Journal 79

     I was at my home for the whole day. I did my final project. In the morning, my mother went to my grandparents’ house, and my brother went to down town with his friends. I stayed at home alone. There were something good happened in my Christmas break, but there were also something bad happened too. Although I had some friends from current seniors, I still preferred to share my personal stuff to my friends from last year. I thought that I trusted them more. I spent two hours read novel this morning. Actually, it didn’t attract me a lot. I wasn’t sure whether I had enough time to finish it or not. I went out around 11:30 a.m. and got the things which I bought online from 7-11. I bought three clothes and two pairs of pants. I ate my lunch while watching TV. I went to my bedroom and started to do my final project until 2:00 p.m. My mother came back just before dinner time; my brother came back just before my mother. I didn’t go anywhere today. Today was a little bit boring. I hoped that I could have more time to stay with my friends because they go back to colleges soon.

Journal 78

     I didn’t wake up early in this morning because I went to bed at almost 2:00 a.m. I was skype with Rachel last night. We talked about some personal stuff. I told her my secret when she called me last night, and then she also told me that she wanted to share something with me. Therefore, we chatted online for around two hours. I hadn’t share personal stuff with my friends for a long time. Although I had some current senior friends, I was not as close with them as with Rachel. I knew her for more than five years, so we definitely understand each other. I did share some personal secrets with current friends, but I didn’t tell them all. It didn’t mean that I didn’t trust them. To me, I would only share things, which were very important to me, to some particular people. I might felt uncomfortable if I shared my personal things to too many people though they were my friends. Rachel was the person who I could trust. We both faced the same problem yesterday, but our problems were still a little different. Although she might not be the person help me to solve the problem, I felt better after I talked to her.

 

Journal 77

     Our after party was continued to this morning. I just met a person in this party. He was the person who I hadn’t seen him for a year. We hadn’t talked to each other for a long time, so when we met each other I felt that I met a stranger. I was not as familiar with him as before. Although we still could chat and talk to each other, the feeling I got was totally different from before. I told myself that at least we started to communicate and made contact with each other. This was the first time that I had a friend, who was extremely closed with me, brought me this such kind of feeling. I kept talking myself that I should think in this way because it was not that bad. We were still friends. I went home around 11:30 a.m. and I ate lunch with Esther in a 7-11 which was located at my village. I also chatted a lot. I told her about my feeling. I really wanted to stop missing him because I didn’t want to live in this way. Life must go on. I thought that it was time for me to rethink about my final decision.

 

 

Journal 76

     When I woke up this morning, I was excited and nervous because today is Alumni Party. Many people who graduated from PAS would come to this party. They shared both their academic and social lives in colleges. I already bought two dresses before the part. One of them was pink; the other one was black. I wondered that which one I should wear. The pink one was shorter and looked like a party dress. The black one looked formal and I didn’t need to worry whether it was too short or not. I put on my make up first, and then tried both dresses and found out which one was more suitable. Finally, I chose the black one because the pink one was not formal enough. After I finished my make up, I went to Rachel’s house first. I was there to wait for her putting on her make up. Her dress was black too, but it was shorter than mine. Actually, Rachel’s dress was a shirt not a dress. When we arrive at Ambassador Hotel, I suddenly found that there were only few people there. Not many people came to this party, but we still had good time tonight. It was not over when the party ended because we had an after party event!

Journal 75

     What date is today? Today is December 25^th. Today is Christmas! I wanted to go out with my friends, but everyone had different plan. Therefore, I plan to celebrate Christmas with her this year. In this morning, I did my environmental science’s homework. It was a little complicated but was not that hard. By the way, I watched a movie, Sherlock Holmes, with my family yesterday. It was so great, especially the ending part. I haven’t watched movies with my family in movie theater for a long time. I had a dinner with Rachel tonight. I invited her to a restaurant which was near my house. I took lots of pictures and had a wonderful time. She shared something of her first college life to me. I suddenly realized that even though an art student still had lots of works to do. She said that she slept only two hours or less during midterm and final term weeks. After we finished dinner, she came to my house. My parents and brother went to another restaurant, so there were only Rachel and I in my house. My parents came home later. Rachel and I chatted a lot. I really wanted to stay with her because she was the only one person who I could trust in PAS.

Journal 74

     I really wanted to buy a new wallet. I didn’t find it when I was in Hong Kong. Some were too expensive; some were too childish. I reached some online today and finally found one which attracted me a lot. It was not that expensive, so I decided to buy it. I watched a Chinese drama this morning. It was very intense. My mother ate lunch with her friend, and my brother had a basketball game today. Therefore, I had to eat lunch alone. I had no more college applications, but I was very nervous about waiting the results. I suddenly felt nothing to do after college application. Recalling what I did today, I could only remember that I met with my friend at night market tonight. They all just came back from the United States and Canada, so they missed Taiwanese foods a lot. That was why we met at night market because they want to “eat”. We hung out until 10:30 p.m., and then we went home. Although we only saw each other for a short time, we cherished the time we met and had fun. Friends are forever. They are my best friends in my life. I think that I gonna miss them after they leave Taiwan.

 

Journal 73

      met Esther and Rachel this afternoon. This was the first time that I met them after they came back from the States and Canada. In the morning, I continued the fill out the online applications until three o’clock at the afternoon. I felt so excited to see them because we haven’t seen each other for a long time. As a senior, I didn’t have my social life for around six months. I didn’t go to movie theater, go shopping, and hang out with my friends. Today was the first day that I went to down town during my senior year. I suddenly felt relaxed. Esther and I went to Fe21 buy the tickets. The main actress in the movie was my favorite one-Ariel Lin. She is a famous Taiwanese actress. I have known her since I watched the drama “Kiss” when I was in seventh grade. Rachel and Esther haven’t gone to Hsinchu’s down town after they came back, so they were so excited when they ate Taiwanese foods and saw the local shops. I felt that there were two crazy people around me. They kept telling me that I will be like them after I go to college next year. I really had a great time with them today.

Journal 72

     I slept until almost nine o’clock in the morning because I went to bed at two o’clock in the morning. I felt tired today. Probably because I just came back from Hong Kong. I had four more online applications and one more envelope needed to send out. My plan was to send out all the online applications and tests score today. The result of the TOEFL test, which I took two weeks ago, was available yesterday. I was very nervous before I log in my account. I hoped that I could get at least “at least” 90 or 95. After I click the “Test Scores”, I covered the total scores fist, and then started from the writing score. OMG!!! I improved my score! Although my score was not good enough, I was glad that I did improve. Writing score was the highest; however, my reading was still weak. I chatted with three people online at the afternoon, and checked my facebook. I haven’t use my facebook for a long time. I told myself that I must finish all the applications first, and then use facebook. At night, I filled out the rest four online applications and sent them out. That was a meaningful moment in my life.

Journal 71

     Today was my last day in Hong Kong. My mother said that she wanted to visit Hong Kong University. This school was very big and I saw students from different countries that were very diverse. I had to go to another place, so we didn’t spend too much time at Hong Kong University. I didn’t buy anything in the first two days. However, today was my shopping day. I only bought a shirt and a jacket. My mother said that the clothes I bought in Hong Kong were cheaper that Taiwan. We only spent three days at Hong Kong, so we went and visited many place a day. I thought that the last day was the busiest one. Maybe I didn’t sleep last night, so I had headache at the afternoon that was very uncomfortable. People who smoke in public are also made me felt even worse because I was unable to have fresh air. Our flight was nine o’clock at night. I didn’t eat anything in the plane. I slept until we arrived at Taiwan. After a short nap, I felt better. My brother said that the dessert was cheese cake which was my favorite cake, but I missed it. Overall, this trip was very good.

 

Journal 70

     The day after Winter Dance, Saturday, was my family trip in Hong Kong. This was the first time that I went to Hong Kong. We spent three days there. My mother went to Hong Kong last December too and she said that we might have chance to go this year because winter break was only two weeks. It only took an hour and half from Taiwan to Hong Kong. Actually, there was no big difference between Hong Kong and Taiwan. To me, the buildings and environment were extremely different. I could only see skyscraper there. The roads were not flat there, so walking too long would be very tired. I really like the style of the hotel we lived. Besides shopping, I thought that the most important thing in Hong Kong was “eat”. There were lots of restaurants here and each of them had it own style. Every meal I ate in Hong Kong was way more than what I ate in Taiwan. I felt that I spent a lot of time eating. Desserts were very delicious too. Although I only spent three days in Hong Kong, I felt relaxed and excited because I just finished my college application. I miss the foods in Hong Kong now.

