Final Blog

(I drew this)

Guys, I have really enjoyed spending the last two years with you. This won't be strictly a goodbye blog, since I know I'll see all of you again, in some way or another. Instead, I'd hope to communicate how grateful I am that I was able to be a part of this amazing high school experience with you for my junior and senior year. As you know, I moved here junior year and I have to say I wasn't happy about it at all. I missed my old school, all my old friends, and was very worried about adjusting to Chagrin. However, I realized on our last day that I've learned to truly love living in Chagrin. First off, the teachers are amazing. I'll miss them so much. All the teachers I've had this year have been incredible influences on my education, and I am so thankful. Teachers like Ms. Serensky have the ability to bring a group of seemingly unalike students together. AP English has been a great way to create friendship, ones that I sincerely hope will last through college. I'm really going to miss you guys next year, and I wish you all the best of luck at college!

Farewell Haikus

No more Data Sheets!

But will I ever miss them?

My answer: No way.

From little juniors

To superior seniors

Metamorphosis

We learned how to read

We learned how to annotate

Could we go back now?

Ah, the blogs, the blogs

They are both a joy and chore

A Work in Progress

We read six novels

Practiced countless pre-writings

For only one test.

Oh, AP English

Here today, gone tomorrow

I will miss it so.

Top 10 Reasons

10. You have the opportunity to win at the multiple choice game.

9. There's a possibility of Harry Potter stickers on A papers. But any sticker is nice.

8. You have the chance to form a lasting bond with your writing partner. Or not, if your partner is a jerk. But even if he is, you get a new one every quarter!

7. Candy prizes.

6. By the end of it, writing a full essay in 40 minutes will be no big deal.

5. It's one AP exam you're sure to pass.

4. If you're lucky Ms. Serensky will give in to her Leo obsession and you'll get to enjoy her weakness in the form of a movie!

3. Hopefully by the end, you will form a bond that resembles... kinship? Or at least, it's not complete fear, with Ms. Serensky, officially the most intimidating woman in the school.

2. That awesome feeling of camaraderie that you share with your fellow scholars as you leave the AP exam in triumph.

1. Smartness in general increases dramatically. As well as public speaking skills, writing speed, emotional toughness..

Take the class. You know you want to.

By the end of AP English, you too can be a very smart cat.

Unsettling Observations

Clown: "She is stirring, sir" (Shakespeare 3.1.28).

Miss Prism: "I have been waiting...for an hour and three-quarters" (Wilde 51).

John Sr.: "There's a lot to worry about there, and [she] doesn't seem to notice" (Currie 41).

Miss Prism: "Do not speak slightingly of [her] three-volume novel...I wrote one myself in earlier times" (Wilde 22).

John Sr.: "I think...that it comes with it's own set of problems" (Currie 155).

Miss Prism: "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means" (Wilde 22).

Clown: "O, thereby hangs a tale" (Shakespeare 3.1.8).

John Sr.: "Maybe [she] should talk about the other things first" (Currie 156).

Miss Prism: "That depends on the intellectual sympathies of the woman" (Wilde 26).

John Sr.: "I think we're wasting [our] time" (Currie 78).

Clown: "Go, vanish into air, away!" (Shakespeare 3.1.20).

John Sr.: "I can break your weasel neck" (Currie 79).

Miss Prism: "What a lesson for him! I trust he will profit by it" (Wilde 26).

John Sr.: "If [she] thinks this is the end of it, [she's] wrong" (Currie 45).

Miss Prism: "Especially at the moment when intellectual pleasures await" (Wilde 21).

John Sr.: "Let's not get ahead of ourselves" (Currie 77).

Ron Currie, I love you like a fat kid loves cake.

I really wanted to write about how my favorite work form this year was Othello, since I knew hardly anyone else would choose it and I wanted to feel *original* and special. But that would be such a lie, since I  didn't like Othello that much and even if I did, I would still probably like Everything Matters! way more. Yep. Everything. Matters. I could've chosen the winner of this contest based purely on book covers. Black man strangling surprisingly peaceful woman vs Oscar Wilde looking uncomfortable vs colorful comets of blue and pink converging on a title with an exclamation point! Everything Matters!, clear winner. In addition the the awesome cover, there are several other, legitimate reasons I like this book for much. I've always liked books that are on a grand scale because when you finish them, you are kinda taken aback since you managed to get through an outer space war or the Great Depression or the rise and decline of Voldemort. But I also like books that focus down on the tiny people in all those conflicts and reading the story they have in the mess of everything. Everything Matters! combines both of these things, in a beautiful and memorable way so the novel was "Beautiful and doomed and thus terrible" (Currie). But not terrible, in the sense I did not want to read it, but terrible since I knew that at the end all the characters I had come to know and relate to were going to die. Although some say, "Irony is a luxury the doomed can't afford," Currie wove irony throughout his novel, and although it was often deeply saddening (like in John Sr.'s death), it helped establish his message-- that life is precious, and unfortunately life is limited, as Ms. Serensky often informed us, "Yeah, everyone dies" (Currie). I also really liked the book since it addressed a topic I find particularly fascinating, which is the existence of a Multiverse. Although I'm certainly not sold completely on the concept, I find the notion that "an infinite number of variations of this world exist concurrently, complete with an infinite number of variations of you" at the least, an interesting perspective to consider (Currie). In short, Currie's novel was amazing, I loved it, and I will be thinking about its lessons for a long time.

