It's a Bear!

I'm just kidding! But it was pretty close to one. Mr. O'Hara's dog is HUGE!

It's Nerve Wracking!

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I decided to watch this video that my AVID class watched on Friday about the college admissions decision again. It kind of makes me feel better about the entire process. I feel as though I can just worry about whether or not my personality shine through my essays rather than worrying if my accomplishments shine through them. Outside of SAT subject tests and the SAT reasoning test, all I really need to worry about is making sure colleges can see who I am and pray that they like me, and my GPA. 

So I've actually began college essays; in fact I have almost finished a lot of them. I worked on them a lot today, and will do the same again tomorrow with Mr. Carney :)

There are like seven essays I need to get down so I hope he doesn't get tired of me.

HUGE NEWS!!!

HUGE NEWS OF THE DAY!: My brother proposed to his girlfriend, Mo, this weekend!!!

My brother, Theo, and his fiancee Morolake (whom we like to call Mo)

I am so happy for them! It's been nearly four years since they've been dating, so the entire family was ecstatic once we heard today. I cried (the only one who cried... I'm way too emotional). He lives in Arizona (he is completing his residency), so I wish I could see them, but I can't. I have to wait until Thanksgiving (hopefully. Perks of being a doctor).

I asked him to describe the setting and I could tell it was beautiful. He took her to dinner at a restaurant with a garden. He had a dozen white roses spread out on the table and when he proposed he was so nervous that he got encouragement from the other diners. They gave them a standing ovation when Mo said yes! And someone bought them a bottle of champagne... that is just so cute!

Here are some pics!

College Life

My cousin, Frankie, came home from Penn State this weekend. I miss her so much! She spent the afternoon at my house before we got dressed for one of our leaders of our teenage ministry's birthday party. I also got to see Morin and a few other college friends. It was nice to hear their funny stories and college stresses. I am definitely taking note for my turn next year!

Anri Baby

Anri Baby

Meet Anriola (Nickname: Anri Baby) : )
Isn't he adorable? I babysit this cutie from time to time and decided he would be my pic of the day.

Lady Titans won today! We had a soccer game against Randallstown and won 3-0!! Go Ladies : )
Our next game is on Monday against Milford Mill. We're beyond ready for that win, too.

House of Themis : )

Gooo Themis!!

AVID Induction Ceremony 2012

Tonight was the AVID Induction Ceremony- my last AVID Induction Ceremony that I will be able to take part in :(

It was really nice. As you may have noticed if you have read through my posts, Dona created this awesome Superhero theme. AVID Seniors came in our masks and capes and walked through the isles with the batman theme song. It was cute. I brought my younger cousin who has just entered the eighth grade and is considering attending New Town. She fell in love with AVID by just watching the ceremony. She agreed when she said it was nicely planned out and most students (not all) worked together to follow directions and make it successful. I give props to students who were able to make it to school ON TIME (including myself, even with an eye appointment at 4:30!).

AVID scholars also dressed pretty "snazzy" that night. I saw a few ties and slacks that were pulled out from the back of the closet. I, myself, wore a grey blouse with black pants and a bright royal blue blazer so support my house of Themis. 

I thought it was awesome to see how excited the new AVID Scholars were to be inducted into their houses. Nearly everyone was happy with the house that was chosen for them. So without further ado, I would like to congratulate the following brand new House of Themis AVID Scholars:

• Allison Bernard
• Brandon Holland
• Danielle Snowden
• Deion Okonkwo
• Ewurama Apaah
• Gurjit Singh
• Isaiah Shaw
• Javan Stancil
• Jonathan Lesane
• Kailei Peters
• Megan Hopkins
• Olakitan Oluwalade
• Rachael Montgomery
• Ta'ler Robinson
• Tyus Gaskin

I'm excited to work with you guys this year! But please note, if I see any house points removed, you will hear from the Themis AVID seniors ; )

To Be Honest: Containment

I know it's a little early (I said I would be writing a TBH post every 2 weeks), but I couldn't help this one. 