 

Journal 69

    Finally! Finally! Finally! We had done all the performance today. Although I had only two performances, I needed to memorize many steps that were totally different. For senior class, we divided our performance into three parts. It contained girl’s group, boy’s group, and all together. Except for boy’s group, I was in other two groups. I didn’t worry the girl’s dance because we practiced a lot, and we were all doing during the practices. However, cheerleading was the one that I worried the most. We not only had less time to practice but also had problem to memorize the steps. Our coach was too busy to come last Sunday which was the day that we first time dance the whole thing. Yesterday when we practiced, no one was hundred percent about the rhythm, so we didn’t practice anything. Our problem was solved until the coach found his student to help us. His student arrived at school around 1:00 p.m. this afternoon and practice with us. Overall, today’s performance was good though I made some small mistakes. At least we made it! It was so surprised to see that our cheerleading finally succeeded during the performance. This was the first time that I was a flyer.

 

Journal 68

     I was not happy today. PAS’s Christmas performance is tomorrow, so we went to Science Park to rehearse. All classes schedule were changed to short period that only 45 minutes per each class. I am not good at using computer, so I didn’t really enjoy in Adobe Photoshop class. Although today’s class was in short period, teacher still wanted us to do a project, which was hard for me. We needed to cover the skills which teacher taught us last time and send the file to him before the end of the class. I almost forgot the skills. Our project was to create a Christmas card. I researched some pictures online and started to think about the structure of the card. The most difficult skill was called “vector.” I totally had no idea about this skill. I kept asking the person who sat next to me how to do because I was afraid that I was unable to finish the project for the class was ended. I did create a card, but it was not perfect. I only got 80 for this project that really hurt my grade. I had a unit exam for AP Human Geography tomorrow, so I probably will stay late tonight.

 

Journal 67

     Christmas performance is coming soon, so each class practices after school. I like this year’s dance because the style of dance can really show our energy. However, I just felt that some people of this class didn’t very care about this only few people would attend on time. I was afraid that we might forget or make some mistakes during the performance because we didn’t have enough practice. I thought that this class lacked cooperation and participation. Many people attend late but left first. How this attitude was. I felt that some people were not really busy. They just found excuses to show that they didn’t have time to practice. Two days after was the performance day. I couldn’t imagine that whether we could make the performance great or not. Today was the first time that we ran through the whole performance. Majority people were still not familiar with the schedule. We practiced from 3:30 p.m. to around 5:00 p.m., but the boy’s and girl’s dance group stayed until dinner time, around 6 or 7 o’clock. This year I had to perform three types of dance. Sometimes I forgot the steps because they were totally different style. I hoped that our performance could be perfect.

Journal 66

     Both Doraemon and Hello Kitty are from Japan. They are famous cartoons in Taiwan. I still remembered that I watched Doraemon’s cartoon on television almost everyday during dinner time. Each time after I watched the cartoon, I always told my mother that wanted to have a Doraemon in my life too. Doraemon and Hello Kitty share some similarities. For example, they lose some parts of their appearances. Doraemon misses his ears on his head; Hello Kitty misses her mouth on her face. Both of them don’t have fingers and toes. On the other hand, they do have some differences between each other. Doraemon only has one sibling-his younger sister; Hello Kitty has a group of family members. In cartoons, Doraemon’s mission is to help and take care of his owner. Hello Kitty doesn’t have any mission in the cartoon. I think that Doraemon’s and Hello Kitty’s personalities are totally different. To me, Doraemon symbolizes a critical thinker; Hello Kitty symbolizes a naive person. Both of them play important roles in children’s memories. Compare the audience of these two characters, most fans of Hello Kitty are girls because it is pink and romantic. However, the audience of Doraemon can be both children and adults.

 

Journal 65

     Last Friday I met Irene on the hallway before I walked into my homeroom. I hadn’t worn my glasses yet, so I thought that Irene was Melissa. Until I walked closer to Irene, I just found that she was Irene not Melissa. When I met both of them at locker area during lunch time, we chatted about this event together with them in Chinese. I speak Chinese unconsciously because it is my native language and then I feel more comfortable to speak it. I think that it is easier for me to communicate in Chinese, and even if I fluent in another language, I still want to go back to my native language when I can. It is just normal. However, we are not supposed to speak Chinese in school because we study in American school not Taiwanese local school. If we keep speaking Chinese, we won’t have any chance to improve our English ability. My better skill of speaking English might improve my listening because I have to understand the meaning of words first. The weak speaking skill of English won’t help me to succeed in college anymore. As reading, listening, writing, and speaking are related to each other, I should practice all of them rather than parts of them.

Journal 64

      We watched a movie in History of American Music class on last Friday and this Tuesday. The movie was talking about a famous rock and roll musician, Johnny Cash. The whole movie was directed by Johnny’s son, and the story was completely true. Before I watched this movie, I had no idea who was Johnny Cash, and why he was famous. Although teacher had already introduced him in class, it would be easy to know more about him by watching movie. I liked the end because it was touched. I believed that Johnny Cash’s life seemed very significant to himself. Today we had a quiz for this movie. I thought that I got all the questions correct. I didn’t fall into sleep or missed any part of the movie, so I knew all the questions. I just checked my veracross ten minutes ago, and I got 5.8 out of 5.0 because I also answer the bonus question correct. My average grade for this class was 87, but I hoped that I could get at least 90 before final. Therefore, I must get 90 or higher on the next quiz. Oh! Next week was the last week before winter break. I can’t wait for it!

Journal 63

     I felt not comfortable within this week because the weather was too humid. Majority floors in my house were wooden made, so I could clearly see the footprints on the ground if the weather was humid. The news said that it would be very cold this weekend. The temperature was approximately 10°c. Next week was a very busy week. Thursday was PAS’s Christmas Performance and the deadline of college application. Friday was one of the student’s events, Winter Dance. I was busy this week too because I had a TOEFL test this Saturday. I did reading and listening practices everyday in order to improve my grade. I didn’t have much homework today, so I wanted to finish BU’s short essay today. If I could, my essays might be finished by the end of this Friday. I asked Esther to edit some of my essays because I couldn’t ask for help from the teachers in PAS. My UC’s essay was edited by Esther, and its idea was approved by teacher too. Therefore, I thought that Esther was able to provide suggestions. She was good at writing that she could totally express the feelings I wanted. The reason was that maybe she studied in psychology, so she could quickly understand what I was thinking about.

Journal 62

     I went to bed at 1:00 a.m. today, so I was very tired. Actually, I could sleep at around 12:00 p.m., but I tried to get more homework done as I could last night because we needed to stay at school to practice our Christmas performance. I had TOEFL test on the weekend again. I really hoped that this was the last time I took TOEFL test, so I must get at least 100 for the overall grade. Therefore, I found both reading and listening practices online. I did one reading passage yesterday, and I was so surprised to find that I got all the questions correct. I couldn’t believe that. For college stuffs, I just finished a short essay last night. There were still two essays which I had to work on. One was Boston University’s short essay; the other one was Michigan State University’s essay. They were be finished by the end of this week. I started the BU one today. Although I tried my best to do everything well, I still worried about whether I could get into the school which I want or not. I worried about my future. I worried about my life in college. I worried about my current school works. However, I kept telling myself that I should clam down myself and got everything done as soon as possible.

 

Journal 61

     I am willing to share my story to other people, but I also worry whether I make each plot clearly enough or not. I think that I am not a good writer because I don’t know how to elaborate the story more vividly. Therefore, I am afraid to tell my own story in front of public. I do have experience to tell story to other people before. The audience was my younger cousins. They usually pick a storybook and ask me to tell the story for them when we met. I am able to use different voices and tones because I feel no pressure to tell story to my cousins. Sometimes, I can even act vividly in order to let them understand the story. However, the situation is different when classmates are my audience. I might feel pressure coming toward me. On the other words, I don’t feel confident about my story because there might be some mistakes or unclear parts. The story is made by me, so I definitely know the whole story. Not all people understand the details of story as I do. Everyone has different point of view. I think that it is a god way to share my story to other people in order to find the mistakes.

 

Journal 60

     I had an environmental test on Friday last period. The test included two chapters, but I only studied one of them at Thursday night. I planned to study for the other one during Friday’s study hall period. I thought that I didn’t well prepare for this test, so I worried that I might not get a good grade. However, I just check my veracross that I got 18 out of 20. That was not bad. On Saturday, I went to school around 3:00 p.m. to do a project with Karen. Some seniors stay at school to work on their essays, but I chose not to write my essay at school because there was too noisy. I wanted to finish my homework by the end of Saturday, but I still left two. After Sports Day, I finished these two in around four hours. Yeah! Let’s talk something about today’s Sports Day. I participated in four events with my enthusiastic spirit today, 100 meter dash, 200 meters relay, legged jump, and tug of war. Relay was always my favorite event during sports day, but I preferred 100 meter relay. I couldn’t believe that I won the second place of 100 meter dash, and our team, Blue Team, won the first place of both 100 and 200 meters relay. Although our team didn’t have as strong spirit as Yellow and Green teams, I did my jobs during every activity.

