Homecoming has always been exciting. I’ve looked forward to the day every year since I first came to Carrollton in third grade (even if I’ve sometimes been excited just for the excuse to not do any work).

A staple of the day has always been the parade. Every class, sport, and club is represented in the parade, with the club nominating sweethearts to serve as pretty figureheads (the sweethearts get to play a role in the pep rally, ride around in the parade, and walk on the field during the football game).

With just how many sweethearts there are, they use large trojan head cutouts on their car to distinguish who they are and what club they represent. The act of creating these trojan heads is possible through the art club and National Art Honors Society. I have been a member of both and this year I am a member of the latter. This year is also my senior year, so there’s a bit more care and excitement surrounding the entire celebration. I feel like this year I really understand why so many people, especially the seniors, have been so happy for the arriving of homecoming. Not to mention, this year I know a majority of the sweethearts (not only because they’re in my class, but also because I am one myself). All of this drove me to put my all in helping make the trojan heads.

I started helping in the middle of September, before any orders were submitted. I traced and cut the trojan heads. Once more orders were in I claimed two. These were my responsibility to complete. I began by sketching the orders on small paper. Once this was done I was able to sketch on the actual poster board. I put time in using different paint and glitter to customize each trojan head. I put in multiple hours to finish my orders, working on them every day in class and even using two full school days to finish the orders. In times of stress I called for the help of some of my friends, and the day before homecoming we all worked together to finish the trojan heads.

The entire process was stressful as it seemed like a race against time, however, I’m proud of what I was able to complete and happy I helped make the day exciting for everyone involved.

I learned how to not only work efficiently, but to also not procrastinate. I was also able to learn a bit about working with other people to complete tasks.

Looking back at the process is a bit bittersweet. I’m happy about what I did, what I learned, and that homecoming was a success. However, it is a little sad that it was my last homecoming and scary to think that high school will be over soon and that everything will be different.

I honestly didn’t think to take any pictures while I was working, so sorry!

Every August marks the beginning of a new school year for students.

With this comes groaning and complaining from kids as they, largely with the help of their parents, go out to school shop and prepare to learn. For younger kids, grocery lists include glue sticks, markers, and crayons. Yet, so many finished products made by students throughout the school year lack true craftsmanship and care. This only becomes more noticeable as a child progresses through school, with art and creativity morphing into an assignment and nothing more.

This year, through my mom, I had the opportunity to help out at an art table for kids. The art table was set up at a department store, so children had the opportunity to create school-themed art while their parents shopped around.

The first thing I did was to help create examples of the projects/works the kids would make. One of the projects was an apple made of styrofoam with a clear plastic middle. In this middle, kids could glue different colored pieces of tissue paper. When hung in a window, the sun should be able to shine through the paper. Another project allowed kids to glue together a bus-shaped picture frame.

The day of the event came and it was the most successful as it had ever been. There were constantly kids joining the table to work on both crafts. Additionally, kids took turns drawing t-shirt designs themed around kindness to enter an art-based competition. Once the kids were done with their crafts (or waiting for them to dry due to an excessive usage of glue) they could take pictures to show off their work.

Overall, I’m really happy I helped at the table. Not only was I able to spend some time volunteering, but I also was given some hope. Most of the kids who joined the table were young and truly excited about what they were making. I hope to see this passion flourish and grow in more kids, even if it just starts with one craft.

Boba tea, also known as bubble tea, is one of my favorite treats. It is a tea based drink that has a bunch of chewy tapioca pearls added in it, made in Taiwan in the 1980s.

After spending a good amount of money on this drink I decided to see if it was possible to make it myself. I spent some time googling different recipes (as this is a drink from a different culture, I tried to find some recipes that aren’t so Americanized).

From some of the recipes I saw the tea itself would be easy to make, you simply have to steep some black tea in some milk. The tapioca pearls, however, would be much more difficult. The recipes called for a special kind of flour that help the pearls get their chewy texture. The pearls would also take hours to make (most recipes called for approximately 3 hours of your time).

I got myself ready and first went to my local grocery store. Most of the ingredients were easy enough to find, but as I expected (due to what I read online), I couldn’t find any tapioca flour. However, I was able to find some cassava flour, which is made out of the same kind of plant as tapioca flour. I grabbed the bag (despite its steep price) and was on my way.

The recipe was seemingly normal, you add the ingredients together to create a base. Then I had to roll balls out of the dough, coat them in flour, and boil them. This easily took the most amount of time (over an hour). Once the pearls were ready I warmed some milk for my tea, stepped it, and combined everything (also adding some ice in the process).

After hours of work (and about $20 on ingredients) my tea was ready! I took a long rewarding sip and felt immense disappointment. My biggest mistake was my decision to use chai tea instead of black tea. I don’t know how to describe the taste but it made me cringe.

Overall, I learned a couple of things from the experience! I was able to learn a bit about how food is made in another culture, including the difference in ingredients. I was also able to learn from my mistake of straying from the called for black tea for chai tea. Even though the taste was a bit gross, I still felt (and feel) proud of what I was able to make.

Sadly, you won’t be able to see any pictures because my mom threw away the boba before I could get a picture.

