Dynamite (Win the Fight)

We came to learn, learn, learn, learn

But we fell hard and we got burned, burned, burned, burned

We’re tryin’ to finish all this excess work, work, work, work

Now give us some space for all these nerds, nerds, nerds, nerds

And the stress goes on and on and on

And it goes on and on and on

Yeah!

I slam my head down on my desk sometimes

Saying oh, no, this is stressful

I want to celebrate and live my life

But I can’t, no, not with SOAPSTones

‘Cause we gon’ rock this class

We gon’ work all night

We gon’ ace that essay

We gon’ win this fight

‘Cause she told us once

Now she’s told us twice

We can write the essays

Like they’re dynamite

We have learned it all like

We can be the last ones standing

We’re not alone at all like

We’re gonna be the last ones standing

‘Cause I, I, I believe it

And I, I, I

I just want some stickers, I just want some stickers

I’m gonna put my pen to my page

Put my pen to my page

Put your pens in the air

I slam my head down on me desk sometimes

Saying oh, no, this is stressful

I want to celebrate and live my life

But I can’t, no, not with SOAPSTones

‘Cause we gon’ rock this class

We gon’ work all night

We gon’ ace that essay

We gon’ win this fight

‘Cause she told us once

Now she’s told us twice

We can write the essays

Like they’re dynamite

Dear Journal...

Dear Journal,

                As you have been hearing about continuously for the past few months, the school year is almost over. In the waning hours that remain of my high school education, I would like to take a moment to write a farewell entry to my fellow AP English classmates.

Looking back over the years, I am all too aware of the various trials and tribulations of AP English. These trials were demanding feats requiring an insurmountable amount of hard work and dedication. I remember staying up until 5:30 am the night that the first data sheet was due. Crying. And ultimately regretting my decision to continue with AP English. Other moments of such despair were caused by memorizing quotes, writing the Amsterdam essay, having the killers and Truman Capote from In Cold Blood get into my head, and having to face my ever daunting fear of public speaking.

However, the bad parts of AP English only made the good parts even better.  After all the hard work that we put into the class, the humorous moments woven into our every day banter makes the class much more worthwhile. Proposing that we huddle under our desks for seven years like Harriet Jacobs, playing the human knot game, winning multiple choice games, winning CANDY, going on field trips, reading about plums, hearing about Ms. Serensky’s life, winning CANDY, laughing at the hilarity of people’s incompetence, Ms. Serensky’s jokes, and winning CANDY, made all the trials of AP English worthwhile.

Ultimately, I would not like to dwell on this high school experience, but rather use it order to embrace and conquer the future with more intelligence, poise, and ferocity. Thank you AP English for making me a much more intelligent, well-rounded person. It’s been real.

Until next time trusty journal,

                                 Nicola Zollinger

Top Ten Reasons to Take AP English

1. You have the opportunity to collect really cool stickers. It may not sound cool now, but trust me, nothing could be cooler.

2. You get to read exciting books like Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Such engaging novels will help you appreciate all different styles of literature.

3. You will have the opportunity to beat the next Dream Team in multiple choice. Nothing is more satisfying than getting a perfect group score while the Dream Team falters behind.

4. You get to play the human know game more than once in class. Holding hands with Ms. Serensky and the Dream Team will be an experience I will never forget.

5. You will go on field trips to see Shakespearean plays. Being exposed to new environments outside of school will definitely give you some new perspectives.

6. You get to compose twenty page data sheets. Nothing is more exciting than pulling an all-nighter in order to climb this mountain! Just appreciate SOAPSTones when you have the chance.

7. You can win candy! The day our team won huge bags of candy was my favorite day in AP English!

8. You may have the opportunity to faceoff the National Merit Scholarship Finalist in a one minute debate. Now I know this may sound fun, but it was no fun-and-games.

9. You may get points off for spelling your name wrong. Yes, I know my name is “Nicola Zollinger,” not “Nicola Zolling.”

10. You will learn so much and become an incredible writer! The progress you make in these two years will be truly incredible! It may seem daunting, but it is doable!