Worst Moments Ever.

Just kidding! These are the best--good times from start to finish!

10) Finding out we were reading Angela's Ashes last year. It's been one of my favorite books for a while, so I was naturally very excited to get a chance to discuss it in class and learn deeper meaning and all that jazz. I was not disappointed, for "this most goodly book" entertained me for a third time (Shakespeare 4.2.70).

9) Passing the AP Comp Sci exam. I am SO BAD at Computer Science. If someone pointed a gun at my head and told me I to code I would stare at the screen and cry until my assailant killed me out of pure pity. Comp Sci, in short, was "a messy and heartbreaking and overall pointless affair," that I am more than happy to put behind me with the knowledge that in the end, I prevailed (Currie 143).

8) Having a piece of artwork win 3 awards at Scholastics. This was really, REALLY unexpected. I was honestly surprised my ostrich drawing got in the show at all, and for it to be nominated for an American Visions award was so gratifying. I would like to add my drawing was not nominated by "The Ostrich Society wackos" (Currie 238).

7) Mr. Maas learning to say my name properly. Although I will admit, there are numerous variation even within the McGuiness household, Mr. Maas's pronunciation was pretty awful.  As many people have said to me, "There is something in [my] name that inspires absolute confidence," and to have Mr. Maas say to poorly was distressing to both me and my fellow classmates (Wilde 10). He got the hang of it eventually, and the first time he said my name without sounding like it was causing him physical anguish I was very pleased.

6) Reading about arrested development in psych. This lead to an awesome conversation with Alex Kreger and Jeff Marino about the merits of the television show and our favorite moments.  So what if the entirety of my studying for the AP exam is done by watching old episodes of Arrested Development? For I believe, "it's what I know, not how I know, that matters" (Currie). Too bad I don't know anything...

5) First day of high school. I was so intimidated. So tiny. So excited. The day went by in a blur. Actually, all of high school went by in kind of a blur. I really liked high school, and "I confess it is my shame to be so fond" (Shakespeare 1.3.112-113).

4) Getting accepted into Cum Laude. Although sometimes it may seem that "I am bound for life and education" to my schoolwork, it was all worth it when I received the letter that invited em to join the Cum Laude Society (Shakespeare). I am very honored to be inducted with my fellow recipients, and proud that my handwork throughout high school has paid off.

3) Getting into Northwestern. This was my dream school, and as even though I will be going to Ohio State in the fall, I still feel great accomplishment at being admitted. Reading the acceptance email was definitely one of the most thrilling moments this year, as I could "could hardly read [the letter] without crying a little" (Wilde 33).

2) Receiving the grade on my Angela's Ashes paper. This one is double thrilling, since I did the best on this paper than I had on anything else in her class, and it is still one of the best papers I have ever written. But.....I forgot to submit it to turnitin. Minus 12 points! Such elevation! Such despair. The very thought still stings like an open wound. But as a wise voice once told me, life is "Everything, the good and the bad alike," and I have never forgotten to submit to turnitin after that incident (Currie 292).

1) Sending in my acceptance money to Ohio State. Although I was initially kind of reluctant to do this (because of Northwestern and all..), I soon found great comfort and joy in knowing for certain where I am going to college. The whole thing still seems kind of surreal. But I know for certain that "intellectual pleasures await" all of us next year (Wilde 21).

The Poem About the Cat

My favorite poem this year has been Chester by John Koethe. This poem always appealed to me, even when we first received it I was drawn to it, instead of initially feeling oppressed or stressed as many of the other poems did. The poem is not overly complex or complicated. The premise and setting of the poem is very relatable: a quiet morning at breakfast. "We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces," and Koethe's poem cuts through the mundane nature of existence and asks deeper questions about meaning and purpose (Wilde 47). Unfortunately, my grade on this particularly poetry paper was pretty bad. Firstly, I incorrectly identified the speaker as being second-person, and since that's what I talked about mainly, my grade consequently suffered. "O misery" (Shakespeare 3.3.171). However, bad grade aside I still greatly enjoy this poem, and have been induced to research other literature by Koethe. I enjoy his style of writing, without pretensions or overly complex metaphors. Koethe gets to the point and says what he want to in "Chester", without skipping around with a bunch of vague statements and unanswered questions. His poem deals with a prevailing question, which is whether our lives are significant, or "Does Anything I Do Matter?" (Currie 9). I also really like this poem because it features a cat, and for once in the history of my blog will a cat picture be appropriate.