I Want People To Look Back And Say

Hey Do You Remember That Carly Kid? She Was Soo Cool!

Anyways I don't want this to be sappy and annoying so I have decided to let someone else speak for me. I think he pretty well sums up how I truly feel...this is a joke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLUeSf86v1E

I think my favorite part of this movie is the juxtaposition between who this kid is and who he wants to be. However sad, my nervous laugh had me rolling. Also, the perfect timing of the mom just got me. The facial expressions made the whole thing more thrilling as well. For such an emotional day, I thought everyone could use a laugh! Also, I treated Mondays blog as my big final goodbye. I do love you all though and have learned so so much even from last year to this year! Thanks for some find memories and funny stories! This may be my final goodbye with some of you seeing as though in 10 years I will be "living in Africa"! So to you I say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXFrQH5xa-Y&feature=fvst

These Are The Days

Dear Friends,

In light of our final days together, I thought I’d compose a list of what I will miss most about each of you next year! Although I have spend time with almost all of you in the A.P. English class room throughout the semesters…I am only going to address the 8^th period classmates I will end the year with! Let me say though, I have loved getting closer with all of the A.P. English students, and I really do believe we have formed a lifelong bond with this class!

Anywho…

Cat Cashy: Playing tag with how many/which school days we miss! We have failed each other as writing partners!

Carley Mader: You stopping mid discussion point with a “okay I’m just going to stop there”. Also waiting every single Monday to see if you would show up…never!

Katie Ciabotti: The random witty comments you blurt out that always seem to lighten the discussion mood, such as “She looks like a man”, “ I bet you’re a blogger Miss Serensky”

Meghan Shroyer and Jackie Shroyer: I know you hate being compared and lumped together, but the suddle fights you two get it still make me laugh to think about! You are both such amazing girls, cannot wait to watch you both in the Olympics.

Emily Hellwig: Not sure if you are aware, but there is an entire choreography to a discussion comment for you. I have it down to a science! It never ceases to put a smile on my face/distract me from your wise words.

Jimmy Boldt: Flashing Ms. Serensky. Period.

Kaleigh O’Hara: Watching Ms. Serensky get ready to tell you to “speak louder” followed by laughter (every time!) and rolling eyes.

John Shoemaker: Hilarious…I think my favorite was when you attempted an accent in IOBE

Hayden Dougherty: Walking out of class every single day looking at each other and saying “oh my gosh” and then ranting

Sarah Ross: “We can’t all be as organized as Ms. Serensky, Can we? Didn’t think so! HMM”

Mary Beth O’Neil: Let’s just say hiding in the bathroom…

Marc Goldsmith: “well…umm...Okay…not everyone dies” (your inability to speak actual words)

Nicola Zollinger: Contemplating your tactic for not speaking in ANY class discussions, when you always have such bright things to say

Sam Schiferl: You are the least cocky/ most likeable member of the dream team…I will miss that

Kyle Relyea: Watching you struggle to get a word in

Kelsey Buttler: Working with you every single quarter on a multiple choice team/making awkward noises and motions

Thomas Donley: The journal entries and Burberry glasses

Alex Kreger: Telling me that you were “surprised and impressed with” my writing! Also predicting that man to be a tranny!

Ms. Serensky: Having someone really push me to the point of cuckoo, but also give some really good laughs and memories along the way! Thanks for two amazing years!

-Carly

Its Just A Grand 'Ol Time!

These are not in ny particular order...

What I want to say:

1. People flash Ms. Serensky

2. As a class we openly fantasize about stuffing Ms. Serensky in a closet with Harriet Jacobs

3. You learn how to cut people off

4. You get a lot of candy…more than anyone could have imagined

5. You play games with sirens and lights

6. You become fluent in “Quoting” and switch between that and English daily throughout class

7. MORE QUOTE SHEETS

8. Ms. Serensky daily makes fun of people

9. Ms. Serensky transforms you into up and coming famous bloggers!!

10. You get to hear really random people sing in front of the class for “Bobbie’s Blog Banter”

What I should Say:

1. It prepares you really really well for college…at least I am told.

2. There’s no other feeling in the world like walking into an A.P. test 100% sure you will pass.

3. You learn more in depth of books then even the authors knew/know.

4. Gives you something to do in your “free time”-that phrase is a nail biter at this point.

5. You get to buy a really cool journal?

6. You learn how to jab in hard hitting comments, or if speaking during discussions doesn’t work out for you, you learn how to sit silently through a 50 minute class.