My heart is heavy, but it is one of those feelings that takes so much energy to even describe. I struggled to find the strength to write this post, but I think that later on I will be glad that I eventually did.
I feel contained. I have felt contained since I began the first grade. One could argue that keeping a child away from the world protects him/her from mistakes, but what good does it do if it leaves the child feeling scared, inexperienced, and resentment?
In my own opinion, I have never felt like I have had a childhood. I do feel like I grew up too fast, and, sadly, now is the time I would love to live my age.
This has left me feeling misunderstood. I wake up and go to school, hanging on for dear life to just finish up what I feel like I have worked so hard for. Only for the last bell of the school day to ring and I dread coming to a house where an honest relationship with a person whom I could pour my heart out to without judgment or chastisement is no where to be found.
Well, actually, I did have a person like that. A few, to be honest. But change happens and people move on. I wish I could call them all the time and just pour out how I feel. Like I said, change happens. Have you ever felt like speaking to someone places a burden on their own shoulders? It makes me feel terrible. As if I should just shut up. So that containment that I have been trying to run away from (and believe me when I say trying) winds up in my life, once again.
The resentment and rebellion began to build up in the seventh grade and, now that I look at it, I have slowly began to withdraw myself. I went from  a pretty social ninth grader, to a three-friend-tenth-grader, to a junior who decided to eat lunch by herself. I just didn't care anymore. And that is what containment has taught me- to not care and be content by myself. I try to tell myself, "Ebe, don't worry. High school is almost over. You'll be out of here soon. It'll be different very soon," but the truth is it won't until I learn how to change. I'm not sure if I know how to live outside of this box because I was never taught how to.
I've experimented. I've tried to rebel against it, to push my way out of the box, but I was only stuffed back in there. My rebellion was misunderstood. It was taken as random acts of disobedience and recklessness without cause. I was made to believe that I was a bad child if I didn't accept what I was told. If I didn't abide by the every rules of my religion and culture, I would be condemned. No question.
The containment, the rules, the culture, they have all made me feel as if I am just to live through the motions. The hardest question for me is and question of depth about myself because I don't know the answer to it. I don't believe I really want to do or be everything that I say I want to do or be right now, but that must remain my answer, at least for now.
I honestly don't know how to escape it. I just reread this post and it sounds like the cheesiest TBH post ever, but it's true. I'm just tired. The constant bickering at home and living in the said "box" everywhere else is exhausting.
This is not all I want to write. I just can't properly put all of my thoughts into words right now without publicly blaming who I feel that I should blame. I think this is a start, though.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Today was an interesting day. Lady Titans were supposed to have a soccer game against Overlea, but all after school activities were cancelled in this part of the county due to a derecho storm. It was a pretty bad storm to the point that it looked like a hurricane outside. I don't think I have ever seen winds or rain like that here in Maryland. I didn't take a picture of the actual storm, but here is an aftermath pic:

Meanwhile, I stayed inside the building to help Dona with some preparation for the AVID Induction ceremony being held on Thursday evening. It's going to be great! More on that on Thursday's post :)

*Sigh* My day consisted of...

There was no school today where I live (Rosh Hashanah), so this is what my day consisted of...

....

And this was the highlight of my day...

....

Yes, a package from Johns Hopkins. It really did make me smile though. Is that a bad thing?

I think I can... I think I can...

Graduation, where are you???

Principles of Success

I went to church today and my pastor preached an excellent message about success. It really made me stop and think about the fuel that keeps me moving everyday. Everyone wants to become successful in life per their own definition of the word success. But regardless of a person's definition of success, every person needs to become these four things to get there:

1. Full of passion
• Find something or someone to fuel a passion for you!
2. Purpose-driven
• A purpose becomes a motivation or goal. Without one, you are walking endlessly. For me, my purpose/goal is that extra push that gets me up in the morning for school and reminds me why I have to stay focused in class. If you know where you want to go, it's easy to figure out how to get there.
3. Positive attitude
• A lot of people are negative and volatile when they think of the success of others. This negative, or fixed, mindset keeps them from growing and learning.
4. A person with the ability to think through
• You must come out of your tent! He used the story of God asking Abraham to count the stars in the night sky to tell him that he will be the father of many. Abraham had to come out of his tent in order to see it, otherwise the low ceiling of it would have hindered him.

