Start of senior year preceded by a busy summer

One guy from Charlotte had a moral philosophy blog, with articles like "Reductionist Views of Identity Avoid the Doomsday Argument." He had gotten into moral philosophy after prepping for state debate championships, which he won. He was also, bizarrely, extremely good at ultimate frisbee. Also at Governor’s School, and on the same campus, was Nathaniel Carswell, a fellow Freedom student, and math savant. Gov. Cooper showed up, and I got a chance to talk with him for a minute and shake his hand.

Governor’s School was such a good time, and academically challenging, but challenging in a fun way, not in an overbearing, hyper-rigorous way.

The rest of my academic focus this summer has been on college applications, scholarships, and preparing for the school year. It is unbelievable to me, but college applications are due in the coming months, with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill due in less than two months.

Some of these essay prompts are difficult, to say the least. One college’s prompt was “What brings you joy,” with a maximum word count of 50. Fifty words is much less than you think it is, especially for a topic so broad. In total, I am applying to 11 schools, with two safeties, one target (I think I can get in), and eight, ambitious reaches. Hopefully, I can update you all on my acceptance to a few of those good schools in the coming months.

In terms of a preview, for this coming school year, there is a lot, and I hope to interview some people around the school on their hopes and perspectives. But from a personal point of view, my academic workload will be significant. I am taking calculus in the fall and spring, honors English in the fall, AP English in the spring, and five other APs because I love taking APs. AP classes are the best-taught classes available at Freedom High School. Some of my favorite learning experiences at school have been during AP classes.

One of the biggest pluses of taking AP classes senior year is that the tests do not matter quite as much. I will already know where I am going to college by the time I take the test, much less get the results back. Where previously there was some added pressure, there now is a more relaxed internal mental state.

I would like to interview some more of our athletic staff this year. Other than my panic writing after we somehow lost to Patton in basketball, I think I ignored most Freedom athletics. A big development in the Freedom v. Patton football rivalry is the dissolution of the Patton Football team, so I guess we win?

I am not sure who our rivals are now (East Burke maybe?) but that seems too easy of an opponent to be rivals with, like a rivalry between a windshield and a bug.

Either way, I am feeling confident about our athletic chances this year.

Summer reading this year was interesting. Since we had a test on the first day back on our summer reading, I pushed it off as long as possible. Last year, I did it quickly, which came back to bite me during the test.

This semester is British Literature, so I read "Frankenstein" (7/10), "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (8.5/10), "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (I cannot even rate this), and "Murder in the Cathedral" (6/10).

I read "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" first, and I was a big fan. Some of my classmates thought it repeated the same idea 1,000 times, but I thought it was well written, and while easy to understand, not overly simplistic. Next, I read "Frankenstein," and it was much better than I was expecting. I thought it was going to be an Olde English fest I would have to muddle through, but it was surprisingly modern in its writing and use of devices. Then I read "Prufrock," and it took me multiple read-throughs to grasp it, definitely a summer reading assignment. "Murder in the Cathedral" took a few stabs, and I liked it, but I did not find it world-changing.

That is a brief summary of some of my academic focuses over the past three months. I am really looking forward to this school year, my last at Freedom.