Buccanear

I can't believe I lost. Everything was going right for me all day. I was ruthless and effective in my ghost tactics but when push came to shove, I failed. I had it all planned out, as soon as Ms Serensky threw out "B" in the final one on one match I had a feeling i had her beat. I telepathically knew that as soon as I said "U" she would come back with "C," thinking I would fall by spelling "buck" or something. As soon as she blurted out "C" i came back with a "C" and knew I had it won. But at the very end, I forgot buccaneer was spelled with two e's rather than an e and an a so I shamefully lost my chance to defeat the great Ms. Serensky. Even though I lost, it was still a great last day of AP English and last day of high school (EWM!). So yeah I guess this is my final blog. Its sad that this phase of my life has come to a close but I hope to use what I've learned to make my next phase that much better.

Dear Fellow AP English Students,

            I’m going to keep it short and sweet. I have had such an intellectually inspiring expereience over the past two years in AP English. It has really enabled me to see the immense talent that my peers here at CFHS have. I have learned so much from all of my fellow AP Englishers and I hope to use that knowledge to my advantage in the future. Being able to withstand nightly soapstones, intimidating papers, data sheets and poetry papers has prepared me immensely for college and for my life in the real world. I want to thank Ms. Serensky for never going easy on us because life will never just go easy on us. I feel prepared to face the rigors of college due to my time in AP English; without it I would certainly feel overwhelmed when thinking about my next four years. I’m sad to say goodbye to AP English and all of my peers. I have had a great 13 years with everyone and a great two years in AP English. To everyone: good luck and may the force be with you.

Top Ten Reasons to Take AP English

1.) Prepares you for the real world.
2.) Makes you feel confident that you can handle college academics.
3.) You become an amazing writer.
4.) You appreciate your fellow classmates more.
5.) It's actually pretty fun even though it doesn't exactly get that rep.
6.) You get your own website with your name in the URL.
7.) It will help in writing college essays and it looks great on transcripts.
8.) Multiple Choice at the end of each quarter.
9.) The AP test seems like no big deal.
10.) You can brag about writing 25 page papers.

Characters Responses to One of the Essay Topics

Algernon: “It is much pleasanter being here with you” (Wilde 24)

Rodney: “I’m sorry I really am. It’s just I’m so worried” (Currie 136)

Algernon: “It might make you very unwell” (Wilde 42)

McMurphy: “‘Hooeee, look at what we got here’” (Kesey 23)

Rodney: “I’m not smart enough to figure it out” (Currie 130)

Algernon: “So I know my constitution can stand it” (Wilde 42)

McMurphy: “‘I just’d kind of like to know which of these birds has any guts and which doesn’t’”(Kesey 139)

Rodney: “I have a hard time understanding big words” (Currie 131)

McMurphy: “‘I’d be scared’” (302)

Algernon: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility” (Wilde 6)

Rodney: “I don’t know what [it] means” (Currie 131)

Algernon: “you are smart!” (Wilde 8)

Rodney: “I don’t like you saying things like that” (Currie 129)

Algernon: “It is perfectly phrased!” (Wilde 16)

Rodney: “No I don’t believe what [you’re] saying” (Currie 130)

Loved EVERTHING About It

            I certainly enjoyed Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr. the most out of any of the books we have read thus far in AP English. First off, I loved the contemporary nature of it. I felt like this made it much easier to relate to. Even in very small instances, I could relate my current life to the book. For example, Junior has to use a “Gatorade of the Fierce Melon variety” at one point during the novel (Currie 89). “Fierce Melon” is without doubt my favorite Gatorade flavor so I could easily relate my life to Junior’s in this small but important instance. Additionally, I really enjoyed that Rodney played baseball. I love everything about the game and I really came to admire Rodney’s character. Rodney simply “doesn’t feel pressure…It’s what makes him so good” (Currie 72). I am very jealous of Rodney’s baseball abilities and approach to the game. I often think way too much in the batter’s box and end up letting that prevent me from having a quality at-bat. The final reason I enjoyed the book revolves around Junior’s decision to focus his life more on his relationships when given his second chance by the entity. The entity basically tells him, “Do whatever you want, I don’t care” and he decides to go back and cherish the time he has with the people he loves (Serensky 5-27-11). I absolutely loved how Junior spent his last moments in the second universe in “a warm package of humanity” as opposed to “alone at the summit of Maine’s tallest mountain” (Currie 302, 261). The juxtaposition of the two endings highlights that Junior’s decision to focus more on the people he loved really helped to make his life better and more enjoyable. Everything Matters! encapsulated many of my own interests and also conveyed messages that hit home to me. I consider it one of the best novels I have ever read. 

Can't Beat Dodgeball Glory

10. Just making my list is an experience that occurred at the beginning of my sophomore year in APUSH. As an intimidated young sophomore taking my first AP class I felt “like I was too dumb to” handle such a rigorous academic environment (Kesey 210). To my surprise, I scored a perfect 10/10 on my first essay on Puritans. Most of my fellow APUSH students freaked out over their sixes and sevens so I felt pretty thrilled and felt that AP classes were not all they’re cracked up to be.

9. This one may not be the most academic thrill in the world but it occurred in school and with an academic instrument. Way back in the awkward freshman days, I was an avid calculator gamer. “It is obvious that [my] social spheres [were] widely different” as a freshman (Wilde 37). But anyways, I got the most epic high score ever witnessed in the history of CFHS. I played one game of Avalanche for over a half hour straight in Mr. Salyers’ study hall and scored 25,252. I have never seen anyone get above 6,000 so yeah; it was thrilling to say the least.

