Well, Hello 2015!

2014 has been a really good year. I think it all came down to a few things. I was surrounded by amazing people who brought me up with them, I felt better in my own skin and got a greater sense of my identity, and I learnt to go with the flow a bit more.

Before I get into the resolution stuff, I think this is a pretty good time to reflect. I know I'm three days late, but I've had to write applications these last weeks (only one left -- Johns Hopkins -- and then I'm DONE!!!!) In saying that, as hellish as applications and essays have been, it's been a pretty darn insightful experience. The questions themselves are worded to reveal something about you to the admissions officers. Of course, in doing so, you come to discover things through the extensive amounts of reflection you're forced to go through.

Maybe my bullshit is just so good that I convinced myself along the way, but I really started to value the opportunities given to me a lot more by writing about them. I don't think I've ever appreciated choir as much as I have this year -- granted, this year I definitely felt more confident in the environment being a Year 13. More on that later. I'm still not very good with structures, as you can see. Anyway... Choir is a true testament to teamwork and commitment. It's given me back a love for music that I had never truly grasped until 2014. I've voluntarily gotten back to practicing piano every day because I love the feeling of making music and putting emotion into it. I'm pretty sure I'm better at piano now than I was when I passed Grade 8 in 2010 because now I actually enjoy it. Choir made me feel that. It's funny because I can actually remember the rehearsal it clicked for me. We were told to listen to the piano accompaniment of "Laudate" and just sing the tune in our minds whilst physically moving our arms like we were painting a picture. That shit worked man. I FELT that music in my bones and now I can get it back everytime I play piano. In saying this, I don't think I'll join choir in uni if I stay in Auckland. It's a pretty intense commitment and it'd probably fuck with my self-confidence surrounded by professional voice singers and etc in Chamber Choir....

OK this is going to be a long post wow. Next thing -- leadership. While I was down in the Coromandel (holy shit I never even thought to blog about the Coromandel omg I suck!) we had an intense 5-hour discussion. One of the topics that came up is how much we would miss St Cuths. I have a really freaking passionate love and appreciation for our school but others didn't feel the same attachment at all. For me, the constant brainwashing that Year 13s are leaders really worked because I felt like a leader and thus became one. I was more confident, more outspoken, more willing to show my true self to strangers and acquaintances. Becoming House Captain was such a major boost to my confidence because it was something I was voted into. But to be honest, being House Captain gave me so much grief and insecurity as well. It's hard to share a role with someone whose attitude is way different to yours and it created a lot of should-I shouldn't-I feelings. What felt good though, was being UN Youth High School Ambassador. Maybe it was because it was a role I didn't need to go through power struggles with but I feel like I got an equal amount of leadership experience working with UN Youth. I think what got me about it is that I actually felt like I was making a difference to the school community, like I really contributed something that was desperately missing before. To be honest, anyone could have done it, but for some reason no one did. I know I've gone on about this a lot, but the number of registrations for Model G8 after I was appointed as Ambassador was probably one of my proudest moments in High School. From zero STCC students ever at UN Youth events, there were suddenly 25 -- even more than Westlake Girls. It was crazy. When I was at Model Security Council, Denise's committee partner came up to me and told me that Denise was telling him what a good Ambassador I had been, helping everyone, starting this at St Cuths when no one else had. Just that simple remark of being appreciated made my fucking day, let me tell you. Similarly, when Soo told me that Mrs Evans regularly lauded my work as House Captain in her eco classes, I was fucking amazed because I thought I had always been shit. IDK, it's nice. These little boosts do so much for me and it's given me the confidence I needed to like... venture into the world and continue being the leader 6 years of STCC education has pushed me to become.

To be honest, I spent nearly all my lunchtimes in the school library reading room this year. I spent nearly all my afterschool afternoons in that library as well, mostly around exam seasons. I spent almost all my weekends at Uni General Library or Kate Edgars. And you know what? I never even minded. I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. Of course, much of the time I would be talking to people or on FB or slacking so maybe that's why I didn't feel overwhelmed by the lack of social interaction. I hung out with people in classes which was basically just as good as at lunchtimes. Maybe it wasn't the best way to spend my final year of high school but it was great for me.

Final thing: I learnt how to handle rejection. I'm so good at it now to the point where I'm kinda concerned I'm bordering on apathy. I guess it's a bit of a negative thing -- I'm so surrounded by amazing people that I've subconsciously put myself down a lot and compared myself to others, but I've sickenly become accepting of it all. I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing now that I think about it. I'm still happy, I just don't expect much from the big dreams I have. I still take advantage of opportunities and I still give myself high standards. I'm just ready to accept disappointment if it does hit because I've become realistic of these huge dreams I've had for so long.

