sweet serendipity.: 2012

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Dear Fatima...

Hello, Fatima of the future, it's past-you again.

I know, I know, I just wrote to you less than a year ago, but since I haven't received any signs that you time traveled to the year 2012 to communicate with me and give me some answers, the questions and confusion just keep increasing.

So here's another letter to you.

I'm almost nineteen, and I'm finally in college. I know that last time I wrote to you, I seriously had issues with high school, and just wanted to be done so that I could start college. Come November of my freshman year, I'm not so sure I like this better. The adults that I interact with will insist that these college years are the best years of my life! and I'm sure they are! It's just that right now...everything seems confusing and I just want answers.

I went to this networking event yesterday, where alumni came to the U to talk with students, give advice, and serve as connections for us in the future. All of them talked about how they came to be in the professions that they were currently in, and a majority of them followed random paths that they said had a lot to do with luck and being in the right place at the right time.

This. Drives. Me. Crazy.

I'm a planner. It's true. No matter how fun and carefree and free spirited all those "go with the flow" people are, I've always been one that loves to have every detail planned out. I think being in college has intensified this.

Being a planner and wanting a solid foundation makes this "oh you'll figure out a way" mentality seriously overwhelms me. For everyone that I've talked to about being stressed out about picking a major has always responded with "well, you're a freshman! You have a lot of time!" No! I don't think I do. I like thinking of my future career as a destination, and I can't follow the map and take the shortest route if I have no idea where I'm supposed to end up.

Future Fatima...I really hope you found something that you were passionate about to pursue as a career, something that makes you happy but also supports you. I really hope that I stumble across this passion soon.

Love,

Fatima

Saturday, November 17, 2012

The curse of the coffee maker.

Coffee makers are a really simple way to make yourself a nice cup of coffee in the morning, right? All you have to do is fill the water reservoir with the correct amount of water, add some coffee grounds to the filter, and turn it on. In about 5 minutes you should have a nice, steaming cup of coffee.

Right?

Um, no.

For some reason, since the beginning of September, I've had some serious issues with making coffee.

First off, there was the problem of me not having the correct coffee maker. When I had been shopping for my dorm things over the summer, my dad said that he had a coffee maker which he hadn't even taken out of the box yet. I said that was fine, I'm not a fan of unnecessary spending. It turns out, that was a 5-cup coffee maker, which is kind of large due to the fact that it was to sit on my desk. I still took it to school, and struggled with figuring out how to work it. Seriously? Who struggles with using a simple coffee maker? Clearly, the answer is "Fatima."

Anyway, my mom decided to get me a single cup coffee maker, which was nice. We returned the other one, even though we had used it, because Target is awesome.

With my new single cup coffee maker that I knew how to use, I had severe issues with the coffee grounds that I had brought to make my coffee with. I had gone shopping with my mom and gone shopping with my dad on separate occasions, and they had both bought me some. Turns out, the ones my dad got me were whole beans, which we didn't realize while we were shopping. The ones my mom got me were light roast, and I quickly came to realize that my taste buds were not a fan of them.

So, the weekend after that, I grabbed the hazelnut coffee grounds I use at home, so that I could make myself tasty coffee when I actually needed it: at 8:00am on a weekday.

After those problems had been solved and coffee was being made really easily, it just tasted downright awful. Honestly, I don't even know why. It would taste fine when I made coffee at home. It could be the difference in water, or maybe I was adding wrong proportions of milk and sugar, but somehow it would be too bitter and too watery at the same time.

My most recent problem, made apparent on Friday, was that the water wouldn't go through the reservoir. I'm sure it's something I'm doing incorrectly again, but it was pretty frustrating to be running late for class and finding that my coffee maker only made me 1/4 a cup of coffee.

The most logical conclusion is that my coffee maker is cursed.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Reality check.

On Friday, I hit a low point in my thus far short career of being a college student.

Good grief, you should have seen me.
Now, let me begin this story by informing you that I had decided to skip my 9 am class that day. I know, I know, bad Fatima! But what you don't understand is that I live on the St. Paul Campus, and my classes are all in Minneapolis. Yes I can take the campus connector to Minneapolis from St. Paul and it's really useful! It runs every five minutes! as I was told a million times during orientation, but it takes half an hour to get from my dorm to Minneapolis, not counting any walking time.

Which means that for my 9 am class, which I have everyday, I have to wake up at 7.

Awful.

So I hope you will forgive me just this once.

Let's continue the story.
I had decided to skip because 1) I was really tired. and 2) I had to work on an essay outline that had to be turned in for my second class of the day, one at 12:20. See? Even when I skip it's for good reasons...

but. I woke up at 10:30. Which meant I had to come up with a thesis statement and quickly write the essay outline, get all my stuff together for my class, eat something, change my clothes, make my face look decent, yada yada yada, all in an hour and 20 minutes.

