Recently, I’ve been hearing about (and seeing) more and more young girls under or around the age of sixteen who are extremely preoccupied with their appearance. These girls are often characterized by spending hours and hours, not to mention a great deal of money, shopping for clothes and buying makeup and getting their hair done into the latest styles. I, however, a perfectly sane (or at least that’s what I think) eighteen-year-old girl, don’t place nearly that amount of attention on my appearance. In fact, I am almost shamefully unconcerned with my looks. Apart from being a little neurotic about personal hygiene, I don’t at all seem to have the same degree of interest in my appearance as these other young girls. I shower twice per day, wash my hair once per day, condition, blow dry, I’ve started to deep condition my hair weekly, I moisturize my face twice per day, and I put on body lotion once per day. I’m really neurotic about teeth … I brush my teeth about five times per day, and floss at least twice. (But this isn’t really about the teeth. XD) Doesn’t this already sound like an annoying, troublesome self-care routine? And yet, I assure you, this is merely what a great many teenage girls seem to consider the “bare necessities”. (continue reading)

Wow. What a spectacular night. The vintage cars, the dresses, the dinner, the dancing—everything was about as good as it could possibly get. Anything that could possibly have gone wrong went right! XD

Anyways, the short version: our parents all took us to the school for our photo-op with the vintage cars at 4:00 p.m. At 5:00, we began to board the four luxury coach buses that our school had rented, and made our way to the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Vancouver. Our parents drove there. Inside, we took more photos, the girls had their first dance with their fathers, and the parents left. Then we had our buffet dinner. At 9:00, the lights dimmed and the music started. At 11:00 the dance was over, and we headed back to the school in the buses for the Dry Grad afterparty. I only stayed long enough to take photos, though; I didn’t actually stay for Dry Grad. It looked absolutely splendid though.

And now, for those of you who are really bored, the long version—with pictures! (continue reading)

My provincial exams are over! I am completely high on post-exams euphoria right now. At first I had six provincials and one AP exam, but then I dropped one provincial and the AP, and at the last minute (last night … lol) I dropped my fifth exam too, so in the end I only wrote 4 provincials. I am, however, pretty sure that I did reasonably well on them, so I’ll just hope that it was high enough to keep my UBC entrance scholarship.

We got our report cards today (along with the yearbooks). I did quite well: straight A’s, which I actually didn’t expect. I usually get a B somewhere. But yeah, I guess it makes sense, since my AP English mark shot up from 80% to 99% in Term 3, and that was my worst class. So, go me! Principal’s Honour Roll! Hehe. (continue reading)

In our school district, the students have a tradition of pulling what’s known as a “grad prank” in their graduating year. This prank has gotten bigger and bigger over the years, and then sort of died away. But this year, the grads of 2008 have set a new standard—in the words of a PE teacher who shall go unnamed, “You guys raised the bar.”

First there was the boy-napping event. The girls from our grade went around and kidnapped the boys in their sleep, duck-taped them up to posts in front of the school wearing whatever they had worn to bed, and decorated humiliated them. Some were shown mercy and merely tied up in front of the school entrance, but a lot of them were attached to lampposts and electricity poles right up front along the main road, where they were on clear display for the passing traffic.

I didn’t participate in the event, and I didn’t get to school until after they had all been released, but I did see the hilarious pictures. XD I won’t post them, though, so as to preserve some shred of dignity for the poor HMS boys.

The boy-napping event, however, wasn’t what gave us HMS grads our legendary rank. It was on Thursday, prank day, that we really made a name for ourselves. (continue reading)

First off, thank you all so much for your warm comments, my dear readers. You completed my graduation experience!

Anyways, moving on. I have some good news—my AP English teacher, Ms. Panas, the co-editor of a teacher’s magazine called English Practice, has made me a publication offer! It was a personal essay I wrote for her assignment, and she liked it enough to give it a full six marks and offer to publish it in the magazine. It’s not a big publication or anything, but it does get out to quite a large number of well-educated readers (many of them English teachers), so I’m very proud to have my work published in it. (continue reading)