mother didn’t come to the rescue this time, but my best friend Renee did. She gave me a box covered in duct tape and pictures of us, containing a letter and a hand drawn Christmas tree with the caption: “Since you couldn’t have one this year.” It's still the best tree, by far.

First Slam I've Written in a While

So hey! Sorry this is late, I had accidentally assume because we only had a post per week that we had the week to do that post, my bad! 

Well here it is a new poem I wrote for astronomy about the sun. I really liked writing and how it turned out. Also, excuse my sentence structure, phrasing, grammar, punctuation, and all that jazz because it's a slam, and when I write slam poems I just kinda let if flow and shape it to how I want it read....if that makes sense....

It's titled "Astronomical Royalty."

Enjoy!

~

From helios of the greeks

to apollo of the romans

to amaterasu of ancient japan

to hepa, who comes from hittite religion

and ra out of ancient egypt

The sun has been the god and the goddess that rose each day

that brought light upon darkness without fail

that heated the earth for good weather and a prosperous growing season

that kept the earth in line

Its pull carries us, along with the other planets, through our orbits without fail

and keeps us from colliding in one giant mess of explosive tragedy,

that even from 92.96 million miles away, wraps us in warmth like nothing else

With a waistband of 2 million 713 thousand 406 miles, the sun retains 99.86% of the solar system’s total mass.

Large and in charge, the sun is our solar system’s top dog.

The corona,

literally meaning “the crown” in latin,

sits atop our sun’s atmosphere declaring it king above all and to all

And though a great ball of burning chemical reactions that creates heat so unimaginable all we have to represent it are numbers,

our great star cares for her planets like a mother swaddles her children

Its great gravitational pull holds us in orbit around her as we are swung into ellipses

And as it treats us with warmth and brightness,

our sun’s power is still a force only true fools would reckon with

100 billion tons of dynamite detonated

every

single

second

would only just match the intensity of our solar monarch.

Sunspots and solar flares keep our observations fresh

bright flashes and dark spots that we’re still learning about give us more insight into our emperor with each new discovery

and remind us that our solar sultan is no stagnant anything

but so much more

And to think

we used to think

that we

were at the center of the universe

but it was aristarchus, who was first to say

not us,

but the bright bulb that lit up the entire world

was what we circled,

What we ran a ring around,

What we embraced

And like so many civilizations

ancient and not

that placed their sun upon a pedestal

higher than any mortal ruler

we bow our heads at the astronomical royalty beyond our atmosphere

The Sun

It's one of millions of stars out there

but one in a million

to us

and the star closest to our hearts,

literally.

~

Eighth Grade

It’s my birthday. It’s first period. I walk into art class. George and I are joking about our current art project: drawing a bowl of fruit. And “fruit”, of course, means painted wood in the shape of a fruit. George grabs a pear from one of the bowls and tosses to me. I try to catch it, but I can’t because I’m holding my gigantic Language Arts binder (so I won’t have to stop by my locker afterwards), and it bounces off my leg.

I pick it up. “Go long!”

We toss the pear back and forth for a while until Mr. Guest tells us to stop. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like us.

Teresa Whittemore calls me over.

“Guess what?” she says.

I refuse to be played. Instead, I stare inquisitively at her. It goes on for about five seconds, but she’s still waiting for me to ask what.

I give in. “What?”

She pulls out Snuggly Puppy Pillow Pet from behind her back and gives it to me.

“Oh my God. ” My eyes grow really wide. Suddenly, I can’t think, can’t breathe. I crush her in a bear hug and start jumping up and down in pure, unadulterated joy. That’s exactly what I wanted for my birthday. “That’s exactly what I wanted for my birthday!” She smiles back at me. I think I’m broken, because now all I can say is “Whaaaat! What! Whaaaaaaat!” over and over again. I’m freaking out. I start shaking my wrists. 

The bell rings. I try to leave the class with dignity, but I’m so excited I sprint out the door. I don’t even know where I’m going anymore. Should I just go straight to Language Arts? Is there enough time to do a victory lap around the school? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Suddenly, my foot catches on the edge of someone’s locker, and I crash to the ground. My binder explodes on the floor, sending papers everywhere. But at least I landed on my Pillow Pet.

This is the exact make and model. Teresa Whittemore is awesome.