Maddison's Musings

Sometimes the best thing about school is when you don't have to go. Don't get me wrong, I love learning, but I feel like the education system as a whole is failing. Anyways, I'm on winter break now and I feel so free. I've finally completed driver's ed, and now I have no piano or school for two whole weeks. I feel as free as a bird. I really truly don't want to leave this house or my pj's until I'm forced back to school.

Seeing as it's December 20th, I just had the sudden realization that there's only 11 more days in 2014. Eleven. Wow. I'll do my master goodbye 2014 post on December 31st like I did last year, but to think that in twelve days it will be 2015 is just crazy. 2014 was definitely not my year, but in spite of all of the downs, I did manage to have a few ups. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You'll just have to wait until New Year's Eve to read about my 2014.

Another huge milestone is the fact that Christmas is in five days! Christmas feels a bit weird this year. My family's all over the place, I'm in this strange state, I don't get any of my traditions, and in general, I'm not that excited for it. I know it seems bad that I'm not excited for Christmas, but it's just so overwhelmingly different this year. It's the first year I'll have Christmas without my dad and older brother, I'm not home, and I have to do whatever everyone else wants me to do. It's just not the same.

But all of that aside, I am excited to see my little brother's reaction to his big Christmas present. I'm not going to say what it is, in case he somehow stumbles upon this post, but even I'm excited, and it's not for me at all. This year for Christmas, all I asked for was cash and candy canes because 1. I don't need anything, 2. I hate surprises, and 3. I really need money to save up for things, but I know that my family got me extra things, and it's driving me insane. I hate surprises. I just hate them. I want to know exactly what I'm getting, and I'd rather just get it now instead of having to look at the presents every single time I pass the tree for the past few weeks. I don't even know, I just hate surprises. Always have, always will.

I accidentally opened a new tab and found myself on Tumblr for the past twenty minutes and now I can't remember what else I was going to blog about. Oops. I guess I'll just end it here.

~Maddison

It was a dark and stormy night. No, really. It was dark and rainy outside. I didn't even want to go out to eat in the first place, but here I was, sipping my smoothie and trying not to roll my eyes at every compliment my grandparents gave to me about my choir concert. It's not that the compliments were annoying in of themselves, it's just that the choir concert was horrible compared to my home high school. Instead of the high schoolers we're supposed to sound like, we literally sounded like my fifth grade choir. I'm not joking. Their vowels are nonexistent, the tone is weak, they don't use their diaphragm, th- well, that's not the point of this blog post. Moving on.

As I was saying, I was in the restaurant and sipping on my smoothie when I reached for my phone to check the time. But my phone didn't want to stay in my hands, as it slipped in between the bench and the wall. It literally slipped into the thinnest place it could fall. After ripping the bench apart, we realized that it was stuck in that slim place, and my heart sunk. Of course, my first reaction was to go into panic mode, but I still somehow didn't allow myself to full on panic yet. We had to call someone over, and after about ten minutes of trying to loosen the bench, she called over some other guy to help. After a few minutes of him doing the same thing, he said he "had an idea" and was soon back with a roll of clear packing tape. He put tape at the end of a cake knife and by the grace of God, he got my phone out of the small crevice. Mind you, my family was taking pictures of the whole thing, and they demanded that I get a picture with him. It was the most awkward thing in the entire world.

Not only had we spent nearly twenty ish minutes trying to save my phone, but they were taking pictures, and then made me get a picture with the guy. Would it have been less awkward if he wasn't a cute, young guy? Of course. But sense he was cute, and not that much older than me, it was all the more awkward and embarrassing. I whispered an, "I'm so sorry," to which he answered, "Nah, it's cool, my family would have done the same."

So there you go. A little life update that has me cringing still as I type this. I'm sorry, dude-whose-name-I-can't-remember-but-I-think-it-was-Chris?, but you rock for saving my phone. So if you ever stumble upon this, then hey hi hello, thanks for saving my phone.

It's getting really windy right now and the power keeps flickering, so I'm going to post this before I lose power and wifi and all that jazz.

~Maddison

Hello friends! Yes, I know it's been over a month, and I'm sorry, but I've been so busy lately. Procrastination is a huge problem I deal with, because if we're being honest here, I've simply lost all motivation to do homework, so I put it off until later at night before I eventually do it. It's a horrid cycle that I really need to break. But I think I'm on the way to breaking the cycle because today I started my homework earlier (around 1 pm ish) and was done by 4 pm (I took a few small breaks while doing it), and it felt so nice being able to have fun for a few hours. Instead of spending my night in my room in the fading light doing homework, I played Lego Batman with my little brother and hung out. It was so nice being able to relax. I'm even blogging, granted it's nearly 10 pm and I still have to shower and journal, I'm blogging none the less.

While I still procrastinate a ton, I thought I would share some tips to help you (and myself) procrastinate less and not get too overwhelmed.

1. Get a planner or notebook and write down everything you have to do. You will not remember everything you have to do unless you write it down.

2. When you get home from school/work, allow yourself half an hour or so to wind down, get a snack, do something you enjoy, whatever.

3. After your thirty or so minutes are up, start pulling out your homework and get ready to start.

4. Before starting homework, put on some soft background music (I like solo piano music/classical/anything without words), grab a snack to have nearby, and fill up a cup of water and set it nearby. Try stretching a little before starting as it might help a little.

5. This step is so important, that I'm giving it it's own bullet. Before you start homework, make sure you silence your cell phone. I can't tell you how much this helps. Not hearing your phone keep going off helps you to finish homework faster because you're not constantly checking it.

6. Now time for the hard part. Open up your planner and get to work. I tend to work by my schedule (I'll do first period's work first, second period's second, and so forth and so on), so that If it ever gets too late, I can work on any work I don't finish at lunch (although I usually tend to force myself to finish it all anyways).

7. Take a small break after you finish each class' work. I tend to allow myself to check Twitter for a few minutes before I start on my next class.

8. Before you know it, you have all of your homework done and a bit more of your evening to enjoy. Try to keep this cycle up as much as you can.

Hopefully this has helped a little. I have so many blog ideas floating around my brain, and I hope to update more often, but I'm not making any promises because life is pretty busy for the next little while.

~Maddison

Hello friends! Yes, I know it's been a month. I'm sorry, but I've been super busy, I promise. I had my birthday since the last time I've written. I don't feel any different, and sometimes I still call myself fifteen before backtracking and reminding myself that I'm now sixteen. Although I'm sixteen, I didn't do anything like a "typical" sixteenth birthday would be. I didn't go and get my license because when I moved here, my Texas driver's ed didn't count a diddily squat, so I have to restart it all here. So for my birthday, I got driver's ed. It's a super generous gift, don't get me wrong, but when I already did most of driver's ed back home, it's kind of annoying having to relearn things. Also, I didn't have a giant "Sweet Sixteenth" party, in fact, I didn't have a party at all. I've still yet to find a decent human being here, so no friends equals no party. I'm not that disappointed about not having a party though, as I still got lots of money. Something that my mom did (without my knowledge) was that she had asked some of my friends and other people back home to send me a card for my birthday. I got so many sweet cards, and that meant so much more to me than a party right now. Although it wasn't my favorite birthday, it definitely wasn't too terrible.