A couple years ago I was digging around in my parents room.

I honestly don’t remember what it was that I was looking for, and I don’t remember if I found it, but I stumbled across something else.

There was a big clunky case in one of the drawers I looked inside. It looked like a camera case. I opened it and then decided to asked my dad what it was.

He was shocked and pleased at my discovery. It was my parents’ old camcorder. We opened up the case and found two tapes. One had a paper on it labeled, “Gracie Beth’s First Year”. This was obviously for my sister. We popped it inside the camcorder and watched the tape for two hours.

My apetite for the videos wasn’t settled by the first tape, so I put the second one in. I was even more excited for this tape because of the hope I had that this tape would include me. I know that sounds self centered, but I had never seen any videos of my family or past self before the first tape, all we’ve ever had is pictures (which is in part due to the fact that a hacker locked all of our family pictures and videos). The thought of being able to see myself was so exciting!

The tape immediately froze and the words, “EJECT CASSETTE” appeared on the screen. I opened the camcorder and my dad took the tape out. While he was inspecting the tape we both heard a noise. My dad lowered his head and I peaked. He had ripped the tape. We sadly put the cassette away and left it in a cupboard for a couple of years.

That of course, was until a couple of days ago. I randomly thought of the mystery cassette. I took it upon myself to fix what was broken, with the comforting fact that I couldn’t make it any worse (I mean I could, but it was already broken and couldn’t play, so if it wasn’t successful then it wasn’t a big deal).

I looked through some tutorials on YouTube, but every single one recommended cutting off the wrinkly part of the tape. I didn’t really want to do this, since that would mean cutting off some memories. I decided to stray from the tutorials and fixed the tape my own way.

First I had to find a screwdriver small enough to fit inside of the cassette case. After doing this I unscrewed everything and exposed the tape itself. I held back the piece that restricts the gears and pulled out pieces of tape. I straightened the tape as much as possible and then used clear tape to just tape it back together. I put everything back into order and then rescrewed the case.

I put the tape inside of the camcorder and held my breath as it rewinded. The tape worked! It started out with videos of my sister during Christmas of 2003. I watched through January of 2004, my heart racing knowing that I would be important soon. Suddenly the tape jumped to January of 2007. The last clip of the tape played.

Yes, I was a little disheartened that that was it, but I was still happy that it was something. I really cherish that minute long glimpse into the past. Not only that, but I fixed it myself!

Overall, I’m happy with my method of fixing the tape. Using my creativity I was able to save the only clip of myself on the tape. I was also able to do something for my parents, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to see those things again.

This past May was the first time I really participated in anything graduation related. I’ve never had any family members or significant friends graduate so I never saw what it was all like.

This year not only did my sister graduate, but one of my close friends Lauren did as well. I’ve known Lauren since I was in fifth grade (meaning I was 10). We spent many years playing Minecraft, skyping, dreaming, and doing whatever together.

I knew that I had to do something for her as she was graduating. I spent a lot of time thinking about just what it was that I should do (as you can tell by the fact I’m publishing this in July rather than May). I really wanted to do something special and meaningful, because I’ve started to understand that graduation and the process of graduating is more than being finished with a chapter of your life, it’s also about starting a new one.

I ended up deciding that I would create a care package.

After settling on this idea I knew that I would have to come up with items to actually put in the package. I created a list and when I finally got a day off I went out on the town. I stopped by some department stores for jewelry, craft stores for stationary supplies as well as charms and whatnot, and at Walmart and the Dollar Tree for whatever else I needed.

I got home and did some preparations, but did a majority of the work the next morning. I woke up and wrote the letter, prepped and made every item as well as cards for each item. I tried to make the items inside the box personalized, basing it on things she liked, where she’s going to college (as she’s going from Minnesota all the way to Florida!) as well as the fact itself that she’s going to college. Two of my favorite items included were both made by myself. One was a bracelet and the other was a glass album cover (something I’m definitely going to make again in the future.. once the dollar store finally restocks their 8 by 10 picture frames). I spent a good couple of hours on the whole thing, but I thought it was super cute and definitely worth it in the end.

After finishing the box (and making sure I bubble wrapped fragile items) I went to the UPS Store to ship it. I’ve had pen pals in the past, but I’ve never actually had to ship anything, so I wasn’t too sure how this would look, but it was actually pretty easy! I created the label, answered a few questions about what was in the box, and then paid to ship it. The price of the shipping itself was outrageous, but it was worth it (for Lauren and also because it got to her in two days!).

In the past I’ve talked about my feelings towards cards, and this is honestly kinda similar. I don’t feel annoyed or sad that I had to buy a gift because I felt like I was forced to, but rather I feel proud of myself for the skills I used to make the box as well as satisfied knowing that I sent something kinda incredible to someone I love and appreciate.

As I did before, I encourage anyone and everyone to do something similar to let someone (a relative, a friend, a stranger) know that you care for them.

My third CAS blog was about my venture out into painting my nails. This was back in November and I left off with a note that I would try to supply updates with my nails.