This was one of the profund moments which helped me realize how cushy home life is. If I had been at home, I wouldn't have had to mulitask by trying to change my clothes, crack open my first container of easy mac, make coffee, and run upstairs to the computer lab to print out the essay outline, all while trying to make sure I got on the bus on time. My mom would have done some of that stuff for me. Sigh.

You should have seen me...I wore the same yoga pants that I slept in to class...I had my lanyard around my neck...I ate easy mac on the bus.

Hot mess.

Oh well... as the kids say nowadays.... yolo?

I'm sure that I'll get better with time management as I get more used to living "on my own-ish", and that this episode of my struggling will be amusing to me when I think about it as a senior in college. Heck, it's amusing now, too.

It's just a weird change, because most of us are so excited about living semi on our own that we forget we have to take care of a lot of things ourselves and manage our own time, because no one will take that responsibility for us anymore.

What a reality check.

Monday, October 22, 2012

"Fall has always been my favorite season...

...The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale." - Lauren DeStefano.

I'm currently sitting in one of the many student lounges of my residence hall. I'm surrounded by Intro to Film stuff (because I have an essay due tomorrow) and chocolate milk (because it's delicious), and I can't stop thinking about what a perfect fall day it was today (side note...Sarah Sham just walked by....awkward...).

Minnesota usually has this problem where it's hot as hell in September, then we have one week of nice fall weather at the beginning of October, and then suddenly, it's snowing. That is always so upsetting to me because autumn is clearly the best season out of the four. I know I mentioned my love for fall in like one line at the end of my last blog post, but I thought why not just make you feel uncomfortable with how much I like this season?

I would just like to take a second to extend a thank you to the weather, a wonderful 68° today! Can you believe that? I heard it was pretty cold and rain-y at the game on Saturday, but the weather has been great today.

Fall is, in a word, perfect. Look at this picture I took today on campus. How gorgeous is that? I know it's cliche to talk about the colors of the leaves during autumn, but they're too pretty to not do so. Like the quote at the beginning of this post said, it's like nature had been saving up for this moment to shine, a last hurrah before everything gets covered in fluffy white snow (which is, of course, beautiful in its own way).

Onto more superficial things.

I've recently become obsessed with sweaters, because they're like a cuter, more stylish version of sweatshirts. Think about it. For me at least, after I put on a sweater, I just add jeans and some footwear (I love my new riding boots. or my combat boots) and done. It always gives the impression that you put more thought into your outfit than you actually did. I want a cute cable knit sweater, because I've seen some girls wearing them with button down shirts underneath and ohmygosh. So cute.

Another clothing item: scarves. I have way too many, and this season is the perfect time to throw on a different one every day of the week.

During this season, you also have a great variety of choices when it comes to beverages. In the summer or spring time, there's iced tea. There's lemonade. There's soda (but who wants to drink that all the time?). Fall (and winter, I suppose...) are the prime time for warm beverages. When I get up in the morning I drink some coffee. Later, I might have some Pakistani chai. Then I could drink hot chocolate or the awesome chai tea latte stuff Kira gave me. It's so nice to just grab one of these beverages, cuddle up in a cozy sweater, grab a soft blanket and sit on a comfy chair and read. Ugh.

So basically, yes. I have a huge crush on this season, okay?!

~ Fatima

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Oh My God.

The post I made before this one talked about how I wouldn't stop writing on this blog.

Posted on June 27, 2012. That's embarrassing.

It is officially 108 days since I made a blog post and I now know better than to say "it's different this time, I'll regularly post to my blog." I think by doing that, I put a lot of pressure on myself to make the blog post, even though there is probably no one that is reading it anymore.

It's also kind of awkward, because coming to this blank template is like seeing a friend you used to be really close with. It used to be so easy to talk to them and tell them what you're thinking, but after so much has changed, you don't even know where to begin.

It's funny because even though I'm the closest to home, I'm the one that has been the least successful in adjusting to college life. I think there's many reasons for that; one, I've never really been away from home before. I never really slept over at friends' houses (it wasn't allowed), and I never wen't to sleep away camp. Another reason is that I wasn't really expecting to live in a dorm, so I never mentally prepared myself for it. Lastly, the compromise I had with my parents on living in a dorm was that I would come home on the weekends. It's a good cure to homesickness but a kick in the face to making friends, because the weekends are when everyone hangs out and gets to know each other.

So yeah it's been kind of slow and tough, but I've also been really awkward with making friends. My first couple of weeks at Wayzata were torturous until I became friends with Haley. I'm sure the same things is happening now.