OK, let's move on to last year's resolutions and see how fabulously I've failed them

1. Prioritise your school work.

Well this is possible -- after all, I've chosen reading room over common room but thinking about it now, I think that's mainly because I no longer know how to work at home. Home is actually such a huge distraction, I don't even know where the time goes. I think Uni is going to be good though because hopefully it'll be a new environment (aka out of Auckland?? fingers crossed!) so I'll be refreshed and won't keep old habits. So this is probably a half-half: prioritised my school work at school, but not at home. Oh also I talked a lot in class (all Cerys's fault) so maybe that detracts some points...

2. Get all 7s in exams. Get above 2200 in SATs.

YAY HALF ACHIEVED! Got above 2300 in SATs however I got some atrocious SAT II scores. Also I definitely did not get all 7s in exams. (fuck u french) NEXT!

3. Prepare for exams at least two months before. 

Hah ah ah ah a ha ha h a ha nah

4. Go to bed before 12am every night

Oh past Vicky you were so naive

5. Arrive early at school and 6. Start using the mornings. 

You know what I actually did this quite well through Terms 1 and 2 but like everyone, I lost a whole heap of steam in Term 3 and basically came late to class every.single.day. My leaver's quote is "Sorry! I was stuck in traffic..."

7. Get over the obsession with older men. 

I actually just fucking cracked up at this oh my god how desperately I failed. 2014 has been an interesting year in the Lachie saga and on 1/1/15 I fucked it all up lol let us never talk about this again WE ARE MOVING ON (i have to because the mere thought of him makes me want to curl up in a ball and punch myself for my stupidity) DON'T ASK!!! NEXT!!!!

8. Read more books, especially ones that will change your life. 

Man these resolutions were unrealistic. I did not have time for that shit. I guess Top Girls was pretty ok.

9. Meet new people, make more friends, keep the ones that make you happy and make you want to be a better person.

OK so this year I definitely met a lot of new people. I think I should rename 2014 as the year of networking. At Rotary National Science & Technology Forum I met a huuuuge bunch of science nerds I'll probably continue to be well acquainted with in biomed next year if I stay in Auckland. They are all ridiculously smart and I swear I counted 12 FB Statuses of people getting Auckland Uni Scholarships (and those dont even include the people who didn't post on FB about it!!!) also I swear most of them are DUXs and/or Head Prefects. Similarly, from UN Youth I met a huge group of people who are all going to be power players in the law and political fields (I swear half of them are Head Prefects/otw to becoming Head Prefects).

I definitely became closer with other people through IB and I drifted slightly away from others because of IB as well. I'm probably not the best at maintaining friendships because of the whole library-oriented social life so I definitely need to work on this for next year, especially with so many people leaving Auckland for uni.

10. Help out around the house more often. 

Sorry I'm a shit daughter :(

11. Try to improve others' lives. 

Definitely didn't do as much service as I wanted to this year but shit I hope UN Youth counts for something because that organisation definitely has the potential to improve loads of peoples' lives at our school.

12. Understand that rejection isn't the end of the world. 

Niiiiiiiiiiiiice. (See above huge paragraph on rejection.)


OK now that we have half-assedly reflected on last year's resolutions, let's make this years!

1. Go out more (aka live a more balanced lifestyle away from the screen.)

Yes, I realise this is an odd resolution to put on the top spot. But I've realised how much time slows down when I'm out and about with friends, being active, seeing shit.

(anecdote) Just today, I spent 5 hours out with Faizah and Nicole and it felt like so much more than it would at home with me staring at my laptop trying to write my JHU essay and procrastinating on FB instead. There was one day in particular which was insanely long it felt like a week and it felt so good. This was on our final day of IB exams -- Finished around 10 in the morning, went home, went to Nicole's, went to NM to catch a ride with Faizah, went to Lauren's for a end-of-exams celebration (POPPIN DAT MOËT), went to the beach 2 minutes down from Laurens, went to town to watch Catching Fire (the screen went black 20 mins in lol faizah and I both had instant reaction of crawling under seat bcs we immediately both thought of Batman shootings) and then watched Mockingjay midnight premiere. It was a L O N G day that only felt that way because of how eventful it was. I want every day to be like that.

So yeah. I can easily waste 5 hours alone at home, not even doing anything productive. Or I could go out with friends bcs life will feel a lot longer and more memorable that way.

