I have never been hunting, but I have been fishing a total of one time. So. It wasn't, like, actual fishing, it was fishing at, like, a fishing pond thing. It was like a fishing place where they dump tons of fish into the river to make it easier. So a little bit even extra cheating is that my brother was, uh, under the age of six, so we could fish in the six-and-under pond.  So I'm fishing in the six-and-under pond, and I am not catching anything at all because I'm just flat out bad at fishing. Like, I was afraid of the fish. So I finally did catch something and I pulled it out really fast and I just, like, dropped the rod and ran away screaming because it was just, like, so scary. The eyes, it was all moving, ugh! And then some, like, random guy walked up to me and is like, "Do you want help with that? I can tell you haven't done this before." So I'm like, "Yes, please." And he helped me, and my mom said thank you to him. And yeah. Never wanna go fishing again. It's not really my thing.

This guy in my class who I wasn't really the biggest fan of, he's like -- he's not like a popular kid, but he's, like, edgy if you know what I mean. My friend group is more of the soft cinnamon rolls who are nice. Sometimes they can be preppy, but they're usually very nice and they're -- be like -- well, not like, popular. Like, they don't act like a popular kid. They could be a popular kid, but they don't act like popular kids. And so this guy was not at all in my like -- what's? -- radar. This dude, I've probably said, like, five minutes worth of conversation to him in the past two years. And I'm pretty sure the five minutes were probably related to school. But anyway, so he wasn't a friend. If anything I would call him a person I know from the hallway or something. But he was yelling across -- well, no. The girl next to him who was, who was my friend was talking -- was yelling across the classroom to talk to a guy who was at my table who's also a friend.  And she was like, "Do you know NewJeans?" That's a K-Pop group. He was like, "What?" And so the guy who I'm not -- who I'm not friends with yelled over the room, "NewJeans! You don't know NewJeans?" And I was like, "Oh my gosh, I know NewJeans!" And he was like, "Yeah! You know NewJeans?" I'm like, "Yeah! What other groups do you listen to?" And he was like, "No, it's just NewJeans."  But in that moment, I felt a sense of camaraderie, you know. I was like, yes, slay! 'Cause I did not think that he liked K-pop.

But I think they went into one of our cousins' houses, and I wasn't paying attention at all to behind me, because I thought, "Okay. The threat is over. Threat is down. It's fine. We'll, we'll all be fine." But that was when I looked behind me, and there was a pitbull. I think it was the pitbull that hadn't chased at us, but it was the other one that went in a different direction. ‘Cause it, like, went through the alley, then went back to the front. So then I just -- I just was frozen. I was way too scared. I never met a dog like this, especially at this age. And it was pretty big, right? It's, it's a pit bull. It was a whole adult pitbull, and I honestly, like, ah, shiver me timbers, right? Um, so I just stood there frozen. And it started walk -- barking at me all of a sudden, but didn't, like, lunge at me, which was obviously good. And it could have bit me.  I'm not sure -- to be honest, I think the only reason that it chased us, or like ran towards us and chased us, was because we ran. So I thought, maybe because I was frozen at that time, [it] didn't bite me or think that I was playing with it, it didn't chase me. I think that's a really good lesson to learn.

I recently saw this, like, TikTok, and I -- m- -- okay. My new year's resolution was along the lines of, like, trying new things, being more open, stuff like that, because I'm going to college and so this is my last semester. And so I feel, like, that this is, like, the right time to really, like, I can just do whatever. So I joined my school play. I've never been in a play. Um, and, you know, stuff like this. But I recently saw a TikTok about how you should get rejected, not reject yourself.  Like -- um, I can, like, kind of relate to this, because over the summer I didn't think any professors would say yes to me. Regardless, they did not, I got my last email today from my professor saying that I can't. But over the summer, I was like, "There's no way a professor would say yes to letting me shadow with them." And so I just didn't, like, ask. And I waited months and I was like, "Okay, I'll just, like, try." And I emailed everyone, and a lot of people said no, but it wasn't -- many "no"s weren't because they wouldn't allow it, it was because of things like different things going on, stuff like that.  But I realized, like, how true that statement is, of like, you should let yourself get rejected, not, um, reject yourself, because you never know what might happen. Like I never know, if one of those professors happened to have an opening, I could be there just because I asked. And yeah, I got rejected from all of them, but I -- I don't know, that really stuck to me because a lot of times I'm like, there's no way I would ever get it or something like that, and now it's like, "Why wouldn't I get it?" I guess, if that makes sense?  Like you always think about, like, for example, like, college scholarships. Especially like Duke and stuff like that. Um, those percentages -- the percentage of kids who get those scholarships is like 1%, 2% and I'm like, "Wow, like I'll never -- there's no way." But then I was -- like, I don't know. I shouldn't limit myself because I think I can't do it.

