Category: BlockTwo

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Blogs

There are plenty of posts to be found here about the blog itself. Most, including one of my one, tend to be a bit negative. While I agree with some of the arguments presented in those posts, I don’t want to just focus on the negatives. Even though it might feel like a chore sometimes, as all homework does, there is so much to this blog that I find incredible!

The insight into the minds of my peers is just one facet I love about the website. Getting to hear new opinions and ideas put forth by the people I go to school with is not only interesting but informative, both of the writers themselves and the topics to which they choose to devote their time. A message that has been drilled into my brain consistently all my life is to remember that I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes in my peers’ day to day lives, and to always respect that. This blog reinforces that message.

Beyond insight into personal character, writing posts can be truly useful. Whether I choose to write about a topic I enjoy, how I’m feeling at a particular time on a particular day, or an essay, writing for a grade is a great incentive to put in the time to convey those ideas. As a direct result of such practice, I improve, building my voice and my narrative skills, and developing my use of rhetoric and persuasion.

With that being said, my personal favorite aspect of the blog is the way I can let loose on it. I’ve written several times about anxiety, as well as schoolwork and its mental impacts, at times when I thought the anxiety was going to overtake me. By expressing those words and being able to confront them as they stare me down, I have defused many moments of panic, and even learned new lessons regarding mental health. I have no doubt others have experienced that as well.

Of course there are negative impacts of this blog, but that goes with anything in life. Besides, the negatives aren’t anything I don’t see in the other homework I receive. Despite the typical nagging feeling of homework and deadlines, I do believe that these blog posts are beneficial, educationally and mentally.

Olivia

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Nostalgia

As I sat down an hour or so ago to chip away at my homework, a song came on: Dance Floor Anthem by Good Charlotte. It was like someone slammed on the breaks in my head; my mind flipped, and my heart skipped a beat. Why?

Dance Floor Anthem is a good song. It’s catchy, has an energizing feel to it and some good messages depending on your situation. But it’s not penetrating enough to take my breath away.

What makes this song so personal and touching are the memories and feelings I attach to it. I discovered this song during the most difficult year of my life, and I still feel those hardships when the first notes play. As a seventh grader, I was experiencing the debilitating effects of mental health disorders for the first time. As someone who had never before witnessed such hardships I was finding it difficult to cope. What motivated me to keep going at the time was the music I discovered.

Soon after my mom created a family Pandora account, I was listening to it for hours and hours each day. I discovered Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Good Charlotte, All Time Low, and so many more incredible bands who spoke to my struggles. These groups and the lyrics they produced were a testament to what I was experiencing, and that made a world of difference. The music by no means cured my circumstances, but it provided a world of happiness and relief at a time when, otherwise, I might not have had much at all. Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, and Brendon Urie guiding me as I navigated my new mental reality.

Five years later, I still fight many of the same demons that haunted to me then, to a lesser extent. I’ve grown, emotionally and physically (still waiting for that five foot mark), as well as in my music taste. I still listen to a lot of the same bands as they grow themselves, but the occasional return to my music origins bring about a sense of peace as I remember both the happy memories they brought, and my growth since then.

 

Olivia

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Grounding

This is a post I wrote months ago but never published, for one reason or another. Though it is a bit hectic, and of course not a perfect representation of what I was experiencing, I believe it offers powerful insight into one possible manifestation of anxiety:

In terms of anxiety, and likely many other mental health problems, there are an infinite amount of skills and strategies to cope with and defuse moments of crisis. Grounding is among the more well known of them, and for good reason. The idea is this: connect to each of your five senses (or six, if Bruce Willis is out there reading my blog) to something around you, whether it be the smell of cookies in the oven or seeing a car going down the street. Doing so will provide concrete, tangible points to focus on while your mind is otherwise unable to grasp physical reality.

In honor of the panic attack currently rising in my stomach, here’s an attempt at grounding:

5 things I can see: Tom Selleck on the TV, my baby dog on my lap, an old Disney princess blanket, the fireplace next to me, my sister doing her English homework.

I feel the anxiety bubbling in my chest.

4 things I can hear: the blaring commercial teaching me about non-GMO chicken nuggets, Quita breathing rhythmically, my mom talking about the laundry, Megan washing her dishes.

I notice the feeling returning to my arms and legs.

3 things I can smell: puppy breath, the enticing aroma of my Hot Pocket, my grandparents’ detergent.

My heart reaches a normal rhythm.

2 things I can touch: the Patriots blanket on my legs, the homework I’m currently avoiding.

Finally, I feel myself coming to my senses.

1 thing I can taste: a crisp, cool apple.

My fingers stop shaking.

