a day at the mall (not the shopping kind)

on the mall

Another D.C. story, what a surprise. The picture was from the first day of the trip. The night before we flew out, I went to a Khalid concert with my friends, so I was out until 1 am. By the time I got back to my house and showered and got into bed, it was already 2 am! I went to bed right away, because I needed to leave my house at 5:30 am the next morning to be ready for our flight to D.C. After a night of a solid 3 hours of rest, I dragged myself out of bed, took a quick shower to wake me up, put on my travel outfit that the whole grade needed to wear, got my bags and loaded them and myself into the car. I knew that I should feel exhausted, but it was impossible to be tired when I was filled with this much excitement. I arrived at the airport 15 minutes early and stood with my friends in the security line. When we loaded the plane, we all sat in the back, and it was the most fun flight of my life. We were respectful of the other passengers, but it was hard to be completely silent when we were on our way to D.C.!

When we arrived, it was bright, sunny, hot and most of all, humid. When we all loaded into our buses, we drove an hour to our hotel and unloaded our bags in our rooms. The rooms were disgusting, and the hotel smelled distinctly like fish. After we all settled in, we met in the conference room to say announcements about what we were going to do for the rest of the day. We listened closely as the teachers told us our instructions for the afternoon. We were going to walk to the National Mall (not the shopping kind, the grass kind in the middle of major D.C. monuments.) We grabbed water bottles and left on our walk. It was nice that it was sunny, however with the humidity and the heat, it did not mix well with the hair of many of my friends with long, curly hair.

After walking to the Mall, the whole class rushed to the drink stands and we all bought lemonades and ice cream and sat in the shade of large trees on the edge of the large, grassy space. It was perfect because we could all relax and cool down after our walk in the blazing hot sun. My friend, Sara, and I decided to whip out our clout goggles because they would make all of our friends laugh. I also got my camera so we would never forget this perfect afternoon. We took the picture of us shown above laying down under the large trees surrounded by our best friends.

After everyone had cooled down, we walked around the city to different monuments such as the Washington Monument. When we arrived there, it was beautiful because the sun was setting and, luckily enough, we were the only people there. However, this did not last for long. As we walked towards the monument to take pictures, we started to feel droplets of rain on our heads. There was not a lot of rain, so we figured it was nothing major and we could stay for a few more minutes. We were wrong. Within 2 minutes, the raindrops felt like they were as big as water balloons, and it was coming down as if we were in a shower. For many of us, this was terrible because we did not know it was going to rain, so we were in our sneakers. We ran and ran back to our hotel to try and escape the storm, but the rain was too much.

When we finally entered the lobby of Hotel Harrington, all of us were completely soaked head to toe! Our hair looked like we had just taken a shower and our clothes looked like we had just jumped in the pool. Not to mention the uncomfortable sloshing sound our sneakers that was noticeable every time we took a step. Furthermore, it was nearly impossible for our shoes to dry because it was so humid in D.C. However terrible this rain storm was, we still had the pictures of the amazing day to remember it for the incredible memory it was.

the most iconic bday

celebrating 15 with my favorite people

Not only was this day the best birthday I have ever had, but it was also the best night of my life. I have gone to multiple schools throughout my life and have become close with multiple groups of amazing friends, so when I had my 15th birthday, I invited 18 of my best friends who went to Rowland Hall, Parley's Park, the Winter School, and Ecker Hill. We danced and laughed and played and swam and watched the sunset and watched movies and explored the hotel and made the most incredible and unforgettable memories. It was such an amazing time to celebrate not dying for a year with my favorite people in the whole world.