 

Journal 59

     I almost finished my college essays. I left only two short essays because I didn’t know how to express and show my feeling in short essays. One of them should be no more than 1000 characters; the other one should not be more than 750 characters. I had no idea how to start these two. Some people felt that short essay was easier to write than long one. On the other hand, I preferred to write long essay that I was able to totally say what I want. I set a deadline for these two essays by the end of this Saturday. By the way, I supposed to take SAT reasoning test on that day, but I thought that I had to focus more on the TOEFL test. I decided not to take the December SAT. However, some people suggested me to take the test; some told me not to take. I was so confused that whether I should take the test or not. After I got some people’s suggestions, I still decided to ask Ms. Pamela. She said that TOEFL is extremely to international students, so I should focus more on it. Therefore, I won’t take SAT reasoning on this Saturday.

Journal 58

     Why people are crazy about someone or something? The reason might because the person or thing is attractive that is also similar to stories. Some people like romantic story, but some prefer tragedy story. The supporters or fans of a story depend on its type. My story is simple and straight ford, so children who below the age of 10 might be my major audience. The whole characters in my story are children and some activities which are only for them. Teenagers might think that my story is not mature and childish because teenagers tend to read more romantic or deeper level stories than those of children. My audience can be both boys and girls. I do focus on children’s lives. Moreover, I think that teachers probably are parts of my major audience. It is easier for children to learn lessons through stories than to teach lessons from text books. For example, the lesson from “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Seven Little Sheep” is talking about that we can’t let strangers into our horses without parents’ permission. Children can understand the situation quickly and clearly by learning a lesson from a story. Therefore, I think that both children and teachers are the main audience of my story.

 

Journal 57

     What did I do today? I sent out my first college application’s envelop. This school is Rutgers, the States University of New Jersey. Its deadline is earlier than most schools’ which I apply. I sent UC’s online application on last Saturday and Rutgers’s yesterday. SAT scores were also sent yesterday. I worried about my TOEFL’s score because people, who got the same SAT reasoning test’s score, got over 90 or even 100 on their TOEFL tests. I still didn’t get over 90. TOEFL is very important for international students, so I must get a high score. My goal for TOEFL’s score was at least 95. I really hope that I could get 25 on reading, listening, and writing sections. I knew that my SAT’s reading score was not high enough which meant that TOEFL’s reading was extremely important to me. I would still send the November’s score to UC and Rutgers, but I booked the December one too. I will send the December test result right after I receive the score. Only two weeks left for college application. We needed to finish all essays by the end of this week. I had around 2 to 4 essays to write. I thought that I could finish them on Thursday.

 

Journal 56

     I talked about the same story which I mentioned few weeks ago. I like to write a story and create settings, characters, plot elements, and dialogs for my own story. I always enjoy about the story which I made because I put all my creativities and imaginations to the story. However, I am not good at narrowing down a general idea to small details. I think that I haven’t prepared enough to write my story. My setting, characters, and plot elements are good, but I am not sure how to write vivid conversations for my characters. Sometimes when I put conversations into the story, I probably talk too many small details and make the audience feel bored. For example, I would focus on some tiny conversations which are not very important, but I worry that readers might not understand well if I don’t provide enough information. Therefore, I haven’t ready to share my story to other people yet. I create five parts of a plot-exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. I also make some details for each part of the plot. I think that I have idea for every plot, but I don’t know how to connect all of them into a story. The connection should be very clear or readers might get confused.

 

Journal 55

     This Friday was PD day, so students didn’t need to go to school. Seniors still needed to go to school at eight o’clock in the morning. I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and arrived at school around 8:30 a.m. I worried about my UC’s essay because I hadn’t finalized by Ms. Pamela yet. Before I sent the first draft of this essay to any teacher, I sent it to Esther. She gave me some comments and corrected some grammar mistakes. I was not good at completely expressing my feeling. I told about what was my idea to Esther, and she provided her opinion to me. She was the biggest helper for this essay because she totally knew what I wanted to say. I added her comments and sent it to the assigned teacher. By the way, Melissa also provided me some her comments. After I double check the UC essay, I asked Ms. Pamela to look at it. I was so nervous when she read my essay because I didn’t know whether the structure was right or not. When I heard, “The structure is okay. You can send this draft to me now”, I sent my essay immediately to her and she finalized right after her first revise.

 

Journal 54

     Yesterday and today were seniors’ busy days. We needed to print out school profile, transcript, recommendation letter, teacher evaluation form, counselor form, and certificate. Every single school needed each file, so I had to print out ten copies for all of them. I felt guilty when I printed these files because I cut lots of trees! I thought that I have already printed over one hundred pieces of paper. I applied twelve schools, but UC’s schools could be count in one. They shared the same online application, and I didn’t need to prepare an envelope for it because I would send it if I get into the school. I stayed at school until 7:40 p.m. yesterday. I got almost copies I needed and put them into envelopes. This was the process that I didn’t participate last year. It meant a lot to me. Although it was very tired to do these college application stuffs, I believed that I would miss this experience a lot in the future. I saw many students’ parents helped them to print files or write mailing address. My mother wouldn’t do this for me because she thought that this was my future. I had responsibility to handle all the stuffs.

 

Journal 53

     Everyone has different perspectives and point of views even to the same event. People tend to support the side which they believe and oppose the side which they disagree with. I don’t like to make any comment or judgment on anyone because that is just my own thought. I only share my point of view if it is necessary. Sometimes I don’t want to hurt any side’s view, so I usually stay neutral. It is clear to see my personality that I don’t like conflict. However, I also face some problems with this kind of attitude. For example, I don’t really know what I should do when two of my friends have a conflict. The most memorable one was happened two years ago. (A represent one of my friends and B represents the other one.) They had a conflict because A thought that B should share all her personal things to her because they were close friend. No one should keep any secret from each other. On the other hand, B felt that some personal stuff was able to share with friends but some were not. Both of them complained about each other to me, but I didn’t know I should believe in which side of point. That is why I only provide my point of view if needed.

 

Journal 52

     Today is November 22. Eight days after is the deadline of UC’s schools. I finally finalized my essay by teacher, but no by Ms. Pamela. The final version from her was the really “final” one. I paid more attention on college application after I took SAT reasoning test in Oct, so I didn’t do many SAT practices. The next reasoning SAT test is on next Saturday. I hope that I can get over 1900 on next test. When I heard Kyle said that the SAT score which we took in November was available today, I was so surprised because I totally forgot it. Few minutes ago just after I finished my homework, I slowly login my collegeboard’s account and click the score link. 730!!! I couldn’t believe my score when I saw it. I left six blanks on math II test, so I worried that I probably couldn’t get over 700. However, the result was 730. I told my brother immediately. The only test score that I worried about was TOEFL. I took it a week ago, but the result was not available yet. I had to get at least 95 this time or I had to take it again.

 

Journal 51

     Some people say directly what they want to say. On the other hand, some people choose to talk around the subject. The way how I talk to others depends on the subject and people. I can directly talk to the people who I am familiar with. Sometimes I can only talk around the subject to the people who I am not really familiar with because I feel uncomfortable to talk to them. There is a short conversation between one of my close friends and me just few days ago. (“A” would represent my friend and “B” would represent I in the following conversation. ) B: “I just skype with a senior, my best friend, from last senior.” A: “Are you still good friend now?” B: “Of course. We have sent messages to each other since she went to the States.” A: “Oh……okay……I just think that an eternal friendship is impossible.” B: “Why? Don’t you have any best friend?” A: “No. I don’t really share my personal stuffs to my friends ever.” I was so surprised when I heard this from him, but I could feel that he said this to me because we have known each other for over three years. If we were not “friend”, he might not share his perspective to me.

Journal 50

     I changed my UC essay topic again because I thought the original one didn’t really fit into the topic. I discussed with other people first, and then started to write a new one. In this essay, we needed to describe the worlds we come from and how our worlds have shaped our dreams and aspirations. The range of this topic was very broad. Some people wrote about their academic interests. On the other hand, some decided to write about how the things, other than academic. I chose the second one because I had a story to fit that one. We could focus on only one part from our family, community, or school. School, educational system, was the one I chose. I briefly talked about I have grown up in Taiwan with a highly competitive educational system, so academic standing seemed to be the most important part in students’ lives. However, I didn’t really stand out on my academic area since I was young. Compared to my unremarkable result of academics, field of dancing has created another outcome and another world for me. Later, I faced a big frustration in my dancing field. The failed experience hurt me a lot, but it has shaped my aspiration to dance passionately and confidently again no matter the dance style was difficult for me or not.

