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Blog # 10 - Track & Field

I joined track my freshman year of high school.  It was a last-minute decision and I just made the cutoff before the season started. I joined track because my dad told me stories about his experience in track and how he wanted me to try it and see if it was a good fit for me. I was very nervous to join because I didn’t know anybody on the team yet and I was also very shy. I have always been prone to leg injuries, in my freshman years I had a hamstring injury and a knee injury. That was also when I was told I had plantar fasciitis. Over the summer I did the track summer camp they had and it was so hot. But I went each day and even tried to learn how to pole vault.  However, pole vaulting wasn't in my future because I was too scared to throw myself into it. 

In my sophomore year, I joined the cross country team to fill my time before the track season started again. I thought it would be a good way to stay in shape and I loved the dynamic of being on the team.  I was not very good at long distances and I got a stress fracture in my foot that put me in a boot and it had me out for the entire season. I am honestly happy I never ran in a race because it probably would’ve been brutal since distance running is not my thing. I didn’t make it very far into the track season that year before we were cut off early due to covid. This was difficult to accept because I had been looking forward to working on my speed and having an opportunity to compete. 

In my junior year, I participated in the pre-season for track but the actual season continued to get pushed farther and farther into the summer. I was nervous about running in the heat with a mask on because I have asthma that is made worse by humidity. I decided to forgo the season and I will always regret that decision.

Now in my senior year, I am back on the team and I participated in the preseason to get my body used to running again. I was also participating in the school play so I couldn’t go to every practice but I went to every single one that I could when I was available. Unfortunately, I ended up getting extremely bad shin splints that make it difficult to run.  I continue to deal with today and was already benched for 3 weeks while I attempted to heal.  I have been back and run in a few races over the last few weeks but the shin splints are flaring again and I am sitting at my meet waiting to compete in the 100 and 200-meter dashes and hoping I can push through. I have worked with my trainer and we have tried everything to make the pain at least bearable. There isn't a cure for shin splints, other than rest and anti-inflammatory meds which is so frustrating.

I am so happy I decided to join the track team even though I have spent the majority of my time injured. I wish I was able to participate at the level I want to.  I would not trade the experiences of being on this awesome team for the world. 

[tpwk-giannablog]

Blog #9 - Fandoms

If you know me you know that I am a total fangirl. I love everything about TV shows, movies, music, and celebrities. When I find a TV show that I love like The Vampire Diaries I binge-watch the whole thing as fast as possible and then I rewatch it over and over again. The Vampire Diaries is an 8-season long TV show about the story of 2 vampire brothers who were turned in 1864 by a vampire named Katarina Petrova. Katarina, AKA Katherine Pierce, is an evil vampire and one of the main antagonists in the show.  Elena Gilbert, the main character, is Katherine's doppelganger or supernatural twin. Elena meets both brothers Stefan and Damon in her junior year of high school. From there it is an epic love story full of drama and adventure. 

There are movies like Mamma Mia that I watched for the first time when I was very young and since then I have continued to rewatch it at least twice a year since buying it on Vudu. Mamma Mia is a musical based on the music of ABBA.  Two movies follow the life, past, present, and future of a woman named Donna Sheridan and her daughter. The first movie covers Donna in her youth when she meets 3 men all around the same time and sleeps with them all during one wild summer. She soon gets pregnant and she doesn’t know who the father is. Donna never sees any of the men again until 20 years later when her daughter Sophie finds her diary just before she is about to get married. She reads all about her possible 3 fathers and invites them all to her wedding but makes the letter say they’re from Donna so that they would agree to go. Sam, Bill, and Harry arrive on the island on the day of the wedding and Sophie hides them from Donna.  Upon discovering their presence on the island Donna tries to send them all home. Sophie begs them to stay and Donna is stuck there reliving all of her memories of them. In the second movie, they show both past and future storylines where Donna met the men and the present time after Donna dies.  The story follows her daughter Sophie's life as she tries to resurrect her mother's beloved hotel to its former glory.    