Sorry to whine, but hey, like I said. I'm sure no one is reading this.

On a happier note, I'm so happy it's fall! I hope Minnesota lets us have more than a week or so before it starts snowing. I'm really excited because fall means sweaters and scarves and boots and mittens and hot drinks and blankets and pretty leaves and ❤.

~ Fatima

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I Won't Give Up

I know what you're thinking.

That Fatima. She always promises she'll do certain blog posts but she never follows through.

I totally admit that is very true for me in the past (I'm sorry I never did that assignment that I assigned, Kira...). But, the project that I introduced a couple weeks ago? I am working on it.

I have found through this writing project I assigned for myself that it is incredibly hard to write about yourself, the experiences you've had, things you've done, everything. I don't know how authors can write full autobiographies. It's even harder when you're trying to write about your experiences when they are ones that you can't even remember yourself. I know writing the "high school" chapter will be way easier because it just passed. The one from when I'm a baby? Not so much.

It is cool to get to hear my mom tell me stuff I didn't know I did when I was younger, and I have learned that I was a very quirky child.

So...I shall post the "first chapter" eventually. I haven't given up on it.

Till then, you can look forward to hearing stories about me being obsessed with clothes, hair made out of scarves, and eating a ton of Nutella.

Love,

Fatima

PS. Did you like the title to this blog post? I was just listening to that song. It's great.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

So this movie is finally coming out!
I had read the book by Stephen Chbosky in eleventh grade Upper Level Comp during reading time. I had not had a book with me, so I had borrowed this one off of Mrs. Cardona's shelf.
It was a fantastic book, and the movie looks like it will be a good one too.

And I just adore Emma Watson.

Also, sidenote: the top comment said that Emma Watson would make a really terrific Alaska Young. What do you think about that, Kira? Do you agree? Just wondering haha.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Project idea?

You know when you're about to hang out with/see someone that you have not interacted with in a long time? And even though you used to be really close to them, you're suddenly self conscious of every part of your existence?

That's how I feel right now writing on this blog.

Okay enough about how I feel like a failure with my blog. Seriously, Fatima, get over yourself.

So, I guess high school is over. How crazy is that? I remember a couple of months ago I made a really dramatic blog post (which, despite being dramatic, was pretty true for how I feel about the situation) about how everything will be different at this time next year, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's just something that's got to happen to everyone at some time, even though it may seem like we're the first people to feel the way that we do about the situation.

Another chapter in our lives has just ended, and we're about to start a new one titled College (ahhh!).

I just kind of had what could be a cool idea for a project for my blog.

What if for the next couple of days/weeks I posted about my experiences thus far from each of the chapters of my life? It could either go poorly or be kind of fun to look at. I think I shall.

Fatima's Life (So Far) by Fatima Fareed
Index:
Chapter One - Birth, Baby and Toddler years
Chapter Two - Elementary School Experiences
Chapter Three - Middle School Experiences (that are usually ignored but for the purpose of this activity I guess we can revisit them...)
Chapter Four - High School Experiences
Chapter Five - College Experiences (Coming Soon...)

Ehh? Eh?

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

I am

the absolute worst person ever at keeping promises with myself.

I had promised that I would keep blogging here even after AP Comp was over, and I did. For a little while. But then I made excuses that I was really busy (even though I was really busy with stuff), when I should have made time to write blog posts.

I'm slightly worried I'll have to go through the let's-develop-a-voice-for-our-writing all over again.

Grr. At least I'll have all of summer to do it...

Sunday, April 8, 2012

I am the worst at keeping promises to myself.

Ah.

I am really upset with myself for being so lazy with blogging. I had promised myself to blog at least once every week, but I totally let that go. Kira's been totally on top of things with blogging. She's great.

I'll blame Mo Pro...(don't we tend to blame Mo Pro for anything and everything anyway? Global warming? Blame Mo Pro!)

Okay, now I feel kind of nervous to blog. Is that weird? I used to really look forward to it, now I'm like I"m going to disappoint my reader. I guess there's really no way to see how it goes unless I

start.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Fatima has wanted to be an aspiring novelist since day one.

