So, looking at the drafts, I actually planned to write one of these reviews in February right before the We the People State finals. I guess I got sidetracked, but all in all, everything's worked out in the end for me.
Let's split this up by topic. I'm just going to keep writing whatever comes to mind; I'm bound to miss a few, but I can always make up for it by putting whatever I miss in a later review.
Anyway! First: college applications. It finally ended on March 30, when I heard back from the Ivies (Brown and Cornell). Let's go chronologically. My first response was from Cal (UC Berkeley) on February 10; I was accepted early to the College of Letters and Sciences as an Interdisciplinary American Studies major and a potential Regents scholar. As a Regents candidate, I got to interview with a Jewish studies professor (who suggested I go into law) and do an overnight program in the dorms with the other candidates (one of the most fun times I've had, everyone I met was chill and I love the community of Berkeley). Then, I was accepted to UC Santa Barbara (environmental sciences) and Davis (biotechnology) as a Regents scholar. I was later rejected from Swarthmore and waitlisted at Amherst and Haverford, but accepted at UCLA (environmental sciences). Finally, on March 30, I was rejected at both Cornell and Brown, but I was awarded the Regents scholarship to UC Berkeley.
Now that I have my list of schools, I have to decide by the end of the month. Last weekend, I had my interview for the UCLA Alumni Scholarship (haven't heard back if I was accepted yet, so I'm not sure about that). UCLA's Pilipino Recruitment and Enrollment Program is also flying me in for Bruin Life Weekend, which, coincidentally, is on my birthday and I think will be interesting. I'm using it to see how the community is at UCLA, but I think I'm set on being a Cal Golden Bear– the benefits from the Regents program are amazing, mainly priority registration.
Next: We the People! I'm proud to say that my unit is the best unit 5 in all of California. Our team, too, is the best team in California; we beat our rival school from our town pretty handily, but it was a toss up between the team from Southern California and us. To be honest, the only reason why we won was because the team from Southern California had one unit screw up pretty badly, which gave us the small point difference. Now, for the past few weeks, we've been prepping for nationals in DC in two weeks. We're the team representing California, but that team from SoCal is coming in as the wildcard. Once again, I'm not sure how it's going to go. Our goal is top 10 in the nation, but there was been some drama with the team that looks like its worked out. In short, I was pissed at the team wasting an entire week when our coach was sick, wrote an angry letter, got people pissed at me, had some discussions, and now it looks like we're good. For nationals, I feel like I should be studying more, but at the same time, I trust myself and my unit enough to know that whatever happens, we tried our best.
And that brings me into my next point. Remember that girl I went on a date with during winter break? I don't know if I mentioned it before, but she's on the rival school's We the People team. We went on a couple more dates after the state competition; one time, we went to a book store and an arcade, and another time, I cooked dinner for her and we watched a movie. After we saw the movie, we talked, and she told me that she doesn't want to date because we're both heading to college soon. I agreed, so we're just friends now. I still can never tell what she's thinking though; she's hard to read and isn't that big on conversations through text. We're going to keep hanging out, and I think we're going paintballing sometime soon. I might ask her to ball, too, who knows? Also, I've started hanging out with her comp civics unit; they know a hell of a lot of philosophy, and we need their help for stuff like free expression and equality and all that. Also there's the fact that they're all just very cool people in general. They came to our team fundraiser, my unit's hung out with them a few times to discuss stuff, and yesterday, one of them came to my house to watch movies with us.
Lastly, just some interesting stuff that's happened lately. I wasn't expecting it, but I'm the best mock trial journalist in California! It was a pretty interesting state competition (first time the team's gone together in the last 5 years), with a bit of drama which is going on now, but a good way to end the season. We're the 6th best team, which is amazing considering that we haven't been to state in such a long time. I've also gotten a job at a local ice cream shop, where we make rolled ice cream. It sucks sometimes because it gets ridiculously busy, some of the managers can be dicks, and scheduling isn't always that great, but it's pretty fun other times. We get free ice cream, the owner is a chill guy, and it's relatively decent pay ($11) compared to most other places which pay part time workers less.
I'm gonna keep writing reviews until school or summer ends, I haven't decided yet. This is going to be a record of my high school experience, so I don't want it to bleed into my college life; I'd probably make a new blog for that. But, until graduation or move-in day, I'll try to keep giving updates about what's happening and writing about tea. After all, there's still a ton of teas I need to review.
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