The day after my birthday, I had to take the PSAT, but I was actually kind of excited. I signed up and wanted to do it. It was easier than I thought. I went in with the mindset that I wasn't going to know it all and that it would be super difficult and that's totally okay. The English portion wasn't too bad, I only didn't know a few of the things, and the math portion was okay too. Since the math portion went to the end of Algebra 2, I didn't know how to do everything, so I didn't answer a lot of the questions, but they said that whatever you don't answer doesn't count against you. Overall, I hope I did pretty well, and if not, then there's always next year.

Other than that, I can't really remember much else of what I've done in the past month. My memory is so weird. I'll have the hardest time remembering what I did the other day, or what I've said, but I can remember things from months or years ago perfectly. It's weird I tell you.

Oh yeah, Halloween was a thing that happened since I've last written! I didn't go trick or treating, but I did stay in my room and watch YouTube videos and watch everyone tweet things about Halloween. So it was a pretty good night, if I do say so myself. It was also pretty funny watching everyone's Twitter layouts going from Halloween to Christmas the minute it was November. That's a thing I'm excited for- Christmas. I love Christmas so much, I'm not even going to try to hide it. Between candy canes, two weeks off of school, eggnog, cocoa, warm jammies, fuzzy socks, fires, and presents, there is absolutely nothing wring with Christmas. And don't forget about Christmas music. I love Christmas music, in fact, I'm listening to some right now (the Pentatonix Christmas album- literally go listen to it right now, I am obsessed).

I have a few ideas floating around my head for future blog posts, and I hope to write some of them out and save them as drafts or something so I have something to post for those weeks when I'm super busy, but no promises. Talk to you next time!

~Maddison

Why hello there all you lovely humans! Being the very observant person I am, I hear things. Lots of things. Things I wish I never heard. And being in high school, it means that the things I overhear aren't always the best things to overhear. So I've decided that I would blog about a few of the things I've overheard since school started. You've been warned.

1. "I have a 76 in this class, so I'm like doing pretty good."

No. Don't. No.

2. "There's going to be so many parties on Halloween! I can't wait."

I guess Halloween being on a Friday leads to parties. Okay.

3. Person one: "Did you end up going to that lengere party?"

Person two: "Hell no! I wasn't going to pay $80 for that."

I don't even want to know.

4. Person one: "Look at what I got!"

Person two: "No way, how did you get this?!"

Person one: "I just got it. I can give you some later?"

Person two: "Okay, but I don't like bringing it to school in case I get caught. Maybe if you meet me at my house later or something? How much is it?"

Person one: "Just $30 a can!"

Person two: "No way! That's such a good deal!"

Looking back on this now, I think I might have overheard a drug deal today?

5. "I only smoke pot on the weekends."

Whywhywhywhywhy

6. "Do you want to buy some Tina?"

Apparently, Tina is code for Meth.

7. "If I could have one person killed, *insert teacher's name* would be the first one to go."

No. Why. No.

8. "I would totally bang *insert person's name."

Nope. Please love them and take them out to dinner and just no.

9. *Person coughs*

"Ebola!"

Please stop with the Ebola "jokes." They're not funny. You're not funny.

10. "I'm not going to take the PSAT, because there's no way I'm waking up early on a Saturday."

I can't even form words to try to understand your stupidity level. Do you think the actual SAT will be on a school day? Just saying.

So there are ten things that I've heard that have really stuck out to me since I've been in school here. I don't know if these are only things in Washington, as some of the things that I've unfortunately overheard are things that I literally had to ask my mom what they meant, and have been scarred forever, or if this is common things high schoolers say/do, but I can say that I now know more about drugs and parties than I would ever like to admit. And now you do too... Oops.

~Maddison

Hello lovelies! I have a bit of a story to tell. As you can see by the title, I've had a homeschooling fail. Welcome to my crazy life.

It all started when I moved here. I knew that the curriculum was behind Texas by a good year or two, but I didn't know what I was going to do about it. So like any normal human being, I continued on with the typical public school system. I got put into most of the classes I wanted, with my core classes being Pre-AP. So far, so good. But alas, even in Pre-AP, the courses are super easy. I'm having to relearn things that I've learned years before, and they put me into the basic choir, so I'm learning things that I did five years ago in fifth grade...

With all of this, I've was begging my mom to look into homeschooling. Every second I could bring it up, I did. After a few weeks, she finally agreed and I was overjoyed. I got all registered and put into a few classes. Mistake number one: They never asked me what classes I wanted, they just put me into four classes, instead of the six I take in public school. Also, they didn't put me into any Pre-AP classes. Big mistake. On the website, it clearly stated that they had honors classes and would gladly put me into them. Also, by doing online school, they didn't have ASL (American Sign Language), so my world language was thrown out of the window.

I was home schooled for two days. The education level was the same as the public school, and they said that it was more advanced, which was wrong. The lack of communication was unacceptable. You would think that they would teach me how to use the site, or give me any information for that matter, but no. I didn't get any information whatsoever, which was highly aggravating. Also, they would've made me do all of the work from the past month, as if I wasn't in public high school for the past month.

I was extremely disappointed in the system, and the fact that nothing was going how I wanted. So now I'm back at this horrid high school and with make up work from Thursday and Friday. But if there's one thing that I'm extremely grateful that happened, it's the fact that my mom didn't unroll me from public school until I made sure I liked homeschooling, giving me another option.

And that's my homeschooling fail story. I hope you enjoyed. Sorry for ranting a little, but I'm just a bit annoyed, and needed somewhere to vent.

~Maddison

Hello all you lovely people! How are you? Good? Good. Now that it's October, I'm thinking that it's safe to assume that most everyone is in school by now. Unless you're completely done with your schooling, but that's another story. Anyways, whenever you start a new school, you're always going to make at least one friend that school year. I'm in no way in a position to give you advice on how to make friends, but I think I'm going to give you some tips anyways.

Personally, making friends is one of the hardest things for me. I don't trust people easily, and I'm a very quiet person, so it takes me forever to befriend people. And I really truly do mean forever. I've been in school for a month and I still wouldn't consider anyone my "friend." Are there people that I could see possible becoming my friend? Maybe a few.

Tip time! These are a few things that I usually do to try to befriend new people.

1. Download the Twitter app (or go to the website)

2. Create an account

3. Find people with similar interests (fandoms are great for this)

4. Follow them

5. Wait until they follow back, or ask them to follow back

6. DM with them

7. Become super good friends

8. Find out that they don't live in your state/country

9. Cry

10. Continue talking to them and become best friends

Oh, you probably wanted to tell you about how to make friends at school... Yeah, that's a whole lot harder, but here are some things I find helpful.

1. Find someone who looks nice

2. Look around at who you're sitting by

3. Ask them a question such as, "Did you have a good weekend?"

4. Keep the first few conversations simple

5. I like to stick to a simple, "How's it going?"

6. Hopefully you guys become friends

I know these tips probably aren't that helpful in any way, but it's what I do, and it seems to work eventually. If all else fails, internet friends are fantastic, and my favorite type of people. I hope this helped you in some way, and if not then oops. Oh well, next time maybe. Oh yeah, but can we talk about the fact that it's October? I love October! It's my favorite months, not only because it's my birth month, but everything is fall and pumpkiny and amazing! October is great.