So, this is unbelievably embarrassing and I can't believe I'm putting this up on my blog that was originally for AP Comp. Anyway. I'm pretty sure this is either from the third or fourth grade, and I typed it exactly like it was written in my notepad. So that means all the typos were by me (I could spell especially but not instead. Okay). The light blue typing is my critique/comments, as Jenna assigned. Haha. At least we know my writing has significantly improved since I wrote this...enjoy. Don't judge me.
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Hello! Chapter one (I really, really wanted to be an author "when I grew up" as a kid).
Hello! My name is Alisson you may notice that I sign my name like: [click] (there was something about handwriting and signatures that always fascinated me. I'd always try to incorporate it into my stories somehow, haha). Its because my teacher told our class that everyone was a star in his or her own way (that is so cheesy but I'm pretty sure one of my teachers actually did say that to our class) so, I thought that if I put a star insted of an A, it would look more interesting and that it would reminde me that I was a star in my own way. Before, my signature looked like this: [click]. That looked stupid. When I really sign my name it looks like this: (it's nothing too exciting). Let me tell you about myself. I have brownish reddish (ginger obsession goes way back) hair that is up to, I mean right below my sholders. I have brown eyes with gold speckles in them. I like sports. especially basketball. I have a brother named Paul. He has blonde hair and green eyes. My mom's name is Amy Warner I don't have a dad. I do not know what happend to him. I also have a rabbit. His name is Baxter. My brother thinks bunnies, dolphins, and horses are boring. Do you want to know why? It's because they are my favorite animals. This is what my room looks like: purple walls, a green desk, a bed that's blue and has dolphins on the bedspred (aka "I have the ugliest room ever"). They're are posters of bunnies, horses, dauphins and pictures of my family. Oh my goddness ("goddness" made me laugh so hard)! I forgot to tell you how old I am. I am 10 years old and in the 4th grade. My brother is 9 and in the 3rd grade. "Allie Warner get down here this seconde!" Mom shouted. "Coming!" I yelled back. I dashed out of my room and then down stairs. I was panting by the time I reached Mom in the kitchen. She was holding somthing orange. "Whats that Mom?" I asked. "It's an invetation to a birthday party!" She replied. She held it up to me. I read it in, like, 10 seconds (speedy...). "Cool!" I said "it's from my friend Susan Howards. "Darling, why don't you call her Mom said. "But I don't have her.-" then I relliezed that Mom was pointing to something at the bottom of the card. "Her phone number!" I said and laughed nervesly. She handed me the card. I took a deep break, picked up the phone, dialed Susans number, and waited. "Hello?" somebody said "Hello Susan? I want to tell you somthing."(End of the chapter. CLIFF HANGER, aren't you just dying to know what happens in Chapter Two now?!)

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So. I've always been really curious about people, and that's all I'd write about when I was little. You can see that there is no plot whatsoever but there's a ton of description about what the characters looked like...I think I've always liked describing to people what I was seeing in my head, and wanted them to see the same thing. My story characters usually had qualities and hobbies that I wanted to have when I was little (gold speckled eyes sounds freaky and Twilight-ish now but I thought it was so cool. Also I wanted to be sporty but. Yeah). SO needless to say AP Comp has certainly improved my writing quality.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Just a note.

People in my Journalism class make it very difficult for me to like the class.

Some people are really nice and I like them.

Others...

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Never gonna give you up, blog.

Right, so. I promised myself that I would keep updating this blog with posts well after finishing the lovely class of AP Comp, and I had been doing a really good job with keeping up with my goal, but recently...I started to slack.

Now I'm guessing all of my devoted readers were dying of what's been happening in my life lately (because I am so internet famous) so I will get you up to speed. In a very focused list. Ready? Here we go.

School.
Umm. Walking into WHS is like slamming into a wall of stress. You can feel it, you can smell it, hear it, everything. Especially the day a part is due for Mo Pro. Oh, Mo Pro. I have the this term. Since anyone that has interacted with a senior at our school already knows the woes of Mo Pro, I'll spare you the whining* (I'm still doing it in person though). Alongside Mo Pro, I have Journalism 2 (did you see my articles in the Trojan Tribune?), Calc Concepts (DeArmond is the best teacher ever) and AP Psych (who doesn't love Johnson?). In these classes, I don't have any teachers with the sass of Cardona or a tight knit friend group with people like Jenna and Kira (though I do have AP Psych with Jenna). Oh well. Life goes on.

Jobs.
I applied for a job at Pump it Up. It involves lots of kids. Wish me luck.

College.
I'm probably going to end up going to the U of M for college, and living at home. I used to be really annoyed by this, and still kind of am, but I've gotten over it now. Whatever. U of M is still a great school and having a good education is what college is for, right? Right?

18.
Yeah I turned 18 on February 24th. It was the best birthday I've ever had, my parents are honestly the best. They worked so hard to make me happy, and I'm really grateful. They not only took me out to dinner with our family, but managed to get my friends from my old school to surprise visit me & sleepover on Friday night, send us to MOA for like 7 hours on Saturday, and then pay for me to take my WHS friends to brunch. I'm lucky, very lucky.