Journal 49

     I finally finished my UC’s prompt 1 essay. I spent a lot of time to work on this essay because the topic was hard to development. The topic was: Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations. I had no idea what should I write when I first time saw this topic, so I researched some information about how to write this essay online. Majority of analysis said that the key words of this topic were “or” and “dreams and aspirations”. We couldn’t provide more than one background information instead we could only pick one from family, community, or school. If the writers focused more than one of them, they might definitely out off topic. I thought very carefully before I started write this essay. I used a personal story in for this essay. My cousin, Jhe-Yu, was the main point in the story. Jhe-Yu was diagnosed as an autistic kid in his early childhood. Compare with other cousins, I didn’t have a close relationship with him before deeply knowing what Autism was. He only followed his own thought and did whatever he wanted through his disability to control his emotions and behaviors. Sometimes I felt tired of his restricted and repetitive behaviors, so the time I spent with him was less than other children.

Journal 48

     Two days pass, I still couldn’t find a good topic to write my UC’s essay. I planned to finalize this essay today, but I didn’t make it. I felt badly that I missed the deadline which I set for myself. Writing an essay was not that hard, but writing an attractive essay was extremely hard. I had to think about how to grab readers’ attention at the first time and let them want to continue to read my essay. For UC’s essay, I wanted to use a personal story to lead readers to know more about my personality, but I didn’t know how to start and how to write. I kept telling myself that I should focus on my personal perspective instead of description. I found some pictures in the past and searched online in order to find some inspirations. Around ten says later, I have to send my UC’s application out, so I forced myself to finish the first draft of UC’s essay today. I took TOEFL test last weekend. The result might be show in this week. I didn’t know whether I had to register for the next test date or not because I wasn’t sure what score I would get this time.

Journal 47

     I felt both mentally and physically tired today because I used a lot of energy to think about the college’s essays. I was so uncomfortable about the essays I wrote. I couldn’t predict how the readers in college admission offices thought about my essays. It was very subjective, so someone might like my essay but someone might not. I asked my parents to help me brainstorm. My mother provided me lots of examples and showed me the connection between each of them. On the other side, my father reorganized the cases my mother provided and made a conclusion. They seemed to help me a lot, but I still have problem to put those examples into my essay. Although I finished my first draft of Rutgers University’s essay, I was not sure that whether I was on the right track or not. I knew that my SAT score was not high enough to compete, so my essays were extremely important. They could help me to stand up from others. For Rutgers’s essay, I describe the world I came from, such as my family and community backgrounds. I mentioned two situations in this essay and I worried that it might lose the focus. I probably would change the structure a little bit.

 

Journal 46

     I divide the story into five parts. For the exposition: The beginning of a story where the characters are introduced and the setting is revealed. I briefly describe of the setting that where, what, who, and when happen at the beginning of the story. I also mention the main character’s personality in this part. Rising Action: This is where a problem arises and tension builds in the story. According to my story, all children who live in Heaven are carefree and play together after school. On the other hand, Lily is excluded by other children, but she doesn’t care about those bad words. She continues to create her artworks. Climax: The most interesting point and turning point of the story. The reader wants to know what happens next. Additionally, one day, a five-year-old girl falls into a pound. No one notices except Lily. She runs swiftly toward the pound and finds a long stick in order to pull the little girl out off the pound. Falling Action: The action that follows directly after the climax. This is where the problem begins unwinding. Until everyone knows that Lily saves a little girl in Heaven, Lily is treated differently. People change their views on how they think about Lily. Resolution: This is the end of the story where the problem us worked out. Finally, the little girl’s parents give Lily a big gift that they decide to let Lily live at their house and treat her as their daughter. Since then none of the people in Heaven excludes Lily any more.

Journal 45

     I recall an important person in my life. She is like a girl, but she doesn’t behave like a girl. Her male friends are more than her female friends. Each time I talk to her, our conversations are about sports instead of girl’s stuff. She has a pair of big eyes, long hair, and big nose. I like to make jokes about her nose, but in fact she is pretty. To boys, she is definitely a tom boy. Actually, she is very popular in the school because she not only plays sports with boys, but also shops with girls. The person who always knows what I’m thinking and makes my life livelier is my junior high school best friend-Belle. Before I met her, I was a pessimistic person. Each time when she knew that I was unhappy, she would always said “The situation won’t become better because of your depress.” This sentence really influenced me a lot. Of course, complaint and hopelessness don’t help me at all, and then I would think more in positive ways. Belle is a significant person in my life. She does change my attitude when I face problems. Now as a senior, my pressure of college application is getting more and more, but I still remember “The situation won’t become better because of your depress.” I don’t complain even I’m submerged by essays, tests, and pressures.

 

Journal 44

     All teachers sent the quarter report by the end of today. I thought that I got four As and two Bs. I tried my best to get straight As, but I didn’t make it. As a senior, GPA is extremely important to me. Majority of schools only need us to send the mid-year report, so I still have time to improve my grades. UC’s deadline is getting closer and closer. The supplement requires two essays, but I haven’t finished one of them. It might take me whole day to work on it. I plan to get this essay done by the end of this week. I have to take TOEFL on Saturday. I hope that I can get at least 95 on the test. I am so tired and busy this week that I really want to go to bed early, but I can’t. I have a chapter test for AP Human Geography tomorrow. It is about the study of languages that is very complex. I spend an hour to read through one section. I guess that I need to study it for three hours. There are ten schools on my college list. I want to add one or two safety schools because I am afraid that I can’t get into my rich and target schools.

 

Journal 43

    I continue to talk about the story I created last week. Although all the people in Heaven think that Lily’s drawings and paintings are ugly, Lily doesn’t care about those negative comments. Traveling is Lily’s biggest interest. That is how her inspirations of creating artworks come from. She can stay at the same place for more than a week because she will leave until her painting is finished. Looking from her appearance, Lily seems like a quiet and confidence girl. However, she is very lonely and depress due to her breaking family. Beside these unfortunates, Lily enjoys the time creating her artworks. Most children play after school, but Lily doesn’t because she is afraid to talk to others. Some kids play jumping rope, some play soccer, some lie on the ground, and some chat with each other. Each time people see Lily, they don’t treat her nicely instead they speak some dirty words to her and tell their children not to play with her. Lily has no choice. She can only do her paintings or drawings alone. As an artist, Lily doesn’t look clean because she spends almost her free time creating artworks. That is why her shirt and face are usually stained with pigments. Her works look special and colorful, but people in Heaven don’t appreciate them.

Journal 42

     I add some personal perspective into the common app short essay , and I hope that it looks better now. Although I still need to work on this essay because it hasn't finalized yet, I will continue to think about the structure. Here is the essay which I edited yesterday. Performing every movement slowly while inhaling, exhaling, and stretching in order to adjust my Autonomic Nervous System, I can give the muscles and tendons in my body a deep breath. In order to maintain a healthy condition, I began doing yoga in seventh grade. At the beginning, I thought that yoga was an exercise for elder women because all the movements were too slow to follow. Stretching from my arms to my fingers and from my legs to my toes with regular respiration, I allowed the fresh oxygen to run through my whole body and arouse me both mentally and physically. To me, Tendons like a big cable with many wires from the upper part of the body to the lower part. Each yoga pose switches on a small wire, and causes the others to work for the cable. Now doing yoga seems to be part of my daily activity because it is able to release my pressures. I realize that yoga is not just an exercise; it is a means by which I can refresh my body and mind.

Journal 41

     Last week I wrote about a setting for a story. I created the main character for this story, and briefly talked about how her personality is. The big garden is located in a village which called “Heaven.” People in this place are all energetic and lively except for Lily, who is tall, fat, and quiet. No one has ever known how she is here and where does she come from. Lily lives in a wooden made house which is a little bit far away from the garden. When every child plays in the garden, Lily seats on the ground and starts drawing or painting. Children throw little stones toward Lily just because she doesn’t have a good appearance. However, she never complained about how other people treat her badly. “Hey girl! How is your artwork? Oh my god! It looks like you draw all the garbage together.” Many children say some bad words and make fun to Lily’s artworks. Lily has no parents, siblings, and friends. She lives alone. Everyday she walks an hour to a town outside the Heaven and sells her artworks. That is the only way how she earns her money. She puts all the money in a box and calculates it almost everyday. Actually, she is a good kid, who behaves well, knows how to live by herself, and is more independent than other children.

