My Thirty-Fourth Week as a Senior

June 8 – June 12

At this point, there were two weeks left till school was officially over for me. The feeling is bittersweet.

In Calculus and Vectors, we were given questions from the textbook to help us prepare for the culminating. Monday was Chapter 6 day, Tuesday, Chapter 7 day and Wednesday, Chapter 8 day. I actually didn’t do much that week because I wanted to take a look at the assignment before practicing for it. I mean, some of the questions in the review were harder than anything that could show up on a Math multiple-choice test, so I decided to wait until I got a look at the culminating before doing the review. Then, if I felt the need to practice hard questions, I would do them. Thursday was another review day, but of everything. On Friday, we got the culminating and it was quite simple, at least if you had consistently done all your work up until then. It was due the next Wednesday, so I didn’t spend too much time on it over the weekend.

In Writer’s Craft, we got five new poems: haiku, ode, poetry based on famous art, ballad and free verse and our final assignment: submit three poems of different types, each accompanied by a paragraph ‘extolling your poem's virtues including how it follows the conventions of the genre.’ I only did a haiku and an ode because I ran out of creative juices for the other three. My haiku was based on French fries and my ode was to my mother. I have my graded poetry anthology now so I might post it here one day. I did plan on writing a poem based on ‘Starry Night’ by van Gogh, but I ran out of time, so I might just do it for fun now. The free verse assignment had way too many rules for something so free, so I still haven’t attempted one. The ballad assignment didn’t seem appealing enough to do for this assignment, so I’ve left it for another day as well.

In English, we had the whole week to work on our ISU Essay. We had to pick a theme well represented in the book of our choice and explain how the author used different literary devices to showcase said theme. My thesis statement was “Jane Eyre is about family and having a sense of belonging. Brontë shows that having a family, or people to love, gives one a reason to live a happier life with a happier mindset. Jane’s growth from a troubled child to a functioning adult is aided by more and more loving people surrounding her. The reader also notes the difference in her personality when they stop feeling pity towards her and starts feeling happy for her. The positive change in Jane, influenced by better company, is shown through the use of character development, pathos and pathetic fallacy.” I had submitted just enough work beforehand that all I had to do was compile it all and smoothen the transitions from one idea to the next. I enjoyed writing the essay much more than reading the book, so I recommend thinking before picking Jane Eyre for a school assignment. It’s depressing and gloomy, so if you are susceptible to reflecting the emotions of fictional characters, my advice would be to stay away from this book.

Second last week of high school? Already? Lol, I’ve been waiting. Just one more weekly recount and then I’ll be done with Grade 12. Woohoo. It’s been a long ride; it could’ve had a better ending, but no complaints. It’s just that I’d have been able to cherish this as my second last week much better if I were at school, surrounded by friends and teachers I love. Regardless, it was a lot of fun working towards the end goal: my diploma! Who knows when we’re getting it but I’m so glad I’m graduating with an OSSD. I honestly want to frame mine because of everything we had to go through in our last year. Anyways, I’m going to stop here. Please stay inside if you can and stay safe if you can’t. Toodles. – Aarushi