So, yeah. 19 days until Spring break. 58 days until Graduation. I can do it.

*Ugh I hate Mo Pro so much it's not even funny, I fall asleep every day in class and then I have no idea what's happening in class or on the test, economics has never been my strong point. Also I'm sick of MLA format and in text citations already and we haven't even turned Part 2 in. Whatevs.

Monday, February 27, 2012

It's the little things.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Writing.

"What do you want to study in college?"
"Um, something to do with writing."
"Oh, so you want to write books?"

It's crazy how many people jump to this conclusion when I say that I want to "do something with writing" when I'm older. Even I thought writing books was the main attraction to having a career composed of words, words, words (haha). Every so often someone will ask me if I what I meant to say was that I wanted to be a journalist, because that's what they think of.

Nope, I guess writing can't have different branches like science. If someone gets the answer "something to do with science", there'll be a million guesses. What kind of science? Biology, Chemistry, Physics? What kind of career? Do you want to be a doctor (what kind of doctor?)? An engineer? Astronomer? Geologist?

"I want to write." "Oh...like books?"

Why? Why. Seriously.

Not all writing is the same, just like not all science is the same. I say this as I sit here, struggling to write my first "official" article for the Trojan Tribune. Even AP Comp and AP Lit writing differed drastically.

Monday, February 13, 2012

A Helpful Memo for Girls at Wayzata High School.

(Tips & tricks on making sure you are successful!)

Make sure that 15 minutes before school starts, you check your hair and make up in the bathroom. This is also a great time to actually do your make up; it will be fresh for your first class!

When doing your make up, never neglect any product. The more you wear, the better you look, the better you feel, the more successful you are.

Don’t be shy to bring your curling iron with you. Plug it right in and do your hair right there in the bathroom! Freshly done hair will give you confidence, which will give you the boost you need to help you to reach your goals.

A great way to raise your self confidence is to pretend you’re on a make over show, and try to completely change your look from the time you walked into the bathroom, to the time you leave.

Try to recruit all the friends you may have so they can follow these tips and be successful Trojan girls as well!

- - - - - - - - - -

Haha, I wrote this for the satire unit we had in Upper Level Comp. I was looking through my Google Docs and found it, and I wanted to share. It's weird how much my writing style has improved since then.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

I'm sexy and I know it.

Slightly irrelevant but nonetheless adorable.

Haha, the title of this blog post was supposed to make you think "Wow I never knew Fatima was so narcissistic!" and get you to read the rest of the post.

This post isn't going to consist of me fawning over myself; kind of the opposite, but not in a dramatic and demeaning way.

I feel a little awkward saying this but, it's not like anyone reads my blog anyway, so I'll treat it kind of as a journal.

Yes, everyone is beautiful. I totally get that. I understood it even further after watching the visual essays that my fellow AP Comp students had worked hard on, and their message was loud and clear. You don't have to be skinny to be beautiful. This is a true statement. However, there is a huge difference between being healthy and being skinny.

I used to let myself be reassured that it was okay to be slightly overweight because "every size is beautiful", and continued to eat poorly and exercise rarely. When someone is healthy and fit but a little bigger, that's the ideal situation to be in.

What really made me want to try and get as healthy and fit as possible are blogs like this one. These blogs stress the importance of eating right and exercising your butt off (haha, get it?), so that you can not only look, but also feel good. It also includes really inspirational pictures of people that lose a ton of weight the healthy way, and it just motivates me that much more to do it myself.

Also...it's best not to go to extremes. Spending 5 hours on the treadmill and having a large meal of a cheese cube is going overboard; balance is key. Nothing wrong with having ice cream now and then.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Meet Zainab.

For my (now self-assigned) weekly blog post, I decided I wanted to do something different this time. Mostly because I didn't have anything to rant about, and I couldn't think of what to write about in general.

I put the burden on my little sister, and interviewed her. My sister is very sassy most of the time, which sadly isn't obvious in this interview because she felt a little put-on-the-spot. She can also be a tad judgmental, especially toward me. She's usually embarrassed by me...whatevs.

She's a fairly snappy dresser, she sews, and she likes to make food. In other words, she is in some ways more mature than I.

Name: Zainab
Nicknames: Zainoo
Birthday: March 1, 2001
Age: 10

What's your favorite part about being in the fourth grade?
...I'm in fifth grade.

...awkward...

What's your favorite part about being in the fifth grade?
You get to be the oldest in the school. And you get to have kindergarten friends.

Who's your kindergarten friend?
His name is Nick. and another one named Ben. His sister's in my soccer.

What do you do in your spare time?
Um...I watch TV. Or read. Or do my iPod. I...watch movies.

