This past weekend I went on my third HOSA trip.

Before I talk specifically about this year’s trip, I feel that it is important to talk about what the HOSA trip is in itself. HOSA, also known as Future Health Professionals (I know you’re wondering how “HOSA” stands for that, don’t worry, they just changed the name. It used to be “Health Occupation Students of America.”), hosts a State Leadership Conference every year in Atlanta. The conference is a chance for students interested in healthcare to learn more about careers, meet other students, and compete. The Georgia chapter of HOSA is also the biggest in the country, so the conference is usually pretty cool.

That being said, this year was the first State Leadership Conference since COVID struck. I’ve attended the conference two times before, meaning I knew the excitement around the trip and the potential it holds. I was pretty excited to know the conference would not only be held but that it would be an in-person event.

As an officer, I’ve worked for months in our own chapter to spread the word about the event and also pique some interest. Also before the conference, I chose what I would compete in and also prepared for it. I decided to compete in Researched Persuasive Writing and Speaking, meaning I had to research and write an essay (pretty easy considering all that I’ve done for IB?).

I squeezed writing the essay in between work and IB stuff, and before I knew it I was loading the bus.

The trip in itself was packed with activities and memories, but to quickly list some of the things I did/attended:

• Attended orientation
• Attended opening session
• Advanced to second round of my event (top 15 baby!)
• Prepared my speech
• Gave my speech
• Went to informational booths about universities, careers, and programs
• Met people campaigning for office
• Attended a workshop about the road to medical school
• Partied and met people from all around the state

I’m sure there’s things that I missed, but that’s all that popped into my mind.

My event in itself was mentally challenging and promoted growth. To be honest, I totally bombed my speech. Not only was I nervous, but I felt rushed and let myself get intimidated by the judges. Sure, I was embarrassed, but also it was something I could look back on and not only laugh at but feel content in the way it forced me to move on and grow.

The State Leadership Conference was bittersweet, as I know it’s likely to be my last. Still, I can smile at the way I have changed with each conference and also the influence I’ve had on my chapter in that regard. I hope some of the younger students carry on some traditions I’ve started, and who knows, maybe you’ll hear about some of them in someone else’s CAS blog?

I’ve been an IB art student since my junior year of high school. This has allowed for various opportunities with my thinking of art.

I have three main assessments that I’ve been encouraged to consider with my thinking. These assessments include my exhibition (in which I will display some pieces of art), my process portfolio (in which I will note my artistic progress and process over my time in the program), and my comparative study (in which I will compare artists and their artwork). I’ve tried to work efficiently through each task throughout my time in the program, and as such, I’ve grown my understanding of famous artists.

Whilst working on my comparative study I explored the High Museum of Art website to see what they were displaying. The High Museum is fairly close to where I live, so it is always exciting to see what they’re displaying. To my surprise, I found that the High Museum would be holding an exhibition of some artwork by KAWS, a pretty famous modern artist.

I spoke to my IB coordinator and managed to get a trip planned to the High Museum during the exhibition.

I’ve never been to the High Museum of Art, despite living 30 minutes away from it my entire life, so the experience was definitely something new. It was the first art museum in general that I have ever visited. Through visiting the museum not only was I able to have a new experience and see the exhibit I wanted to (which was awesome because I was able to see art in person that I had only ever seen online), but I was able to see artwork from different countries, cultures, and time periods.

Throughout my visit, I was able to reflect upon my own art and experiences. My appreciation for art and the community in which it has been built definitely increased.

As I have noted in various other blogs, I’m kinda horrible at taking pictures of my experiences (as part of my trying to live in the moment thing), but my classmates took many pictures in and around the museum.

Overall, I’m super happy to have had the experience of visiting the High Museum, especially in the context and lens provided by the IB.

The time has come for me to write out my CAS project! I’m well aware that there are still some CAS-related activities remaining (including some more blogs and my eventual presentation), but it is still exciting that we’re all at this point so close to the end of the program.

For my CAS project, I decided to work with HOSA to hold a school blood drive.