2. Study everyday -- be ahead of class.

This is mainly because of motherfuckin biomed. This can't even be a "oh so unrealistic" kinda thing -- this is like... A MUST. No matter where I go, Auckland, Aus, or USA, this is a thing I actually have to stick to if I don't want to fail all my goddamn classes. Time to get productive.

3. Use your mornings and STOP procrastinating sleep!??!?

oh my god this is so important like there is no way to get all that study done if you don't start getting up early to study! How you sleep is so fucking weird Vicky like you should put that in your applications because you are a goddamn individual in this sense and it is SO BAD.

4. Begin working out

Sigh, you were doing so well towards the end of 2014 and it kinda just... stopped. But you know what? Working out and getting fit and healthy will make you feel more confident over your own body bUT ALSO ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CAPABILITIES!!! Sports make you feel good so why the frick do you not do it more? Laziness is soooo not an option, plus UNI BOYS U WANT TO HAVE THE CONFIDENCE TO SATISFY UR THIRST U KNO WHAT IM SAYIN???????

5. Continue extracurriculars and continue to seek leadership roles

Since uni right now is unfamiliar terrain I'm sure you don't quite know what opportunities lie ahead of you. Whatever, grab all the opportunities you can and then really channel your energy onto 2 or maybe 3 of them. Do as many one-off service opportunities as you can because those never take too much time. Keep up these things as this is what you love -- being a part of things, being involved. Just because you have a rigorous course doesn't mean you have to give up what makes you you gurrrllll.

6. Keep up with friends

TBH I dont care how you do it -- lunch dates, facebook messages, twitter, whatever. You're shit at this and it's now as important as ever to make sure you don't lose those valuable friendships you've built over so many years.

7. Fake it till you make it: Make new friends

So you've had a bit of practice with this because of UN Youth but uni (mostly overseas) is pretty scary in the sense that yOU DON'T KNOW ANYONE!!! But tbh how is this "scary"? You love meeting new people and making new friends!!! You only think it's scary bcs it's the norm to think this is scary. All you need to fake is the confidence, and everything else will come smoothly along.

8. Take all opportunities

You know what? Email that professor about helping out in the lab. Talk to that person standing alone on campus. Join that club. Ask questions. Who cares that you're new? So is everyone else so fuckin inspire everyone to be as confident and determined as you.  OOH ALSO TALK TO THAT CUTE GUY YA HIM MAKE SOME EYE CONTACT GURL FLIP THAT HAIR

that reminds me....

9. For the love of God get over that certain choir director

SO MANY FISH IN THE SEA VICKY LET IT GO OH MY GOD

10. Journal More

May even start one on a different blog because this one is a little unsharable. But memories are so important and I really want to keep them stored somewhere. I won't daily blog, but I think I definitely should go back to recording significant events. Hell, I don't even have any posts about Grad or Leavers or anything!

AND OF COUUURSEEEEE HAVEEEE FUUNNN!!!! MAKE THE MOST OF 2015 WOOOH THIS IS THE START OF SOMETHING NEW IT'S EXCITING IT'S FULL OF POTENTIAL AND WE GON KILL IT, NO MATTER WHAT CONTINENT WE'RE ON!!! :D

motivation

Today we’re going to talk a little about motivation. I’ve currently made it to the middle of my holidays and let me tell you, out of the piles of work I have facing me these holidays I have done not one bit of it. I’ve pathetically “worked” on my TOK plan and done a couple UMAT drills, but I have achieved nothing of substance. The to-do list on my whiteboard is dismally uncrossed, unchecked, and unaccomplished.

“But it’s good that you’re having a rest! You’ve been working so hard!” I see two problems with this claim you’re giving me to feel better about myself. One, I haven’t even been enjoying my holidays. For the most part, I’ve slept it away. And not in a good way. I go to bed late and I wake up late. I go to bed late doing stupid unnecessary things like starting a movie at 1am or going on a trailer-watching binge on Youtube. I really don’t know how I manage to pull it off. The sun sets so fast, you can barely catch it. Two, I have not been working hard in the school term. I really haven’t. I’ve felt no sense of motivation for the latter part of Term 2 and it’s really just getting worse. I don’t know why I feel like this because unlike previous years, I didn’t have a successful run of mid-year exams to make me feel like I was safe and satisfied with where I was at. I did shit in mid-years (well, not shit, but not a 45). That should’ve motivated me. It didn’t.

I started off the year so great. I had weekly self-evaluations where I thought about how productive I had been that week and whether I had wasted too much time on unnecessary frivolities. Fuck, I even kept a scrapbook of my done-wells and could-improve-this-weeks.