What is the magic formula for success?
Study!

Study what?
Study what's on the test. Or study what you need to know.

What do you do to relax?
Read in bed. Or paint my nails.

Who’s your favorite singer and why?
Demi Lovato because she's a good singer.

What do you do for exercise?
Play soccer!

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A businesswoman.

Why?
Because i'm going to make my own store.

What are you reading lately?
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire! Weee! *rolls over*

How much of Hollywood is superficial?
What does that mean.
*I explain*
...I don't know! Like...people who lip sync in concerts.

When the aliens land on Earth, who will be the first person they talk to?
The president because he's the president.

If you could be any animal, what animal would you be?
A bear because they're my favorite animal, and you get to eat all day and sleep.

Which celebrity has the best style?
Teddy Duncan. Bridget Mendler (the actress that plays Teddy Duncan).

What do you like about her style?
She wears like cardigans and stuff. And her shoes, because she wears boots with leggings. and dresses and stuff.

Famous quotes:
"YOU'RE KILLING ME! ON THE INSIDE!"
--- Her reaction to when our brother kept teasing her and wouldn't leaver her alone.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

MRS. CARDONA.

Please enjoy the amazing-nes that's Bo Burnham. He's so clever and witty, and I love how awkward he was in his first YouTube videos. Pre puberty. Oh, goodness.

He's offensive, and admits it. Offensive and creative like...(you'll find out in the second video below)

He's great. So great.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I Heart Gingers

I don't know about you guys, but when I was little and a TV show or a movie had more than one main character, I would always pick one to be my favorite out of the three (the usual number). I would then role play as this character, I admit it, in games my friends and I played.

Usually in television shows when they have these multiple main characters, there's a brunette one, a blonde one, and a redhead, so that a wider audience can "relate" to these characters, per se. Since about the age of six, I've always been drawn to the redheads.

The Little Mermaid: Yeah yeah yeah, I know I wrote an anti-Disney princess essay but Ariel's hair always fascinated me, especially because it was all flowy underwater.
Powerpuff Girls: my favorite was Blossom. Just look at how fierce she is! She totally falls under what is known as a "fiery redhead."
Totally Spies: This show was about girls that had normal teenager problems to deal with, but they were spies, also (and their gadgets were makeup related items. That was the coolest thing ever for ten year old Fatima). It's dorky, but it was a good show at the time. The redheaded spy, Sam, was my favorite.
Charlie's Angels: Oh she's very pretty! thought a young Fatima as her mother quickly flipped past the channel this show was played on.
Harry Potter: I developed a huge crush (which, by the way, is still going strong) on Ron Weasley/Rupert Grint after the first movie came out.
Rugrats: Who could resist the adorable Chuckie Finster?

"Gingers have no soul"? Pshhh, each and every one of them has a BEAUTIFUL SOUL.

Enjoy some pictures:

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Baking Adventures.

The cake that started our adventures in baking.
made by Kira, Jenna, and I

The toffee crunch cupcakes EVERYONE LOVED DON'T DENY IT EVER.
made by Kira, Jenna, and I

Sprinkle cake! with a fade-out of blue on the inside.
made by Kira, Jenna, Sarah, Atiya, and I

Chocolate diet Coke cake
made by Kira, Jenna, Sarah, Atiya, and I

So Cheesy, and Kinda Pointless.

I've been avoiding writing this "last" blog post, if you want to call it that. I saw Mrs. Cardona's assignment for us to write one, open topic, on Thursday night, and since then I've just had thoughts of what I wanted to say in my head, but no idea how to say them.

I've been avoiding it because I know it will be cheesy and dramatic and sentimental and it makes me feel awkward to show people that. It's probably human nature; we feel too vulnerable when we let everyone know what gets to us and what makes us sad and what we worry about and what we'll miss.

That being said, I really need to get it out of my system once and for all. So, prepare yourselves for a cheesy blog post, and then we can just leave it behind us all (until I look at my old blog posts and cringe at how dramatic I'm being in this one...whatever).

Like Kira mentioned in her blog post, the feeling you get when something ends is indescribable. You feel empty, like you're reaching for something that's not there. I was not a huge fan of this semester (Physics was awful, and AP Lit was a struggle for me), but there were moments that I enjoyed. I was counting down to the end of these classes, but when the final bell rang on January 25, I was hit with that empty feeling.

It's weird. It makes me think of the fact that high school is technically more than half over. I'm so excited for college, but the fact that the structure that comes with K-12 schooling is going to cease to exist for us in less than a hundred days scares the crap out of me. Yes we have more freedom to choose our classes and whatnot in high school, but we're still babied, and adults still hold our hands through everything. Most are friends with the people they've known since they were in elementary in middle school. When college starts, some of us are going to be in Minnesota still (me). Some are going to be in Iowa, or Wisconsin, or Michigan. Heck, some people won't even be in this country anymore. I just. I want to have a giant group hug with everyone, even the people I don't like (sorry). Just once.