~Maddison

Hello everybody! Instead of updating you about my life in this blog post, I thought I would post a little short story that just came to mind. and by short story, I really do mean short. And I don't even know if it will finish or not, or maybe this is just a short story teaser, but I thought it would be fun to post some of my writing here!

The Waves

Standing on the dock, I felt like I could do anything. This was where I was safe, this was where I was free. I can be myself here, without anyone wondering what I'm doing, or giving me the sympathetic side glances or the pats on the back. No "I'm sorry this happened to you," no anything. It was just me, my thoughts, and the waves.

I slipped my shoes off and let my feet dangle in the cool water. A salty breeze brushed past my face. I stared into the waves, memorized by the constant movement. The waves seemed to be in turmoil, always crashing down on themselves. Maybe that's why I liked the water so much, because I could relate. Or maybe I'm trying to hard to read in to things, to relate to something. Maybe I'm just useless.

I shook my head, trying hard to banish the negative thoughts. I bit down on my lip and closed my eyes, silently counting to ten. When I opened my eyes again, everything was back to normal. The waves were still crashing on top of each other, and the salty breeze still lightly brushed past my face. It was peaceful here. I plugged my headphones into my phone and clicked shuffle on my music. A melodic love song begin playing playing quietly as I leaned back against the large beam supporting the dock.

I felt the footsteps before I heard them over my music. Somebody sat down next to me, but I refused to look at them. I could feel them staring at me. I could feel the sympathetic look whoever was there was giving me. After about five minutes, I had enough, and decided it was time to tell whoever was there to leave me alone. I took out my ear buds and turned to where the person should have been, but I was greeted with emptiness.

"Don't worry, it's all going to be okay," was the last thing I heard before I was pushed into the dark, cool, waves.

*Dramatic music plays* Well there you go! My first super short story that I've posted on this blog! I really hope you like it, and hopefully I'll post more short stories on here.

~Maddison

(Oh yeah, and I feel like I should tell you guys that this story is 100% fictional and my own, so yeah.)

Hello everybody! School's back in session, and it's almost as if you can hear every school-aged kid groan and cry while the parents secretly rejoice. My first day was on the third of September, and it went surprisingly decent. It definitely wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't horrific either. That's kind of how school is for me. It's neither great or awful, it's usually just an okay, normal day.

Since I've been in school for about a week and a half now, I have all of my school supplies, so I thought I would do a "What's In My School Bag?" post. I've seen this tag as a YouTube video, but I don't like the idea of myself becoming a YouTuber, so I thought I'd blog about it. So without further ado, my school bag:

There's my school bag for you! Compartments not pictured include a fleece-lined laptop holder in the main compartment, a smaller pocket in front of the organizational pocket, and a fleece-lined sunglasses/phone holder pocket at the top. I love my backpack so much because you can fit so many things in it without it looking bulky. I also like how the bottom looks like leather, so I know that it won't rip and tear easily. I give this backpack a definite 9.5/10. The only reason it's not getting a 10/10 is because the zippers aren't the easiest to unzip, but the get smoother the more you use them.
Hopefully you enjoyed this little post, and I hope that I can do a "What's In My School Bag?" part two at the end of the year to see what's changed.

~Maddison

Hello Everybody! I know it's been a really long time since I've blogged, but as I mentioned last time, I've been super busy, and you can probably tell why by the title. Yes, I have moved halfway across the country yet again. I say yet again because this isn't the first time I've moved between Texas and Washington. I guess we can never pick a state, but if it was up to me, I'd just move to Ireland already (If you don't know, I love all things Ireland/UK and I want to move to Ireland after college). Moving is super stressful, annoying, emotional, and so many more things. But I think the worse part about this move is that I didn't even get to go back to say goodbye to anyone. We were on vacation when we made the quick decision to move, so my mom, uncle, and older brother flew back and packed up all of our things, while my little brother and I stayed on our "extended vacation," as we had told everyone. So instead of being able to pack up all of my things (which I would have been absolutely no help anyways because I'm the worst packer in the world, which happens to be quite ironic, considering how many times we've moved), I had to stay here with my family for ten days until my mom returned. Even having to say goodbye to my older brother, who decided he didn't want to move again and decided to move in with some friends, was hard, as I never thought that he wouldn't move with us. To sum up this sob story quickly, let's just say that my life has been anything but easy the past while, and taking the month off of blogging helped eliminated some stress. I know that may sound weird, considering I doubt many people try to read every post of mine, but I didn't want to feel like putting up some crappy little entry every other week, just because I want to keep my blog updated.

Moving on, I appreciate everyone who understands and is okay with my blog becoming sub par recently. But I hope to change that soon, as I really do enjoy writing, and this blog is a nice way to help me feel better. Writing always has a calming effect on me, and that's why I started this blog in the first place. It's almost like therapy to me because I can start writing feeling horrible, and by the end I really do feel a weight lifted off my shoulders.

Now let's try to catch you up on my life, shall we? You didn't miss much, in fact, hardly anything. I mean, YouTube related things happened, and I made some really cool internet friends, but other than that, not a whole lot of exciting things have happened to me. Last week I went and got my new schedule for my new school here and I got most of the classes that I wanted. The only class I didn't get was AP World History (WHAP) and they didn't give it to me because AP classes have summer assignment, and the counselling man didn't think it was something I could do in a few days, since they were already starting to turn things in. Although I totally could have done the whole thing super fast and done amazing on it, I admitted defeat, and he gave me a multicultural studies class, which actually seems like a lot of fun, and it will probably benefit my future more because I want to travel to the world for a living. I'm thinking that I want to be a travel blogger, or somebody that gets to write about all their travels. I just really want to write and travel. But back to high school, my schedule is nice, except I got a map of the school, and after nearly every class, I have to go way across campus to get to my next class. I don't know how I'm going to make it to each class in time, but I get to go tomorrow and tour the school a little and find back ways and such. Also, tomorrow I have to go and get my permit transferred for this state, and find out if I can still get my license on time. That shall be "fun."

Other than getting my school stuff situated, the only other thing I've done is that we went and explored Seattle a little bit on Sunday. We took a ferry up, and that would have been a lot of fun if I 1. Didn't have an anxiety attack because there were so many people (I have really bad social anxiety) and 2. wore a jacket, because the front of the boat is extremely windy. Although it wasn't the most fun experience I've had, I did it enjoy it. Once we got to the city, I was overjoyed. There were so many new things and people to look at, and I couldn't wait to explore. We went down to the pier and I bought a really nice candle, and the guy who made it, went to UT (my dream school), so we talked about that for a while. After the pier, we went to Pike's Place Market, and I was done in .5 seconds. There were people everywhere I looked am I'm surprised I didn't have another attack. After Pike's Place, we went and saw the Space Needle and a cool fountain behind it. By the time we were done, we were exhausted, so we made our journey home. Exploring new places is so much fun, and I really hope I can do more of it soon!

I bet by now you're done with hearing about my life for now, and lucky for you I've run out of things to discuss. I really enjoy blogging, and hopefully I can get back into it now that I've moved and such. School is starting up next Wednesday, and since the schools aren't as academically challenging as schools back home, I most likely won't have all that much homework, allowing me more time to blog and do things that I love.