The party started around noon, so we got everyone settled into their rooms and introduced everyone for about an hour before we got ready and headed down to the pool. We swam, relaxed in the summer sun, and took pictures to commemorate the afternoon. After we finished spending time outside, we went into our room and got ready for dinner. As one can imagine, it is not an organized sight to see 15 teenage girls rush around to get ready for dinner before their reservation. We had exactly an hour to shower, pick outfits, do makeup, do hair, have a quick snack, dance, and play our favorite songs. Because there were so many things we needed to fit into a short amount of time, it was a mad dash for everything. As a mix of everything from Ariana Grande to Travis Scott was blaring on the speakers throughout the room, girls were running from backpack to bedrooms to bathrooms to friends bags to the speaker. Once we finally all picked out our dresses and got changed, we decided to do each others hair and makeup in 10 minutes. It was a mad dash everywhere, and although it seemed like a nightmare, it was so much fun.

We barely made our reservation, but we made it! Once we finally sat down, we really wanted to go to play some arcade games that were just around the corner from our table. My mom gave us each $2 which was enough for a couple rounds of whatever we wanted to play, but we were so hyped up for dinner, that we all pooled our money together and took pictures of us together. We decided to take a picture of us celebrating, and that's what led to the picture I chose to write about.

After dinner, we all went to the bowling alley that was also around the corner from where we were sitting and we bowled for ages. It was also funny because the boy who was working there was in my friend's chemistry class and took my other friend's sister to a school dance last year. Once we finished bowling, we changed into sweatshirts and warm clothes and went outside to roast marshmallows. It was cold, but we warmed up by dancing, running around, and sitting by the fireplace. After that, we went back up to the room, and the night was a blur from there. All I can remember was that I have never felt a feeling as purely joyful as I did the night I celebrated my birthday surrounded by the people I love most in the world.

to my 30 y/o self - the worst of dc

Dear 30-year-old Emma,

You probably won't even remember that you wrote this when you are 30 because, hopefully, you are married/in a serious relationship and have a great job and have more important things to do than read a letter from 9th-grade Emma. The longest time that I would be able to keep track of and remember a letter would be from when you were at Rowland Hall in 8th grade and you and your whole class had to write a letter to your senior self. I know that all of my friends there are going to have a "Kumbaya moment" according to Mr. Robs when they are all seniors and open their letters together. I hope that you remembered to email him and went to Rowland Hall to open your letter with your old classmates. Who would've thought that going to such a small school for such a short time would've made such a huge impact on your life?

Speaking of Rowland Hall, I would like to remind you of one of the best but most awkward weeks of your life in 2018. You will definitely remember the class trip to DC for the rest of your life because if you don't right now, you have just disappointed your 9th-grade self. Anyways, DC was one of the best weeks of your life, and 2018 was one of the best years. During the week, you stayed at the Hotel Harrington that smelled like fish and had a thermostat that was literally a piece of metal sticking out of the ceiling. There was also torrential downpours of rain that completely soaked you and your friends every day. There was a baseball game that you were supposed to go to, but due to the rain, it was canceled. This caused a lot of stress for the teachers because they did not have a backup plan, but it was Rowland Hall, so they got 10 escape rooms for the entire grade. After we all went to the escape rooms, the entire grade had a choice to either see a horror movie or Avengers: Infinity War. Most of my friends and I decided to go to Avengers, but you might recall that DC was a major couples week. Grace and Seabass were dating, Sarah and Connor were dating, Robbie and Camryn were dating, Jenna and Ozzie were kind of dating, you and Gus were dating, and it was just a crazy week. Half of the relationships didn't make it back to Utah.

At the theater, it was extremely awkward because the seating arrangement was (from left to right): Henry, Lizzie, Camryn, Robbie, Ozzie, Jenna, Gus, Tenny, Casey, you, and Matt Baron. The movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes, so there was a lot of time for stuff to go down. The entire movie experience was just plain awkward because half the time, Camryn was sprawled on top of Robbie over the large, reclining-seat barrier. You being your awkward 8th-grade self was feeling very uncomfortable, but very relieved when Gus came to sit next to you instead of Matt. You couldn't even focus on the movie, because so much was going through your head. You mostly thought of what was going to happen for the rest of the week with everyone, and so this thought occupied and distracted you for the last hour of the movie. Even this was one of the most awkward weeks of your life, you wouldn't trade the experience with your best friends for the world.