I actually did continue to paint my nails until new years eve, the first day I got SNS. I enjoyed the way SNS looked, how long it lasted, and how easy it was to get. I didn’t have to do anything other than sit in a salon for an hour, then BOOM! I already have my nails done.

I got SNS until May. At that point I began to think more about the cost and the effects of the treatment on my nails. I also thought about my blog and how much I enjoyed doing my own nails. This prompted me to want to paint my own nails again.

Obviously after enjoying having my nails professionally done for so long I needed to step up my nail game (something that also makes a CAS update worth it). After some thinking I decided I wanted to try doing my own acrylic nails.

I’m not sure what made this the idea I came up with as I’ve never had acrylic nails before.

I did a bit of research online and then went to Sally Beauty to try and find some things I’d need. I looked at the options and what came in them and the price they’d end up being. I decided to buy a starter kit just to test out how I’d like the nails and how good or bad I’d be.

That night I began the process. I followed the instructions regarding the different primers and applied the tips and acrylic powder, finishing at 3 am.

I only have pictures from the first time I did this, but I can ensure you that I’ve gotten a bit better.

The next day I decided I would polish my nails. I’m still not 100% sure of the logistics and whatnot, but I’ve painted on top of the acrylic a couple times and it seems to work.

Repeating this process is pretty rewarding. I still get to express myself and have fun with the polish while also growing and learning how acrylics work.

While I look back at pictures of my nails professionally done and feel that they looked better, the rewards that come with my nails now feel so much better. As one of my friends at work said, “Doesn’t it mean more when you did them yourself?”

During March of 2020, a few other classmates and I went on the HOSA trip. The trip was to the annual state conference held in Atlanta. One could imagine the appeal of getting to go to a huge event in a nice hotel in Atlanta where you could compete in areas you hope to persue and also have some freedom to explore.

That being said, this was my second year going on the trip. As it was my second year and I felt like I had some understanding of what the conference was like, I wanted to try to compete in an event that you had to qualify for. In my opinion, the events that require qualifications are more interesting and hands on (they also center a lot more on the medical aspect of HOSA). In order to be qualified for an event you have to take a test and score in the higher percentile.

After spending some time looking through the different options available I decided I wanted to try and compete in CPR First Aid.

I spent some time studying, but obviously it wasn’t enough as I didn’t qualify.

After this happened I ended up settling on a different event and forgot about it.

That was until a couple of weeks ago when I was looking for CAS ideas online. One of the recommendations was to learn something like CPR. This reminded me of my failure as well as the fact that I never really learnt how to perform CPR.

This week I went to the Red Cross website and found a section that gives the instructions on how you properly perform CPR. I spent a bit of time reading through this and even practiced on a stuffed animal! I also found a few other tips and tricks for conducting CPR (which sounds weird to say), including a playlist by the New York Presbyterian Hospital that has a number of songs that you could use to properly perform CPR (as their tempos match about 100 beats per minute).

From this experience I obviously learned how to perform CPR, but I also was forced to think about the significance of learning something like this. Multiple occupations and organizations require their employees to have some form of training that teaches them how to perform CPR, but there’s also a large amount of people who don’t know or who don’t feel like they could perform CPR properly.

This is just one of multiple examples how we have moral responsibility to our community to learn some forms of knowledge, because in some situations having just one person know could mean life or death.

(No picture in this blog because I don’t exactly want to post myself in an awkward position :D)

Throughout this semester of art I had a student teacher.

Her name was Mrs. Cook. She’s from California, likes the musical Hamilton, taught us about stippling and cross-hatching, watched The Cat in the Hat with us, and thinks of rollercoasters and dogs when she thinks of me.

As her last lesson with us she taught us about street art (which came at an interesting time as I had just read an article about street art whilst taking the school day SAT).

People seem to constantly confuse street art with graffiti. Whilst graffiti generally consists of tags, street art is a type of art that is carefully placed in the public view for some reason. Street art can bring attention to issues, spread messages, and even beautify an area (like an example Mrs. Cook showed us where artists painted on garbage trucks and cans so there would be less of a negative connotation towards garbage men and their jobs). No matter what it is, street art has some purpose and doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets due to people not understanding what it is.

This lesson led me to create some street art of my own.

There had to be a challenge with this, so I got a tag and a brown sac that had random materials in it. Some of my materials seemed less useful than others, but I still worked with what I had.

My first idea was to paint the tag and then add random materials, however, I didn’t exactly like the way it looked, so I decided to change it. Since I had used paint I couldn’t really erase my work, so instead I decided to use the paper bag my materials came in. I ripped it up and pasted it over my tag. From there I decided to make the tag look like a package of some sort with the words, “What’s inside?” written on it.

The meaning is honestly up to the viewer, but when I was making it I felt a sense of curiosity about the world and a feeling of excitement.

I thought for a moment about where to put my tag, as with street art the place it is put is just as important as the art itself. I ended up putting it in the display case for the school to see.

From this I learned about what street art actually is and what it can do. I grew my appreciation for the power held by art in its ability to spread messages and make changes in the world. I also technically grew my skill in art and problem solving (after fixing my initial mess up).

I’m appreciate towards Mrs. Cook for her lesson and I’m happy I tried street art!