Stay Grand

~Maddison

Hello everybody! I'm finally back! It felt so weird not blogging the past month, but as I said in my last blog post, I've been extremely busy, and I was glad that I eliminated the stress of feeling like I had to put up a blog post every or every other week. So in the past month I've had to move halfway across the country and have to deal with all of that absolute crap, and I had way to many different feelings to write any blog posts, so that's why I haven't posted in the past month. But so much as happened.

I'm glad this blog is relevant again, in the sense that school's starting back up for most people again. Summer went by in the blink of an eye and I did hardly anything I wanted to accomplish before school started. Well, I've hardly done anything I've wanted to accomplish for 2014, but that's a different subject. Back onto the subject of school starting back up, I wanted to write a post giving a few back to school tips.

1. My first tip is the cheesiest, but it's super important. Whether you're starting a new school, or going back to your same old one, you should always remember to be yourself. Never change yourself for anyone. Changing yourself for other people just confuses you and everyone else. Soon enough, you don't know who you really are anymore. Staying true to yourself and who you are is a crucial part of surviving in this world.

2. Going along with my first tip, don't, under any circumstances, "dumb yourself down." Don't play dumb if you're truly a smart person. Take pride in your intelligence instead of trying to hide it.

3. When going back to school, starting getting your normal routine back the last little while of summer. Whether this is the last few weeks, last week, or last few days, it really does help when it comes time to wake up on the first day of school. To start out, you set your alarms at a reasonable time for the first try (if you usually wake up past noon on a typical summer day, don't try to get back on track by setting your alarm at 7am). I like to start around 10am the first time, and then each day take away a few minutes until I can finally wake up the time I usually would for school easily.

4. If you're in high school, and teachers don't give you a list, then I wouldn't recommend you do all of your back to school shopping until after the first day. Sometimes teachers are extremely picky, and it's best to wait until after the first day when they hand you a list to get everything you need. But, you do want to buy things while they're on sale before school starts, so make sure you get pens, pencils, erasers, calculators, paper, a plain binder or two, and some one subject notebooks before the first day. Then you don't need that many things after the first day when prices are back up to normal.

5. If you can, go to your school (or get a map) and find out where your classes are. The first day is so much easier when you know, or have a general idea, of where your classes are. If you're allowed to walk through your school, try to walk your schedule the same way you would during school.

6. If you tend to get really anxious, try to remember that most of the things that you worry about usually don't ever happen. If you have anxiety medicine, make sure you take it. Try to download some soothing music to your phone, or look at pictures of cute people/puppies/whatever else. Know that you can get through it.

So there are a few of my back to school tips! Hopefully some of them will help make the transition from summer back into school a little easier.

~Maddison

Why hello everyone! I bet you didn't expect to hear from me anytime soon. I'm surprised too! I got back from camping yesterday, and today I've just been chilling out and doing nothing. It's the first time since I started my vacation that it's been so calm and relaxing. I slept in (Until 11am, but that's the longest I've been able to sleep until), watched Tyler Oakley on the OkHello app, ate some lunch, and have been on my futon in couch form with the window open, listening to music, and on my computer. I can feel the cool breeze from the window, and I've had Troye Sivan songs on repeat (Specifically the Happy Little Pill preview and an edit from Tumblr of him singing "Come Home To Me" with rain playing in the background. I'll link it here: Come Home To Me with Rain this link takes you to Tumblr, where the edits came from. One of them has his voice deepened, while the other doesn't. Also, the non-deepened voice was his real voice a few years ago when he posted the video here). I don't know why, but for some reason, the sound of rain puts me into a really productive/creative mood. It just makes me feel really happy, especially if it's sunny outside.

It's nice that I'm having this perfectly relaxing day, because my life recently has been anything but perfect and relaxing. Anyways, camping was interesting to say the least. We woke up early on the 15th to put everything into the trailer and such, and I'm just going to skip until when we pulled into the campsite now because you can't just load a trailer and drive for nearly two hours without some stress. Most of my mom's side of the family went camping. And I say most because my aunt, uncle, and cousin in Georgia didn't come camping because they were vacationing in Florida. So there we were. My aunt and uncle and their three girls. My other aunt and uncle and their two boys and one girl. My grandma and grandpa. My mom, two brothers, and I. If you count that up, it's sixteen people. Sixteen people. Two bathrooms. Two bedrooms. Eight beds. Two tents. Two couches. One futon. No air conditioning. No wifi. No cell service. But, on top of all of that, I did manage to have some fun.

Both nights we had a campfire and roasted smores and/or hotdogs. The first night was boiling hot, but my aunt would crack jokes, keeping us laughing well into 3am. The second night ended up being like a giant slumber party. It started out with my mom on the futon, me on the small couch, and my aunt and cousin on the larger couch, but after a while both of my brothers came, as well as another cousin. We stayed up laughing until about 1:30/2ish in the morning, before we all stopped talking (at the same time too) and passed out.

But besides staying up laughing, night time was my favorite for many reasons. The campfire was one of them. Campfires can be so much fun. We sat roasting our marshmallows and laughing. We shooed away bugs and had smores eating contests. It was great. Another great thing about night was the stars. The stars were wonderful. We would turn off all the lights and look up to the sky. Although the Milky Way wasn't visible, the stars still shone bright. You could see parts of the sky where you know that if you could just be a little further from civilization, you would be able to see so much. It's hard to describe the beauty, but it was magnificent. It made me really want a telescope.

All-in-all, I actually did have fun camping. Or at least, that's all I can remember- the fun stuff! Again, I don't know how much I'll be uploading in the next little while, as my life is about to get extremely different in the next week or so, but I plan on being back soon! I may even surprise you with random little posts. Maybe.

~Maddison

Hello everybody! Sorry I haven't posted anything in the past month, but I've been really busy with my life. And when I wasn't busy I was too stressed to write. And then I went through a phase where I hated everything I wrote. So in short, I haven't had an update in a while. And I'm sorry about that, but I hope that I can get onto a schedule posting every/every other week again! But, unfortunately, that won't be able to happen for the next few weeks, as right now I'm on vacation, and once I get back I'll be super busy for a while. But don't worry, I will be back!

In all honesty, I can't really remember the past month of my life, but that's alright. I've been on vacation for exactly one week today, and I've had a lot of fun! In fact, I go camping tomorrow and will be gone for about three days, but it should be really fun! In fact, you can see the stars so well where we're going, and I can't wait!

Sorry that this is a short update, but it's getting late and I should really start to pack for camping! I'll see you whenever I post next!

~Maddison

Hello Everybody! As of June 5th, I'm on summer break right now! Hopefully if you're not out of school yet, you'll be out soon! Also, if you just got out of school like me, I hope you're not bored yet, but if you are, then here's a short list of things to do when you're bored during summer!

1. Hang out with friends

2. Don't hang out with friends

3. Go outside and tan and be active

4. Stay inside where you can't burn

5. Make a blog

6. Write a fanfic

7. Read fanfics

8. Watch YouTube videos

9. Sleep

10. Wake up to watch the sunrise

11. Wake up to watch the sunset

12. Change all the clocks in your house to a different time

13. Go on a family vacation

14. Go on a vacation by yourself

15. Go to a store and see how many things you can buy with $15

16. Make of things you should do this summer

17. Burn said list

18. Go work out

19. Sit on your couch and do absolutely nothing with your life

20. Contemplate the meaning of life

21. Cross something off your bucket list

22. Buy and light a candle

23. Be creative

24. Color in a coloring book

25. Do whatever you want, you don't need me to tell you how to live your life

I hope that you've enjoyed this list of things that you can do in the summer, or really anytime during the year. Hopefully you have an amazing summer!