If interested, you really should read the book in the picture. It's wonderful!

Hail Penn!!

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As of now, my dream schools are the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University. I pray I get into both, but it will be such a difficult decision deciding between the two.

Dona took her son (Cody), my sister, and me to Penn this weekend. I fell in love with the school once I walked on the campus. We had trouble finding the Office of Admissions and these two nice young ladies decided to go out of their way to guide us and eagerly ask if I had any questions about Penn. It was as if every student there loved being at that school. I did some research once I got home and found out that Penn has some of the happiest students on campus, so that explains it.

The campus is beautiful. It is the oldest university in North America, so the buildings show it and the detail in the architecture had me mesmerized as the tour guide led us around campus. The school of engineering and applied science holds my interest (Biomedical Sciences) and I love that it isn't just Biology, but I still get to take lots of engineering and technology courses in addition to the math and sciences to give me a head start in research and medical school preparation. The tour guide told the group a story about the Penn engineering student who created the Toast Zamboni: a machine that can clean up bits of toast from the entire ground of Franklin Field. You may be asking, "Why the heck would there be toast on the football field and track?" Penn has a tradition of having a toast while singing their fight song, Hail Penn, right after the third quarter of any home football game. Before the drinking age was 21, students would bring alcohol to the field. After Prohibition, students were angered that their tradition may have to end, so a clever student decided that they could throw toast on the field instead of drinking! So a Toast Zamboni was definitely a necessity.

←Toast Zamboni

I saw this group of swingers (a dancing style from the '50s) in front of Benjamin's button on campus (yes, there is a huge, broken, white button on campus) and I thought that it was the coolest thing to randomly see. I think I want to learn how to dance like that.

After the tour, we took lots of pictures and went straight to the bookstore to get Penn gear (we just had to be legitimate)! My hoodie is awesome! I will be known for this hoodie within the next month.

After our frappuccinos from the bookstore's Starbucks, we headed to the largest mall on the east coast: The King of Prussia. Dona got her nails done and gave me a simple task- find some lip balm for Cody and get a snack. I thought, "Okay, sure." I wasn't thinking it was easy peasy after I got back. First I had to find the Rite Aid. The way the mall is laid out is like so: imagine Columbia mall (for those who live in Maryland) x3. Then imagine another one of those as a separate building. Each one has 2 floors. Now imagine that both buildings are connected by a walk way that goes through a parking lot. We were on the second floor on the end of one building. The Rite Aid was on the first floor of the other end of the second building. It took 20 minutes to walk back from the Rite Aid to the nail salon where Dona was.

Afterwards, we headed to Cracker Barrel, one of the coolest restaurants ever. It has an old country theme where everything is given to you how you would get it in the year 1896. On your way out is a store where you could buy almost anything in an old fashioned style. There was old fashioned candy and Hershey Bars. Even the medicine bottles and lotions/body washes were in old fashioned bottles and actually had the word "apothecary" on it. It was so cute. I got some malt balls, which Dona doesn't like for some reason. I tried her favorite candy, Cow Tails, and eckkk! It tasted weird. She likes the caramel and I like the chocolate ; )

I had an awesome time this weekend! Thanks, Dona <3!