7. By the time you turn in your first data sheet, everyone is so delirious that it makes for some good stories.

8. You can bring it up anywhere, with anyone, at any time, and people will either freak out (non-AP), or it will turn into a lengthy conversation (A.P.)

9. You get to spend some quality time with Ms. Serensky.

10. Its WAYYYY more fun than A.P. English 11

This A.P. Test We Blog About...

...ITS THURSDAY

Chief Bromden: (About me) She appears, “sulky and hating everything, the time of day, the place [she’s] at here, the people [she’s] got to work around” (Kesey 3).

Algernon: “That is not very pleasant” (Wilde 7).

Gogol: (about the test) “I don’t get it…what’s the point?” (Lahiri 99).

Chief Bromden: Yeah those tests weren’t easy, “Being half Indian…helped me all these years” (3).

Algernon: “My dear fellow, it isn’t easy to be anything now-a-days. There’s such a lot of beastly competition about” (Wilde 7).

Gogol: “I guess so. It doesn’t matter” in the end though (Lahiri 139)

Chief Bromden: What about that man with the long white beard patrolling the isles, “he’s making everybody over there feel uneasy” (Kesey 18).

Algernon: “Perfectly phrased! And quite as true as any observation in civilized life should be” (Wilde 16).

Chief Bromden: “It’s all a test” (Kesey 56).

Algernon: “I think it has been a great success” (Wilde 30).

Gogol: “I should go “(Lahiri 136).

Algernon: “I will communicate with you daily” (Wilde 18).

The Importance of...(Que The Ever Spontaneous College Thoughts)

I believe the Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, has been my favorite thus far. I found the story humorous, and the characters realistic. Miss Serensky prophesized, “this is going to be IT for us, I really do think so”. Well this “is IT”, in more ways than one. I do think as a class we really got into it and understood it, but it also acted as our last book of our High school careers and our first book out loud. I thought to myself from the start, “we are going to be very good friends” (23). And that love for the book did not turn to hate at any point, as it did for The Namesake and many of the others. I also did learn a bit about “The Vital Importance of being Ernest” (54). Not really… nor did any of the characters! But I guess all of us can identify with the white lying that takes place, or “Bunburrying”, throughout the play (38). What I did love, in all honesty, was the theatrical side of it, seeing how people portrayed characters and how they did with cold readings. I hope the A.P. prompt applies to this book in a somewhat manageable manner! HAHAHAHA Look below!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Top Ten!

1. Speaking in front of the school as a “Poetry Out Loud” finalist my sophomore year! Even though I didn’t win it, or go any further in the competition, speaking acted as, “simply something to put on” my resume for college applications (Lahiri 29).

2. Receiving my first A on an A.P. English 11 assignment. I thought no way possible for me to get A’s on assignments. I normally get back essays and such and, “frown; as usual, there’s something missing” (Lahiri 1).

3. Having Mr. Immarino come into a class to tell me I was a “Student of the Semester”. Well. I guess that changed my perspective on teachers, “they aren’t monsters” (Kesey 59).

4. Opening up my acceptance letter to Syracuse University, I will never forget that moment! It felt like dreaming, I was me, in the dream, and then again kind of like I wasn’t me-like I was somebody else that looked like me (Kesey 112).

5. Listening to Mr. Salyers speak about Africa…every single day. Inspiring, but also really heart breaking that “This world…belongs to the strong”, when so many people remain so weak all around the world (Kesey 64). I must say however, I am nervous going into an A.P. test that focuses on America…not Africa.

6. Making the Blog Banter for my first time. Although I must confess, it was a letdown when I made it for my pictures and not my actual writing. but still I made it, “I call that business” (Wilde 3).

7. Facing Thomas in the note card, character debate for Everything Matters. I mean really, “I should just k-k-kill myself” (Kesey 68).

8. Getting asked to join the “Super Intendent’s Advisory Committee”. I thought to myself, “That wouldn’t at all be a bad thing” (Wilde 6).