~Maddison

Hello everybody! Can you believe that 2014 is already halfway over?! It's crazy to think about! My last day of school was June 5th, and I'm so happy that Freshman year is over! It wasn't bad or anything, but I'm just glad that it's done. My summer has been pretty lame so far- just me sleeping and watching YouTube videos. Well, I don't find that lame at all, in fact I find it quite fun, watching YouTube videos is definitely my favorite thing to do. They just help me to escape real life for a while, and I love that they can do that.

This blog post is going to be a little shorter, as I haven't done much so far this summer, but my next blog post will be much more exiting, as I'm getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it at all, but I'm trying my hardest not to think about it much. But I'll make sure to tell you all about it in my next blog post.

Stay lovely!

~Maddison

Hello Everyone! Assigned reading may make you want to burn the book, or you may love the book, but either way, you're still forced to read said book. For most cases, you probably won't like the book, but if you do, good for you. So, if you're stuck with assigned reading either during the school year or over the summer, here are a few ways to help get you through it.

Step 1: Cry because you're being forced to read the book.

Step 2: Stop crying and look at the back of the book or online for a quick summary.

Step 3: Section it off. There's no way you can read and annotate all twenty chapters the night before. By breaking it into sections, it gives you a more realistic timeline.

Step 4: Do the work yourself. There's no way that I can stress this enough, but please, PLEASE, do the work yourself. You may not want to read the book at all, but doing the work yourself will make the quizzes come easier, and you really will get a better grade if you do it yourself.

Step 5: Reward yourself after each quiz, but only if you did the work mostly (and by mostly, I mean no less than 95%; let's be real here, everyone needs help at one point) by yourself. Maybe just a small treat, such as a little bit of your favorite candy, or whatever else you want, but a reward is always nice.

Step 6: Finish the book

Step 7: Reward yourself since you kept going and finished the book

Step 8: Do whatever you want to the book. Examples: Burn it, trash it, keep it, or frame it.

Step 9: Be glad that you're finally done! At least until the next assigned book..

Hopefully by using these tips, and some that you've figured out by yourself, or from others, you can finish reading the assigned book quickly and easily!

Also: If you need to focus on your book without any distractions, put away your phone, or at least silence it! Try your hardest not to tool around on your computer. What help me, personally, is to put some piano/classical music on in the background softly and light a nice smelling candle. It helps your mood and makes it seem tolerable!

~Maddison

Hello everybody! Happy June! I can't wait until this Thursday- it's my last day as a Freshman! Come June 6th, and I'll be a Sophomore! This school year somehow flew by so quickly, but I can't wait until summer! I really want this to be an easy and relaxing summer! Hopefully.

Not a lot has happened in the two weeks since we've last talked, but a few things did happen. On Friday May 23rd, I went to my choir banquet. It was so much fun, and I'm really glad I went. Not much else happened until Thursday May 29th. On the 29th, I had to put my sweet dog to sleep. He had somehow gotten doggie cancer, and the vet gave him a week to live, but it would be a week of pain. We decided to put him to sleep peacefully and quickly, so he would no longer be in pain. It was a really hard decision, but at least I know that he's no longer suffering and that he's in a better place.

Going from such a bad night, the next day, Friday May 30th, was actually one of my favorite days of this year so far (Thus the title). Last Friday I got to go to the O2L tour in Dallas! The only bummer of the night was the fact that I didn't get to meet them. You see, I was supposed to see them, since I had bought a VIP ticket, but I was never informed of the meet and greet times, and I thought that it was at 6pm. As it tuns out, the meet and greet started at 4pm. I got home from school around 4pm and checked my Twitter like usual when I saw that Tweet. I got everything ready in two minutes, and soon my dad and I were driving to Dallas. We were almost speeding on the roads, just trying to make it to the House of Blues in time. By the time we got there, it was 5:30, and the meet and greet had ended. It was devastating. In fact, I almost cried, but I don't like crying in public, so I told myself no, and composed myself. I'm thankful my dad was with me though, as he found somebody who worked at the House of Blues, and one thing lead after another, and so I still got to go and be in the VIP section, which was three feet from the stage. It was perfect. Even though I didn't get to meet my life savers, I still got to stand three feet away and get amazing photos. Would I like to have met them? Of course! But at least I had fun and got to go so close to them and make two new friends at the tour. My dad even managed to find me a VIP lanyard, which is now hanging in my room.

Now I'm sitting in my room, listening to solo piano music with a candle burning, and I can finally enjoy life without homework (or at least for the next three months)! 

Stay lovely!

~Maddison

Hello Everyone! Sorry I didn't post last week, but I was busy being social and going to hotels. (If you want a longer explanation, go check out my new post on my main blog here- Post on Main Blog! it also talks about what I did this past weekend.) Speaking of what I've done this past weekend, that leads me to my topic for this post: Dream Schools. If you know me at all (or read my other blog post), then you might know that my dream college/university is the University of Texas in Austin. I've been dreaming about this school for a little under a year now, and today I finally got to tour it! My mom, little brother, and I did a "walking" self-guided tour. I put quotes by walking, since all I did for the first 45 minutes was run, skip, jump, and basically to anything except walk. After 45 minutes, people started appearing out of thin air, and I had to tone down my excitement. I had to try to be like any other person- just a person touring the campus. It was hard. All I wanted to do was to continue skipping and giggling like a small child. But no, I had to act like the mature teenager I am. Or at least, I had to act like that around other people. I could act however I wanted in our car. Don't worry, this personal-type story actually ties into what I'm going to be typing in this post.

Having a goal in life is great, but most people don't just have one big goal. You may have ten big goals, and two small/supporting goals, but most everyone has at least some type of goal in life, even if it is to just go to bed without crying yourself to sleep. It's okay! No matter what your goal, my question for you is this: do you have a college/university goal that you have in mind? Do you want to go to college for 4,8,12, or even zero years? Whatever your answer, it's okay; at least you know! For those of you who even just thinking about college makes your stomach twist into knots, that's perfectly fine to! All I'm trying to say really is that it's okay not to know what you want to do. I've known since last year that I want to go to UT, and I've known since early on this year that I want to be a teacher, but not just any teacher, but a Special Education Teacher.  I also want to be an author, but I've known that since first grade. I love Sped kids (special ed), and teaching was kind of one of those things that I never thought I would want to do. I've always been told, "Oh, you would be such a great teacher," or "I can totally see you as a teacher," etc, etc. In 8th grade even, we took this career test thingie to show you career opportunities you would be good in, and guess what I got? Yep. It said "Teacher" written across the screen in big, bold letters. I immediately thought, "Oh heck no," but look at me now, wanting to be a teacher.

Anyways, maybe you don't have the next few years of your life planned out. Maybe you're more like my older brother. Someone who just wants to get done with school. He graduated from high school last year, and he started college at a local college for the winter/spring terms. He got a little break by not doing the fall semester, but only because he was working full time. He still doesn't really know exactly what he wants to do in life, but he's getting his pre-requisites done, since everyone has to do them anyways.

What I'm trying to get through, is that whether you have your whole life planned out, or you live day to day, both are okay. You don't have to know everything super early, but it's okay. It's also okay if you have no idea what you want to do. As long as you set some goals in life, it's all good.