my 88 minute nightmare

Every white day, I have a class that I expected to be a fun and fresh class at the beginning of the year, but now, I cannot regret taking it more. The subject itself isn't bad at all, the problem is my teacher. For this story, let's call her Ms. B. Ms. B is the worst teacher I have ever had in my entire life. When I met her on the first day of school, she seemed nice and fun, and I thought that I was going to really enjoy her class. Frankly, I was wrong. For the first few lessons, she was a good teacher because she had interesting experiments and would give us food or blankets or heaters if we wanted them. She would also let us use our phones if we needed to. I really enjoyed the subject and would look forward to her class every other day. However, now, her true colors have come out.

First of all, she is not a good teacher. She will give us homework assignments and not even explain the topic in enough depth for students to understand in class. Then, if we ask her a question, she will say that we should have been taking notes in class. She doesn't even specify in class when there is an important topic! It annoys me and all of my friends who take the class. Furthermore, she does not understand the term "teacher." She will always tell us that she is a resource to use in class and to ask her if we have any questions about the material, but when we ask her a question, she tells us that we should have been listening! My friends and I literally draw straws to see who has to ask her the next question because we know that she will get angry if we ask her a question. I also have to limit myself to 2 or (on a good day) 3 questions per class period or else she will flip out and hate me even more. She will also tell us to go to the subject tutors that are at school before class if we have any questions, but when we talk to them, they say that they have never learned what we are being taught. The reason why they say this is because Ms. B is new to the school and does not know the amount of depth that other teachers are going into different subjects. This leads to her students having to learn everything from Khan Academy and MSJChem.

This also isn't something that happens once a month, it happens every single class period. The other day when I had her, I was talking to my friends during a lab because someone highlighted the wrong thing, and she told us that if we talked one more time, she would give us a 0 on the lab. She wasn't even explaining anything or telling us instructions!

Although she irritates me, I do have coping mechanisms. One of these is to vent to my friends who experience the same pain. If I hold all of the annoyance inside of me, I feel like I would probably explode, and that would definitely not be a healthy approach to my problem. Another is to listen to calming music because music definitely has a huge effect on me. The song I listen to at the beginning of my day determines my mood for the rest of the day. As a result, if I listen to good music, it will counterbalance the mood my teacher puts me in.

argentina

Last month, I crossed another country off of my bucket list. My family and I went down to South America to see Argentina. For the past 11 and 1/2 years, I have been doing a martial arts called Taekwondo. I am a second-degree black belt, and my 11-year-old brother is a red belt. Every year for the past 3 years, we have gone to a South American country to compete in the Pan-American Games. The first year we found out about this competition was from my instructor who lives in Salt Lake. When she told us about this competition, we jumped at the opportunity because what better excuse to see a new country than something you know your parents will support and agree to? Currently, my brother, Connor, is in his seventh year in the Spanish Dual Immersion at Ecker Hill Middle School, and I am in AP Spanish Language at Park City High School, so these trips to South America are a great way to use our Spanish.

With all that in mind, we decided to ask our parents. My dad has always been a fan of South American food, and he likes to think that he can speak Spanish, so he was on board with the idea. My mom is the better planner in my family, so she was very excited with the idea, but she needed to make sure that we were completely willing to train and study to be able to make the trip worth its while. My brother and I were prepared to work as hard as we needed to be able to go on our trip.

