Words of Wisdom: Life is short

Well guys, Friday the thirteenth has just come to end here in sunny California (I wrote this two days ago), so I thought I'd start the not so terrifying day after with some words of wisdom. You see at my school, every Wednesday, our dean does this thing called "Wednesday's Words of Wisdom". Yeah, no one listens to it. Well except me. Some of the things he says are actually kind of inspiring. So here's something I wrote today, and I'm sharing with all of you :)

Life is good when it's short. When you live life to the fullest, life is short. You'll love it so much you'll feel like the days are passing too quickly. When you're happy, days go by, and time runs out. You're afraid to die when you're young because life is good, but when you're older, you're ready to go because it was so. If you're not happy though, life is long. If you can't find happiness, the days will just drag on. Believe me when I say this. You want life to be short.

Book(s) Review: The Selection Series

Side Note: I'm horrible at summarizing books, but I'll try to keep this short.

Book #1- The Selection: When I read the back of this book, I was charmed by the idea of a futuristic romance, but, this book gradually became much much more than that. The setting is the future of America, now called Illea, and no longer a democracy, but a monarchy. The protagonist, ironically named America, is in love. She's  deeply in love with a boy who she shouldn't be in love with. Why? Enter the caste system. Illea is made up of 8 castes, all with different categorized jobs. One is the monarchy, 8 are the homeless and shunned people in society. America is in a lower caste, which are 4-8. She's a 5 and an excellent musician and singer. The boy she is in love with, Aspen, is six. It's traditional, well recommended in Illea for women to marry into a higher class in order to move up in the world. Yeah, even though this is a futuristic book, it kind of sets the world back like two centuries. So then there's this thing called the Selection. It's the bachelor, but with a prince instead of a fucked up dude like Juan Pablo (last season's bachelor). Obviously, or else there would be no series, America is chosen to be apart of the selection. America is the stereotypical woman. Very, very indecisive. At first only stays for the money, and seemingly foolishly tells Maxon (the Prince) that, and also kicks him in the balls. For some reason, this makes him very fond of her. And for some reason, I loved this book, and read the next two. Oh Also, there are rebel attacks and stuff. Some are deadly, some aren't. It's kind of like a regular thing at the palace.

Book #2- The Elite: This book is beautifully written, and has an excellent cliff hanger that left me screaming into a pillow at 3 am with the notion of starting a 24 hour bookstore for situations like the one I was in. The Selection, which started off with 26 girls I think, is now down to six. One, of course otherwise no book 2 or 3, is America. Along with her is her new best friend Marlee, the snobby rich kid Celeste, the ever princess like Kris, and a bunch of other kind of irrelevant ones. Here's the gist of things. America shows off how bad ass she is. Oh and Aspen comes to the palace so that kind of ruins everything. You see, little naive America thought she was in love with Aspen, but, after a month or two at the palace, and being Maxon's favorite, begins to have feelings, very real feelings, for Maxon (holy that was a lot of commas). Aspen comes, and she questions the WHOLE THING ALL OVER AGAIN. Honestly it's exhausting but it keeps you on your toes. I honestly have a love/hate relationship with America. Just like America, her friend Marlee, is in love with one of the guards. She gets caught and is brutally assaulted on live television and sent to become an eight. America tries to stop it. Most hate her, but some love her for it. For being "real". Maxon, being a good guy....you know what I'm ruining the book. Basically the book ends and she's almost pretty sure she's in love with Maxon but, then again, obviously fears being a lone and leads poor little Aspen on.

Book #3- The One: I've ruined the first two books for you now if you're reading this. I don't think I'm going to review the third. I might have made you hate these books, but if they sound at all interesting to you. You should read them. I truly did love reading them. And I hear they're making this series into a tv show! Yay?

Don't Spend Summer Alone

So I've done it. I've made it halfway through high school. I'm done with half of what is supposed to be some of the best and worst years of my life, and I can't help but be confused. High school is NOTHING like what is portrayed as on television. I've already expressed my sadness over the lack of random dancing happening in the hallways. Sophomore year, the year that currently just ended, was probably the most stressful year of my life. With the title of "Sophomore" came random panic attacks, mental breakdowns, and sleep deprivation. I cried over missing pens at two in the morning, and slept in until nine, missing my first period.  I had teachers who changed my life and teachers who who I considered idiots. But regardless, sophomore year was, without a doubt, the best year of my life. It was like this year high school actually started. The workload multiplied by ten, but so did the memories. I made more friends than I ever thought I could. My classmates, for the most part, stopped being classmates and transformed into family members. That's what's so great about school. When you suffer, you suffer together. I learned absolutely nothing from my math and chemistry classes, but learned more than I could ever hope to from my English teacher. As we read Dickens, Orwell, and Huxley, we learned not only about the French Revolution and Dystopia, but also about ourselves and our society. It's the most important class I've ever taken in my life, and I will never forget it. As hard as this year was, I'm sad to see it come to an end. What sucks the most about school ending is that you lose contact with the "family members" who are your classmates. The whole year you know you're going to see these people for five day every week, that you don't stop to think what will happen when it's over. Every year this happens. I stop talking to people, and that's why summer is kind of depressing at first, until the fun starts kicking in. I know everyone deals with this, so I've come up with a few ways to stay in contact.

#1: SOCIAL MEDIA: It's become so much easier nowadays to stay in contact with your friends. Get a twitter account. Tons of my friends love to tweet about what they're thinking/doing/saying every single moment of their day. I'm sure your friends do, so there's no reason to miss anything they're doing with their lives and you can always comment on what they're doing.

#2: DON'T STOP BOTHERING THEM: Let me explain. Don't go overboard. Most people can tell when someone doesn't want to hang out with them, so don't be that guy who keeps pestering your "friend" after you've already received the message. What I mean is don't be afraid to be the one to ask to hang out one day. Chances are your friend wants to see you too, but is just to shy.

#3: MAKE PLANS BEFORE SCHOOL IS OUT: I'm sure there's some study somewhere that says if you say you're going to do something, you will. At the end of the year, everyone always says "We're definitely hanging out during summer". But most of the time, that never happens, as everyone retreats into their rooms to binge watch tv shows on netflix for the whole summer. So how about this. Try setting a date, activity, and time, before you leave school. Actually make plans instead of making a plan to make a plan. If that makes sense haha.

Well guys my Sophomore year is over and Summer is upon us, which means.....
I SHOULD BE POSTING MORE! I've recently read a lot of books and movies so stay tuned for that :)