9. Finishing my very first Data Sheet in A.P. English class. After working nonstop on the homework for days I just sat by the computer, “eyes filling with tears.”I cannot”” do this I repeated (Lahiri 6)! The pain did subside eventually though, and putting that book of a project on Ms. Serensky’s desk felt so rewarding!

10. Watching “Cane Toads” in A.P. Environmental Science. That movie was just plain old strange. I guess the focus was on invasive species. These Cane Toads completely took over towns, with graphs and scientific projections the narrator explained, “What could happen to them someday” (Kesey 18).

For Our Extremely Necessary However Hated Daily Dose of POETRY

Poem: sestina

Book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Well although I HATE poetry papers with all of my heart, I do love poetry! My favorite of the bunch I honestly will have to say was “Sestina” by Elizabeth Bishop. I’m not just saying that because it came up on the multiple choice test we took. I especially remember the poem because of the many different ways few people interpreted it. First off, the almanac and marvelous stone that randomly speak to each other add so much craziness to an altogether plain and domestic scene. I mean, “there’s something strange about a place where” objects predict things and grandparents cry (49)! The speaker manages to make this child seem strange, when really the child only, “acts like a child” (34). I also can relate to the grandmother. I never want my cousins, or the little kids I babysit, to know when I am sad. Any time I cry it either started with laughing or ends with someone making me laugh in order to feel better. Its like sometimes I forget, “what laughter can do” (95). Laughter can brighten up anyone’s day! I love all of the little things about the poem as well, the repetition of “tears”, the personification, and metaphors. Sestina makes for a great, short, poem!

A Good Chat and A Long Lasting Sucker

I walked into class thinking we once again would have a long, stressful, graded discussion. Well I can definitely say that “It’s not what I thought it would be” (Lahiri 252). I walked into not a semi circle but a full, closed, circle of desks. Ms. Serensky had us take a seat, and then she had a seat among us. She passed out lollipops! Ms. Serensky giving us suckers? This was all so crazy, we didn’t have to get an A on some crazy assignment, no favorites, just candy for all! She slowly and delicately approached the topic of herself, or more specifically why she is the way she is. She started off by explaining how “This world…belongs to the strong”, and how for the longest time she wasn’t a strong student or writer (Kesey 32). Various teachers influenced her writing skills, but one college professor in particular pushed her to a sense of accomplishment. As I sat there listening, I imagined the whole situation, I couldn’t help but compare it to me in her class. Every day she pushes me creatively, technically, and personally. She described her frustration, determination, and the hundreds of papers it took to even get a glimpse of recognition. Ms. Serensky admitted “I am very sorry for all the trouble I have given you”, but that it all had an eventual that we would someday learn to appreciate (Wilde 28)! What an idea, up until then I cannot say I thought I believed Miss Serensky to care too much about us as individuals. But hearing that she cannot watch us get papers back because she can see the disappointment, or how she genuinely enjoys reading our blogs because it gives us insight into our actual lives and personalities. I hate all of the different relationships I have in life. There’s family, friends, teachers, coaches, youth groups, camp buddies, etc, and sometimes I can feel like I am living multiple lives. But during this one English class, I didn’t sense any competition or anxiety; we were all just people sitting in a circle with other people. So thank you so much to Ms. Serensky for timing that day out so perfectly and really bringing yourself down to our level. It has gone down as my most impacting and favorite day of A.P. English 12 thus far!

Shutting Down The System-Internally

Confidential

The following notes I have taken down personally throughout private patient therapy sessions with Mr. Ashoke Ganguli

-Dr. Spivey

First session-

Doctor: Hello there Ashoke, I am Doctor Spivey, the primary overseer of this mental facility. Nice to meet you, now I see here on what Nurse Ratched has given me, you were just admitted this morning, is that correct?

Ashoke: Yes

Doctor: Alright well just a few essential questions to start off with. First of all, I was wondering if you’ve had any previous psychiatric history. Any analysis, any time spent in and other institutions? (46).

Ashoke: No

Doctor: Okay and tell me about your family, any children?

Ashoke:”No. A mother and father and six siblings. I am the eldest” (16).

Doctor: Grand! Well could you explain how you ended up here? You seem perfectly sane to me, Mr. Ganguli.