This is how our South America trips started, and as I said before, we have gone for the past three years. Uruguay was our first competition location in 2016, then we went to Peru the next year, and last month, we went to Argentina. Being able to go to Argentina was surreal. Everything was so incredible, from the food, to the buildings, to the history, to the people. We went to Buenos Aires which was like a South American version of Paris. The architecture there was beautiful, and there was history around every corner. My favorite part of the city was definitely the food. One of the places we stayed had a huge Argentinian buffet, and there was an area for every kind of food. There were cheeses imported every morning and steaks and porks and fish. They also had a pasta bar where they would cook handmade pasta and create custom sauces. The gnocchi there was the most incredible pasta I have had in my life. From the nation's capital, we went to Iguazu Falls which was unbelievable. The falls were huge and they extended for almost a mile. They went into Brazil, too.

We ended our trip in a small town called Corrientes. We stayed there because our taekwondo competition was in the next town over, Resistencia, however, there were no hotels there. Once, we went to the airport to go from Iguazu Falls to Corrientes, there was an international communication error, and our flight got delayed 6 hours. We decided that it was going to take too long to wait for our plane, and we needed to get to Corrientes in time for the competition the next day, so we got a taxi driver to drive us 7 hours without internet to Corrientes. It turns out, that drive was better than expected because I was able to admire the Argentinian countryside with my family.

Finally, my brother and I had our tournament, and I got 4th place in all of North and South America for my event. My brother got 6 medals in his 6 events. Simply put, Argentina is an incredible country with amazing people and amazing food and amazing culture. I would definitely go back and recommend to anyone of any age to visit it.

social media changed my life in the best way possible

          Social media: one of the most debatable topics in today's day and age. There are so many aspects that contribute to social media that make it one of the most influential platforms in the world. Personally, I love it. I did not get Instagram and Snapchat until I was in 7th grade, which was very uncommon because the majority of my friends had it in 4th. When I finally, got it, I was elated. I felt so cool to be able to "send streaks" and "scroll down my explore page." Being the young and naive middle-schooler that I was, I had no idea what the life of the internet what like. I was pretty good at controlling my usage for the first few weeks, but the endless possibilities got the best of me. Before I knew it, I was using my phone more than double I had been using it before. However, this didn't really have an effect on my school work, so I didn't care that I was on it so much. When my parents pointed it out to me, I realized that I had to make a change, so I tried using it less. It lasted for a week or two, but then I was back on it.
          By this time, I had decided that I was going to look into moving schools from Ecker Hill Middle School to Rowland Hall, a private school in Salt Lake. I was excited about the opportunities that my possible new school presented me, but, I did not know anybody until, by a stroke of luck, I saw my friend, Casey, on Snapchat. Casey and I were friendly enough throughout middle school, but we never really talked. When I saw one somebodies Snapchat that it was her birthday, I added her and started talking to her. I mentioned how I hadn't seen her around school, and she said that she had gone to Rowland Hall. I was super excited to hear this because if I could talk to her about Rowland Hall, maybe she could help me decide where to go. We started snapping every day, and she was being so kind and introducing me to her friends, I decided to shadow a day at Rowland Hall. When I got to the school, Casey and I had some common ground to talk about because of us talking previously over Snapchat. From the moment I got to the school and started talking to her, I knew I wanted to go there. I met the teachers, saw the school, and met her friends. I loved talking to them, and I got all of their snaps before I left that day. I decided to test into the school to see if I could go, and when my scores came back, I was delighted to tell them that I was coming to the school next year.
          I talked to them more and more over the summer over Snapchat and Instagram, and this made my first day of school and transition, in general, a million times easier. I had the most incredible 8th-grade year, from the teachers, to the students, and to the trips. When the end of the year rolled around and I had to decide where to go for high school, my decision caused me so much stress. I had to have meetings with high school counselors at both schools to weigh my options and discuss the pros and cons of both schools. After a very stressful month, I decided to go to high school at Park City High School. I was crushed to leave some of my best friends and the best school year I had ever had, but I knew that PCHS would be an incredible high school.
          Now, I am beyond grateful for social media. This has caused me to keep in touch with my friends that make me smile and laugh every single day. They are some of the best things in my life, and if I did not have social media, my school year would be going a completely different direction.