Finally, there is my love of all things musical. My favorite artist is Harry Styles, his career started in 2010 when he and 4 other boys auditioned as solo acts for the X-Factor. The Judges decided to put them all in a band together and One Direction was born.  The band went on to become the most famous boy band of all time. In 2016 the band went on a “hiatus” but all of the boys decided to start making their solo music and there isn’t any hope of a reunion any time soon. Harry is my favorite member of the band with Niall, Zayn, Louis, and Liam following behind. I was a fan of One Direction when I was young and I enjoyed their music when it came on the radio.  Now I follow all their solo careers but especially Harry's.  It wasn’t until the summer of 2020, during the 1st COVID shut down that I started fangirling and focusing all of my energy on Harry and the rest of the band. This year, after a 2-year wait, I was able to see him in concert and it is one of my most cherished music memories. 

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Blog #8 - IHSA Journalism Competition

My passion is media journalism, video news, and film editing. I fell in love with it last year when I took a Broadcast Journalism class.   While it has only been a few months I have decided to pursue this in college and as a career. My preferred career would be as a film editor and producer. To get there I am going to get my associate's at MCC in media journalism then transfer to a university to get a degree in film editing, possibly at the DePaul School of Cinematography. 

At the beginning of the semester, my teacher Mr. Stengel chose me to be one of the students to compete in sectionals for the video news category alongside two of my peers. Since the competition was virtual we were able to get our prompt a few days before the competition so we could record interviews ahead of time and start planning the package. This was incredibly helpful for us and we liked that we were able to get a head start before the sectionals date. On the actual day of sectionals, all the journalism students met in the broadcast room.  They had taken down the room divider so that we could also use Mrs. Goy’s room since she is the yearbook teacher. We all chilled out and ate donuts before the competitions started around 9:15 am and then we started working on our projects. My team and I started by adding all interview clips into the Final Cut Pro program and then my teammate Catherine started writing the anchor script. We recorded a stand-up vosot to make up for the lack of b-roll footage we were unable to get. We had a 30-minute break around 11 a.m. when we were not able to work on the video so instead, we all ate pizza. When the video was finished we submitted it to the judges and then we had to wait a few days to find out if we qualified for state. Our group placed 2nd place in the broadcasting category and we were off to state! Our school took 1st place overall which was very exciting.

When we arrived at the state competition it was a very different environment because we were 3 hours away from home and in the same place as all of our competitors. This time we were not allowed to get assistance from our teachers, we could only work with each other. It worked the same way except we had to get all the footage on the same day. Being in an unknown location also made the process harder because it wasn’t what we were used to back in our home broadcasting studio. It was insanely difficult to record good audio because the wind outside was very high. Once we had all of our footage we sat down in the cafeteria building and started editing while we waited for our lunch to get delivered. Towards the end, we struggled a little bit with the finishing touches and we were all stressed that the video would not be very good since we were running out of time. We transferred the video onto the thumb drive and ran over to the building where everyone needed to meet to drop off our finished broadcast. There was a 2-hour wait for results before we were called back for the awards ceremony. Our school did not place in any categories with the lone exception of photographic storytelling where Allie took first place. While it was a let down for my fellow journalism students to not place in the competition, the experience of competing is one I will always remember. 

[tpwk-giannablog]

Blog #7 - Concerts

One of my most toxic traits is buying expensive concert tickets. If you know me you know that I LOVE music and I love going to concerts. They are both my main source of serotonin, without them, I would be a completely different person. With music comes the artist who creates that music. My all-time favorite music artist is Freddie Mercury, he was the man who started my crazy fangirl lifestyle, and my first ever fan page was dedicated to him and his band, Queen. Following at a close second place is Harry Styles, he is the literal love of my life and I honestly care more about him than I do myself. (A blog about him will be coming soon). I also love artists like Taylor Swift, Ashe, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne (so basically all the members of One Direction and the people they have interacted with lol). My music taste does not end there. I find myself to have a very diverse taste in music ranging from Harry Styles to Slipknot. Believe it or not, I am a sucker for screamo and heavy metal, a trait I get from my father for sure. He introduced me to classic rock when I was a young child, but as I continued to grow older he would play heavier music. Seeing my dad jam out to bands like AC/DC and Metallica made me so happy and from that, I grew a liking for the music myself. 