 

Journal 40

     Wow! The midterm week is over! There were two tests on Friday and I thought that I didn’t do a great job on Mr. Portor’s test, so I asked him whether I could do some extra works to earn more points or not. He said that I could do additional power point and present on next Tuesday during class time. I needed to choose a type of music and introduce it. My choice is ballet music because I learned ballet almost seven years. I have strongly feeling when I hear this type of music. I find some ballet music and will bring my ballet shoes to the class on the presentation day. I spent around three hours to do this project, so I hope that I can get at least A- or A for this class. After midterm week, I am still busy now. Majority of my stress comes from the college application. I face a serious problem now. I planned to major in education, but I found that most schools don’t provide this program for undergraduate students. Communication also is my interest, so I change my major from education to communication. I did research information in communication area, so it is not a big issue for me to make this decision.

 

Journal 39

    Today is Thursday. There is one more day for final week. I have two tomorrow-History of American Music and AP Human Geography. For the first one, Mr. Portor said that he will play the music which we have already learned since the beginning of the class, and then we have to match the music with the player. It is not easy because we have to remember around 12 types of songs and also some people’s names. Although the teacher posted the song list on the veracross, we still need to spend a lot of time to review those songs. I search for each type of music and memorize all the people’s names which will be on the test. Majority of students’ grades for this class are not very high so far, so everyone wants to get a higher grade on the midterm. I want to get at least 90. We had our midterm presentation last week, and Melissa and I got the second place of this project. I hope that it would increase my grade. The other test, AP Human Geography, Mr. Jones said that our test questions are all from the past tests, so there is no reason for us not to get 100 on the midterm.

 

Journal 38

     Here is a setting of a story. Wind softly blows in the air. It is clear to hear the twitter from a group of birds right in front of the garden. Not many trees are planted here, but a tallest one is a wonderful place for children. After school, majority of children put their bags under the tree, and start any kind of games which they want. Laughing, screaming, and shouting are around the garden. By the way, it is a big garden that it too big to see the edge of it. That is why there are many people inside the garden. Flowers on the ground are small but colorful-red, pink, yellow, and white. Those flowers are little girls’ favorite because they are beautiful and attractive. The garden is not a piece of grassland; however it is a wooden floor. During the summer, all flowers look vividly with great smell that also brings people good moods. It is very reasonable why children like to play in this garden. Without the school pressures, children play happily and carelessly. During the winter, we can see nothing in the garden but snow. No children, no flowers, no lively laughing, and no bags under the tree because the only time that children can’t play here.

 

Journal 37

    I finally came out an idea that I am really passionate about it-yoga. I decide to use it for the common app short essay. The following paragraph is the second draft of the common app short essay. This topic is finally approved by Ms. Pamela. I hop that it will be finalized by the end of this week. Performing every movement slowly while inhaling, exhaling, and stretching in order to adjust my Autonomic Nervous System, I can give the muscles and tendons in my body a deep breath. In order to maintain a healthy condition, I began doing yoga since seventh grade. Stretching from my arms to fingers and from my legs to toes with regular respiration, I allow the fresh oxygen to quickly run through my whole body, and arouse me both mentally and physically. I follow these simple steps several times a week because they are able to release my daily pressures. Tendons form a big cable with many wires, from the upper part of the body to the lower part. Each yoga pose switches on a small wire, and causes the others to work for the cable. I realize that yoga is not just an exercise; it is means to heal my body and mind.

Journal 36

     Writing a story is totally different form writing an essay. People can freely express their feelings, ideas, and imagination to stories. However, we might need to follow the rules for academic writings, such as five paragraphs per essay, topic sentences, and concluding sentences. To me, I have more pressures when I write an essay than a story. I worry that do I make an attractive attention getter or create an interesting story. What can make a story good? The answer is definitely the words which chosen by the authors. For example, “She is very angry because her sister ate her cake” or “She seems angry that she shouts her sister’s name at the first floor in order to call her out.” Which one is better? Of course the second one because it provides more details and is more vividly. I like to read science fictions with supernatural imagination because each description from the story bring me a clue that lead me to involve into the story, I usually can’t predict the ending of the stories, so I am curious about what will happen next then keep reading it. Although I like to read science fictions, I tend to write comedic story. It makes me feel lively and entertaining.

 

Journal 35

     OMG……how’s my weekend? I was quite busy because midterm is coming soon. I have five midterm- two on Tuesday, two one Wednesday, and one on Friday. I finished the British Lit’s poster on Saturday, and I spent a lot of time on it because I really wanted to make it perfect. I also asked the student who took this class last year, and she gave me some comment about my idea. I did read the textbook and researched some information on the Internet in order to have enough details. I planned to study the midterm next week because I wanted to get the first draft of common app’s short essay done by the end of this week. This is the fourth time that I changed topic for this essay. The essay question asks us to elaborate an extracurricular activity which we participate. I should choose one which I enjoy a lot in it, and show my passion to the readers. I keep changing topic because I can’t get the feeling I want when I write the essay. Finally, I find that yoga is the best one. I spent 4 hours to finish it although it only requires 1000 characters. I hope that this idea would be approved soon.

Journal 34

     What day is today? Today is Halloween. Many people dressed up their special costumes. In fact, I don’t want to prepare for this Halloween because I am too busy this year. Until this Tuesday, Maxine said that we could dress up like a hamburger. I thought it was a perfect idea, so I replied her immediately. There were six people on our group: Maxine Lin, Sharon Wu, Vincent Yang, Marian Wu, Tiffany Tseng, and me. We only had classes in the morning, and the whole afternoon was for Halloween. After we finished lunch, we hided in Marian’s dorm, and dressed up our costumes. Some people could understand our costumes, but some were not really sure. The student counsel prepared some games in the cafeteria. First, I played music chair. Melissa played music, and all the people should walk around the chairs. Irene pulled out one of the chair while we were walking, so there would be one person who couldn’t have a chair. When the music was stopped, everyone should find a chair and seat. For the first round, I won the second place. For the second round, I also won the second place. The hunting house was so scared that made me screamed loudly.

 

Journal 33

     Why do people create fiction novel or the world we don’t know? According to quotation, why do people create fiction novel or the world we don’t know? The reason is very simple- they are not satisfied about their current lives. People can show their creativity and imagination to bring more entertainment in their lives. Something can happen in real lives, but some can only happen in dreams. For example, Harry Porter and Twilight are two famous fiction novels. Although I am not a fan of them, I can feel how the author’s passion about writing the stories. I am a realistic person, but I do accept fiction novels. To me, I would enjoy the whole story because those stories might bring me a lively life. I think that majority of children like this kind of stories. They are not mature enough to understand the difference between real and imaginative life. “World we don’t know” means that the author creates a world which is not realistic. The setting, people, and events might not be real, but the whole story is full of creativity. Fiction novels can be positive that bring fresh idea to people; however, this type of stories might affect people negatively.

 

Journal 32

     Two days after……Halloween is coming! Originally I didn’t want to participate this year. In fact, I didn’t have time to think about my costumes because I had to much work on college application. There is a short essay for common app. Although it is short, doesn’t mean that it is easy to write. I changed my topic three times in order to write a perfect one. I hope that this one would be the last one. After finished this essay, I needed to work on the UC and Rutgers ones. Their application deadlines are earlier than other schools. I should finish their essays before mid November, and submit them before November 25th. That is my goal, so I would try my best the reach it. Let’s share about our Halloween costumes. Costume for our group is “Hamburger.” Vincent Yang and I are bread, Maxine is beef, Marian is salad, Sharon Wu is egg, and Tiffany Tseng is cheese. How a wonderful costume huh! We stayed at school till 19:30. We finished almost everything, but not the details. I was too tired today, so I took a bath right after I went home. Next Saturday is the day for SAT subject math level II. I keep telling myself that I can get 750!

Journal 31

     According the poet named Alexander Pope’s quote, “Know then thyself.” I think that I am the only person who knows myself well. Everyone does have a best friend to share things, but no one can know you well except yourself. For example, once I didn’t get a good grade on a test. My friend told me that I can eat a big meal, and then I would feel better. However, I couldn’t fit into this way. To me, I can’t eat “A big meal” to solve my problems. I think that I have multiple personalities that my behaviors are depending on different situation. A person can know himself or herself better by chatting more with friends or family. Spending more time to talk with other people can learn yourself more because you can hear how different people think about you. What is different or special about me? I think that I am a good listener that I am willing to listen anyone’s things if he or she wants to share to me. Everyone should learn how to learn yourself because I believe that yourself is the only person who can totally know yourself. As I grow up, I think that I know more about myself.