Ashoke: To be completely honest Doctor, I am here to help out a friend. I moved to America a few years ago from India. Very shortly after my arrival I met a Mr. McMurphy, do you know him?

Doctor: Oh yes, he’s a good friend…I mean (cough). Long time patient here, that boy, causes quite a ruckus on the ward.

Ashoke: Okay well, he helped me and my family out. He introduced us to people, told us what foods to put together things of that matter. Then all the sudden I hear he’s in a “mental institution”. It made me nervous so I wrote him. He wrote back saying he neaded a favor. This woman you speak of “Nurse Ratched” has made his life a living hell. Mac told me he needed me to get in here that taking care of this woman was a two man job.

Doctor: Excuse me, “I’d like to interrupt a moment if I might”, you do know I work closely with Nurse Ratched (108)?

Ashoke: He told me you would say this. I know there’s a part of you that wants to get rid of her though. I’m thinking this two man job could take a third force-internal. You would be perfect for the job. If you say no Doctor, I will respectfully have to deny this conversation happened, and carry out the plan with McMurphy. Do realize how much fun this could be, what else is there to do? I mean I’m gonna get real weird with it, play some mind games, really shut this woman up. What do you think?

Doctor: Oh no Ashoke, I am in, “why I’ve got a million ideas…” (109).

The Attack of Burberry...Glasses

From the mangled thoughts of Chief Bromden

It is awful as soon as I enter through the door! In the room, A.P. English discussion appears on the board with calculated scores to aim for. The chairs have been placed in a semi circle…so that everyone stares at each other. I’m never much of a talker, even when I really am passionate about a topic, so I had gone in to this Ms. Serensky and tried to work something out for participation points. She said “figure it out” and left it up to me to either reach for the grade or take a zero. So here I am my first day in class, silent, “they think I’m deaf and dumb. Everybody does” (3). The book they discuss, Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, bores me. Not only that, but these kids tear her character apart piece by piece, until she is a pile of paper shrills that lay on the floor in the center of the circle. I sometimes think they will tear me apart into paper shreds. Thomas Donley, who resembles wears glasses “just because”, doesn’t know I am onto his devious ways. Nobody wears glasses for fun, in those lenses; Thomas can see an entirely different universe. He can seek out the fear in me with his x-ray vision, and communicates with Ms. Serensky’s mind to know what she will say before she says it. I notice this today for the first time, I can tell by the way he looks through the lenses and then tilts them down and looks from above them. As the discussion goes on, and my points reach the negatives, I become more and more afraid. If one person senses my fear, the entire pack will approach me. I make lens contact with Thomas, “I try to keep from getting scared, try to keep my thoughts off someplace else” I think of Ms. Ashkettle’s class and the fun carefree freshmen reading I loved (6). I sink slowly into my chair, deeper and deeper. I sink so deep, I think people will begin to wonder where I have gone. The bell rings. My heart begins to race. I leave class with no participation points. Everyone thinks I am deaf. Thomas analyses my thoughts through his Burberry glasses. Ms. Serensky glides by with no made eye contact. I have failed the discussion and my fellow countrymen. I want to tell someone of the horror, but how will they reply? I will tell them, “You think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! …It is the truth even if it didn’t happen” (8). Until tomorrow’s discussion.

McMurphy Makes a Come Back on C.C. Talk

McMURPHY

VERSUS

SERENSKY

[(The following is an interview between I and a Mr. McMurphy. McMurphy has had a very interesting and adventurous life however; he seems to talk of only one thing, his A.P. English 11 class. His distinctive classmates and teacher made for an altogether different experience. Here is what he had to say:)]

Carly: So McMurphy, I can call you McMurphy right? Considering your experience with a fair share of loons, who was the craziest?

McMurphy: Easy Shmeasy there were a few psychos on the ward, Nurse Ratched topped them. The craziest though, brings me back to my high school days. A group actually, the classmates in my A.P. English 11 class. You see I was a transfer student and when I moved into a new school my Junior year, all I heard was how crazy and cult like the A.P. English classes were. I decided to find out for myself. So I went to one of those classes, and those dang kids had me fooled. I even told them, “you boys don’t look so crazy to me” (19). It was all mind games though…time and mind games, they were the craziest.

