People from Irvine, Old & New

Why does it seem like, no matter what, the people I meet in Irvine are sad in some way or another? Back when I lived there, there was Marie. I hope she's alive and well, and I'm sorry didn't realize she was suicidal and try to help her.

In my SAT class, there's a girl named Alice, who's really nice and friendly, but I learned she used to be suicidal. She's ok now, and I couldn't have guessed she used to be depressed that way. I found out because she talked about it in the essay she wrote last week.

And then there's Hide. He's great at math, but for some reason, he can't do the same in writing, and he knows it, so he says it all the time, which is part of his problem. Mr. Andrew paired us up to work together to write a response to the question, "Do you think heredity or environment plays a greater role in shaping a person?" and I started by asking him what he thought. First, he said he thought heredity played a greater role, but he decided to write about environment because it would be easier to write about. I told him if he thought heredity played a greater role, he should write about it. So he changed his mind back to heredity, but then decided in the end to go with environment. I didn't care, so I went along with it; besides, I was suppose to help him improve his writing anyway.

I made Hide come up with examples, and somehow we got to talking about how our family influences us.
Hide: We I was little, I only got praise from my parents if I got a perfect score on something. Anything less was unappreciated, so if you ever have children, you should praise them for anything they can do.
Me: ...yeah.
I know, my response was totally stupid. But anyway, the way he said that was just sad. I really want to help him write better now, especially since he's a senior and he's taking the SATs before anyone else in the class. But I really don't know how to teach how I write. I usually have a quote or two from literature or from someone, I include a personal experience, and I refer back to my opening statement in the conclusion. The rest...just comes.

Then, after class, I went into another room to wait for my mom to pick me up, and a girl named Katherine was already there. She just started 7th grade at Vista Verde, which is a year round school, and she told me how she got put into these classes that are too hard for her and she doesn't want to take them, but her mom makes her. Katherine was really, really nice. I talked with her for a while about her classes and stuff, which seem so easy now, and she's just a brilliant kid. She dragged me to check out what movie the other kids were watching in the other room even though I didn't really care. It turned out it was Harry Potter, so then we stuck around and watch until I left. I hope I see her again.

Meanwhile, I've been getting 5s on all my SAT essays, and Mr. Andrew is not helping me bring it up. On Monday, he went around the class and asked everyone if we were putting in effort into the class. I said no, even though I am putting in effort. It's just that if I put my mind to it, I could do so much more, but realistically, it's summer and I don't have the time. Okay, those are excuses, I admit it. Then today, Mr. Andrew said that for the people who admitted they weren't putting effort, he wouldn't help us either. I talked to him about my essay, and he corrected some general stuff, but he didn't give any useful advice when I asked him how to bring it up to a 6 (which is the highest score).

I know, I have to change. Ugh. Right, here's what I'm going to do, because if don't write it down, I don't usually do it:
tomorrow: I have to do all of ch.3 for US, and volunteer at the library.
Sunday: Hopefully finished math, although I doubt I can do all of, and volunteer at the library again.
And sometime this weekend, I have to look over the SAT books my dad checked out for me and look at the rubrics and review the vocab we've been doing. The last two weeks, I got in the mid 1900s on both practice tests, and by the time I'm done with the course, I hope I can improve to 2240, which is what Harvard requires. I don't care if I go to Harvard, I just think that if 2240 is good enough for them, it should be good enough for everwhere else in the US.