Olivia

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Bear Attack

When viewing the spectrum of any one person life their will always be one struggle. One time, place, or memory that is nearly impossible to overcome, similar to a bear unexpectedly walking on to a campground. No matter how good the camper’s support system is, no matter what supplies or plans they have set in place to get rid of the so called bear, no one is truly prepared. In situations such as these their is no time to phone in a friend, no time to ignore the situation, and no time to give up; in doing such actions the person is only putting themselves into more danger or into a position in which the bear can hurt them more. By ruling out these other options, the only reminding choice is to get rid of the bear using that person own mindset, own actions, and own ability. Such factors hold true for life. When faced with such a huge struggle, no matter how strong the person’s surroundings are the only one who can truly fix what’s hurting them, is themselves. No one else is going to be able to magically appear and come up with the solution that will make the “bear” disappear. No one else is going to know to get that one “bear”, unique from the rest, out of the campsite and out of that person’s life. The only way to fight the struggle, to fight the mood, memory, or past, that is able to hurt the body to the very core, is by doing such actions independently with your own person. Their is always going to be camping guides, or experts who can tell of their own experiences, tell what happened within their story, but such sentences will only apply to the camper reading them when placed into accordances with their own adventure, by them. For frankly, the only people who manage to survive a bear attack are those that are willing to fight to save their own lives.

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Magnetic Force

Cole Paulin
Mrs. Durkee
AP Language and Composition
26 March 2019
While physics has been integral in learning about mechanics and electromagnetism, there is unquestionable evidence that magnetism may be an oversimplified hoax that scientists implemented because they couldn’t figure out the full story of this strange force. There are major flaws in both the equation and the magnet pole system.

 
The magnetic force is different for every different point of view. The equation is as follows: F(B)=qvXB. F(B) represents the magnetic force, q is the charge on the particle/object, v is the velocity of the particle/object, and B is the magnetic field that the particle/object is immersed in. While the equation may look fundamentally sound at first glance, their is one major flaw that scientists have not answered: the velocity. While equations and complex physics can prove the flaw, I will describe a situation that every person can understand. Imagine you are sitting down and you see someone on a bike, riding at 5 m/s. For simplicity sake, let’s pretend that the charge and magnetic field are both equal to 1. The force that the biker feels in your frame of reference is 5 Newtons. Now let’s take a journey to a far away galaxy that is moving extremely fast compared to Earth. We would then see the biker moving at a much faster rate: 500,000 m/s, for example. The perceived force on the biker from the new point of view could be 500,000 Newtons. So who is right? How can a biker react to two different forces. The person on Planet X sees the biker get thrown across the street while the bystander watches as the biker easily slides through the negligible force. How can both situations happen? There is an easy answer: it can’t! We only looked at two possible scenarios, but in reality, the Force equation implies that any and every force perceivable acts on the biker simultaneously. We don’t need a mathematician to know that our world does not work that way.

 
Scientists must either revise their equation or give limitations to their formula. The problems are clear and we deserve proper answers.

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Blog Post 17

My own mind will be my own demise.

There’s a war going on inside my head: optimist v pessimist. I’d say, as of right now, the pessimist me has overthrown the majority of the optimist me, and the level headed me has declared full anarchy.

A *preface* to how my potent pessimism came about. I used to be a perfectionist. Then I realized that the goal of perfection is one, impossible to attain, and two, blocking me from accepting me for me. Through my realization that the conventionally perfect version of me is realistically unattainable, I replaced the goal of perfection with my own set of standards. Though, my self appreciation hasn’t improved as it should’ve, but evolved into pessimism about everything I consider good. I don’t deserve anything good unless I meet my standards. Funny how similar my undisclosed standards are in comparison to conventional perfection. Oops.

I wasn’t always like this— negative about everything. Though I’ve faced obstacles, I could always see a light at the end of the tunnel. Optimist me could usually figure out a way to make things seem fine. This year, however, has put me through the ringer. Every time I conquer an obstacle, another finds me seemingly instantaneously. I’m already a generally negative person, and optimist me can’t seem to find enough positives to outweigh the plethora of negatives that keep sprouting up. It’s like a bunch of weeds bogging down the growth of flowers in a flower bed. I can’t keep up with the weeding. I need some round-up but I can’t seem to get my hands on any.

Nicole Cyr

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College!

I feel as though I was taught that when a person reaches senior year, there future is basically planned out. They know where to go to college, what they have to do to get their dream job, and all the steps they need to complete to get to their adult life. Now almost reaching senior year, I can strongly state everything I thought I knew was completely and utterly wrong. Even the thought of going off to college next year has my whole body shaking to the very core. The amount of colleges out in the world is so abundant, I have no idea how I’m supposed to pick just one and I’m fearful that the day I finally do they will not want me. I don’t know if I’m going to like the career path I have set up for myself. I don’t know if moving out of state is a good choice or not. Every path leading towards my future is unknown and I’m petrified of that very statement. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to walk away from the friendships I have formed since childhood, not knowing which ones will last and which will age away with time. The idea of college has always seemed such a far away topic, something that I knew I would eventually have to worry about, but such times always seemed so distant. I’m not quite sure when the time passed between then and now, but some how those days went by so fast. A part of me has always been scarred to take such a big step into my future without knowing what will happen. Up until now, every school year: classes, schools, and teachers, were basically decided for each student, the biggest decision  being whether to take honors or Ap. College is different, everything is up to me, on my shoulders. The bad grades received will hurt me, the classes taken will be for my career, and the diploma at the end of the journey with be mine. I’m scarred to take that next step, scarred to trust in what the future holds for my one person, and yet with just one year left my feet keep moving, keeping walking towards the cliff that is my life, that is my future.