I’ve lost the motivation and the drive that I so wholeheartedly emphasize in my applications and CVs. How do I get it back? I’ve told myself I need to get it back for so long but still have not done anything to actively look for it.

I am currently in a dense, dark forest tripping on twigs that I have laid down myself. Twigs that I yell at for being in the way whilst complaining about whoever laid down those twigs in the first place. How dare you shed your limbs, tree!!!! How dare I kick them directly into my own path!!!!

So I thought it was time to bring back something that has worked for me before. Chastising myself publicly on a semi-open forum, on the internet. Funny our generation, isn’t it?

I suddenly remembered last night that I had completely forgotten about “3 things”. I thought to myself: if I did ‘3 things’ today, what would I write about? I would write about my pretty-looking breakfast of breakfast at 2:30pm (though I put 3.5 tablespoons of baking powder instead of 3.5 teaspoons…). I would write about my brother chasing me around the house begging me to make a 3-minute brownie for him after I had JUST made one for my dad and one for myself. And I would talk about reading a painfully angsty (but delightfully so) novel on a whim (which I started yesterday at 4pm and finished at 3am).

Sidenote: the book was called Love, Rosie and I watched the trailer for the upcoming movie on youtube first and then decided to read it. The movie has Lily Collins and Sam Claflin so their faces stayed in my mind for the whole of my reading journey. The book is basically seven seasons of shitty day-time TV plotlines crammed into 450 pages which sounds awful but it was very enjoyable. You can read it here if you want: http://marimarister.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/cecilia-ahern-love-rosie.pdf

Anyway!!!! MOTIVATION!!!! Yes, well, the whole reason I brought up the “three things” thing is that if I looked back on that day, sure, I saw positives but it really was emphasized to me how little shit I actually accomplished. And lemme tell you, that was one of my most productive days of these holidays!!!!

So hello world, this is me (etc etc to tune of saddle club song) I am here to get myself motivated. I thought I could just write “goals of term 3 holidays” on my whiteboard and just motivate myself with that word: “goals”. “Goals” always sounds better than “assignments and other shit I actually have to complete”.

But now I need PROPER goals. Goals I can chip away at. How about we start here:

• ·      Wake up before 10am

There we’ve already got one that’s probably quite achievable! But in order to get that one done, we need this one:

• ·      Go to bed before 2am.

You might consider that late but I can’t write “go to bed before 1am” cuz it just aint gonna happen.

Here’s some I’m gonna have to make sure I stick to if I actually want to get shit done:

• ·      No more tv shows or movies unless it’s a weekend and before 9pm.
• ·      No facebook/twitter/youtube from 8am – 8pm

And here are some that are either going to be a bitch to maintain or actually be okay:

• ·      Minimum 45 minutes of UMAT practice everyday
• ·      Minimum hour work on EE everyday

It’s small, but I sure do hope it gets me going.

OK so let’s motivate ourselves here. What are we doing this all for? For our futures, goddammit!!!!! Why do we subject ourselves to self-loathing and feeling sluggish and gross for not doing anything when the answer is staring us right in the face?!?!?! GET OFF YOUR BUTT VICKY!!! The storm has passed, the sun is out, and the sky is fucking blue!!!! Why are you taking naps from 3pm to 6:30pm?? Why do you set an alarm at 9:30am and wake up at 12 instead?

I can’t keep calling myself hard-working if I don’t work. I can’t keep complaining about being unproductive and then not go and be productive!!! It makes no sense, and I don’t know what I’m doing it! It’s so fucking dangerous getting into a cycle of laziness because it’s so hard to crawl out of. Do you know why it’s hard to crawl out of? Because when youre that lazy, you don’t even fucking move, let alone crawl1!!!!!

I can’t keep dreaming about Harvard and Medical School and 45s if I don’t actually actively work for it!!! People are so hard working all around me! My parents, my friends, my teachers… so why am I still on my ass every night doing shit-all?

Youtube videos about motivation isn’t going to motivate you. No matter if it’s iiSuperwomanii telling you or Crashcourse psychology, motivation comes from inside you. You can’t drive yourself if you’re slamming on the brakes, if you’re refusing to touch the accelerator and if you’re too lazy to move your fat foot to change gears and stop freaking stalling!!!!

THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS TO DO AND SO MUCH YOU CAN ACHIEVE AND YOU HAVE TO START NOW OR YOU’LL COME CRYING BACK ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU COULD HAVE ACHIEVED AND HOW MUCH TIME YOU WASTED AND HOW MUCH YOU REGRETTED EVERYTHING!!!! BUT LIKE EVERYTIME, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CHANGE A THING!!!

