Classes Are Almost Done For The Semester!

I am almost done with my first semester of college! Whoo! It's really weird to think that in a few days (my last final is on Wednesday) I will be on break until late January. I would have to say, so far, my college experience has been a fairly positive one. While having classes every single day was pretty weird, considering the fact that I was homeschooled all through high school, I adapted to it fairly well The thing about homeschooling is that even though the level of school work you do is just as difficult as what public schoolers do (if not more difficult), it is very time efficient. So going into class every day as a college student it was a little weird just because it took up so much of my time. I think this has probably been one of the busiest periods of my life so far! But even then, I feel satisfied. I really do enjoy learning, especially learning about math. I was really getting into the flow of going to class every single day and seeing the same faces and having the same teachers. The big thing was that I felt really productive. Even though I was fairly busy, I knew that I was busy doing productive things. It helped me develop some good habits which I hope will continue to have as I go farther on in my academic career.

As of now all of my classes are done except for finals. Surprisingly, I'm actually a little sad about this. I really do think that I'll miss most of my professors and some of my classmates. I was quite fortunate this semester, just by luck, to be in classes with a fair amount of my friends from high school. While I wasn't really that close to most of them before this semester, now that the end is almost here I am really thankful that I was able to develop those friendships past just the stage of  being acquaintances. I'll even miss people that I didn't know before the start of the semester, especially all the people from my speech class. I'll miss the guy who sits right behind me who wants to be a fireman, but is also a really reassuring person and has a passion for shoes (I never saw him come to class with the same pair). I'll miss how the girl who always sits next to him really loves the Dewey Decimal system, and how she makes her speeches about them whenever she has the opportunity. I'll miss the two students who came from Australia who have really awesome accents, but also really interesting stories about their lives back in Australia.

I'll miss my professors too. Like how my speech professor tries her best to be as fair as possible, and despite having strong opinions on some issues always tries to listen to students and understand their point of view. I'll miss how my history professor always comes to class with some caffeinated beverage, and how tries to keep the class engaged by telling cool stories and making comparisons between important historical information and our modern daily lives. I'll miss how my math professor made mistakes sometimes, but always encouraged everyone to stay on their toes for his mistakes so that they could correct him. 

I'll miss this semester, but I'm also looking forward to the next one. Even beyond that, I'm looking forward to the day when I myself might be able to be a college professor. For the moment anyway, my life is looking pretty good. Not perfect, not by a long shot, but still good. I hope that my future self will be as satisfied as I am right now.

The Harry Potter Series

Long time readers of this blog are aware that for most of my life I had a problem with the Harry Potter series. The main reason that I had never read the series was that I was so convinced that the series was "evil" or something, I just avoided it without giving it a try. My argument that it used "magic" was hardly substantial, as I had no problem with the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, or any video game with mages or magic. It was not until this last year that I decided to give Harry Potter a try, and I'm very, very glad I did. Just as a note though, if you have not yet read the series (which I highly suggest that you do so right now), this post contains countless spoilers. You have been warned.

The important thing I have noticed about my reaction to the series is how emotionally attached I have become to the characters. I know that this is something that almost every work of fiction strives for: to make the reader feel like he or she is connected to the characters. Many of them achieve that connection, in varying degrees. But never before have I felt so strongly attached to the characters of a series so quickly, and to have that attachment last for the entire span of the series. By chapter three I already wanted to "hit all of the Dursley's on the head with a mallet that has a  large enough gravitational pull to alter the Earth's rotation around the sun for being mean to Harry". When I read about Harry going to the Quidditch World Cup in the Goblet of Fire, I realized that I was legitimately excited about all the excitement and large hoards of people. In fact, I was more excited for the World Cup of a fictional sport than I have ever been for that of a real sport!

This emotional attachment I felt was only destined to grow larger as I read on. In the Order of the Phoenix I was introduced to Professor Umbridge, who I began to detest, hate, and abhor more than any other fictional character I have ever read. It actually took me quite a few weeks to finish the Order of the Phoenix. This is partially because it is the largest seven books, but it was mostly because every chapter or so I would stop reading to fondly daydream about a universe where I could pop into Hogwarts out of nowhere and force Umbridge to write "I will not cruelly torture my students or abuse them in any way" in the same Quill that she made Harry use during his detention. I actually hate Umbridge so much and in such a deep way that I don't really want to watch the movie version of the Order of the Phoenix. Not because I disliked the book, of course, but I have a feeling that if I have to go through that same cycle of intense loathing I would just explode.

It was not just main characters that I became furiously attached with. Fred and George Weasley became to me more than just the immature pranksters that they were in the early books. I realized that they were extremely intelligent, talented, brave, and above all, infallibly loyal. Or Dobby! The little house elf who despite his best intentions is an annoyance and a hindrance in the second book became a savior and a hero in the last book! But if we are talking about character development, it would be an injustice to not mention Neville. In the first book, he was a a frightened and weak little boy. But fast forward to the final book, and in many ways he took the place of Harry as a leader and sign of hope to the children of Hogwarts while Harry was busy hunting Horcruxes! He even beheaded a giant snake!

I adored my ride through these seven books. It was quite truly an adventure, and one that I will miss. My only complaint is that you can only read this series for the first time once.

Marion Homeschool Wins Iowa Highschool State Competition

Today at the Iowa Judicial Building, for the first time in the history of Marion Homeschool Assistance Program, we had a team just win the State Competion for Mock Trial.

Let's have a story first, so you can understand how big of a deal this is. Marion Homescool has had a Mock Trial for a long time, I believe about seventeen years, even though I am unsure of the exact total. Although that first year we sent a team to State, it was not until two years ago that we succeeded again. Marion teams had always been mediocre; sure we put time into Mock Trial, but the program was never really competitive. No one knew about Marion Mock Trial, and truly no one cared, we were just another easy team. Even two years ago when we went to State, we placed 31st out of 32 teams.

Last year our top team managed to place in the top ten, which astounded us all, but we certainly were not expecting anything better this year. I know for a fact that every member of our top team would have been overjoyed to just get into top ten again. But to our great surprise, they had won all three of their trials at State, and qualified for the Semi-Finals! Of course we all freaked out (I'm hope I didn't scare anyone), seeing as this was unheard of in the history of our program. We advance through Semi-Finals, and then on to Finals against Valley Highschool, the State Champions two years ago.

Fast forward to right now. In those two years of time our program has been catapulted from being only good at losing to having the best team in the entire State. If you look at the State Champions for the 31 years of its existence, only ten unique highschools have been State Champions (Robins Mock Trial in particular, winning eight of those years). We had always seen finals as being at an almost god-like level that our little program would never hope to match. A team that a couple years ago was completely unknown cracked this club, and Marion Mock Trial will forever be on the map.

Of the four teams Marion had this year, only two went to State, and only one, the Blackhawks, became State champions. Because I unfortunately wasn't good enough to be on our top teams, I instead had the pleasure these last few days of being able to watch trial after trial at a very high-level, yet at the same time not have to worry about stress or messing up (you know you are all jealous). These rounds I've watched, I must admit, I was blown away. I was expecting our team to be good. I was expecting them to be great. But what I was not expecting was the amount of professionalism, preparation, and skill exhibited today in the Semi-Finals and Finals. These are my friends, people who I've worked, played, and hung out with for several years. Suddenly they've all turned into these unbeatable Mock Trial beings who have never met defeat. I'm so ridiculously proud of you guys, words can't even describe how happy I am. It's truly been an honour, and I wish you all great luck at Nationals!