287A — We made these memories for ourselves...

Today was my second-to-last "normal" day of my high school career. Despite this, however, it was far from normal. For one, it is May 20th, and yet it is still snowing outside, and I woke up to see snow on the rooftop and the deck, which was discouraging, to say the least. At the very least, I got a little inspiration to write a pretty low-quality poem about it, based entirely around the imagery of "white dust on rooftops in May", which is the first and best line of the poem:

white dust on the rooftops in May
as gray clouds drive the sun away

the traces of summer go to die
as little droplets start to fly

I guess that we will never know
when the end of snow will show

but for today I'll sit inside
and from the weather hide.

The first thing that happened this morning was a physical exam for MIT, which was much easier than I thought it would be but still kind of awful. First of all, I found out exactly how unhealthy my BMI is, in that it is below the 5th percentile line on a standard growth chart, which is exceptionally concerning. Second of all, I found out that I would be getting my quadrivalent meningitis booster and the first of two shots for the meningitis B vaccine, which was great. I also found out the TB test I would be getting also involved stabbing me, which was fun. This meant three shots on my dominant arm, which made the rest of the day a little rough.

This is not to mention the fact that the entire procedure requires me to go back on Wednesday, and that it still didn't last long enough to get me out of the class I didn't do the homework for. (For the record, that homework still hasn't been done, but that's why tomorrow morning exists.) After eventually finding a parking spot far, far away, however, Spanish was actually quite fun, as we watched the episode of the telenovelita we had just filmed, which was excellent. I moved from there to Orchestra, where we continued to play new music, and then home (forgetting to turn in a form, oops) to relax and complain about the fact that my arm hurt. (It still does.)

During this time, I agreed to do an interview for a news station about the SAT adversity score, which, as I discussed two days ago, I really don't think has that big of an impact, and so I don't really have a positive or negative feeling about it (apart from the fact that it wastes resources that could be used somewhere else). Despite this ambivalent view and my general distaste for cameras and appearing in news, I thought stating an opinion would be important, because one of the biggest problems in modern society is that the loudest voices are the people who are more extreme. This is not to say that I am a centrist—as can be seen in previous posts, and in general, I tend to lean hard left, but I believe in helping actual human people in effective ways above performative ideals. Maybe that's not the way to revolutionize societies writ large, but oh well.

In any case, I went from home to do teacher aiding for about twenty minutes before running to pick up my sister and then to the library to do the interview (and record random B-roll). I considered getting myself a library card as well, but decided against it. I can continue to borrow on my mom's library card for a while, I guess. It'd be nice to have my own to keep my books separate though. Hm...

After arriving home again, I don't remember doing anything except watching YouTube videos (I decided I would audition for Syncopasian at MIT, over some other acapella groups, although idk if I'm good enough). There was some reorganizing of to-do lists and workflows and whatnot, but eventually dinner arrived with the snow and lasted for while. I called a friend for a while afterwards, and then finished up approving my two papers. One item on the to-do list complete. Many more to go, before the year is out.

Tomorrow, the last "normal" day of high school. Probably a lot of writing and cleaning. A robotics open house! Exciting times!