 

Journal 30

     I went to Taoyuan to take TOEFL test. I woke up early in the morning and my mother and I took train to Taoyuan. My mother went back to Hsinchu after I arrived the test center. I didn’t feel very nervous this time. I thought that I couldn’t get a good grade this time because I didn’t well prepare. I was too busy to prepare in the past two months. I spent much time on SAT test. I was very surprise when I saw my grade of October test. There are four sections on TOEFL test-reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Honestly, I felt that I didn’t do well on each section. After the test, I took train back to Hsinchu by myself. I waited for an hour. The first thing I did after I went home was to register for the next test because the test center might be full if I register late. My goal for TOEFL test was at least 95, but I felt that it was hard for me. I wasn’t good at listening and sometimes reading, so it was not that easy to get over 95. No matter how I felt this time, I will try my best to prepare for the next one.

 

Journal 29

     I didn’t know how to describe my mood today. Today……yes today the SAT score was available. All senior check login their accounts and waited for the scores. Before knowing my score, I was very nervous. At two o’clock at the afternoon, our basketball team had a game with CKSH. Many PAS students went to sixth floor to watch the game. It was a brilliant that I have ever seen in our school because both teams’ scores were very close. At the beginning of the game, we lag behind CKSH eleven points, but we gained points immediately. Finally, we won this game. I heard many students discussed about SAT scores, and my heart rate pumped quickly that I could even hear that. I went home right after the basketball was finished. The SAT score was available around five o’clock. I wanted to finish my homework before I ate dinner, so I didn’t check my score when it was available. My brother told me that Ms. Pamela was very happy because many people got good grades on the test. My pressure was getting heavier when I heard my brother said that. Okay……it was time for facing the truth. I login my account, and saw my grade. OMG!!!!! My grade was higher than I thought. I finally reached my goal.

 

Journal 28

     For eight or ninety-year-old people, they might find that they can’t find any people who are like them through images in their heads. In old people’s memories, they have already looked through many types of people and things. In their memories, some might make them happy, but some might make them sad. Anyway, every single experience in people’s life is unique and significant. To my father, he has experience on both live in city and country. When my father was young, he lived in the country and already had some business experience because my grandfather owned a grocery store at that time. Sometimes my father had to help my grandfather if he was busy, so my father was very independent when he was young. He did everything by himself and managed his own stuffs very well. My father and his family moved to city when he was eighteen years old. To me, I don’t think that a person should be old to be unique because people are unique when they were born. In my childhood, my parents didn’t force me to focus on academic area, instead they let my join many types of activities. That really makes me different from other people.

 

Journal 27

     I saw a sentence in CREW class. According to American writer Ursula K. LeGuin wrote, “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next,” I think that she wants to tell people that we should only care and focus on the things happen now indeed of anticipating what will happen in the future. As she said permanent and intolerable uncertainty, people should try their best to do the things well because always thinking about the future is not necessary. On the other word, I think she also wants to keep remaining us that cherish the present moment is more important. To me, I won’t say that people should cherish present time or know about what comes next because it depends on the situation. For example, when you want to move to the U.S. from Taiwan, you should know what kind of life you are going to have, what kind of job you want to do, and what kind of city you want o live. Those things relate to your life in the future, so you must know what comes next. However, you don’t need to know about what will happen while you are taking a test because managing your time to get this test done is more important.

 

Journal 26

     Although I didn’t have much homework today, I had to work on my college application. I planned to finish the common application short essay tonight and did some research for academic interest one. I tried my best to finish my school works by the end of 21:00, so I could have more time to do my essays. For common app short essay, the maximum words count was 150, but it was hard to express my feeling in only these few words. My common app short essay was finalized by teacher one month ago, but I thought that my idea was too common. During study hall, I looked through some pictures in the past, and finally got an idea. I joined cooking class two years ago and that was a specially experience, so I decided to use this idea as my short essay. To me, academic essays were very hard to write because I needed to do a lot of research and then match my main idea. I thought that I could sleep early this week. There were only two months left for the deadline of college application, so I have to speed up and focus on it till the mid December.

 

Journal 25

     I went to Melissa’s house on Friday because we needed to do a project together. I went home first and grab the things I wanted and meet her at school. Her mother picked us up at around 18:00. After we ate dinner, Melissa and I started our project immediately after we went home. We found some short video and information about the tap dance, which was our topic. This project was due two weeks after, but we want to finish early because we would become busier. After we finished our project, we started to work on our college application essays. I roughly had ten essays to write. There were three main categories for our essays: significant, academic interest, and diversity. I already finished the significant one and now is working the academic interest one. I wanted to at least get my academic interest essay’s idea by the end of today. I finished homework on Saturday and worked on my college stuffs on Sunday. All senior had a meeting with Ms. Pamela on Sunday afternoon. She was very disappointed that only 15 students finalized their first long essay. She thought that our attitudes were bad and kept talking that we won’t survive in college in the future.

 

Journal 24

     She is like a girl, but doesn't behave like a girl. Her male friends are more than her female friends. Everytime I talk to her, our conversations are about sports instead of girl’s stuff. She has a pair of big eyes, long hair, and big nose. I like to make jokes about her nose, but in fact she is pretty. To boys, she is definitely a tom boy. Actually, she is very popular because she not only plays sports with boys but also shops with girls. The person who always knows what I’m thinking and makes life livelier is my junior high school;s best friend-Belle. Before I met her, I was pessimistic person. Each time when she knew that I was unhappy, she would always said “The situation won’t become better because of your depress.” This sentence really influenced me a lot. Of course, complaint and hopelessness do not help me at all, and then I would think more in positive way. Now as a senior, my pressure of college application is getting more and more. I have many works to do everyday, but I still remember “The situation won’t become better because of your depress”, so I don’t complain even I;m submerged by essays, tests, and pressures.

 

Journal 23

      I was very tired today because I went to bed late last night. I wrote an essay in College Research Essay Writing. I wrote about my father. In my life, my father is one of the most influenced people. By writing about my father, I thought deeper about his personality, actions, and behaviors. I also looked at some pictures helping me to recall memories. I thought that I understood more about him after writing this essay. I found that when I used different angle of views to think about him, I could see him in many ways. People don’t define relationship in the same way. To me, relationship is an abstract connection between a person and me. Sometimes I feel that I have more than one type of relationship to a person who is closer to me. For example, my father is a teacher when I ask him homework, he is a friend when I share things with him, and he is just a father when I receive warmth from him. He, my lovely father, is not just a father. Actually he is a superman that he acts as different characters. To this essay, I think the easiest part is to elaborate the details; however, brainstorm is the hardest part. Next time when I write this type of essay, I will think more about the impact on me instead of focusing on the person I choose.

 

Journal 22

     I felt so tired today because I went to bed late last night. I wanted to sleep early today, but I had lot of things to do. I didn't majority homework which was due tomorrow on the last weekend. Although teacher didn't assign homework, I always had homework-college application. I only finalized one long essay and one short was in progress. I hoped that I could finalize the shorter one by the end of this week. I went to bed last night because I needed to prepare a debate which was for AP Human Geography class. All students in the class were divided into six groups. Each team had to support its own statement and argue others’ statements. I thought some situations from different points of view. That was why I spent a lot of time to do this homework. I have Skype with a friend almost everyday since last week. We talked on Skype because it was free. Our conversations were all about college stuffs and homework not about chatting. For example, we searched our essay topics individual first, and then we exchanged each other’s file and double checked whether we found the right topics or not. It is time for sleep now!

Journal 21

     I finally Skype with Jack Sung today. This was the first time we met on Skype. I wanted to go to bed at 24:00. I went to Taipei on Sunday and came back at around 21:30, so I want to go to bed early. I logged out when I finished my homework, but Jack said that he wanted to Skype with me. We Skype from 24:00 to 1:30. I thought that we hadn’t seen each other for a long time, so I spoke loudly and excitedly. My mother and father were disturbed by my voice. I turned off my computer right after my mother came to my room. In the morning, I continued the homework which I hadn’t finished. I spent majority of time searching my admission essay topics for each school. For some schools, I had to create account first and then was available to see the essay topic. I had to write around 10 essays, but I only finalized 2 of them. I had a weird homework for AP Human Geography that each group needed to prepare a debate which was about immigration. I thought that my topic was not difficult to prepare, but I was afraid how to debate with other groups tomorrow.

Journal 20

     Wow lovely weekend. Next Monday is Taiwanese holiday, so that day is day off. We don’t need to go to school. I had a busy weekend. Originally, I had an appointment with Ms. Pamela on Friday after school, but someone’s parents came first. Some students and my schedule would be delay. Melissa and I waited until 18:30. Finally, Ms. Pamela’s office door was open. It was time for our appointment, but Ms. Pamela said that she had an appointment at 19:00. We couldn't talk to her on Friday. She told us that she would stay at school on Saturday for whole day, so I went to school at 10:00. Unfortunately, another student’s parents came too. I waited for two hours and finally was my turn. I really wanted to finish the appointment because it was too late if I still didn't get my school list. I want to apply UC’s schools. On my school list, there were five UC schools and others were at east coast such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Michigan, and Texas. I needed to retake TOEFL in Oct, 22th. I hoped that I could get at least 95 on the test. I will make it.

