Favourite Underrated European Monarch

Wilhelm II.

First, I would like you to take note of his mustache. There are few men in the world, Hitler, Van Dyck, Stalin, whose mustache has become synonymous with their name and figure. Wilhelm is one of them. This alone is merit enough for a "favourite underrated" status.

Also, this guy is very eccentric. He referred to himself as "Emperor of the Atlantic" (and his contemporary Edward VII as "Emperor of the Pacific") in every day conversation. He would keep his ministers up at all hours lecturing on anything--Germany's greatness, the military, the importance of the navy, himself, etc, etc. One of his ministers, who was notable for being a royal suck-up to His Majesty, is said to have gone home (after schmoozing the king during these unendurably long nights), swear loudly, drink vodka or some other heavy liquor, and then sleep for 24 hours. He also tried to start many wars, especially one between England and Russia. After he became Emperor, he refused to wear anything but his military outfit. George V recorded in his journal how whenever forced to visit or accept a visit from Wilhelm, which was much too often for poor Georgie, he would dread it, only to breathe a sigh of relief once the crazy monarch left.

(Wilhelm is just so amusing, I'm doing  a terrible job enunciating the many ways in which I'm amused by him.)

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

--Leo Tolstoy

Adaptation, not Assimilation

So last Thursday was my last day of high school. I was not sad. I will not miss anything concerning my current high school. I'm done with it, I'm over it, I'm ready to leave this place. As the title says, I feel like I've adapted to my high school, but I have not assimilated. I don't feel like I'll be leaving anything behind, no immense sadness has come over me. I think it's important to make that distinction. Anything I'll miss about high school I already do; I left it behind in Michigan. It can be summed up as friends, quiz bowl, and AP Euro.

A friend of mine bought me skittles, some boy in my second block gave me his phone number and told me to text him....it was slightly awkward, but this is my life. (And I will not be texting him.) I talked to  more people in one day than in the past eight months that I've been at high school.

Onto bigger and better things. Please. Here's to hoping college is nothing like high school.

Summer Goal

Other than trying to prevent people from drowning, my goal this summer: memorize poems or at least lines of poetry.

I have this desire to be the kind of person who just quotes poetry.

I have Browning, Tennyson, Whitman, and Dickinson poetry books. This will be my starting point. But the first poem I must memorize: Musee des Beaux Arts by Auden. Good stuff.

Yeah, I'm still on my poetry kick. It might be here to stay. But no worries--I still have an undying love for novels. Did I mention how I got excited when I opened the essay section of my AP Literature and Composition test?

Alabama

I went to Alabama yesterday to help clean up the mess created by the tornadoes the past few weeks. It was humbling, devastating, and very eye-opening. I grossly underestimated the amount of damage a tornado does. It was crazy. We saw porches standing alone with no houses or trailers--the tornadoes had swept them away. So many trees had fallen; I spent the majority of the day clearing away wood and branches and leaves. Leah found a doll amidst the remains of a house that was demolished by a huge tree which fallen on it. The neighbor of this family we were helping had a daughter who had just bought a new trailer with her husband--both were killed in the tornado and their new trailer destroyed.

There was so much damage done, my gosh. It will probably take months to recover and you can't even fully recover from something like that.

I wonder how that tree stays standing at such a sharp angle...and the picture on the right looks like an earthquake went through and the tree was sitting right on the fault line.

Have you ever wanted to talk to someone about just everything that's going on right now, but you don't know who that someone would be and even if you do try, you don't think you'd be able to articulate yourself very well?

#Current_state_of_mind.

I just can't deal.

So prom this past weekend. It was pretty great. It exceeded my [low] expectations. The best part was seeing everybody, naturally. But after getting very little sleep, feeling stressed about APs, and not eating the healthiest, I now have a cold sore. Ughhhhh.

But the exhaustion I'm having as a result of staying up until 6 AM on prom night? Totally worth it. You Michiganders should feel so special.

I feel like May has come out of nowhere. Not that I'm unhappy it's here, because I'm actually elated that it's finally here. But everything seems to be happening all at once. Graduation, APs, new job, HSNCT!, college related deadlines, etc, etc. I have so much to think about, so much I don't want to do but need to do, and so much just constantly going through my head. I can't focus very well with all this stuff going on combined with an oncoming cold and constant exhaustion. I'm confused, I'm excited, I'm afraid, I'm sad, I'm grateful, etc. I can't take all these emotions. I am not an emotional type person. They're messing with my ability to function. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. (That was me constructively releasing a bit of my frustration.)

I'm really tired, and yet after I got off work, what did I come home and do? Make a powerpoint about Spencer W. Kimball and blog and get on facebook. I should delete my facebook. It's manipulating me, I swear.

What is happening to me? I self-studied an AP last year, and this year I can't even bring myself to study for APUSH. I blame Tennessee's schools and the fact that it's my senior year and the fact that I have all this stuff going on in my life right now. I just need a break....after APs. I can wait until next week.