- I have a day trip to Cleveland for work today. This is my third day trip to Cleveland in a year’s span, for three different projects. Yay…? At least I know what to do at the airport!
- I got recognition at work yesterday for something extra I’ve been working really hard on, and I appreciated it. I needed that recognition.
- We might have house guests this weekend! My older brother and his family are going to Six Flags Great America, which is super close to us, and my parents are tagging along, so they are all staying over a night or two. What a fun surprise! My mom was apologetic she was asking so “last minute” (Monday), but I was like “Um, Nick (older bro) usually asks me day of. It’s fine!” Ha.
- Why am I having nightmares about being in a play and not knowing my lines? What the heck? I haven’t been in a play since high school! Fun (?) fact – sophomore year I was in the local community theater play and our high school play at the same time! I was super in to the theater scene for a few years. Then I became a complete loner.
- Speaking of high school (and I’ve mentioned this before but it’s come up a lot this week in conversation), I thought I was smart in high school because I was class valedictorian (among six others). I was NOT. My school was dumbed down. College was a shock to me. It seems like high school is really intense for some kids now, but I am glad to hear they will be more prepared for college.*
- The other day I needed to look up someone’s name and because a member of their family had put all their genealogy online I found their entire immediate family’s names, birthdays, and anniversaries. Eek. Do people want that information out there, publicly?! (says the girl who blogs a lot of her life stuff)
- iPhone users – do you do the “like,” “love,” “Ha ha,” etc. responses to texts? You know, when you hold down the conversation bubble and add your reaction to it? I feel like more people are doing this lately. And I am not sure how I feel about it.
Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 241
*This conversation came up when I was talking to Will about the documentary Where to Invade Next which is about stealing ideas and education (that is what I got from his description). He said a major point was how focused America is on standardized tests and choosing the best possible answer, and that other nations have open ended answers. I mentioned this a friend and she said her high school was all open ended or essay based questions and college was multiple choice, so college was way easier for her!
I don’t know how I feel about the “reaction bubbles” (<— not sure what else to call them, haha). On the one hand, it's a nice way to quickly acknowledge a text without responding (cuz I'm lazy) and I can't lie, I do love when people "haha" a text of mine. 😉 (I just used "haha" as a verb. Oy vey.) But it also makes me feel a bit disconnected. I don't use them a ton because I'd rather not respond at all (esp for group texts) than give a lame "like." But I dunno.
Being valedictorian is a great accomplishment! I think you should be proud of that. I was not. School was always tough for me. I'm smart and I always got good grades, but I really had to work for them. It didn't come naturally to me but I am proud of myself for working hard for my grades and earning a scholarship to college. It means more to me than just getting an A without really trying.
Also, totally hear you about open-ended questions vs multiple-choice. Florida's education system is shit, especially in the nineties/early aughts. Everything was assessment-based and teachers were only teaching so their students could get good grades on standardized tests. It's so dumb. My brother technically doesn't have his HS diploma even though he passed all his classes. He struggles with standardized tests and wasn't able to pass one of the tests – and, no diploma. It enrages me if I think about it too much, lol.
I think you CAN use “ha ha” as a verb here. We’re in a whole new world of technology!!!! Yeah, you nailed it – it makes me feel disconnected. I still write out LOL and ha ha etc to most people.
Aww, thanks. You should be proud of how hard you worked and that scholarship! I mostly got As without trying because our school was so dumbed down so it does not mean much.
OMG! That is nuts that your brother does not have his diploma because of that! I am thinking (based on what I’ve heard from parents) that school may still be this way in some areas – so much focus on prepping for the tests. 😮 🙁
Trying to roll my eyes back to the front of my head after your not smart comment. Snister you are obviously very smart, regardless of what school you went to. I’m sure high school is different now for everyone than it was 15 years ago. I struggled in some of my classes at the same high school you went to, does that make me extra dumb? No – I just wasn’t as smart as you were at math, history, etc. I also had a hard time gaf. 🙂
LOL snis, I switched out of the classes that were too hard for me. I think I did that every semester. So you are not extra dumb. You are normal. But the stuff that was supposed to be hard for me was NOT and the teachers NEVER gave homework, or they did give us time to work on it in class. That was not always the norm 17 years ago! Students now have actual homework! I rarely did except those essays you typed for me. Maybe they stopped dumbing it down by your grade.
I know I am smart at some things. And def a smart ass 😉
Hooray for recognition at work!!! 🙂 Good for you.