 

Journal 19

     OMG! I just checked my veracross and I found I failed the History of American Music class. I’m a senior now, so GPA is extremely important to me. It shouldn't be any score below A- on my score report. Each week we had a small quiz about what we learned in a week. There were only four to five questions for each test, so it was totally hurt my grade even I only got one wrong. The teacher for this class also didn't assign any homework. Our grades were all coming from weekly quizzes. I couldn't believe that I got this kind of low score in my life. I wanted to ask teacher about what could I do to improve my grade. I am willing to do any kind of extra assignment. Beside this course, I did okay on other courses. My mood was low now because of this low grade. I worried that if there was no way to fix my grade. In fact, I didn't really want to take this class when I filled the schedule, but there were no classes I could take. All senior only could have two study hall classes. That was why I had to take this course.

 

Journal 18

     I started to prepare for math 2 after taking SAT on last Saturday. I hadn't study for math 2 since 3 months ago. I was afraid that I forgot almost every formula and tip. When Ms. Liu said that we had a one hour test during the class, I was nervous because I thought that I might not get a good score. I calculated fast and skipped the questions which were more complex and did them later. I found that I had around 15 minutes after I went through all the questions. I went back to those questions which I just skipped. I left 5 blanks and got 9 wrong. My raw score was 34 which equaled 700. I was surprised that I got at least 700. Although it was not a bad grade, I thought that I should get at least 750. I figured out the questions I got wrong after the test and I found that this test was not that hard. I did some practices everyday. Actually, my goal for math 2 was at least 750. I went home at around 5:30 p.m. My father and brother didn't eat dinner at home, so my mom and I could start our dinner early.

 

Journal 17

      “All seniors please come to the office.” I heard this announcement right after the bell rang. Ms. Pamela was very upset that we didn't meet the deadline which she set. She said that we should follow what she said. After I went home, I did my homework first and then sent an e-mail to Ms. Pamela. I told her about my current situation that I list some important things and gave her some brief description. My job was to get a good grade on my TOEFL test. I needed to take SAT math level II in November and TOEFL test two weeks later. Actually, TOEFL’s reading should be easier than SAT’s, so I hoped that I could get a high score on TOEFL’s reading part because my SAT’s reading was weak. My listening was weak too. Sometime I couldn't catch the main point what did the professor mentioned. The most important time during these two months was to manage my time. I started to do homework right after I went home. If I could, I would try to finish my homework before dinner time, and then I could have more time to do college stuffs. I hoped that I could reach my goal.

Journal 16

    I thought that shouldn't be too emotional. You couldn't decide whether to do things or not depending on your emotion. It was totally not fair to other people. The basic attitude was that you shouldn't treat people well because you were in good mood, and treat people badly because you were in bad mood. After the test on last Saturday, I started my new plan. I focused more on TOEFL within the next three weeks. My goals was to get at least 95, but I needed to work extremely hard. In November 5^th, I needed to take SAT math level II test. I kind of regretted a little bit that I didn't take math test in May because I was very familiar about all the tips at that time. However, someone told me that I could have more time to prepare the test if I took it in November. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I will become busier in the next two coming months. After some many things happened during this summer, I realized that I should decide my own “DECISION”, instead of let other to decide for me. I should be brave to show my opinion. No matter how everything is going on now, I hope that I can do everything well.

 

Journal 15

     The SAT test in October was finally over! I knew that everyone wanted to ask me “How did you do on that test?” I would say that math sections were not very hard. I did all the questions except one question I left it blank and I hoped that this section was experimental one. For reading sections, I couldn’t say that I did a great job on this part, but at least I felt that I could understand majority passages except one or two which I didn’t really know. There were two writing sections. I thought that one of them was hard and the other one was easy. During the test, I did super fast on the last section which was the writing one. I could spot the error quickly. If I didn’t make any careless mistakes, I would probably gain at least 12 points. I was totally exhausted right after I took the test because I was headache. I didn’t sleep well at the night before the test. It was the third time that I couldn’t have a good sleep before taking SAT test. Although I kept telling myself that I shouldn’t be too nervous because I did prepare and worked so hard before the test, I was still very nervous. I hoped that I could get a better score this time.

 

Journal 14

     We had a math test this morning. I thought that I didn’t take it seriously, so I only got 680. I hoped that I could get 750 on the real test. This week was a good one for seniors because I could focus only on SAT stuffs without school works pressure. To postpone camp to this week was a wonderful choice. The daily schedule for this week was to do some practice test, but there were not many of them. Sometimes did too many tests right before the real test was not a wise choice because we might mass up the whole things. In school, I did what teacher told us to do; at home, I reviewed the vocabulary list. SAT vocabularies were difficult and hard to memorize, so I had to continue to review in order not to forget them. Melissa and I hoped that majority vocabularies would come from Paolo’s vocab list. I tried to relax myself this week that I went to bed early and woke up early. The test on Saturday was quiet important because I partly decided my future. I kept telling myself to calm down and caring when I did each question. Good night! It’s time for bed.

 

Journal 13

     There were only four days left for the test on this Saturday. I went to bed early this week because I needed to get more energy. My emotion was kind of down today, but I didn't know why. I just felt some people were too expedient. They wouldn't care whether the things they did were sincere or not because they only cared about whether they got what they want or not. What kinds of people were good students? People who got over 2400 on SAT test, 120 on TOEFL test, 4.0 on GPA, and used some shamelessness ways to get what they want could be called as good students? Why some people would think that good students were only for high-academic people? Although some students didn't show their works in front of you, they did all the works what teacher told them to do. On the other hand, some students tried their best to flatter you and behaved very fake. Every person should get even chance because no one said that high-academic students could have more opportunities than any other students. I really didn't like people who thought they know you very well, but they, however, didn't understand you at all.

 

Journal 12

     Surprise! I got 1910 on SAT Reasoning practice test today. I should get this high score because I took it before. I could kind of remember the questions but not the answers. I still needed to spend time figuring out the correct answer. For this test, I got 540 on critical reading, 650 on writing, and 720 on math. How a wonderful score huh! I was so surprised that I only got 3 wrongs for the questions I did on critical reading. I knew the general idea of each passage, so I could quickly spot the correct answer. Today’s score was even higher than my dream score, which was 1850. For my dream score, I had to get 450 on critical reading, 650 on writing, and 750 on math. The most important thing was that I should avoid making careless mistakes, which would affect my score a lot! In this week, Ms. Pamela didn’t want us to do too many practices. We only needed to review the tests we did before and focused on the wrong questions. In writing section, I noticed that the questions I usually did wrong were the same type of questions. Before the real test day, I should relax myself and sleep well in order to have enough energy on the test day.

Journal 11

     I could get good grades on practice tests, but why I couldn't also get such good grades on real test. There were only five days left for the coming SAT Reasoning test. Majority people were nervous, but they still could show their potential on the real test while I couldn't. I didn’t do well on real tests was because I was too nervous. The universities wouldn't know this face. They just wanted to see our scores. I kept telling me that I must calm in order to see the key words for each question. The biggest problem was that I made lots of careless mistakes when I was too nervous. “Being too nervous won’t help me at all.” I thought that I should keep this sentence in my mind. I disappointed today’s score. I failed writing and math sections. I wasn't good at critical reading, so I needed to gain more points on the other two sections to balance my total score. Unfortunately, I failed my math and writing sections. I couldn't stop worrying because the REAL test is coming soon. Today’s test result would be very close to the one on this Saturday because today’s test was the real one in May 2011. There is another test tomorrow. I hope that I can do well on that test.

Journal 11

     I felt the pressure was getting heavier. The pressures on tests were the heaviest, especially the results of those tests. I told myself that this was my second senior year, so there was no reason for me not to get good grades. I could tell that I improve my math and writing sections, but reading was very limited. It was hard to improve reading a lot in only one year. I wanted to get at least 450 on critical reading. Although this score goal might seem very low to many people, I could get a high total score if I really reach this score. I kept memorizing vocabularies everyday because I would forget them quickly if I didn’t review them daily. I could felt that my parents also worried about my situation, but they didn’t ask me. Maybe they didn’t want to put more pressures on me. I had a plan that I wanted to give my score report as a birthday gift to my mother in November. It would probably be one of her most meaningful present. She must be very happy when she a good grade on the report card and she would definitely proud of me. Go Pamela Chang! You can do it.