Not So Critical Criticism

Algernon: “Dear me, you are smart!” (Wilde 8)

Rodney: “I don’t know what that means” (Currie 131)

Algernon: “Well, one must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life” (Wilde 40)

Desdemona: “If you say so” (Shakespeare 5.2. 35)

Rodney: “Please stop trying to confuse me” (Currie 131)

Algernon: “Literary criticism is not your forte” (Wilde 6)

Desdemona: “Alas, she has no speech” (Shakespeare 2.1. 103)

Algernon: “Oh! It is absurd…more than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read” (Wilde 4)

Rodney: “Listen I don’t want to be rude. I know you’re doing your job and you’re very good at it…But still I want you to be careful what you say” (Currie 131)

Algernon: “Oh! There is no use speculating on that subject” (Wilde 3)

Desdemona: “Oh heavy ignorance” (Shakespeare 2.1. 141)

Algernon: “Girls don’t think it right” (Wilde 3)

Rodney: “Maybe you wouldn’t say it that way, but that’s what you would think” (136)

Desdemona: “Be as your fancies teach you” (Shakespeare 3.3. 88)

Algernon: “Well, that is exactly what dentists always do” (Wilde 5)

What Matters

Science-fiction. Romance. Action. Heartbreak. Suspense. All subjects that make a great fiction book, and all subjects that Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr. encapsulates. For me, reading provides an idyllic escape from reality. Whether cheerful or depressing, reading forces us to feel a different emotion, and sometimes helps to pinpoint the emotion we were trying to avoid in the first place. Such subjects and genres as science-fiction, romance, action, heartbreak, and suspense can be warped in a myriad of ways to create magic on a page, but what makes Everything Matters! my favorite English book this year, is how exquisitely Currie manipulates these themes. Currie sends the reader on a whirlwind journey of emotions and suspenseful surprises. What made this book so good for me was how Currie could stir up such strong emotions from the reader. As Junior begins to lose touch with reality the Voice states, “you are undergoing dramatic changes in brain chemistry brought on by heavy, prolonged alcohol and drug consumption” (104). At this moment in the book, I felt so annoyed with Junior. In school, the Voice described him as incredibly intelligent, and here he is completely throwing his life away. This complete foil provoked a great sense of anger from me to the point that I wanted to step inside the book and try to shake Junior from the insanity. And after a stint of being thoroughly angered, Currie turns around and provokes another strong emotion. After Junior pulls his life back together in an attempt to save his father, the Voice instructs, “He wouldn’t want you to die to save his life” (190). At this point, I felt a sense of fondness towards Junior for trying to save his father, but I was also annoyed at the desperate and self-destructive manner at which he was doing it with. Once again, Currie completely changed the feelings that I had towards the main character and the story. Near the end of the book, when Amy gets killed, she thinks, “I wish I could tell you there’s nothing sad at all in death, but I can’t” (258). Upon reading these last few sentences in the section, I was so upset. How could Currie do this to Junior? Hasn’t he been through enough? I was so upset that I ran to my mom and told her the whole story because I wanted her to understand how completely devastating and disheartening the story was. An author that can send me on such an emotional rollercoaster and make me feel deep sympathy for the characters is definitely doing something right. Not only was the manipulation of emotions superb in the novel, but the plot itself was incredibly engaging and imaginative. More than once in the text I was even reminded of Ms. Serensky’s stories about her family vacations, when her nieces and nephews would undergo “simultaneous disappointment.” So many times in the text could I image everyone who read this book undergoing a terrible plague of simultaneous disappointment.  However, no matter how disappointing the text was at times, it reflects reality because nothing turns out the way we want it to or as expected. Overall, this book was my favorite because of its raw, valid plot, and its ability to evoke strong, powerful emotions.

"Top Ten Most Thrilling Academic Moments of My High School Career"

My "Top Ten Most Thrilling Academic Moments of My High School Career" list is a compilation of moments that I am most proud of, or the moments that surprised me the most in High School.