8. Undoubtedly the most difficult time thus far in my high career has been my AP Computer Science class. Every Friday we have two nine point AP problems that just rocked my world for a while. I “press[ed] ahead with getting clobbered” weekly on the Friday problems, usually scoring a 3 or 4 out of 9 (Currie 105). But two Fridays ago I had my breakthrough, scoring an 8.5 and 9 out of 9 and feeling as thrilled as anyone could about two 9-point assignments.

7. Who wouldn’t feel thrilled after finishing a 25-page paper at 4 in the morning? Well after hours of exhaustive work I finally hit ctrl + P and witnessed “‘the end, the absolute, irrevocable, fantastic end’” of my first ever data sheet (Kesey 304). The moment I printed the mother load of analysis and pain I felt all sorts of stress and anxiety lift from my body.

6. If you text and drive, you may be “in the waning moments of your existence” according a highly acclaimed study done by the great Alex Hurtuk and Jimmy Boldt (Currie 261). Alex and I did our 10^th grade research project on cell phones and driving and we aced it, I mean we really aced it. Getting such a good grade on such a large project gave the 10^th grade me quite the thrill.

5. Tenth grade English class…Ms. Beach: “We are going to have a guest speaker tomorrow, he doesn’t have any arms or legs.” … Lizzy Burl: “Does he have bones?” … Alex Kreger: “Yeah he just rolls around like a big gelatinous mass everywhere.” This was one of the funniest moments for me in school. The speaker may have been “legless and armless” but he was anything but boneless (Currie 113).

4. Moushumi! Enough said. I felt “so full of sympathy” for whoever had to play that part (Kesey 233).

3. The second greatest day of my school career occurred on the day before winter break of my sophomore year. I sat in second period APUSH class and watched as Mr. Brownlow stood atop a desk with his famous wooden stick ranting about sectionalism or something when BAM! the power went out. Mr. Browlow immediately let out a frightful scream as all of us wondered what was going on. After about ten minutes in the dark word came through that we could leave school if our teacher talked to our parents first. After my mom and Mr. Browlow chatted for a brief minute, I booked it out of class, met up with my best friend Charlie Micunek in the hall and sped out of the school, starting winter break six periods early. That school day seemed “to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection (Wilde 31).

2. On December 10, 2010 I was going to hear whether or not I made it into Dartmouth College. The email came out at exactly 4 pm and beginning at 3:59 I stared at my computer screen… waiting. “The suspense [was] terrible” to say the least (Wilde 52). When I finally opened the email and saw that I had gotten in, I felt so relieved and thrilled. I felt that my previous 11.5 years in school had finally paid off for something.

(Alex K)

1. Some may not consider my most thrilling academic moment in high school very academic but because it happened during the actual school day, I find it perfectly academic. It was Springfest 2010, the day of the annual dodgeball championship. This dodgeball tradition sets itself apart from all other traditions in the school. It’s a time when the ENTIRE student body watches an athletic event together. In past games, the fans have been divided, whether it be by grade or by social orientation. The 2010 game was far different on the other hand. The game featured the heavyweight team, Team Cheesed, against the surprise team, the East Washington Mafia. I played for East Washington Mafia. Before the game began our nervous team huddled in the girls locker room (one of the teams had to be in there) and got pumped up for the most important sporting event in any of our lives. As we approached the stairs to make our appearance on the court, the entire gym filled with boos as Team Cheesed took the floor. Moments later we ran onto the floor to massive cheers. Once the game began, we garnered more and more support from the crowed as everyone but one or two people cheered for us. Chants of “MAFIA, MAFIA, MAFIA” roared through the building as Team Cheesed players fell. After winning the first game and losing the second, the championship came down to one final game. We came out strong and took an early advantage. Taylor Mendel, Austin Sauey, Danny Murtaugh, Alex Kreger, myself and even Jillian could not be stopped as we dodged and dipped our way past incoming balls and fired some back with often-deadly accuracy. The final seconds were a mad rush as EWM players charged, balls flying, toward the one or two remaining Cheesers. As soon as the last opposing player fell, the crowd erupted. I felt greater “joy and love in just this one last moment” than I had experienced in all of high school (Currie 302). I had never been in such a loud gym in all of my life. We had done the impossible, defeated an over confident team with some of the best athletes in the school on it while uniting the entire student body behind us. I am very positive that Chagrin Falls High School will never see a comparable game ever again. It was quite the feat and quite the thrill. Surely number 1 material.

If I had to Choose One...

 I would choose “Winter in the Summer House” by Robert N. Watson. I could relate to the poem the most because my dad’s side of the family owns a summer house on Long Island, New York and we go up there for two weeks every summer. It’s a place where I would “play with wonderful expression” as a kid (Wilde 1). I have a lot of good memories of the house and the poem seems to evoke the old man’s memories of his house as well, although his have more of a melancholic tone to them. Nowadays our summerhouse in New York “seems to be the proper sphere for the man”  (Wilde 35). We enjoy going boating, kayaking, throwing the baseball around and shooting our pellet rifles on the dock. Similarly, the manly old man in the poem “[keeps] his tools / In pegboard tracings” and drives an “old Dodge” (Watson 9-10, 13). The poem also brought up memories of the house itself. Built in 1941, the house is pretty old and has “cracks in the hardwood floors” and “the walls [are] painted but not covered” (Watson 4, 6). “I cannot deny it,” the charm of living in a somewhat older house for two weeks really makes the experience great (Wilde 39). Watson poem really brought out some memories of my families house on Long Island, thus making it my favorite of all the poems we have read this year.