There are still 11 days of holidays. Make up for the last 10 days of nothingness. You have an opportunity to make up for lost time. It’s not too late, it’s time to get your shit together and get serious about whether or not you really want it. Do you want it? You do, you tell yourself you do, you know you do, you tell others you do. But it’s moved to the back of your head and you think you’ll be able to get it without trying. You won’t. It’s as simple as that. You need to work to see results. You need to put your time and your sleep and your energy and your soul and your fucking BRAIN into that shit!!!! You will not be able to sail through this term, and these holidays, and the exam period like you’ve been doing in the past. You will not. Not if you want what you want. You can’t afford to be demotivated. You can’t start term 3 like you ended term 2. You can’t carry that mentality into term 3. People say shit about “there’s no such thing as ‘can’t’” and they are fucking wrong because you CAN’T KEEP PULLING THIS SHIT AND PULLING THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES!!!! YOU CAN-FUCKING-NOT.

There is such thing as can’t because there is such thing as “can” and you are going to open a “can” of whoop-ass on your work and stop fucking around ok

A busy few weeks

I HAVE SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED IM SO SORRY I HAVE NO IDEA HOW I'VE MANAGED TO NEGLECT THIS BLOG SO MUCH

I dont even want to go into detail into anything bcs i know it'll just make me drag out this blog post and never post it (see: ball blog post -- oh wait, u cant because i NEVER FINISHED IT AND IT'S JUST IN MY DRAFTS)

Okay so off the top of my head:

1. DRAGON BOATING TODAY!!!

WE WON (IN OUR HEARTS)!!!!!!!!!! technically we came third in the grand final but we came third to the two EGGS teams and they're crazy intense and train all year round and have trials and go to nationals and have won gold 15 years in a row so... alg. Came bronze last year as well. Today was so tiring wow!!! Got a ride with becca but was meant to be at her house at 6:25... except i slept fully through my alarm and woke up to my phone ringing at 6:45 with becca's mum wondering where i was and saying that she could pick me up from my house (she is such a gb omg she bought me two pain au chocolats i JUST????????)

once again the ZM guy said to us during the chant competition "this is the most attractive school" just like last year, and he was like "wouldn't mind coming across you guys on tinder" lmfao. pretty sure his prejudice led him to announce us as the "loudest school" at the end of the day and so we won a box of CDs hahahaha shweet (I managed to scramble up the eminem cd... which is better than the kim dotcom cd haha)

2. HOUSE FLOWERS ON FRIDAY!!!

omg this has been stressing me out (but nowhere near as much as it's been stressing anna out) we ended up doing a leprechaun and we fuCKING WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT?????????? I KNOW RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!! we actually were so efficient with building the structure and only stayed 2 hours after school wednesday and were finished by thursday lunchtime.

On the day Anna and I got there 6:15 and went down to the bus stop to take some of the totara (maybe?) in the frickin dark and thus commenced our very long day of patient flower/leaf weaving and placing into chicken wire. about two hours in we decided it looked really messy and a little shit so we restarted most of it (the 4 leaf clover base, the jacket of the leprechaun, the hat) making it so that it was singular leaves weaved in rather than branches of leaves.

we had a pot of gold (with 'gold' inside the pot that glowed due to the fairy lights placed inside) a leprechaun with a hat, beard, bowtie, jacket, pants, vest, and striped socks, standing on a four leaf clover.

the other houses did amazing sculptures as well, it was honestly one of the best house flowers in years. 

dunblane: lucky cat (with chocolate coins dangling in bg and on floor)

lindisfarne: day of the dead skull

melrose: anzac poppy commemorating 100th anniversary of ww1 (unabashedly sucking up lol)

durham: japanese fan with paper cranes and a really cute/heartbreaking story about a japanese girl

iona: indian elephant (with bark from junior school playground)

 york: sombrero (with orange + carrot hands and an 'Hola!" made up of carrot slices