I have been a member of my school’s HOSA chapter since I was a freshman, and as such, I have always been very involved in the club. I became an officer my sophomore year, and have regained my role as a senior.

This year I’ve really wanted to step up my game with the club. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we weren’t able to have nearly as many club activities last year as we usually have. I prepared a folder with some of the necessary documents within a club space and scheduled some meetings with my fellow officers. We talked through possible activities and the idea of a blood drive came up.

We used to hold two blood drives within a school year through HOSA, but it had been forever since we had one. After settling on the idea of a blood drive we worked with our advisor to get the plan rolling. We reached out to the American Red Cross and scheduled date in October.

After the date was down I decided I needed to spread the word. I made various presentations which I presented to my club, not only to get donors but to also get volunteers to help work at the actual blood drive. I also reached out to the advisors of other clubs, such as our school’s chapter of the National Honors Society, to spread the word within their own clubs (proposing the idea that donating would be equivalent to service hours). Eventually, I found enough people to work at the blood drive and also had every donation appointment filled.

While we usually hold our blood drives in the school cafeteria, this year we held them in the culinary arts cafe. We hoped that through this donors could easily park near the door and find their way inside, as we usually have to have students at the front of the building to guide the donors to where the cafeteria is.

The day of the blood drive finally arrived and I was very nervous as well as excited. We moved all of the furniture out of the culinary cafe so the American Red Cross could set up their equipment and waited for donors to arrive. Different members helped inside the cafe, held signs along the road to direct cars, and also helped register donors as they arrived. I helped throughout the night, and eventually took my turn at donating (which was super scary, but also important considering the current blood shortage!).

The American Red Cross was packed up and gone by 10 PM, along with a majority of the volunteers. I helped my advisor put all of the furniture back in its original spot in the culinary cafe and went home to get some rest!

Now, we’re planning a spring blood drive as a club.

The process of arranging the blood drive was certainly stressful, as I really wanted it to go well, but it was also rewarding. I used my creativity to find ways to promote the blood drive and to organize everything. The blood drive in itself was an activity that required lots of physical labor to go well. Finally, through promoting blood donations, especially in the time of a shortage amongst a pandemic, we promoted service. I had to work with lots of people, including my fellow officers, my advisors, other school officials, and the American Red Cross, but the end result was one that will stay in my memory.

Due to being busy in the moment, I didn’t take any pictures at the blood drive, but I’ll be sure to take some at the spring drive and update this post!

This is the blog following my experience at the Korean restaurant Iron Age! I’m not going to promo my CAS blogs.. but this happened on the same day, so if I forget any details I might have filled them in on that blog when it was more fresh on my mind!

After leaving the restaurant, which was North of Atlanta, we started to drive straight to the venue. I’ve never driven in Atlanta (and luckily still never have), but I was in charge of instructions, which was a bit stressful! However, I worked with my friends in the car and we ended up getting to the venue on time!

I made sure everything was in my bag and that I had everything I would need, drank my first energy drink (which was surprisingly good?), and we started to find our way to the venue from the parking garage. We went into the CNN center next to the arena for a short amount of time and then got in line.

This was my first concert in two years, so I was excited. We found out that Doja Cat, the Jonas Brothers, and Megan Thee Stallion canceled, which sucked, but I was still excited for the experience of a concert, especially since I’ve never attended a festival-like concert. After we found our seats we waited for the concert to begin.

The concert was a really cool experience! I got to listen to music I normally wouldn’t listen to, I got to see around Atlanta, and I got to feel the happiness of my own at a concert and see everyone else happy.

I don’t have many pictures from the concert, not only because what I do have are videos (which I will not share since I’m singing very loudly in the background), but also because I’ve been trying to live in the moment more.

All in all, the Jingle Ball was a culturally fulfilling experience and also a concert that will stay in my memories for a while. I’m glad I went and got to see what I did, and I can not wait for another experience to happen soon.