Cool you were in theater in high school – so was I! What play were you doing with all those quirky costumes in the picture above?
I just re-read your blog about the trip to Cleveland and the infamous Lot H…I will keep my fingers crossed everything goes smoothly this time, now that you are in the know… 😉
Thank you 🙂
That was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I was Sneezy.
OMG Lot H. Never again. After that my boss said I could park right next to the airport, in the daily lot, which I do! However, when I got to CLE, they had moved the Lyft/Uber pick up area. LOL. Always something.
I totally feel you on the recognition at work thing. I got an INSANE (both in the amount-of-work-this-will-take sense and in the I-can’t-believe-I’m-being-asked-to-do-this sense) project dumped on me and my counterpart a week and a half ago that’s completely eaten up our working hours, and I don’t think either one of us has gotten so much as a thank you, never mind acknowledgement of how much work it’s been/how important it is. Meanwhile, someone in a totally different department gave me a virtual high five (that’s how we do public recognition here) for essentially typing out a sentence on Skype so they could figure out how to launch a program. *eye roll* I appreciate recognition for the small things, but recognition for the big things would make the work I’ve done at least feel acknowledged!
I found college to be MUCH easier than high school, but I think that was because of what I studied in college rather than an accurate representation of how hard my high school was vs. how hard my college was. I majored in English, and nearly everyone in the department was…unconventional in their approaches to education. Or at least unconventional compared to high school. I took two total English exams in my entire major. Obviously there was a lot of papers-instead-of-exams, but I had professors that straight up let you give yourself your own grade in their class, or pick how you wanted to be tested (do a project, take a written exam, write a paper, etc.) My Spanish and Communication minors were a bit more conventional in terms of tests, quizzes, exams, etc., but I don’t think I struggled even 25 percent as much as my friends who took math/science classes did, and not because I was so much smarter than them, but because my classes were SO much easier than theirs. I graduated summa cum laude with a great GPA, but I never felt like it really reflected anything, given how easy my English classes were. My GPA was actually exactly the same in high school as it was in college, but I feel like my high school GPA was more reflective of the effort I put in than mine from college, because I had to, you know, try in high school. Ha. I was the salutatorian of my high school class (darn you, that one A-!!), but I was way prouder of that than graduating summa cum laude. I kind of felt like an imposter for having such a good GPA in college, honestly, because I definitely didn’t work as hard for it as some people I knew. I mean, for goodness sake, I was allowed to give myself my own grades! That’s not the same as getting an A in organic chemistry, you know?
Oh man, I am sorry about the new big unreasonable project at work. That would leave me feeling panicky about how the hell am I going to get this done? I hope you do get recognition and especially, support. My recognition was for something very similar and special and it felt so good to have someone say “this was a mess and you figured it out and made it all happen,” etc.
Wow! What an interesting experience at your college! I think you should be proud, but I would be feeling the same way, when yeah, you got to give yourself your own grades and pick your own projects, and saw friends struggling with things that seemed so much harder! I wonder if that is similar for other English majors. Have you ever talked to any from other schools? (I excelled (or thought I did) at English in HS and needed help with it at my college because my prof was super intense. So, I respect your English skillz!)
I do the iPhone text trick when I want to acknowledge a text but not continue the conversation. It’s a good way to opt out.
OK having gone to high school with very intelligent people (I was not one, LOL) and having had my children go to high school, I think I prefer it the old way – you could be smart and take all the smartie classes you wanted, like physics and algebra (kidding…it was algebra 2 that did me in), but you weren’t under the amount of pressure that my kids were – if you took AP classes you HAD to do well or you were dropped and then you would never get into college and your life was ruined, according to my type A son. Plus, the old way allowed you to be in fun extracurriculars like plays and tennis and Spanish club. My kid never had time in his schedule for anything like that – band was it, and even then, he considered dropping it once to fit a class in.
Also, you are smart. I can tell by reading what you write. Don’t downplay your achievements – own them! 🙂
Ha, now that you say that, I can totally tell that is what these people are doing 😉
Ahh, good point about extracurriculars and getting to be a kid for a little bit longer. When HS is more like college, you are forced to grow up way too early! I am sorry it was that way for your son 🙁
Thank you! :-*
I’m in a group text with two friends who have iphones but I have android so I find the reactions to be distracting because they come through as a separate text with whatever the reaction was and an exact quote of the text they reacted to. It really muddies up the conversation on my end.
I wondered how that showed up to Android phones Sounds annoying!