I know that when we start college we'll forget. We'll have moments when we're like "oh, yeah, that girl was nice. I hung out with her a few times." and move on.

Moving on.

It happens eventually for everything. "I moved on" is a really easy phrase to say one you've done it. It's just the journey there that gives you that indescribable empty feeling.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Things that make me smile.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Mini heart failures and sarcasm and rainbow cakes.

Abbreviations
BLA, CRW, FPA, CRJ, EPL...5, 19, 23, 45, 83
for everything 5-90
Appeals
credible, emotional, to logic 23, 56, 98
don't you dare call them by their real names 100
Animoto
is downright amazing 43
made my life so much easier 21
Analyze
don't even think about summarizing 12
how and why not what 30
Argument
everything 1-200

Bitzer
FML 7
Thank God we got that over with in the first week 12
What is he even talking about 54
Blogging
Establishing voice 2
I will miss it 77
IT'S 3:30 ON SUNDAY CRAP 37
BLA
Fast Food Nation and the Female Brain 40
I was not discussion director or summarizer...! 116
"What pages are we reading again?" 120
Brevity
is better than "gumming together long strips of words" (see Orwell) 1-199

Cardona
will not take your crap so don't even try 150
Claim
good...now I just need reasons and a warrant 134
Clock
"is it 7:05?" 107
wants to be a piece of art 89
works when no one is looking 187
Clumping
clique-y 126
our class sucks at mingling 194

Distractions
our class was excellent at them 48
will not help you to get a good grade 123

Emoticons
:) :( :D :/ 75
are the devil 198
Essays
50 23
on writing them 123

Fallacies
avoid at all costs 158
easy to make them 123, 187, 189
there are so many and we always see them but don't realize it 54
Formatting
drives me crazy when it doesn't work 9
issues 32, 90, 120, 140

Glasses
everyone needs to leave me alone about them 64
everyone thinks I'm a snob now 82
that one day in AP Comp... 43
Google Docs
always had my work with me 60, 70
auto-saving - yes. 149
getting scoffed at for not using Microsoft word (see "always had my work with me") 32, 67, 99
Groupwork
sometimes beneficial, sometimes a time sucker and waster 50
that awkward moment when Cardona comes over and your whole group falls silent 85

Heart
attack when you have a quiz and you should have done the reading more thoroughly 200
attack when you wonder whether you printed out the essay 200
Humor
best unit ever 7
can also be an argument 21
eating babies 89

Jenna
is a puppy 3
my favorite in the class (along with see Kira) 10
outbursts 8
see Rainbow Cake

Kira
cynical grandfather 3
my favorite in the class (along with see Jenna) 10
not sleeping whatsoever 14
see Rainbow Cake

Learning
applying your knowledge at home and getting dirty looks from your parents 60
so much even though your grade doesn't reflect it 39

MLA
always use it 31, 32, 98, 118, 130
if not used Cardona will write MLA on the top of your paper in giant letters and you will feel ashamed 120
format (best) 189

Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair 1
mascot 1-200
syn. freaking awesome 5, 10, 15, 20

Peer Editing
"don't apologize" 71
feeling awkward about your work 108
very helpful 191
Power Writing
every man for himself 33
people in class will kill you to get a stamp 37
see heart attack
Proposals
Claim, reason, warrant, ACTION. 9
Jonathan Swift 10
Procrastination
doing it and regretting it and then doing it again and regretting it 38
do not do this ever or you will regret it immensely 63

Quizzes
2/10 89
failing (oh well...!) 52
were so hard 68

Rainbow cake
best cake you will ever see in your life 52
I made awesome friends in AP Comp 85
it had a mustache 80
see Jenna and Kira
Reading
and reading and reading 74
see analyze
Revise
do it constantly 48
"murder your darlings" 22
whole essay based on it 70
Rhetoric
how to: use language effectively 47
pronounced ret-er-ik 2, 4, 6, 8

Sarcasm
having whole conversations with oozing with it 60
see Cardona
Sedaris
funniest man ever 42
can I be him/have his brain 86
can I marry him 90
Studying
better do it or anticipate an F on the final 74
my butt off 55
Symbolism
does not exist in AP Comp 21

Terms
112 of them officially 112
I made flashcard for everyone 113
you're welcome 114
Toulmin Model
basic structure of an argument 50
wait, what's that again...? 57

Vlogging
apparently I don't finish my thoughts 60
talking to a camera...awkward 27
who would have thought I would make a vlog and put it on YouTube 99
Voice
don't slip into "academic auto pilot" 11
essential when writing 63
make it your voice, not someone else's 72

Friday, January 13, 2012

IT'S BECAUSE OF MY BRAIN, OKAY?!