Over the Christmas break, I went to Capital One’s Jingleball. The specific show that I went to was held in Atlanta (which meant it didn’t have as good of a lineup as places like LA, but I was still grateful and excited) on Thursday, December 16. Luckily, I was able to exempt my finals to go to the concert.

A friend of mine was the one who got the tickets, which ended up being free. She donated gifts to get entries to a drawing and was lucky enough to win 4 tickets! We met up and went to Atlanta the morning before the show.

My friend is a huge fan of Korean food (and has since learned a lot about their culture in general), however, I’ve never had Korean food. She decided to surprise me with where we were eating and it turned out to be her favorite Korean restaurant. However, after getting there we realized there was a sign on the door saying they weren’t taking any more customers for the day. We searched on our phones and ended up finding another restaurant.

We drove to the new restaurant, which was called Iron Age, and ended up getting a table. I’ve seen Korean restaurants on television, but I felt like a little kid in the way I was excited. The restaurant had a super chill ambiance. The table we were at had a gas-fueled grill in the middle of it, and rather than ordering items off of a menu we chose what kind of meat we wanted and what kind of sides we wanted. We had kimchi, rice cakes (Tteokbokki), steamed rice, beef brisket (bulgogi), and pork belly (samgyeopsal). I really loved the rice cakes and the beef brisket (which was even better in the sweet dipping sauce, which I wish I knew the name of). I wasn’t a huge fan of the pork belly though, since it was really fatty and chewy.

Other than trying all of this new food, I also got to witness what they were playing on tv, which was actually some Korean music. I’m honestly not sure what it was since most of the songs were like Korean R&B, but it was still pretty entertaining to see another culture’s take on music.

I left the restaurant with a very full stomach, and I’ve been craving the food ever since. Hopefully, I’ll live near a Korean barbeque someday (it’s too bad there isn’t one in Carrollton)!

I’ll definitely share more about the experience of the Jingle Ball in my upcoming vlogs.

This upcoming Thursday (December 9th, 2021) my class is taking a trip to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. This trip was, in part, provoked by my own interest in art and the KAWS exhibit, which I saw months ago when researching artwork in Atlanta. Personally, I have never been to the High Museum of Art, so I’m pretty excited (and you should be, too, since I’ll probably have more blogs about the museum itself as well as the events that we’ll attend afterwards)!

Last week, I went to art class and found a note left by Mr. Richardson. In the note, he explained that he was talking about the trip with Mr Brewer, and they began to discuss some exhibits they were excited to see. He mentioned that Mr Brewer was most excited for an exhibition containing photography from the south from the past couple of decades. This inspired him to urge us with a new art assignment.

Each of us was told to write a poem about our own view of the South, based off of our experiences living in the south (with many of us having lived in the south our entire lives). After we wrote our poems, we traded them randomly.

I ended up with Mary’s poem. Her poem represented her view of the south with a blended culture. She wrote about her childhood, boiled peanuts, and listening to music from Julieta Venegas. I tried my best to illustrate her poem.

After we finished our drawings, we showed each other what we created. Neither one of us exactly got it right. After this, I got to look at some of my other classmate’s poems.

The whole experience was a bit eye-opening as I got to see how everyone in my class had different experiences and views of the south, despite seeming so similar?

I also got to work on my artistic ability, which is always a plus.

A couple of weekends ago my friend and I went to see the play Dr. Dolittle at the Carrollton Center of the Arts.

Neither one of us had ever seen the play, but our teacher Mr. Brewer was in the play, making us more inclined to see the show. All I had known about Dr. Dolittle was that it had something to do with a dude who could talk to animals, thanks to the ads that ran for a movie adaptation of the play a couple of Christmases ago.

My friend and I had been hanging out for a few hours before it was time to get ready to go to the show. Before going to the Carrollton Center of the Arts we went to Publix. At Publix, we each bought a bouquet to combine to give to Mr. Brewer. We were running a bit late, so we jumped in my car and I began to drive to the center while my friend worked on combining the bouquets. I got to what I thought was the Carrollton Center of the Arts to realize that I went to the wrong place (I only realized after noticing that there wasn’t a single person in the parking lot). It was already time for the show to start, but we rushed across town to get to the right place.