I don't know if this post helped any bit, but I kind of wish it did. If not, sorry, but I'm not a professional, just a teenager speaking her mind. :)

~Maddie

Hello Everyone! So do you remember the time I said that I would start trying to post weekly again? Do you also remember the time that I told you that I'm a high school student? I really did mean to blog last weekend, I promise, but I was being social and had a friend over Friday, and then my family went to a hotel Saturday for Mother's day, and we didn't get back until Sunday afternoon, and by that time I had a lot of homework and no time to blog.

Anywho, now time to talk about everything that I've done this past weekend! First thing's first: Friday! I woke up around 9:30 am Friday morning, and within the hour, my mom, little brother, and I were off to a small city south of Austin for my piano competition. You see, the reason we drove five hours for a piano competition was because this wasn't just a normal competition, oh no. This was All-State. This was a big deal! We arrived at the hotel around 1:30 pm, and we were swimming in the pool by two. Our hotel was right on a river, and although I didn't swim in it (I can't stand swimming in water in which I can't see very far down in), it was beautiful to look at. We spent a good three hours outside swimming and looking at the lake before we decided we wanted some food. We decided to eat at the hotel, since we didn't know where we were, and it was convenient. The food was delicious, and I can't tell if it was just because we were famished, or because it was actually delicious. I guess the world shall never know.

The next morning I had to wake up at 6:20 in the morning and get ready for my All State competition. We left the hotel by 7:10 and I made it to Texas State University (where it was held) by 7:35 am. The way All State works is pretty simple. They break you up into groups based on your instrument and your level in that instrument. From that broad group, they break you into multiple groups of 12-15 students. Once your whole group has played, you wait about and hour to get your scores. If you get an "Outstanding" as your score, then you could get picked to be an "All-State Winner." Out of all the "Outstandings" in one group of the 15 students, only one will be known as the "All-State Winner." It might sound kind of complicated, but it's really not. My play time was at 8:25 in the morning, and I was the very first one for my judge/division. I ended up getting a Superior, which I'm proud of. Yes, I wish I would have gotten an Outstanding, but since it's only my first time going to state (I was eligible last year, just didn't go), I was very proud of my Superior. Also, since I was the first performer of the day, the judge was in the most "judge'y" mindset. It's all good! I even got a ribbon! All-in-all, I'm very proud of my results.

After I had gotten my scores, I was able to leave. My mom, little brother, and I went back to our car wondering what we could do. We looked at the clock, only to find that it was just 10:30 in the morning. On our way back to our hotel, we found a shopping district place thing, and found a Hobby Lobby. We went and got a frame for my award sheet (pictured below) and we also found some cheap flip flops (since I didn't have any) for the pool. We got some food for lunch, and once we were done, we went back to the hotel. We went back to the pool again, and that's where we spent most of our day. When we got back to our hotel room we had a few snacks before we went back to the shopping district to explore. We went to Target, since it has everything, where I got some pretty push pins, and two books. The books I got are: Looking For Alaska and Paper Towns, both by John Green (the author of The Fault in Our Stars). I loved TFIOS so much, and he's such a great author, so I bought both books of his that Target had. I love Target. After we went to Target, we decided to go see the movie "Heaven is For Real." I had read the book a few years ago, and since it's a true story, they can't mess with the book! The movie was fantastic, and the little boy was adorable! I loved it! After the movie we went back to the hotel and slept, basically.

The next morning (Sunday/today) we woke up around 8:30 to start on our journey home. By around 9:30 we were checked out of the hotel and on our way back home. We stopped at a gas station place called "Buc-ee's," and let me just tell you, that store is something else. It has a whole bunch of stuff. It had rows upon rows of candy and food and meat and Texas-shaped fudge and merchandise and practically anything you would want whilst on the road. We got some Gatorade, beef jerky, watermelon taffy, and some other gummy candy for road-trip snacks, and my little brother got a "bro-tank" for fun. Once done with "Buc-ee's," we were on our way to Austin.

If you know me, you might know that my absolute dream college is the University of Texas in Austin. I've even gone so far as look at dorms and stuff online. I can't even remember exactly why I chose UT. If I'm not mistaken, I think last summer I was looking at best colleges in the country, and best colleges in the state of Texas, and UT happened to make both lists. The school has a good website, and I fell in love instantly. I started looking at campus maps, online tours, tuition costs, online dorm tours, etc. Let's not forget that I wasn't even in high school yet; I had only just gotten out of 8th grade. Now, nearly a year later, and I'm still just as in love with it. Not only that, but I got to tour it this morning! I was super excited, and when we got to the campus, I was literally jumping, skipping, and running everywhere. There was no walking until about 45 minutes into it, when we started to see people. I couldn't stop smiling, and giggling. It was so surreal to be at the place I had been dreaming of for a little under a year. We got to go all over campus, and I took so many pictures (see the collage below, since I don't want to post every picture). It was so amazing, and probably one of my favorite days of this year!

Once done with touring my dream school, we still had another four-ish hours until we were home. That got pushed to five hours when we were stuck in traffic for FIFTY (50) MINUTES FOR NO REASON AT ALL! Not fun. But I did get to read a chapter of To Kill A Mockingbird. I would've read more, but I just didn't want to, also it was weird reading in the car, even if we were literally parked on the freeway due to the traffic, and I have bad motion sickness, so I only read for about ten minutes maybe. When we made it home, the first thing I ran to was not my room, or the couch, or the bathroom. Nope. It was my kitty.

Hopefully this long post has updated you significantly on my weekend and makes up for my lack of posting recently.

Have a nice life. :)

~Maddie

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but I've been both too busy and too lazy. The reason you're getting this random mid-week-ish blog post is because I had to go to the dentist today... As everyone knows, the dentist is torture. Pure torture. I had to get a few small cavities worked on today, and now that I'm fully un-numb and able to smile properly, the pain is starting to kick in. I literally hate needles, and I had experience with needles twice in the past week. Last Friday I had to get my blood drawn, and today I had the cavity thing, which also included needles full of numbing substance. Not cool, not cool at all. I'm going to try to keep this post short (and hopefully not too rubbish), as it's already 7pm, and I haven't done any homework! Sorry about that, but I'll try to be back this weekend with regular posts (hopefully)!

Anyways, at least the dentist was nice, but I could go my whole life without having to go to the dentist's office again. Nope, nope, nope. I vote no on any dentist/doctor visit ever. If only...

Sorry, but I'm going to have to stop here. I have homework to do (sadly)... I'll hopefully be back this weekend with less-rubbish posts.

~Maddie

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while! I have been really busy lately, but I've also gotten a case of summeritis. For all of you who don't know what summeritis is, it's basically when all you can think of is summer, and you don't feel like doing anymore school work. It usually comes on pretty strong in either the last few weeks of school, and/or right after all the state/big tests are done with. I don't ever remember having it this bad, but I'll get over it quickly enough!

First thing's first: when it comes to summeritis, don't let it take over your life, especially if you still have a lot of things to to in school. If you're still in school and feel a case of summeritis, don't worry! It isn't a legitimate excuse to stop doing everything, but it does help you to feel a bit more relaxed, and a little less stressed. I have five more weeks left in school, but I just got done with my state tests, so I feel like school should be over with already! But no, I still have four more weeks of "learning," and then my last week of school is finals and half days.