123... Lady Titans! (2.0)

Isn't she gorgeous??
This is our defensive midfielder, Destiny, wearing our mandatory game day outfit to school today. Normally we wear a pair of jeans or sweatpants with our jerseys, but Coach Trapp wanted to try something different (I think he wanted to have a laugh and see what we'd come up with): shorts (they HAD to be shorts) and our soccer socks, along with our game day jersey. We had a home game today against Patapsco, so we wore white.
About the game...
I did mention it yesterday and I stick to my word, so here is what happened.
We were doing so well!! The other team came thinking they were about to have an easy win (they better go back to Patapsco with that) and were stunned and frustrated once we scored twice and ended the first half of the game winning 2-0. We worked together and played our positions. But I honestly cannot explain to you what happened during the second half. Some of us were quickly running out of gas, I guess, and Patapsco scored three goals on us.
So we eventually lost, 2-3. I do believe that we are ready to take on Overlea full force on Tuesday. We want the next win!
123... Lady Titans!! :)

In other news, today is my trip to Penn with Dona and my sister! Can't wait! More on that tomorrow ;)

Team Work Gets the Goal Moving

Pretty short post today...

I didn't practice after school today because I hurt my ankle during yesterday's game. I really want to play during the game tomorrow so Coach asked me to sit out today's practice and ice my ankle, but I had to sit on the bleachers and watch the girls and listen to what he had to say.

It was such a nice sight to see all the girls come together in the name of teamwork. I can tell you that we absolutely don't like it when Coach Trapp asks us to move the goal post, but today everyone put aside the grumbling and did the deed. And I can tell you that that goal post is definitely not as light as a feather...

3rd soccer game of the season tomorrow against Patapsco! They're pretty good, so wish us luck :)

Emergency Plan? Seriously?

It is always funny when the school has a fire drill. It is as if the administrators believe that if there were to be a bomb or inferno in the school, everyone would be calmly meandering in a circle to the back of the school. Honestly, I would be the first one out of there. The question would then be, "Can you keep up with me?" because the safest place in that scenario would be across the street at the elementary school.

I know it's all for safety, but seriously?

And, just to add, today's fire drill was more disorganized than usual. Practically the entire school met in one place: on the track.

Imagine about 1,000 students trying to walk down one flight of stairs during a fire drill, talk less of during an actual emergency. 

Yeah, right.

In other news, my soccer team had our second game of the season today and it was another loss, 0-2, but both shots were penalty kicks (what was up with all the handballs today??) so I am not complaining. I honestly think we played very well. A few mistakes that probably cost us the two or three goals that we could have made, but we'll get 'em next time ; )

Snickers... it satisfied my hunger

In my attempt to blog every single day, it is inevitable that I will have some boring posts. Today was definitely one of them. In fact, I think today was the most boring day that I have had in the past 3 weeks.

So, I will try my best to make this post as interesting as possible.

The highlight of my day was...

Yes, a Snickers Candy Bar.

As soon as I arrived at school today, I was hungry. I normally do not eat breakfast (I know that it's really bad for me... I guess it's just one of those bad habits), so I was really surprised that I was starving by the end of second period. I caught a glimpse of the school lunch menu for today and it was so bad that I lost my appetite for about five minutes. Haha!

I then decided that I wanted some chocolate. Turns out that Mr. Hopkins had one once I returned back to my 3rd period classroom. It was truly delicious!

I was hungry, so I grabbed a Snickers. And it satisfied my hunger ; )

Okay, okay. I know this post was lame!

To Be Honest: Behind everything is just me

I have decided that every two weeks I will have a "To Be Honest (TBH)" post in which I write about a personal emotion or event that has been bothering me. This is my first TBH post. Enjoy :)

TO BE HONEST:

It is really upsetting when I am made to seem inhuman or pretentious in the eyes of other people because of what I do. I don't try to be pretentious. I don't want to be. I honestly do try to be myself. Of course I have many interests and at times I don't think that I fit in with others around me because of our differences. The "smart jokes" are usually not very funny and they get old, so I keep to myself at times to avoid them. Unfortunately, they keep finding their way into my day. I just roll my eyes, flash a quick smile and keep on living.

I just wish people would remember that behind all of the objective facts and scores is a nice seventeen year old girl who still likes to mingle and hang out. I like to watch and play soccer. No, I do not bury my head in my books all day. I DO have a life (which is what the purpose of this blog is... to show people who I am outside of what they see). I have crushes; I like Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Glee, and House; I like to go shopping; and I do listen to music.

