About Me!!!

This post's prompt is supposed to be "Describing Myself." In my opinion this is an incredibly difficult thing to write about. It's impossible to write about oneself without sounding: a) irresolute and insecure or  b) egocentric. But, since I don't have much of a choice, i'll try my best to remain as neutral and honest as possible.

So I guess the first thing to describe would be my physical attributes. My looks aren't anything special. I don't have eight noses, or purple hair, nor do I have an extra finger or any tattoos. I'm simply a tall, slightly tubby, olive- eyed, blondish-brownish haired teenager.  There is nothing much beyond that.

^In case you didn't know, i'm the crazy person on the right. 

 Now I can get into the good stuff. When I hear someone say "Describe yourself" I tend to concentrate more on personality and what I like, rather than concentrating on the classic "head to toe" appearance summary. And while describing appearance is merely a matter of putting a solid image into words, describing personality is a little more complicated.

I just talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and...

I guess i can start with one of my biggest attributes... I am loud. Not necessarily i talk allot (I've heard that i do, but you can be the judge of that) or that I speak with a high volume ( throughout grade school I was constantly reminded to use my "indoor voice"), but just my whole personality is loud. I'm not one to sit down and watch as life flutters on by. I am pretty eccentric. NO, I do not go skydiving and bungee jumping whenever i have the chance. What I do is I make a big deal over a lot of the things  I do. Doesn't make very much sense, does it? Let me use an example. I recently finished reading the "Mortal instruments" book series (DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THESE BOOKS!!!). A movie will be coming out soon based on the first book. Me being... well... me, I have been getting very worked up over the soon-to-be motion picture. I've complained to friends about how disappointing the movie is based on the trailer, and i've been internally debating whether or not i should go and watch. I'm sort at war with myself, i can't decide if i should be excited or upset or not care at all!? Now, i'm sure this is totally normal, but this is how i act with every situation. I'm not bipolar or anything, i just get really excited about things (I guess you could say I am "excited about life.") And the only way to express my ardor for  life is to talk about it :)

I am also VERY indecisive. When people offer me a choice of pizza toppings or what movie to watch, i have an idea of what i like. But as soon as i am offered/ slightly convinced that something better is out there, i lose it. I don't know why, I don't know how, all i know is that making decisions is INCREDIBLY hard for me.

The last thing one should know about me is that I swim.

I don't want to post any pictures of me swimming (I LOVE swimming, but not how i look while im swimming) SO here is a pretty picture of some random pool somewhere in the world :)

No, i don't just go to the beach and sit in the water (well, i do, but that's not what i mean when i say i swim.) I am part of a swim team. I've been swimming competitively since i was about eight years old. But i have been in the water since i was three or four. Swimming is a HUGE part of me. I LOVE the water. I love how swimming makes me feel. I love where swimming brings me, and who swimming lets me meet. I am extremely devoted to swimming, i don't think i could ever trade it for another sport. I could go ON and ON about why i like swimming, what it's done for me, all the awesome experiences I've had, but the post would be so long, you'd have to wait a couple hours for it to load. So instead of boring you people to death (if a future prompt will allow it, i'll definately go into the swimming aspect of my life) i will sum everything up into one short sentence.
Swimming is Awesome.

Alrighty, so that's it for now. I've got my required 600+ words! So i shall go now! Thanks for reading :)
-V

3 Goals/ Resolutions I'd like to accomplish this school year!

Another Summer vacation has flied by. Once again I am back in school, this time as a Junior. Last year, i would say, was a pretty successful year. I finished sophomore year with fairly good grades, received a 4 on my AP U.S. History exam, and managed to keep my swim practices consistent. I guess i can say that i accomplished nearly everything i wanted to do. 

But It's a new year, so enough about the past!

Although I have a lot of goals for this year (Good Grades, Successful AP exams, getting super rich and famous with minimal amounts of work) I have 3 goals that i don't normally think about too much.

A photo of the pool I swam in Barcelona

First Off, I want to get better at swimming. Out of all my goals this one will be the most simple to achieve. It’ll be a lot of work, hard practices, watching what I eat, being careful when playing other sports, but I know I can do it. I just want to get faster, more powerful, more efficient.  Hopefully, if I work hard enough I can make to the 2014 DOHA Swimming Championships. After being in Barcelona for the World Championships, I want nothing more than to return to the world of international swim meets. The experience is awesome! BUT it takes a whole lot of work to make it to these kinds of events, and although the swimming isn’t very popular in the CNMI, there are a lot of eligible swimmers who work just as hard as I do. So, in order for me to be able to go to DOHA, I’ll have to drop some time and intensify my swimming. Fortunately (like I said earlier) this goal is totally achievable, it just requires some self- discipline.

On the flip side, my next goal doesn’t really require much discipline. It’s more of a courage- based thing. CLIFF DIVING.

CLIFF DIVING LOOKS SO AWESOME!

While in Barcelona (Hmm… it seems Barcelona really inspired me over the summer) I watched Men’s 27 meter platform diving. It is the first time FINA has sponsored this event, and it’s pretty crazy. Most of the guys who were doing these freakishly high dives are “extreme cliff divers.” I got to meet some of the athletes and watch videos of the jumping of tall cliffs and I fell in love with the idea of trying it. UNFORTUNATELY I am a chicken. So I would probably have to start off with a really small cliff. Being able to cliff dive would not only make me feel like I did something extreme and awesome, but it would also sort of help me prove to myself that I’m not a coward, and that I can do anything.  Cliff diving would be an awesome, mind-blowing and a somewhat educational experience. And, if I could just find a good- not to high- cliff this would be a pretty easy goal to achieve too.

This last goal isn’t very difficult, but it is slightly complicated (does that make sense?) I want to volunteer to work with unfortunate kids.

Just one of the many children's charities from
 around the world (this one helps with kid's vision )

Either a “big sister” /mentor program , or maybe assisting a children’s psychologist. I don’t really know why I want to do this. I guess helping out kids would just make me feel good about m self (I sound like an angel, don’t i? Haha, I wish!) I mean, working with kids has always been something I’m interested in. And although I’m not sure about what I want to study when I go off to college, I’m definitely considering children’s psychology or just general health.  I guess working with kids who are not in the best situations would make me happy because I could get to see the joy on a child’s face when they see that they are being cared for. It would also be nice to have some experience in the field before going off to college. Unfortunately for me, in Saipan we don’t really have homes or orphans. We do have a women’s and children’s shelter, but I have no idea how to get in contact with them. But it’s okay, where there is a will there is a way… right?

Well that’s it for now, i need to move on and get some other homework done (WHY DO TEACHERS GIVE US HOMEWORK ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL… WHY?)

-V