You know that thing girls do, when they see someone in pain and cringe because they “felt it too?” There's a scientific explanation for that. And when they remember every single little fight? There's a scientific explanation for that. And when they stalk their ex-boyfriends and set their cars on fire? Definitely not a scientific explanation for that. They are crazy. Stay away from that girl.

In The Female Brain, Dr. Louann Brizendine essentially explores what makes girls the way they are; the way different chemicals interact to give certain results, how particular areas of the brain affect the way the female population acts. The book is structured in a way that allows the reader to follow the development of the female brain as girls grow from birth to after menopause. The author claims that this book was written to help girls understand why they feel the way they do (and also to help bewildered men who have no idea what’s happening to their ladies), and then adjust their attitudes and behaviors, because they’d understand that the thoughts they’re having and the things they’re feeling are normal.

I personally have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it was interesting to learn how the feelings I’m experiencing can only explained by what’s in my brain (I always need an excuse for everything, so it’s perfect...“It’s science! They’ve done studies!” she screamed.) However, I found the author to be very biased, and the patient stories she used were usually really extreme cases.

The book tended to cycle through four main ways of explaining reasons behind why girls act the way they do; scientific experiments with lots of complicated sounding terms and processes, stories of the author's experiences as well as those of her patients, and studies/experiments. I tend to not even be able to focus on terms that sound too scientific while doing any sort of reading, so I’m not going to lie and say that my eyes didn’t glaze over when I read giant paragraphs with just scientific words like vasopressin and androstenedione and allopregnanolone. However, I think that the scientific explanations were essential, otherwise the author would have lost a lot of credibility. So I’ll forgive her. Also, the patient stories often were conveniently sandwiched between the scienc-y stuff, so it was like reading a novel (thus, bearable).

Another thing that made the book unappealing to me was that I didn't pick up on her tone. She seemed to have detached herself from her work all together. Although I can understand why this would be, to raise her credibility, it would have been more interesting if she had had some sort of humor, or a sassy attitude towards the issues and brain processes (I guess, like Mr. Johnson the Psychology teacher in book form. That would have been amazing).

I would recommend it if you’re genuinely interested in learning about the chemical reactions and brain interactions, but just know that the author takes a very detached approach to the subject. If you do want to know the science behind why girls behave so strangely sometimes to read it, because believe me, I know best that girls are absolutely ridiculous.

My rating:

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Dear Fatima.

Dear (28 year old) Fatima,

How are things? How is the future looking? Do we have flying cars? Hopefully phones and laptops didn't get any thinner, because right now they're headed in the direction of having less substance than a sheet of paper. I also hope that Kindles were just a short phase that died out...

Anyway, moving on. I'm sure you remember what a confusing time this is, our senior year of high school. Everyone's always in my face asking me all kinds of questions, "what do you want to study in college? What do you want to do when you're all grown up? Why are you working when you can just marry a rich man?" I just want to reach my arm out into the daunting and mysterious future and yank you here, make you explain and give some answers. Give answers to both the interrogators, and me.

My main question (which stems off into a thousand more) is one related to the question that jumps into the mind of adults the minute they hear I am a senior in high school. "What do you want to study/be when you're older?" I always answer with "something to do with writing." and give a forced smile at their reaction, the one where they try to quickly cover up surprise. I'm sure you'll remember that one lady at that dinner party that went so far as to scoff "writing?! I would have thought you'd want to become a doctor, like your father." Your smile was one like that of a serial killer, but you managed to keep your mouth shut.

I know everyone expects you to become a doctor. Most of them can't help it because Pakistani people usually want their kids to become doctors or lawyers or engineers. Something typical. They're not used to hearing what they think is a hobby become a career choice for someone. It also doesn't help that you said you wanted to be a doctor when you were little, and then...high school English classes changed all that.

So, did you go through with it? Did you go through college improving your writing, something you love and what you've been told you're good at? Or did you give up, and become something that's standard, something that will make you lots of money? Success isn't measured by how much money you have in your bank account; it's measured by whether or not you look forward to going to work instead of hating it. Remember your dad's friend? The one that studied medicine because his parents wanted him to be successful and hates it? Did you end up unhappy like him, or did you prove everyone wrong by doing what you love and being happy about it?

Are you happy? That is my biggest question of all.

I hope you proved them all wrong.

Much love from a very confused adolescent,

17 year old Fatima.