I am normal, so please do not make me out as if I am not.

However, I will say this: aside from all of the negative remarks and scorned looks that I get daily, I will still work hard to get to where I want to get to... all while doing what I like to do in the best way that I can get it done.

Things Change and Time Flies

←I love this :)

Above are photographs of some of the closest people in my life. You know... the ones that have been stuck with you since the age of 3... the ones who come over your house nearly every weekend... the ones who have fought with, irritated, or messed with you nearly every day of your life. 

Now that I think of it, I can't believe how much we have all grown together. It's amazing. Nearly graduating from college (the guy in the top photograph), just entering college (the girl in the bottom photograph with me), and getting ready to graduate from high school (the girl with the long brown braids in the middle photograph, the dark girl in blue in the top photograph, and me)... things change and time flies. 

You have gotta love these kids.  

Happy Birthday, Ewurama! :)

Thursday was my friend, Ewurama's, birthday (bottom photograph)! She just turned 15 years old! She had a little get together this evening and it was one of the cutest things ever. The theme was Asian Cuisine with the restaurant feel. She brought the wine glasses (with grape and apple cider, of course) and china out with some delicious Chinese Take-out for the main course. For desert we had strawberry banana smoothies and whipped cream... delicious.

The best part was being together with the girls there. They are hilarious. My sister, Divine, Kailei, Marianna, Favour, Blessing, and Grace goofed off after eating before we decided to laugh at Divine dancing to some music videos. It was a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday, Ewurama!! I hope your 15th year will be even better than your previous 14 :)

Orange Back Pack Raid

Birthday Shoutout!: Happy Birthday to my cousin and childhood friend, Francesca Bodunrin! Girl, you know I love you :) Stay in school! And have fun, too!

Today was the very first meeting of the school year for the National Honor Society and I'd say that the Adviser and Officer Team conducted a very good meeting. I personally liked being up there and speaking (speaking is actually something that I have grown to like lately).

So, there was Domino's Pizza and soda... you know, just as a "welcome" treat. I didn't really have an appetite before the meeting began, so I decided to wait and see if I would be hungry after it was adjourned. Turns out that I was.

I grabbed two slices of pizza , wrapped it in some paper towel, and grabbed an orange soda, as well, before I headed up to the lovely Dona's classroom to get some college application/homework stuff done and eat. Before I left, however, I put my orange soda in my back pack. Can you see where this is going?

Once I reached  Dona's room I was hungry and ready to eat. I took out my soda from my back pack and there... a leaking can of orange soda dripping through every cranny in my back pack, thus ruining my books, notebooks, and pencil case (luckily, my TI-84 calculator that I have owned since the 7th grade went unaffected by this catastrophe).

Dona thought I decided to randomly raid my back pack all over her desks. Haha.

*Sigh*

I Have a Superpower!

I'm a proud New Town High School AVID Scholar and my superpower is... the ability to out think and outsmart my archnemeses: fear, self-doubt, and procrastination! :)

Go Themis!!

He's soo "OVERPOUND"!

UPDATE: The soccer game (see previous post) was a loss, but it is okay. We'll get 'em next time.

I came home from the game this evening to a nice surprise. My three younger cousins, a 13 year old girl, 6 year old girl, and 10 year old boy, were waiting for my sister and me by the door! The youngest 6 year old girl in the photographs above is my beloved. I call her "Baba". Isn't she adorable? She's very girly. I'm not sure where she gets it from.

She said the funniest thing today. Earlier this week she watched the movie Supersize Me with her older sister and decided to give me a mini synopsis, although I mentioned to her that I have seen it already (she likes to talk). She told me about "the man's" challenge to eat McDonald's everyday and that "it was soo nasty! He gained like 30 pounds! He was so... so... 'OVERPOUND'!" Yes, this was her attempt in calling someone overweight, just in case you were wondering. Hearing her voice when she said it would have been even more hilarious- trust me.

I love her though! :)