Journal 10

     I had three quizzes today, so I went to bed late last night. For History of American Music class, we needed to review what teacher said during classes. Actually, it was not a big and hard quiz. It should be very easy, but I spent more time on other two quizzes. I probably didn't get a good grade on this quiz. AP Human Geography class, I had to memorize all the provinces in India. It contains 27 of them. I didn't hear most of them before I saw them yesterday. Words of these provinces were hard to pronounce and spell them correctly. I thought that the best way to memorize them was to read out loud first and later filled them into a blank India map. After few time practicing, I finally memorize all of them. I got these provinces all right on the quiz. The biggest quiz was British Lit’s one which I spent approximately 2 hours to study, but the quiz was not that hard. Majority of the questions were not at difficult level. I hoped that I could get at least 90 percent questions correct. I want to go to bed early today, however, I still have to study tomorrow’s quiz.

 

Journal 9

     Today Mr. McCool gave us an interesting topic to write. The topic is "What do you think people like to hear the details of a story, and not just a synopsis or summary?" I think that the biggest missing part of a summary is detail. Details are very important to a story. They are like a frame of the story, so a story can’t form without it. Summary is to conclude the main point and grab the big idea from a story. On the other hand, details are descriptions or examples of the story. People tend to hear the details of a story, and not just a synopsis or summary because it is hard to completely understand and involve to it. For example, the story of “Three Little Pigs” is about how they build different houses to protect themselves and prevent the big bad wolf’s coming. We can’t feel anything by hearing this brief description of the story. However, we might have more pictures in our heads if there are more details, such as how these pigs build their houses, how their personalities different from others, and how their actions when face with the wolf. Those details provide more information about the story, so we can quickly understand what the story is talking about. Storyteller and writer can use some exaggerated words to attract readers. Therefore, to make a story interesting is to add more details.

 

Journal 8

     This semester is very important for seniors. We must to do every test and quiz well in order to get enough high GPA. My goal is to get at least A- for each class. The current of my AP Human Geography is 87.2, which means that is it only B+. I have to get 90 on every single test; therefore I can have chance to get higher GPA. SAT reasoning test is coming soon that there are only ten days left. I am so nervous, but I try to tell myself that I won’t get a good grade because I am nervous instead it is helpless. I might do some careless mistake and mark the wrong answers easily if I am too nervous. I have practiced SAT everyday since the beginning of this semester. My brother will take the PSAT test at the end of September. I gave him a practice test last weekend and taught him some basic writing skills. He is good at math, so I tell him that he should at a high score on math part. I was surprised that he just asked me to give him the SAT vocabulary list. As his hard working, I believed my brother could get a good score on his PSAT test.

 

Journal 7

     In college research essay class, Mr. McCool asked us about self-discovery. He wanted us to write down how we think about it. To me, self-discovery can be defined from many angles. For instance, sometimes an author’s article makes me think about myself and recalls my memories. Those actions help me to think more about myself, so things from other people can inspire me a lot. I have taken both Chinese and English journals everyday since two years ago. I did take journal when I was young, but it was not continuous. I strongly believe that I can learn more about myself through take journal because it forces me to think deeper. Writing journals are like brainstorm and critical thinking. My journals are very simple that each of them is less than 20 words, but they still help me to reflect myself. My mother encourages me to write Chinese journals because she wants me to keep writing them to practice my Chinese. I have left local education system and joined American’s since four years ago. Writing Chinese journals does help me not to forget those words in Chinese. I will keep writing journals because they also help me release my emotions and reduces my pressures.

 

Journal 6

     I didn’t go anywhere this weekend, however, I stayed at home because there are only 12 days left for SAT Reasoning Test. I tried to finish my homework before Sunday evening that I could have more time to study SAT. My biggest hope is that I won’t have any careless mistake on the test and at least get 1800. I really don’t want to take the test in December because I will very busy in that month, and I need to take TOEFL and SAT subject tests in November. After these heavy works, I can relax a little bit. I really want to get 1800 on my SAT Test! I believe that I will make it. My grandmother came to my house on Saturday. Her coming helped to moderate my pressure. I always felt warm and comfortable when I spent time with my family. Sometimes something bad happened to me, but I would feel better when I see my family members. It was important to have a good relationship with your parents. Beside friends and lover, or other non-family members, parents were the biggest support to us. Not everyone felt comfortable to share things with parents, but at least you had their supports which were forever.

Journal 5

     I’m so tired today because I went to bed late for two days. That’s a senior’s life. I did a writing section during my study hall. This was my second time to do this section because I did it in summer. I got a higher raw score than the previous tests. My writing’s raw score was finally over 40. That was a good news. I knew that I couldn’t get this kind of high score for each test. I think that the thing I should do now is to completely understand the wrong questions. It is very important to figure out the wrong questions. I hope that I will get this score on the real test. There was another thing happened today. After school, I went home by bus with Sharon Wu. The rain was becoming heavier and I forgot to bring my umbrella. I called my mother to pick me up, but she was in the down town. If I still walked home without having an umbrella, I must wet by the rain, so I decided to stay at Sharon’s house for a while. I just knew that Sharon’s house was near my English cram school when I was in elementary school. About thirty minutes later, my mother came and drive me home.

Journal 4

     OMG!!! I have a lot of homework today. I can’t go to bed before 1 a.m. Maybe I should say something good to let me forget my pressure of the homework. What day is today? Today is ……Melissa’s seventeen-year-old birthday. I wrote her a birthday card yesterday night. I was thinking that I should give her this card in the morning when I saw her or gave her during the lunch time. Ariel and Irene gave her a cute crab balloon before Melissa walked into homeroom, so I decided to give Melissa her birthday card. I was so embarrassed while she was reading the card because I wrote “Finally 18.” Actually, it should be her seventeenth years old birthday. I didn’t believe it when Melissa told me I was wrong because I thought that she make a joke on me, but Maxine said “Really, it’s her seventeenth years old birthday” then I knew that I was wrong. Melissa kept laughing at me and I was so embarrassed. I didn't have to time to buy her a gift. Maybe I will give her few weeks later. After my friends, Caroline, Rachel, Jack S, Enya, and Esther, graduated from PAS, Melissa is one of my best friends who I can trust. Again……HAPPY BIRTHDAY Melissa!!!!!

Journal 3

     I really want to watch movies! BUT I don’t have time to go to movie theater. “You Are the Apple of My Eye” and “Seediq Bale” are two movies very popular in Taiwan now. “You Are the Apple of My Eye” is a romantic comedy that the director of this movie recalls his beautiful during the high school years. “Seediq Bale” is a historical movie that native Taiwanese fight with Japanese. I am too busy to watch these two movies, actually there are more, so I will immediately watch them right after I finish my college application. College application……everytime I say this word the pressure is becoming more and more. Not working hard definitely gains nothing, so I should work extremely hard to get a high enough score on SAT and other standardize tests. Oh I forget to mention a good new. I got a good score on writing section today. I know that my biggest mistake during the test is careless mistakes. The best way to solve this problem is to read each word carefully. It is easy by saying but hard by doing. I force myself to make sure that I do read EACH word and not skip any detail. I hope my hard efforts will bring me a good score.

Journal 2

     Today is Moon Festival! Chinese people have BBQ with family or friends and eat moon cake with the full moon in the sky at night. I have eaten a lot of moon cake since last weeks. Sometimes my dad received some moon cake from his friends, so that’s why I have a lot to eat. Although I didn't have BBQ this year, I still enjoyed time staying with my family. I also bought a new book today. Actually it’s not a real book that it’s a “Journal.” This journal book is written by Rachel Renee Russell. The author creates a story by writing journals. I bought this book not because I have to write journal for British Lit class, but because I can learn some American cultures and daily use of English from this book. There are vocabulary lists on each page, so I can also learn some new terms. The main reason to buy this book is that I want to improve my reading skill. Sometimes I can’t finish reading on time during the test, but I understand what the story is talking about if I have extra time. There are no challenge stuffs and knowledge inside the book, however, I can practice my reading’s speed. My goal is to finish the book by the end of this week.

 

Journal 1

     Majority people might think that it is time to relax on weekends. To me, weekends are the most busy days for the whole week. Sometimes I not only need to do my works but also have to participate family activities. For instance, one of my aunts got marry on Sunday, so most of my family members went to Taipei for her wedding party. Each time when I meet family members, I enjoy every moment to stay with them. During the wedding party, I met lots of people who I hadn't seen them for a long time. I remember that when I was young, I liked to spend time with my aunts because they all very kind and funny. As time pass on, everything is different. I would quickly ran to hug my aunts when I saw them. Now I am a teenager that I know I should behave like an adult. I can't still do some childish things. Although I really want to run to hug them, but I only can chat with them and tell them that I miss them so much in my mind. Sometimes I want to go back to my childhood that I can directly express my emotions to my aunts, but it's impossible.