Carly: So out of all the Acutes, Chronics, and staff you came across at the Ward, none lived up to those kids? Wow they must have had a destructive leading force…tell me about the teacher!

McMurphy: Well for a long time I have been “accustomed to being to being top man”, but in comes this woman named Bobbie something or other who thinks she’s gonna stomp all over my pride (21). I put up a good fight but for a long time but she had all these mind tricks in hand. She would have us do homework for one reason, but really it was for another, she had us relate to invincible fictitious characters and then she would clobber us down with hours of writing. I couldn’t figure her out enough to mess back.

Carly: Writing, homework, sounds like a normal teacher to me…

McMurphy: No No No! That’s just it, after class me and the other kids would go complain and explain to our other teachers how she was awful. They would respond by mocking us, even defending her intent. So eventually all of us were the crazy ones.

Carly: Well…did you ever try to play her game of manipulation?

McMurphy: Yeah but “she was plenty willing” to play right on back…and better (45).

Carly: Alright well calm down! We actually have a surprise for you today. Audience please welcome to the stage the only Bobbie Jo Serensky.

(Screams, clapping….tears. McMurphy runs off stage)

(Serensky snickers repeating “simultaneous disappointment)

Its About Time That I Address Some Very Important People...

Who? I will for lack of better words refer to them as “FUN SUCKERS”. These people suck the fun (even momentarily) out of my life. Now many of these people I admire, or even am related to, but sometimes the people closest to us suck the most fun out of us. How so, you may be asking. There are many ways fun suckers suck fun. I have for organizational reasons, compartmentalized them by tactic. If you have any prominent suckers of fun to add to the ever growing list, feel free to add them! With each fun sucker, I have given an example of a fun suck.

Buzz kill-ers

1. Miss Serensky- “Could someone pass out the journals please”

2. Mr. Hamid-“You actually do have rehearsal tonight”

3. Tina Moran-“You look like you just raised from the dead”

4. Mom-“I will get to go to the red carpet for one of you someday (Corey and Casey)maybe you can take the pictures Carly

5. Kids I babysit-“You are the meanest worst babysitter in the world…ever”

6. Thomas Donley-“My SOAPSTone is 56 pages, how many is yours?”

7. Mom-“Corey is my favorite child, he’s going to be famous someday”

8. Mary Beth-“ I can’t picture you at Syracuse it’s just not YOU”

9. Random Senior- (Throws bosco-stick at me during sophomore lunch)

Guilt Trippers

1. Mr. Hamid-“Guys sorry I am not that calm...my wife is pregnant”

2. Ms. Serensky-“I am doing this for you…you are becoming smarter people right now”

3. Paula (director of the musical)-“alright, well it wasn’t awful”

4. Girls at the lunch table staying in state for college-“ I just don’t want to put the pressure of a $50,000 a year school on my parents, it’s not fair

School Staff

1. Ms. Serensky-“no books for the in-class tomorrow”

2. Student email-“You have one unread message from Bobbie Jo Serensky”

3. Ms. Salyers-“SERIOUSLY? Why are you guys not studying”

4. Mrs. Serazin-“The pictures we submitted to Governor’s art show will definitely be back in time for spring art show, there’s not way they will make it past states, that never happens”

5. Mrs. Salyers-“it’s a big test, really big, good luck”

6. Mr. Hamid-“The rave cannot be April 9^th that is the week before Tech week for the musical”

7. Mrs. Hancock- “Does it look like Mr. Immarino is busy?”

8. Mrs. Wooden-“You are not allowed to leave unless I speak to a parent”

9. Mr. Thompson-“So I know the school breathalyses, but what do you guys think about bringing in drug dogs?”

So to all of the fun suckers, I just wanted to acknowledge your fun sucking in a calm and collected manner. Stop fun sucking! Thank you.