kelso: russian dolls

anna and i were so shocked when we found out we won

it was awesome

3. World Vision Conference

THIS WAS SO AWESOME I'M SO GLAD I WENT OMFG IM SO PUMPED TO PROMOTE 40 HOUR FAMINE THIS YEAR OMFG I SWEAR I CRIED AT THIS CONFERENCE AT LEAST 5 SEPARATE TIMES AND FELT SO OVERWHELMED THROUGH THE MAJORITY OF IT OMG???? the presenters were so fucking funny and everything was so moving and touching and perfect. they got us to play this game with origami where we were placed into a country (i was ukraine woohoo) and they told us our goal was to survive by sustaining our land with enough farms (origami cows) and cities (origami houses) but we could also choose to expand our empire by building army trucks and buses. We expanded quite a lot and got to 30 different towns/cities/ports and invaded a lot of land (but not land with people!). It was funny when Russia was taken over by another country and there were russian refugees and we (ukraine) were like COME TO US!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha the presenters at the end were like "russian refugees were readily accepted by the ukraine team -- HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THE NEWS AT ALL LATELY???" but yeah we wanted more people in our team because it meant we could make the origami faster. in the end they were like; "what was the point of that exercise?" and after a few answers it was discovered that it was "to survive" except instead of that and being happy with our equal, resourceful pieces of land, we expanded and as a consequence, 10% of the population became refugees due to war. WE CREATED OUR OWN INEQUALITY, OUT OF PURE GREED AND BOREDOM JUST LIKE IN REAL LIFE. i sat there in shock while he revealed this omfg.

we were thinking this year of makign 40 hour famine a house event ^_^ more competition, more interest, more checkups.

4. MUFTI DAY

year13 dressed up as grannies and grandpas

6. this reenactment of the creation of adam with cerys using chicken feet in bio

ultimate high five hang

24/02/2014

So much has happened since my last update! I apologize for my negligence but I'm going to try really hard to keep this blog updated from now on. Basically last week was Athletics Day (which went pretty okay imo); a lot of practices for the Athletics Day house captain dance (I GOT HEAPS OF COMPLIMENTS AFTERWARDS FROM PPL BEING LIKE EH GURL U GOT MOVES and i was like omg u dnt knw how much that means to me consdering i cant dance for shit THX!!! also i had the luigi head on during the whole dance and couldn't see ANYTHING) and then i got a shitload of homework for the weekend.

O yeah speaking of the weekend, on saturday i went to an "alcohol awareness" conference because jo was desperate for ppl to go from service because apparently it would be helpful for our SADD project this year BUT LEMME TELL U IT WAS NOT HELPFUL AT ALL!! nevertheless i do not regret going because I got "best speaker/most enthusiastic participant/idk" and won a $30 westfield gift voucher aw yisssss!!!! Some ppl r real ignorant when it comes to drinking and the drinking culture tbh. omg we were discussing "ways to avoid the dangerous consequences of drinking" and suggestions included

• mentally training yourself to associate alcohol with your parents ie look at a bottle of alcohol and force yourself to think of your parents so that everytime you see alcohol u are guilted into thinking of your parents so that you're put off drinking AKA BRAINWASHING YOURSELF
• finding 'more responsible friends who won't drink/wont drink too much' aka giving up on the idea of having any friends at all
• avoiding situations where there is the possibility of getting drunk aka BEING AN ANTISOCIAL HERMIT

i was sitting there with faizah and both of us were DYING from how ridiculous some of the suggestions were o m f g

also, i went to geo schol and our topic for this year is urbanisation and i was like F YEAH MY BROTHER'S UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE IS PLANNING I CAN JUST ASK HIM FOR ADDITIONAL INFO 

anyway, moving on to today:

1. Athletics Day results announced in assembly. ELGIN CAME 5TH OUT OF 8 HOUSES FUCK YES NOT LAST, NOT SECOND TO LAST, NOT EVEN THIRD TO LAST!!! SO STOKED OMFG WE CAME LAST IN 2013 THIS IS SUCH AN ACHIEVEMENT!!! Also at assembly all the house captains sat at the front and we presented the newly-appointed year 6 house captains a quilted cute house banner thing and omg the house captain for elgin did like a downward-pulling-reverse-fist-pumping motion (omg i totally forgot whether or not it has a name but it's associated with the "FUCK YES" expression) and anna went to high five the girls while she gave them the banner and so i put my hand up for a high five as well AND IT HUNG FOR 2 SECONDS WITHOUT THEM SEEING IT AND IT WAS THE LONGEST 2 SECONDS OF MY LIFE BECAUSE I SUDDENLY REALISED THE HUGE POSSIBILITY OF ME BEING TOTALLY REJECTED FOR A HIGH FIVE AND HAVING THE WHOLE FREAKIGN SCHOOL WITNESSING IT but eventually they saw me and high fived but omfg lemme tell u ive never been that terrified in my whole life
2. at dragonboating we did 3 races with other stcc team and another team full of adults and we won all three fuck yeh. OH on the drive back i convinced my dad to let me drive and this is the FIRST TIME HE'S WITNESSED ME DRIVING and he let me go on the motorway and he was like SO IMPRESSED WITH HOW CAPABLE I WAS WITH DRIVING and he kept saying "u can so pass the restricted test" and im like AW YEEEEEEEEEEE (ps he is so much more chill in the car than my mum is hahaha i always thought my dad would be the freak-outer while i was driving)
3. i was so productive at home omg i only even opened my laptop at 11pm (which is when everything went downhill and i started distracting myself)

pls treat that hoe respectfully ie do not superman that hoe

18/02/2014

IT'S DIFFICULT TO BLOG WHEN U HAVE NO TIME
quickly:

1. house captain dance making it's got 2 slut-drops (yis ma forte) and i had to learn the soulja boy dance which im sure will come in useful in the near future
2. did SATs so im calling it a successful day even though im going to bed after midnight
3. stage challenge set is going to be so cool this year!!!!!!!!!!! first meeting today


last few days: lantern festival + cherry's bday dinner; costume shopping; luigi business + head;

s club 7

14/02/2014

1. First House Meeting

Motto of that first 30 minutes standing in front of 150 students is: fake it till u make it. Seriously, I started off nervous because u dont wanna fuck up and have that set the tone for you as a leader for the whole year and i caught myself saying something that made no grammatical sense and i was like wtf vicky SWITCH ON!!! Taught the house a new chant from forum and everyone seemed to like it and got quite into it and I'M REALLY HAPPY ABOUT HOW ENTHUSED EVERYONE SEEMED TO BE!!!! Overall wasn't a terrifying experience and I'm glad I got the first one over because I'll be a lot more comfortable up there from now on. I'm hoping I didn't come off as awkward because I absolutely hate seeing people standing up there being awkward because then i get secondhand embarrassment SO i've decided that next time i'm just going to be my normal excited self and not worry that they may find me embarrassingly enthusiastic because, after all, i warned them in my speech!
Speaking of House stuff, I think I've emailed Ms Evans (my dean) at least 10 times today omg. Anna and I have been made admin to the mpower page and I legit just spent my Friday night (ON VALENTINES) formatting and editing the mpower page wtf why do i have no life???

2. TOK

omg so TOK today was so intense and it went from discussing child abuse and parenting with some controversial opinions being raised and an atmosphere that nearly gave me heart palpitations to suddenly a topic which brought upon the funniest extracurricular proposal and the most i've laughed since school began!!! the TOK discussion made me think so much though and I think it shaped my moral compass a bit and god i love it when u actually feel something inside you shift and ur like hmm...
and then we began talking about the morality of selling sex (and our teacher told us not to mention this out of class since she'd get fired but considering how low key this blog is i think we're fine) and we were like psh ppl should be able to do what they want with their bodies and Mrs B was cracking up like THIS IS A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL OMG GIRLS!!! SHOULD WE JUST START A SEX CLUB!??!!??! FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITIES!!!! CAS!!!!! ST CUTHBERT'S SEX CLUB!!! and i think multiple people nearly pissed themselves laughing o m f g

3. Valentines day

Prefects did an A+ job (best prefect team at stcc ever tbh) and stuck internet funny valentines memes all around the school and played love song/valentines themed music before school incl hsm and justin timberlake and much of the classics and had a little dance party going on in the atrium hahaha. Then at lunchtime they did a "kissing booth" that involved no kissing but a game where u guess which celebrity that picture of a mouth belongs to, and if u get it right, u get a lolly! oh and some of them wore AGS uniform. And they went around the quad and stuff playing music and dancing.

EXTRA 4. History Tea Party
MS FRENCH BROUGHT A TEA TRAY WITH TEA AND BISCUITS AND WE HAD A LITTLE TEA PARTY IN HISTORY BECAUSE WE'RE STARTING WORLD WAR 1!

Leading GREEN TEAM

13/02/2014

Fun fact:

In Year 7, I tried for House Captain at Mt Roskill. It was one of the only legit leadership positions available at intermediate. I wrote an amazing speech, thought I was relatively popular, and had people I barely knew come up to me afterwards saying they'd voted for me.

I really thought I would get it.

But I didn't get House Captain that year. And I... was... devastated. It was the end of the world. I thought: what's the point if I spend the whole important year of Y8, leaders of the school, as a nobody?

That, combined with me being put into the worst teacher in the world's class for year 8 was all too much for my 12 year old brain and heart to handle. I cried at morning tea and I wasn't the only one who was majorly upset about their Y8 class. It really sucked. My parents sympathized. My dad made a call to St Cuth's and they gave me an interview time.

If you think about it, it all turned out for the better.