This post isn't really going to be a "How to Beat Summeritis" post, as let's be real here, I can write down a bunch of tips, but you probably won't do it. Heck, even just writing this post I get distracted. I either open up a new tab, watch TV, or eat. I've been "writing" this post for about three hours now... Maybe it's just the fact that I had a church conference last week, so I haven't done any homework since Wednesday, or maybe it really is summeritis, but I'm sure that once I get back on a regular school routine tomorrow, then my summeritis will slowly fade away until it comes back full-force in a month.

Sorry this post is a bit rubbish, but I haven't post anything in a while, and I wanted to do just a little update-y type thingie, I guess. Either way, I hope to be back to normal this weekend!

~Maddie

Hello people of the world! I'm back and ready to talk all about homework- something I am definitely not a stranger to! You see, I take all Honors classes, so homework is something I encounter nearly everyday, even on the weekends. Most of the time, even if I don't have homework due the next day, there's always something due that week. If you're like me, have no fear! I'm going to teach you a few ways to overcome all that homework!

First things first, you have to prioritize your homework. If something isn't due the next day, it goes to the bottom of the list. I like to work in order of my class periods, that way, if I don't completely finish an assignment, but I have the class after lunch, I'll simply finish the work during my lunch period. Another thing that helps me is to set limits. If you're working until three in the morning doing homework, then you definitely have way too much homework. The latest I've stayed up doing homework was until 11 pm once, but I had piano lessons that night, so I didn't even start my homework until about 9:30 pm. For me, I say that if I'm not done with homework by 9:30 pm (usually, but it depends on my starting time), then I'll finish it at lunch. If I'm almost done, but it's already 9:30, I'll allow myself 15-25 minutes to finish, but I really don't like to work past 10 pm any night. Setting limits on the amount of homework you allow yourself to do really eliminates a lot of stress, and depending on how long your bedtime routine takes, you can usually still probably get somewhere near the correct amount of sleep you need.

I know it may sound a little weird,  since you want your homework done immediately, but take a few breaks every once in a while. Go grab some food, run around your house a few times, do 20 jumping jacks, whatever it takes to get your mind refreshed and off of homework for a while. By getting your mind off of homework, I mean leave your phone and any other electronics and take a five minute break away from wherever you do your work. Try to do a quick five minute break every 30-60 minutes. It all depends on you. If you want a break every 30 minutes, take one! If you want one every hour, take it! Nobody's stopping you! Relieving your mind and having a little bit of fun helps the homework to be more tolerable.

When doing your homework, remember that it's okay not to understand every single thing. There's bound to be at least one thing that you don't understand. My advice is to skip the problem and come back to it once you have finished the whole assignment. You can star, circle, put a question mark, whatever you want, just don't forget to come back to it. If you still can't figure it out after you've completed the whole assignment, then turn to Google for help. You can get an answer to pretty much anything on Google and Yahoo answers. I know that they may not be the most reliable sources, but they're a good start. The best place to check for answers first are any websites ending in .edu and .gov. Education and government sights will usually be the most reliable. Another good place to look is in a database, but only if your school provides one and the password. For math problems, https://www.mathway.com/ is a great website. you can see the answer, and you can make a free account to see the steps. It's fantastic!

Above anything else, when doing homework you have to remember to stay sane. Sometimes it may seem as if teachers assign it because they want to see you suffer, but it really is meant to help you (or at least that's what everyone claims).

~Maddie

Oh, hi there. Did you forget about me? Whoops, sorry. You see, the thing is that when you have hours of homework all the time and are too exhausted to do anything else, you don't really have time to blog about your personal life. But don't worry, I do try to keep my High School blog updated each week. In fact, my new post will be up soon! I'll be talking about homework, and the link will be at the end of this post! You see, you haven't gotten any posts on this blog in about 2 weeks, but I posted something last week on the High School blog, and today you get not one, but TWO blog posts! Be proud of me! :)

Anyways, as you can see by the title, I only have seven weeks of school left! I'm so beyond excited! Summer will be so amazing! I'm not planning on doing much except reading, sleeping, writing, hanging out with friends, watching YouTube videos, eating, and maybe a vacation! No matter what I do, I know I'm going to have a lot of fun because no homework!! It will seriously be the best time of my life. I'll have so much time to do things I enjoy! It will almost be weird, having to adjust back to no homework, but I'll get over it after an hour. When it comes to summer, some of my favorite things are often the most simple. Getting enough sleep every night is definitely one of my favorite things, no matter which time of the year, but it can only happen when I don't have school! Friends and family is another one of my favorite things, especially when I have the time to hang out with them. The list goes on and on and on and on, but I have a challenge for you! If you've been reading this post at all, you've read about a few things that I'm grateful/thankful for. My challenge for you is this:
Make a list of things that you're thankful for!

It may seem cheesy or lame, but once you start, all these things come to mind that you didn't think of at first. I mean, you don't have to do this, but you can if you want! Plus, it shows what a great life you have, since you have so many reasons to be thankful!

Keep Smiling :)

~Maddison

Other Blog Post About Homework

Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't get to blog last week, but I was super busy and had a ton of homework! As you can tell by the title, this week I'm going to be talking about crushes. I'm going to be giving advice on how to talk to them, how to get their number, and even how to learn their names!

Whether you're crushing on multiple people, one, or none, this post might still benefit you! I know for me personally, I think a lot of guys are cute, but I'm only really crushing on one. If you know me personally, then you know that I'm really shy at first, and I usually won't be the first person to make a move and talk to anybody. Since I'm in high school now, I'm trying to change that a bit. I'm trying to break out of my shell a little more and not to be so shy. Trust me, it's awkward at times, but usually all I have to say is "How's your life?" (Which I always say) or something simple and people will respond back.

But back to crushes. If you don't actually know who your crush is, go up and talk to them! If you're in the same class and they sit near you, ask if they have a pen, pencil, piece of paper, etc, you could borrow. Once you're done with it (assuming it's not a sheet of paper), give the object back to them. It might not seem like much, but it might at least help start the conversation. Another way to initiate the conversation is by saying a simple hello. By just saying a simple two syllable word, you could start a whole conversation!

Getting your crush's phone number may be a bit harder, depending on how comfortable you are with talking to people, even if you've been talking for a while. My friend and I were discussing this topic a few days ago, and I don't know if this strategy will work or not, but it's worth a try. Take a picture with them and ask if they want it sent to them. If they say yes then congratulations! You just got their number! If they say no respond with something along the lines of, "Yeah, you're right, it's kind of blurry," or, "Yeah, it's not the best picture." It doesn't matter what you say; just reply with something. The same concept it by taking their phone and taking pictures with it. Once you go through their photos say, "This is a good photo! Do you mind if I send it to myself?" If they say yes, then you get their number! The last way you could get their number without directly asking is by getting into a group with them for class. Once you're in the group, say, "Do you mind if I have your number, so I can make sure we're all doing the right work and stuff?" They'll most likely agree to it, and you'll get their number!

The last part of this post is actually quite simple, even to me. If you don't know you're crushes name, just ask them! Haha, it's seriously just that simple!

