My Thirty-Second Week as a Senior

May 25 - May 29

I’m halfway through my 34th week of high school, writing about my 32nd week. It’s been a tough couple of weeks. The last month of high school has seen me uninspired and unmotivated to do anything I love. I’m going to be real with you because high school, especially Grade 12, isn’t all sunshine and daisies. As much as I loved every bit of Grade 12, I can’t wait for the school year to be over. But you aren’t here to listen to me rant; you’re here to read what my 32nd week was like. So, here we go.

In Calculus, we started the second last chapter of the semester, Chapter 8 – Equations of Lines and Planes. This chapter was a lot of fun to do. On Monday, we did 8.1, Vector and Parametric Equations of a line in R2. A vector equation is a point, a direction vector and a parameter (a variable) in front of the direction vector. Parametric equations break down the vector equation to give you equations for x and y. On Tuesday, we did 8.2, Cartesian Equation of a Line. A cartesian equation, also known as a scalar equation, is Ax+By+C=0, where A and B are the components of the normal of the line. That’s a lot of words. When you write the equation of a line in standard form and slope, y-intercept form, you will see that the difference is that the coefficients have switched places and one has a different sign. From a slope, y-intercept equation, you get m, the slope. This is m=A/B and the vector m=(B, A). The normal of this slope is n=-b/a and the vector n=(-A, B). This ties back to the coefficients but it’s too much to type, so I’ll leave it here. On Wednesday, we did 8.3, Vector, Parametric and Symmetric Equations of a line in R3. This is the same as R2, except for the vector equation, you need one more direction vector and for the parametric equations, you’ll be defining an equation for z as well. Symmetric equations are just there to make your work easier. (x-x0)/a=(y-y0)/b=(z-z0)/c, where a, b, and c are the components of a vector and x0, y0, z0 come from the point. Thursday was review day and Friday was Assignment Day.

In Writer’s Craft, I finally submitted my review assignments. One was to review other people’s reviews and the other one was to write a review about a family dinner. I wrote about the homemade pizzas my parents and I made. We started the poetry unit, the last one in the course. Our first assignment was to make a found poem. We had to read an article or essay of our choice and cut out words or phrases to make a poem. The poem I wrote is titled “Unlearn the Racism.” It was inspired by the events that unfolded that week in the US. Here it is.

UNLEARN THE RACISM

I want everybody to think about the impacts of systemic racism.

Black people dying at the hands of police Amaud Arberry, Bothem Sean, Alton Sterling, Jordan Edwards, Atatiana Jefferson, Stephon Clark, Aiyana Jones, Mike Brown, Oscar Grant.

I want everybody to question how people can be better allies to the Black community; make Black issues “all of our issues.”

Stop acting like you didn’t see it; be more intentional and inclusive. Feel the rage. “It’s not enough to be not racist, you must actively be anti-racist.”

Article used: https://www.ellecanada.com/culture/society/the-conversation-about-racism-all-canadians-need-to-hear

In English, we had the assignment to watch the fourth act of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. Gilderoy Lockhart has a range! I loved him in The Murder on the Orient Express. After watching the fourth act, we had to use a medium of our choice and explain any three elements of any scene in the act. There were six and I picked the fifth one. I made a Kahoot, testing the audience on the literary devices, theme and characters in the scene. It wasn’t my best work, but it was something.

My 32nd week wasn’t a lot of fun. It was like my brain had turned off and I couldn’t tap into my creative side. I can say that this is still a problem, halfway through my 34th week, but the last day for any submissions is the 18th of June so there isn’t much left to suffer through. I’ve always tried to keep these posts positive, but I also want to show the reality of senior year. It gets hard sometimes. You just have to push through. I’m getting tired of typing, so I’ll stop now. As always, please stay home and stay safe. – Aarushi