1. Our English group beating the Dream Team and getting a perfect score for multiple choice first quarter this year. At this point, our group followed the advice that “most every choice will have consequences,” which was very applicable because our choices helped us to prevail (Currie, 4).

2. Getting the same critical reading score as Lizzy Burl on the SAT. Lizzy Burl is really smart, so once I heard this news I could only think to be at “Peace and be still,” for I knew I had succeeded in some way (Shakespeare, 5.2. 47).

3. Being inducted into the Cum Laude Society made me realize that every bit of homework and studying that I do and have done, no matter how painful, “does matter. All of it” (Currie 268).

4. Playing catch-phrase in creative writing. Since “The truth is rarely pure and never simple,” it was a challenge to come up with the correct answers (Wilde, 6).

5. Being on the Chagrin Valley Conference All Academic Team for 4 years of varsity gymnastics. My relationship with gymnastics can be summed up in the simple phrase of “I will kill thee,/ And love thee after,” for when I was partaking in all the hard work and pain, I wanted nothing more than to destroy gymnastics, but after it was done I was grateful for the strength and opportunities that it gave me (Shakespeare, 5.2. 18).

6. My toothpick bridge withstanding and surpassing 5 lbs in physics. Even as I watched and knew that “Everything ends,” it was still sad to see all my hard work crumble to the ground (Currie, 292).

7. Passing the AP U.S. History AP test. When I finished the test I thought to myself “Well, this is the last time I shall ever do” that (Wilde, 29).

8.  Earning all A’s second semester junior year. Sometimes I find that “It’s perfectly easy to be cynical,” when it comes to feelings about grades, but this feat made me feel very accomplished (Wilde, 7).

9. Being the top scorer in our English 11 class for multiple choice third quarter junior year.

If someone had asked me that day “Do you triumph?,” I would have certainly responded

with a satisfied “Yes” (Shakespeare, 4.1. 120).

10. Passing the AP English Language/Composition test. It was certainly a relief after many

months of stressing and psyching myself out, which made me “realize that strange as it

sounds, this [AP English] is an essential part of who I am” (Currie, 86).

What is Love?

My favorite poem from this year is “All Love Letters Are,” by Fernando Pessoa. Throughout the poem, the speaker makes assertions about the ridiculousness of love letters. He/she reflects on how they too wrote equally ridiculous love letters in their past, and continuously assert that because they are love letters, they have to be ridiculous. This poem is my favorite because it’s a very relatable poem. Everyone can relate to eccentric and ridiculous feelings attached to love.  The speaker humorously and ironically strikes back in the poem saying that those who don’t right love letters at all are actually the ridiculous ones. This opinion wittingly uncovers a bit of truth, for those who do act on passion and love most definitely end up looking ridiculous, but, paradoxically, those who do not act are just as ridiculous for letting life and love pass by. This poem swimmingly correlates with my favorite book this year; Everything Matters!, by Ron Currie Jr. In this novel, Currie elegantly and grimly paints a picture of the ridiculous habit of love.  Junior, who constantly sees the pitfalls of love, often thinks, “life has…always seemed a messy and heartbreaking and overall pointless affair” (143). His attempt to reveal his ridiculous knowledge of the end of the world with his love all goes wrong. In this moment, Junior feels the heartbreak and overall ridiculousness of love, feeling that nothing good can ever come of it. The narrator at the story even mocks Junior’s situation and states, “even your best, most loving and generous and bighearted choices had been wrong, wrong, wrong” (266). The voice’s repetition of “wrong” emphasizes how disappointing love can be, especially in Junior’s life. This parallels Pessoa’s poem’s message that love can be a ridiculous, messy thing. However, towards the end of the novel, the voice asserts, “Everything matters not in spite of the end of you and all that you love, but because of it” (292). Here the voice illustrates that even through all of the messy consequences in life, love should be sought out in spite of it all. The terrible circumstances, the inopportune moments that turn out badly, are the reasons why love is ridiculous, and ridiculous enough to make all the hard troubles better. Personally, I enjoy Pessoa’s message that both sides of love are ridiculous, which more people should accept and embrace.