~Maddie

High school is hard, and if someone tells you otherwise, then they're obviously lying to you. Every single night I come home and have to do tons of homework- even on the weekends! It's ridiculous! I don't need to be working on homework 24/7! High school is basically four years of stress. But then there are fun aspects, so it makes you want to keep going a little bit, right? I don't know. Take today for example. I've been working on homework basically all day with a few breaks in between. I don't think I've even eaten much today. Not only is homework long and boring, it's also pointless. Most of my homework is for biology or world geography, and it's pointless things! All I do for world geography is take notes. Will I ever use the things I "learn" in the notes in real life? Of course not! Don't even get me started on biology. The unit we're doing right now is evolution. I doubt anybody in my entire school believes in that crap, but we still have to be taught and learn it. The whole concept is weird. Even Charles Darwin, the guy who created the theory, doesn't even believe in it! The only thing that keeps me sane is the fact that I only have ten weeks of school left, which I rounded to about 48 days.

Sorry for the rant, but I just needed to get some things off my chest! I'll try to be back with an actual blog post next week!

~Maddie

If you've never taken a test, then you're obviously not real. Testing is a major part of school, whether you like it or not. Seeing as I have my English  state-wide test on Monday, I thought I would share some tips about studying for an English test (I'll talk about studying for other tests when the time comes closer- late April/Early May).

First and foremost, if you're taking an English test, the best way to study is to practice. Find essay prompts on the internet and practice writing an essay with all the components you need for your test. Set the timer for an hour and start writing! Another way to practice is simply by reading a book. You could either just read for fun, or you could try to make your own practice test by stopping every chapter or so and creating a few questions over the chapter, or you could just stop and let everything sink in before you keep going. Even if you think that you're going to get a 100 on the test, it's always a good idea to go and practice.

Another way you could practice your skills is through spelling. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like a lot of people make spelling mistakes. To practice, you could take at least ten words that you think you'll use on the essay portion and spell them how you would spell it. Then, go to a dictionary and look up the actual spelling. If you got the spelling right, go onto the next word. If you got the spelling wrong, rewrite the word, spelled correctly, a few times to help lodge the correct spelling in your brain.

Everyone has heard people say to get a good night's sleep and to eat a good, healthy breakfast on the day of the test, and it's actually true. (Yes, it actually isn't just some conspiracy made up by adults!) Plan on getting at least seven hours of sleep, but no more than ten. To help get you to sleep, take a shower or bath an hour or two before you think you'll go to bed and stay away from electronics for an hour before bed. If you're not allergic to it, lavender can help relax you, so either drink a tea with it, put some lavender oil on your wrists, or drop some oils into a humidifier. Another calming tea you can drink is chamomile. Breakfast is one of those things where even if you don't usually eat breakfast, you probably should on testing days. Even if it's just a granola bar, any breakfast is better than none. One suggestion would be to try not to stuff your face, as you don't want to risk feeling sick during your test.

Hopefully you'll do great on your test!

~Maddie

School lunches. Everyone has tried them at some point or another, and if you haven't: don't. Let's face it, school lunches are gross. Not only are they unhealthy, but they usually aren't very tasty, and you have to wait in a giant line and barely have time to eat your lunch by the time you get back to your table. Let's take my school for example: I've got through the line a few times with my friends who buy lunch, and I cringe each time. There are super greasy pizzas, old salads, stale chicken, and a "sandwich" that's basically bread, a ton of lettuce, and two slices of slimy lunch meat. Plus, they charge a ridiculous amount. They even charge you for a cup of water; which most restaurants even give you for free. Last, but not least, let's not forget about anything you could find in your food... I'm not going into that though.

I'm not judging if you buy your lunch, I used to buy a lot in elementary school, but stopped completely in 5th grade, and now I pack my lunch everyday. It's kind of funny how most people either buy lunch everyday, or they bring lunch everyday. There really aren't a lot of people who alternate buying and bringing lunch. I guess you just stick to routine.

You may be one of those people who wants to start bringing your lunch, but you don't know what to pack. Have no fear; this is what this next part is about! First thing's first; if you don't bring a water bottle to school, make sure you have a drink, especially water or Gatorade. The next thing you should have is something healthy, whether it's a fruit, a vegetable, yogurt, or just a granola bar or something. If you like sandwiches, make one! If not, you can try bringing soups in a thermos, or a salad in a Tupperware container. Cheese and crackers (and summer sausage) also works well if you don't like sandwiches. You can pack sweets like candy, cake, chips,soda, etc, but I wouldn't pack them everyday. Lunches are super easy to pack once you get used to it; you're just putting in things you like and will actually eat!

~Maddie

Hello everybody! I'm sad to say that my spring break is gone. It went by so fast! Tomorrow I must wake up at 7am and then get ready for school. I have to go back to climbing those awful stairs! No! But I just have 12 more weeks of school. I just keep repeating that, and it at least helps me feel like I can make it. I didn't do much over my break, but I loved it! I had one friend over, but really that's plenty enough. It's kind of funny though, because she's usually super crazy when she comes over, but this time she wasn't (even with two cups of coffee and spoonfuls of sugar in each cup!). I've concluded that she's only really crazy around boys, as this was the first time that my little brother wasn't around. It was surreal.

I've started a new blog! As you might know, I'm a high school student, so I thought I would make a blog filled with advice, tips, tricks, polls, etc! I'll post the link below if you want to go check it out! Like this blog, I'm going to try to post every weekend, and if not, then every other weekend! I'm really excited for this new blog!

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

~Maddie

Hey y'all, it's Maddie! Today has been a great day, and that makes me really happy! I hardly had any work to do in any of my classes, and I spent most of 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th period studying for a geography test over Africa and the Middle East, and I'm pretty sure I got a 100! I didn't study 2nd, 3rd, or 7th period because I had to work in two of the classes, and the other was lunch, and then I took the test in 8th period. Overall, a really easy day! After school I went over to my best friend's house. We only had about an hour and a half to hang out, as then I had to go piano lessons. My mom picked me up from Vivi's house, but then she let me drive to AND from piano! It was so much fun! I love driving so much, especially on the fast roads! Granted, it is a bit scary at first, but once I got the hang of it I couldn't stop smiling! Also, while at piano, my teacher told me that I qualified for state!

Last Saturday (Feb. 22nd) I had a piano competition, and I got a superior! I thought that only superior + got to advance to state, but any superior gets you to state! I made state last year as well, but I didn't go because the timing wasn't right, but I really want to do it this year!

Have you ever thought about how funny your reaction to grades can be? For example, on Wednesday I took three tests, and I got an 85 on two of them, and an 86 on the other. For my math test, I was praising the Lord that I got an 85, that's a good math score for me, and I was proud. For my next test, ASL (American Sign Language), I also got an 85, but I was really upset. I was doing really well in ASL (average of 95), but with that test my average dropped to around a 93/94ish. I would have done amazing on that test, but it had fingerspelling, which I hadn't reviewed in a long while, so I only got one of the four spelled words, meaning I missed six (it had two parts). I now try to review fingerspelling more (I even downloaded an app), so by the next test I will do better. My last test on Wednesday was English. I love English, but the tests usually just annoy me. I got an 86 on this test, which I was just kind of iffy about. I knew I wouldn't do amazing, and I knew I wouldn't fail, so I kind of knew I would get an 85ish or higher. Either way, the way we react to grades kind of just makes me chuckle.

Hello March!

~Maddie