One of the biggest gardens I've ever been to I'm pretty sure it was in Singapore. Um. And or n- -- ye- -- ehrm, or it was Malaysia and it was like a glass dome and there was like multiple levels. It was kind of like a ecosystem within itself. Like it had birds flying and flowers everywhere and butterflies and fruit and stuff, um, they're growing. That was really cool to see. Uh, they had like these stairs you had to walk up and down. Um, and yeah, it was really nice. It was kind of like being in an actual rainforest so it was like really muggy and there was trees and vegetation everywhere.

“What's a true story that you've told other people about that they don't believe happened?” Okay, so when I was younger, I liked jumping off chairs for fun ‘cause, you know, it felt like I was flying. And um, one time I was jumping off a chair and I fell and I knew that I had broken my arm. I mean, of course, I didn't actually know that I had broken my arm 'cause I was like five. But I thought that I had broken my arm. So I told my parents that I broke my arm. And my parents were like, "Oh, no, you did not break your arm. Stop being dramatic. We're going to church." And I was like, "No, I broke my arm. I need to go to the doctor." So I was screaming and crying and finally my dad caved and he's like, "Fine, you take her siblings to church. We'll take her to the doctor." So we go to the doctor and guess what? I had actually broken my arm. So instead of being like "Oh my gosh, I broke my arm!" I was like, "See Dad! I was right! I knew what I was talking about and I broke my arm!"

So, one of the prompts is something that I cared about that got destroyed. I -- My first car -- mind you, I'm 17. So my first car after six months of having it… I named her and everything. I loved her. She had a few things wrong with her,  so we took her to the dealership to get fixed. She got fixed, my dad was driving her home, and in a roundabout, someone hit my dad because they cut the lane and the entire back of my car -- they were coming so fast, the entire back of my car -- the axle broke. Everything was just messed up, and so my car got totaled. And I was really sad because it took a solid four, maybe four weeks or three weeks for my car to get fixed up, so I was like waiting and it didn't even -- took like four miles from the dealership, and it got destroyed, and then I never got to drive her again. So, yeah.

Today's prompt was, "When have you ever had to hide in the basement for a storm?" It wasn't a storm, but it was a tornado warning. So, back in an old state where I lived, there were a lot of tornado warnings and stuff like that because there were like all types of natural disasters. The only thing we didn't have was probably hurricanes. So, we got a tornado warning. We've actually gotten it like, maybe three to four times the amount of time I was there. But, so we went down to the, uh, basement. We had a pretty nice basement. It had like a couch and all that stuff. It was really cold though, but we didn't go into the cold areas. It was like a furnished, finished basement, and then half of it was unfinished, but it was more of like a hallway thing. We used to put all our old toys there and like stuff. We even had this little like, mirror with a few candles. I remember trying to summon Bloody Mary once, but like not actually because I was like, genuinely concerned that she would like, come out and you know, eat me or something. So back to the tornado story. So, we had a tornado warning and so my aunt ushered me, my sister, and my three -- two or three cousins downstairs. My brother wasn't born yet at this time, so he wasn't there, I think. Yeah. And so after that, um, we went downstairs and we were waiting for the tornado drill to be over. We brought down some chocolate milk because, you know, we don't really know how long we're gonna be there. And while we're down there, my aunt realizes that she forgot the binky for one of my younger cousins, and so she tells my sister to go upstairs and go get it, and at this time I was like, probably eight? Like, five to eight. I wasn't exactly the smartest or sharpest tool in the shed, and so I was like, "Oh my gosh, she's sending my sister into the line of fire." Like I'm pretty sure the tornado was nowhere near us, but I was like, "Oh my gosh, how could you do this, auntie?" Yeah, she was fine. It literally took like two seconds to go up and get a binky and come back down…

Well, one time I had a sleepover with my friend [Name], and [Name] and I like to stay up playing video games until like 2 am. So we were staying up playing video games and her older sister who could drive -- this was like when I was way younger -- drove over and was like, "Hey guys, wanna go get ice cream?" And it was 3 am and we went to Baskin-Robbins and I ordered Daiquiri Ice flavored ice cream, which is like really weird for a 10 year old, but I remember it was like minty green and it tasted like ocean is what -- how I described it in my brain. But that was a really fun sleepover, and then we slept in until 10.

So one other prompt was, Has there ever been a moment where you thought, 'This feels straight out of a movie!' And honestly, recently, I went with a friend to a park and it was still, like, Octo- -- no, November. Wait, it's already been a month. It was October 27th. And it was so -- the scenery is so pretty there. Like, the trees are tall, and you can see sunlight seeping through the leaves. I honestly had a main character moment. I'm like, "Am I the main character?" But honestly, that's not gonna happen. It just felt nice just because it's so pretty there. So that felt like it was straight out of, out of a movie. And then we just sat under a tree and talked, and honestly being a student in the IB Program is kind of difficult, and we're always just doing work all the time, or extracurriculars on the side. I have way too much. So my whole life just revolves around extracurriculars and schoolwork now. So just sitting down under a tree, having the time to talk was so good. Good for me emotionally, good for my mental health.