Weekly Report #21: Building a Spaceship and Flying Away (Week of Feb 19th)

This week I focused on three things: Acdec, Braces, Summer Programs.

Next week I’m going to have my state acdec competition and I NEED to do good. I don’t want to bring my team down, so I’ve been studying a lot recently. I wrote notes for economics, and while I may not understand everything while taking the tests, I’ve started to get the hang of it and I actually kind of enjoy it. I’ve been doing more econ for fun, and I think that even though I might not do that great this year as I’m still not ready, I think that I want to teach it as my subject for next year. The USAD instagram has already started posting hints for next year’s theme, and I think it may be related to environmental science/South America. I’m excited to see what will happen. For now, I’m going to focus on economics and science. I’ve made memes for science to help my teammates remember, and I think I’m finally done for science. I know everything in the book, especially section 3 FINALLY because it was the hardest section. 

For Acdec, we also had to write an essay and I don’t think it went that well. I couldn’t really finish the conclusion well because I spent too much time deciding which topic I will choose to write on. The topics were on Economics, Literature, and Science. By the end, I ended up writing about science(voluntary and involuntary movement). I feel like I knew that in the end I would choose science but was too scared to make a decision.

I’ve been scared of making decisions lately. While it seems like I spent a lot of time studying for acdec, I spent more time overthinking. Overthinking about my boxing classes. I knew that I wanted to go to TEF classes, but I still felt guilty if I would waste my parents money. But by the end of this week I decided, I want to participate in boxing competitions, and for that I need to go there. I’ve gone to state for choir and acdec, and eventually I want to for boxing too. I know I can, so I’m going to try my best, so I won’t be wasting their time or money. It felt like the only thing I wanted this week was boxing, but when I was writing my applications for summer programs I realized that it doesn't mean that I don’t like science. One question that one application asked was if I could remove all expectations of what I would do. When I read that question I didn't really know. Would I still continue in research? What if I was just seeing what was the best option and not truly what I wanted. I said that I would build a spaceship and fly away. It took me a few days to think about it, but remembering the times when I would go to the Summermoon cafe shop with my sister, working on annotating papers, I realized that while research and ISM takes a lot of time and effort, I still enjoyed it somehow. I want that spaceship to be biomedical science.

Other than acdec, on valentine’s day I FINALLY got my braces removed. It feels weird but also good knowing that your teeth are smooth now. Now I’d have to wear retainers though, but it still is way better than braces.