AP Lang. IRL

As this school year comes to an end, I’d like to thank everyone and everything that has made first hour 11AP English bearable and possible. First I’d like to mention all the fellow AP students who kept me motivated throughout the school year. Thank you to Amritha for keeping me sane and making me seem more put together by association. Thank you to Zach for helping me make it through first semester and keeping me going during the hardest parts of the class. Thank you to Sydney for reminding me of our english homework and giving tons of inspiration for my blog posts. Also, a big thank you to Brian who helped me (and other people) to laugh at myself in my not-so-proud moments of this class. And thanks to everyone else I’ve talked to in first hour for making the whole class a lot more fun. Next, I would like to thank the teachers who has pushed me to try harder and improve my writing. Firstly, Mr. Kisse, for forcing me out of my comfort zone a couple of times and making me speak out in cla...

  Back in 2008, my daycare, which eventually doubled as my preschool, hired a photographer for all the kids that went there. Of course, being the oldest, my parents paid for the most pictures they offered, and I had my first photo shoot at 3 years old. I remember not exactly being too sure what was going on so i just sat there and smiled. Obviously, as a toddler, the pictures were going to come out sure no matter what. That day, the sun was beating down through the perfectly clear sky. It was honestly the perfect weather for pictures. The grass was bright green, and the trees were in full bloom. Living in a windy city at the time, the wind was blowing strongly, so for much of the time, I was having a mini hair crisis. The background outside of the school was set, and kid began to line up for their pictures. Teachers and parents were there to help with poses and keeping an entire class of toddlers quiet and out of the way from the cameras. The photographers clicked away as they went...

There was once a time where the no one had transportation anywhere. This lasted up until the invention of the automobile. Cars changed the way people lived and communicated. But now, in recent times, cars are just a way for people to show wealth, spend money, stress over car salesmen, and get from point A to point B.  With modern day issues like road rage, texting while driving, and drunk driving, cars cause more problems than it solves. People cause more issues by trying to get gaps, squeeze through parking lots, and honk their way through heavy traffic. Half the time, this is caused by middle aged adults driving to work or carpooling kids. The other demographic of drivers (under 25) are just inexperienced and either drive way too fast or way too slow and demonstrate irresponsible driving. Lastly, older people cause the same problem. Usually driving too slow and holding up traffic. Driving is a huge stressor by itself. This is without even mentioning the different types of cars. I...

  Reading “The F Word” by Firoozeh Dumas has gotten me to explore much further into the lack of willingness to learn about different cultures. However, it’s also gotten me to think about ways in which I can personally relate to closed-mindedness present in some people. Being named “Kaitlin”, I tend to get my name misspelled all the time, and I mean ALL THE TIME. Not only does Kaitlin have a million different spellings, but mine is one of the less common ones. Apparently, my name was going to be “Caitlin” until my mom decided she didn’t want my first initial to be the same as my last initial, so she picked the closest variation, with a K. Although this isn’t something that I am usually offended by, it still shows me how ignorant some people can be when learning to spell my name. Even people that I’ve known and have been correcting for years still spell my name wrong. It’s currently at the point where I don’t mind sometimes and don’t mention it to avoid awkwardness. “Katelyn, Caitlin...

Innuendos are a tool used everywhere. However, they are simply ways of masking peoples tones and used to avoid coming across as too harsh in most cases. After overthinking my own personal use of ‘more polite’ innuendos, I’ve come to the conclusion that the more confident you are, the less need there is to try to come across in a more polite manner. Based on my personal experience, in situations when I am less confident in myself, I tend to act more politely to avoid saying the wrong thing or having to worry that people will judge me if I accidentally come off too strong by saying what I think/want in an overly direct way. I believe that if people simply understand that being direct won’t usually offend people and that people won’t judge them for it, it would be much easier to communicate and to get things across much faster. The main problem with saying certain things indirectly is that even though most people will understand it and might act on it, it makes the demand/request appear l...

  Mainstream media and movies play a big role in how modern gender roles are perceived. One example which demonstrates many aspects of gender is the 2004 classic Mean Girls. The movie portrays many obvious stereotypes as well as some that are less conventional. Characters such has Regina, Karen, and Gretchen represent the ‘female’ demographic. Their representation of female culture is very much based on harsh stereotypes that tend to exaggerate femininity and hold women to a very unfair standard that most women choose not to conform with. Contrarily, Janis Ian represents the polar opposite. She defies also all feminine stereotypes and is in-turn, labeled as abnormal and ‘weird’ by the high school monarchy that exists in the movie. Additionally, the other side character, Damian, represents a not-so-typical male student. In this case, the gay stereotype is utilized to try and set Damian away from his peers and make him appear as different. By including characters that challenge the n...