Eve Holbrook

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If I Could be a Marine Invertebrate…

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If I could be any marine invertebrate, I would like to be a Blue-Ringed Octopus because I believe these marine creatures are some of the most interesting due to their small size and their deadliness.

First, when a Blue-Ringed Octopus feels threatened, bright blue rings appear all over its body as a warning signal to potential predators. I like this characteristic because I think it is important for small creatures to have a way to scare off what threatens them and these blue rings are a unique way to do so.

Second, the venom of a Blue-Ringed Octopus is one thousand times more powerful than cyanid and can kill up to twenty-six humans within minutes because it is crazy that an octopus, especially this small, has the capability to kill so many humans in such a short time due to such a dangerous venom.  It really makes the Blue-Ringed Octopus a deadly threat as it is able to kill their predators and keep themselves alive.  If I were a marine invertebrate I would choose to be deceivingly toxic like the Blue-Ringed Octopus because it’s venom is a great defense mechanism against any predator who might try to eat it because it looks harmless.

Third, although the Blue-Ringed Octopus is the most deadly of all cephalopods, it looks innocuous at first glance because it is the size of a golf ball and is beautiful due to its psychedelic colors and patterns.  If I could be any invertebrate, I would want to look cute, colorful, unique and innocent like the Blue-Ringed Octopus, especially if I was equally as deadly.  

Lastly, I like how Blue-Ringed Octopuses, Native to the Pacific Ocean and found off of the southern coast of Australia, have many adaptations.  For example, chromatophores allow them to blend in with their surroundings.  Another example are the crisscross patterns of fibers found in their musculature allowing these Blue-Ringed Octopuses to have extreme flexibility in order to squeeze through tiny areas.  I believe that these adaptations are really important for surviving in the ocean because the ability to hide, swim through small spaces, and blend in with surroundings helps invertebrates stay out of their predator’s sight, and in the Blue-Ringed Octopus’s case, not need to use their venom.

In conclusion, I would choose to be a Blue-Ringed Octopus if given the opportunity to be any marine invertebrate because of the warning signals that appear on its body when the octopus is threatened, it’s extremely deadly venom, small size, innocent appearance, bright colors, beautiful patterns, extreme flexibility, and ability to blend in with it’s surroundings.  I like the many adaptations, characteristics, and traits that the Blue-Ringed Octopus possesses as they help the octopus to survive and be small, and surprisingly deadly, package.

Isabella Dube

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Blog Post 16

The other day, the juniors had a little class meeting regarding the upcoming SATs. Now, personally, I’m not looking forward to this test, in fact, I’m absolutely dreading it, because I do not test well. How unfortunate is it that a test has such a big influence over your future. *insert rant here*.

Anyways, these two teachers’ main goal was to inform us of the happenings test day, and the test’s impact/importance. Now, I get that the SAT is conventionally used to determine ones general intellect ability. However, in recent times, people are discovering that maybe that’s not so much the case because of hopefully obvious reasons. So when one of the teachers went off and said, “this test is a direct reflection of your intellectual level”, I almost fell out of my chair. What. This teacher was really going to stand up in front of the entire student body, some of which are already having a stress induced panic attack about, and say something as insensitive as that. Okay.

Now I understand that her spiel was targeted at the general. However, she went on to say things like, your scores also reflect our school, and our teachers, which may be true, but if we are the ones that matter here, and not the schools appearance compared to others in the state, that shouldn’t have been said, because that is in fact, irrelevant. As a student, I can say that how my school looks in the state of Maine, of all places, is not important to me in the least. I’m worried about my own performance.
In my opinion, this meeting was distasteful and did the opposite of encourage me, if that’s even what it was supposed to do. Sometimes the disconnect between what teachers/adults think is true and what will help regarding students, and what’s true in reality really concerns me. It makes it more obvious that some of their intentions are self serving or system serving rather than what’s best for the kids.

Nicole Cyr

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History

Liliana Sapiel- blog post 12

Continuity and change, history is always changing, but always repeating itself. America’s history is always changing, but there are patterns in our history that just aren’t breaking. History is like a pendulum, it moves forward and swings one way, but it comes back to the same place it was. Of course history has progressed for the better, but there are patterns in our history that we repeat. For example reform, reform in America is about change but there have been multiple reform movements throughout history that have repeated the same reform movements, whether it be civil rights, women’s rights, or gay rights these reform movements keep occurring. The first reform era was the Antebellum reform period which focused on Abolition and the prohibition movement, following that era was the progressive era which focused on women rights, after that era was the Civil Rights movement. These Era’s all focus on the same issue in an effort to end them but they always repeat in history. When some radical ideas get introduced to society the pendulum swings far one way into those radical ideas but then the pendulum pulls back into old ways and continuity. History has a way of repeating its self, but it also has a way of learning and growing from each event that history repeats. History is like the saying “you learn from your mistakes”, but in this case its “you learn from your same mistakes”.

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