I Better Get Started Now

I have seen so many people blogging this week about their childhood. Then again, this paper due tomorrow has me thinking about my future, and age. It’s crazy for me to think about only having 19 years left in life. Truth is though; it could only be ten, 1, maybe even one day, or hour. Life really is about living each moment, conversation, and relationship as if it’s our last. I don’t know if Ms. Serensky really wanted to pick apart our brains with this paper, but I have. I have struggled with keeping my paper real, while making it unique. If I simply say I want to travel the world…I will have the same paper as at least 5 other people. There are so many things I want to do, fitting it onto one paper, is like fitting all of those things into nineteen years, impossible! I have always been big on lists, to-do lists, not to-do lists, already accomplished lists. So this list is my sort of bucket list. There are so many things I want to do with my life, so many people to inspire, and help, and love!!So since I am assuming we won’t read each other’s papers, here is the ever growing list of things I WILL do before I die: (My actual Bucket list, is about 327 ideas long at this point, but below are some of the most important/exciting)

· Go to every country in Africa, even if for a day

· Help build the second school building at the “Every Orphan’s Hope” orphanage in Zambia

· Travel out of the country once every year after graduating from college

· Build an orphanage and school in Zambia…apart from the EOH in Lusaka

· Work an internship with TOM’s Shoes

· Do Peace Corps for a full term

· Travel to Peru, India, Italy, Poland, Rome, Paris, London, and China

· Go to Syracuse

· Get hired officially by National Geographic as a photographer

· Open my own Photography studio in New York City

· Meet Adele and Sia in person

· Have a sit down conversation with Meryl Streep or Kristen Wiig

· Go to SNL live

· Get married in Disney world-with a white horse drawn carriage

· Try on at least 100 wedding dresses

· Do an underground Disney internship

· Work at Disney work as a face character

· Go to Disney world on vacation every year with my family once I have kids

· Have at least three kids with the names: Stella, Briliegh, Brielle, Tarpley, Nella, Cole, Parker, Josiah, Lacy, Tenley, Lena, or Ila

· Adopt two kids from the orphanage I worked at in Lusaka, Zambia

· See all seven world wonders

· Speak a fluent second language

· Get certified in scuba Diving

· Be Time Magazine’s Person of the Year

· Publish a Children’s book

· Sleep in Cinderella’s Castle

· Honeymoon at The Homestead in Virginia, or at The Grand Weilea in Maui Hawaii

A little unrelated....but this is what I will be like in my 80's/90's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQuI4G7ZZfw&feature=fvst

Oh Crap! I Have to Live In A Room With Another Person? This Won't Work...

Above: HELLO KITTY HELL

So with all of this college talk, I am starting to FREAK OUT! I already know I am in and going to Syracuse, but there is so much to think about!

· Where will my friends go?

· Will we all still talk?

· Will all of my stuff fit in the room?

· What the freak will my roommate be like?

That last one has me on edge, especially with this new movie highlighting the worst possible roommate. So I have been thinking up my worst possible roommate. My parents asked me to describe her on our visit to Syracuse last weekend. I responded with the following, any combination of even two of these could accumulate into a room catastrophe<(Sorry for the awkward spacing but I cannot figure it out)

· Extreme girly girl

· Extreme tomboy

· Likes cats

· Has a pink room theme

· Wants to coordinate the room (under no circumstance will this EVER happen)

· Has a long distance boyfriend who she insists on talking to all the time

· Majors in interior design

· Gets up any time before 9:00 am by choice

· STEALS MY CLOTHES

· Steals anything….

· Has obnoxious parents that visit the room often

· Criminal

· Cannot speak English

· Went to Chagrin

· Majoring in English/corrects me on my grammar like my mother does

· Tries to act like my mother

· Plays video games

But then I realized… despite my initial OCD with order and cleanliness, give me a semester and the room will be trashed. I will be talking to friends on the phone. My mom and dad will constantly be stopping by with little treats and tickets for basketball games. I might get back into Barbie Beauty Shop-I mean come on girls, those were the days. If I pretend like I can actually speak Chinese, which I’m into right now, I will do it all the time in the room. With this whole tribal Africa mindset, my obsession with safari animals could eventually dull down into cats. My zebra/Cheetah room theme could be taken in the more rocker sense then in the I’m an Africa freak! My late night skype-ing habits sometimes even drive me crazy, but there are just so many people to keep up with. If I see a cute shirt in Sally Sue’s closet, I mean I will ask, but hey double the wardrobe double the fun right? Anyways, I guess we all are the worst roommate to someone right? It’s all about letting people be different, and not turning into a control freak. Luckily for me, Syracuse has this genius room called a split double where a small wall intersects the room into half. That should do the job, but for now, I’m freaking out!