*~*~*~every closed door opens a new window*~*~*~

I came to St Cuths, and I sat in quiet new-girl shyness as I watched as Anna and Liv R and others do their house captain speeches on green cue cards in 8WA. I remember the first day of St Cuths where Mrs Walls got us to do a writing exercise comparing the art of writing to gardening. I remember discussing this topic and reading my mini dissertation out to the class from my silver sparkly durasealed not-even-a-1B5. I remember telling my dad in the car when he picked me up that for once, I actually felt like I had learnt something at school. It had been so long (a whole year of wasting my time at roskill as I was left to do independent study on topics I had mastered already while the teacher neglected me) since I had felt like I had learnt something. It's true that any sane person wants to be challenged. Sure you enjoy breezing through everything in the beginning but after a while, you want to use your brain for something.

But I digress. I still remember Liv in her green tutu. I remember digging around my mum's wardrobe for green clothes for athletics day. I remember wearing a maxi skirt as a cape and being "leaf girl" while Sarah-Ann Hardacre wore stapled leaves to her shirt and she determined she was "tree woman" or something like that.

Superheroes became a theme for the years in the senior school in which I brought my ever-popular Hulk gloves. My brother's, really, but I use them more than he does (or ever will) at this point.

And I just spent about an hour researching costume sites trying to find an epic costume for this year because not only am I year 13 (hence, time to go all out for all school events) but---

wait for it...

I'M HOUSE CAPTAIN!

*FIREWORKS*

*explosions in the distance*

*sudden screaming*

*a baby wails*

*sirens approaching*

*screaming escalates*

See how everything just went full circle there?



So, onto our three things:

(before I start this actually I'm going to point out that I've found myself dangerously hovering along the edge of a cliff that overlooks a pit of negativity and shittiness -- and it's only 2nd week back -- so I'm glad this high has come right in time to swoop me from the precipice and back into the sunshine!)

1. the house captain thing

alrighty, so elaine gave faizah a call saying that faizah got service committee and she mentioned my name too but she didn't know what i got so izzy ran into the bio class (this was after school had just finished) and was like U GOT SERVICE LEADER and i was like omg wait what????? and obviously rather taken aback bcs i did not know where this had come from and didnt want to get my hopes up in case it was false information. I then went to library where i got a text from cherry saying a lot of things in caps lock and something along the lines of CONGRATS ON ELGIN HOUSE CAPTAIN!!! and i was like ?????????????? how do u know what is happening PLS EXPLIQUEZ SVP!!!! and apparently there was a meeting that our p6 teachers were supposed to tell us about (DIEGS!!!!!) at 3:20 in the staff room where they read out the committee/house leaders' roles. Hearing this rather reliable source of information that is when I started freaking out and celebrating and Cerys and Nadia were there and were freaking out with me and I think we freaked out some other students in the library but in a different "freak" to our freak....

I'M REALLY HAPPY THAT SO MANY OF MY FRIENDS AND SO MUCH OF IB GOT LEADERSHIP ROLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I ENJOY CELEBRATING MY OWN ACCOMPLISHMENTS SO MUCH MORE IF I CAN CELEBRATE OTHERS' ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT THE SAME TIME LET US ALL SUCCEED TOGETHER!!!!!!

2. WIT

I had my meeting with Ms Moy after school (before cherry's text and after elaine's call where i was confused) and we had our discussion and she had very little to correct from my WIT essay and it was all just grammatical things involving preopositions and I'M SO HAPPY BECAUSE I CAN BASICALLY FORGET ABOUT WIT FROM NOW ON OMG YES 20% OF ENG GRADE DONE AND DUSTED!!!! 

Also we discussed my surgery lol finally she acknowledges it. Speaking of which I ran into ms ballenden coming down the stairs and I waved and she waved and went really " :O :D " on me and was liek "IS THAT VICKY OH I THOUGHT IT WAS U " and i was like YAH but like i said hi to her yesterday so she obviosuly didnt recognize me there hahahaha and we had a chat about our holidays and my surgery as well. Raaya this segment was for u xoxo

3. Creepy Texts

I'm sure izzy wont mind me blogging about this since i have a very limited audience, but we were discussing her relationship w boyf at lunch and so we thought we'd try to creep him out and so she gave me his number and i've been sending texts a la the "u have now subscribed to cat facts" meme (if u havent seen it, GO AND CHECK IT OUT HERE: http://weknowmemes.com/2012/01/thank-you-for-signing-up-for-cat-facts/ )

But instead it's like "you have now subscribed to Daily Bigio updates" and then a sneaky-stalker-shot of Izzy from far away as she feigns doing work/being unaware of my camera. It is FAB i tell u. 

I have choir tmrw and it's nearly 1am and i'm going to DIE