August 17: Journal entry #2

JOURNAL ENTRY #2

My relationship with grades has been good as of late. During quarantine, I had quite poor grades which caused me a great deal of stress, and ever since then I've made a promise to myself that I will never put myself back in that position, and I stayed true to it. During quarantine, I was maybe a D+ student, but now I regularly have some of the highest averages in my classes. For example, last year I had the highest total average in my biology class.

My favorite memories of last school year would have to go to my time spent in civil conversations club. During my time at the club, I had the opportunity to meet many new people with beliefs that forced me to challenge my own and think critically about how I view the world, and how my ideal world would look and work. The conversations were almost always very engaging and at some points very difficult, but the best part of the club in my opinion was the opportunity to have one's own beliefs and ideals challenged in an environment that was both civil (as the name of the club suggests) and to a degree judgment free. If I had to credit one group or institution for my growth as a person in the last school year I would have to give it to civil conversations club.

Something that I love about school is the opportunity to attend very engaging and interesting classes where I have the chance to learn more about the world around me and engage with my peers about the information that is being taught to us. And that which I despise about school is the opposite of what I love about it. Having to attend extremely monotonous classes such as mathematics is nothing short of the bain of my existence. I find no interest in these classes, and the only highlight of the class is the end of it.

The main reason I am choosing to attend EMC is mainly that the format of the class piqued my interest from the moment I heard of it. I mean truly a class where you attend zero classes and create your own assignments? This would be like no other class I have ever or potentially would ever experience in my academic career, a truly unique experience. And the second reason I am choosing to attend this class is that I practically have been taking it my whole high school career. I find so much joy in simply learning about subjects that truly interest me, so attending this class wouldn't even be like attending a class for me, it wouldn't even really change my schedule, it would just be me indulging in one of my hobbies.