We may have missed the first part of the show, but the people working at the Center of the Arts let us in. Both of us were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the show, despite its intention for a younger audience as well as its cast of child actors. After the show, we waited in the hallway for Mr. Brewer (and his son, who stole the show). We congratulated him on his performance, gave him the bouquet, and were on our way.

The whole experience was funny. We worked together to make the bouquet (and to get to the show, after I drove us to the wrong place), we experienced something new, we supported our local children’s theater, and we embraced creativity in enjoying the show, its actors, and everything else.

For the first time in a while, I actually have a picture of the experience! To make up for my previous lack of photos, I have included two pictures from the show. Enjoy.

The University of West Georgia hosted an English research conference on the 21st. At the conference, various panels are set up where students and researchers can present pieces of writing they have created. I had the honor of being selected by my teacher Mrs. Hook to be on one of the panels. This was based on the work I had done on my higher-level essay up to that point.

Other than myself, my friends Mary and Caro were to be part of the panel. I was excited about the opportunity, but also stressed about finishing my essay (as we found out about the conference very last minute) and about having to speak in front of a crowd.

In order to have my essay ready I worked with my peers and Mrs. Hook, all of us pulling multiple all-nighters. We were tired, stressed, and kind of miserable, but we ended up getting all of our essays done.

The day of the conference was very nerve-wracking. The first panel I attended was about literature centered around criminals. It shed some light on the psychology of a killer and related it to gender and masculinity. I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the panel, and also a bit insecure about my own eventual performance.

I scoffed down some food during lunch and skipped the second panel in order to practice reading my essay. The clock slowly ticked and eventually, the second panel was getting out. I found my group before heading to the room where our panel would take place. We moved some chairs to our table in the front of the room and sat down, all of us cracking some jokes because of our nerves.

Time kept ticking, and so far the only people attending our panel were from our class. Finally, Mrs. Hook closed the door. No one came to our panel.

It was certainly disheartening, but I also still had a good experience. I was able to write a good essay with the help of my peers and teacher, I practiced some public speaking, and I was able to attend a college-level conference, giving me some insight to my future.

This year is my senior year.

I’ve talked about some of implications that come with that in my last blog (which you can find here), but there’s a lot of other things to consider.

If you’ve read my last blog then you have heard about my fascination with the excitement surrounding senior year and homecoming. I briefly mentioned that all of this is bittersweet, but with this blog I hope to center in on that feeling a bit more.

There’s a lot of lasts that come this year. One of the lasts this year is homecoming. This is my last homecoming. This urged me to be a bit more school spirited. I planned to dress up every day. This didn’t necessarily go exactly how I planned, with multiple alarm issuing occurring that caused me to wake up like ten minutes before I had to leave. Despite that, I dressed up for three of the four days (with Friday being arranged differently due to it being the day of the pep rally, parade, and game). I had fun dressing up with an excuse. Even with specific dress up categories in place it was fun to be creative and come up with outfit ideas that managed to fit each theme while showing individuality.

I was also given the chance to be a club sweetheart for HOSA. The whole experience was stressful, and nerve-wracking, and exciting, and so validating, after four years of being an active member of the club. The process was more complicated than I ever imagined it would be. I had to find three outfits (one for the pep rally as well as two formal gowns for the parade and game), create my trojan heads for the car, find a car to ride in, create my crown, fill out forms, go to practice, take LOTS of pictures, and manage to fit everything in one day without passing out from stress and exhaust from the week (this isn’t necessarily a part of this blog’s story, but I had to take the SAT the morning after homecoming and it really really sucked and I want to be able to complain about it as much as I can).

Through the experience I was able to search for individuality and creativity within myself, work together with others (including my family, friends, and those who worked to make everything that happened during homecoming possible), and learn not only to persevere through stress, but to also take something from it.