I have been to about a handful of concerts in my life so far including Train, The GooGoo Dolls, AJR, Jonas Brothers, Niall Horan, Zara Larson, Why Don’t We, NF, Lewis Capaldi, Olivia Rodrigo, Gracie Abrams, and last but not least Harry Styles. I plan on seeing some of these people many more times, especially Harry. I plan on going to every single tour he has in the future. My concert lineup for the rest of this year, so far, is Ashe and 5 Seconds Of Summer. I am so excited to see both of them but I hope to also add more shows to that list like Rex Orange County if I can find a way to get tickets! I have a huge concert bucket list full of artists that I want to see live and nothing brings me more joy than getting to check a name off of that list. 

As I mentioned earlier, concerts are my main source of serotonin. They truly bring me the most joy. But they also make me cry and scream and almost pass out. You can feel the music vibrating through your whole body and it feels like you are one with the music. It is an opportunity to hear the songs you love in a live setting where you can be personal and free with the artist and the people around you. There is no better way to experience my love of music. Concerts provide me with a feeling I will only ever feel in that moment. The moment your favorite artist steps out on stage and you hear the intro to your favorite song playing is unmatchable. Or when the artist hits a note you’ve never heard them sing before or when they change a note to make it sound even better. Live music creates an atmosphere where creativity can grow in the moment. Crowd interactions also make me happy, they make me laugh and I can always go back and watch a video of it later when I need to cheer myself up. These crowd interactions become a part of the fandom and we turn them into daily sayings that only we will understand. If you ask someone what the significance of the name Ornella is they won’t have an answer for you unless they are part of the Harry Styles fandom.

[tpwk-giannablog]

Blog #6 - Where I See Myself in 10 Years

Right now I am 17 years old and will soon move on to the next phase of my life. I am living in my childhood home in McHenry, Illinois with my parents, 2 cats, and a dog. I am sitting in my bed writing a blog for my class about where I see myself in 10 years. I am currently working at a restaurant called Happy Jacks where I have worked for about 1.5 years. I have a lot of steps between now and 10 years into my future to get to my desired adult lifestyle. Instead of talking about all of those steps, I am going to jump 10 years into the future and describe where I see myself at that time. 

In 10 years I will be 27 years old. I will be living in a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, California, or somewhere near. I will have two cats of my own, named after fictional characters or Freddie Mercury’s cats. I won’t have a dog because that would be too much work, and I am more of a cat person, to be honest. I will be a professional film editor and producer working for a big movie production company like Lionsgate, Sony, or Disney. I am not sure if I will be single or in a relationship but the picture I have currently in my mind is of me being confident and independent which can honestly mean either one. I will wake up early every day around 5 am and go to the gym to keep my body in shape. I won’t prioritize eating extremely healthy or being on a strict diet but I will be cautious of what I am eating. Another side hobby of mine is going to be making music, whether or not I release this music will depend on the opportunities that will be available to me and what I want to focus most on. 

From the small amount of traveling I have done so far in my life I already know that it is something I want to do in the future, especially traveling out of the country. In 10 years I will have visited France, England, The Netherlands, Italy, and Greece, many of these destinations multiple times. Within the United States, I will have visited New York and many other states that I have or haven’t already been to. My long-distance best friend and I will be able to visit each other more often, maybe two or more times a year. 

I have always loved the red carpet and watching my favorite celebrities walking it and seeing their outfits. In 10 years I hope to be successful enough to be walking those red carpets wearing beautiful garments made by huge name brands like Gucci. I like my name a lot, especially recently I have started to like it more than I did when I was a kid. I also love my nickname “Gigi” but in 10 years I plan on going by a different name or having a stage name to go by for my productions. I would like to keep my public persona separate from my private life. I have been thinking about what my stage name should be my whole life, whether it be a variation of my name or something completely different. My parents told me that Sophia was a name they were considering for me when I was born and it is one of my favorite names so naturally that name is high up on my options list. I also like the option of Anna since it is the ending of my name. I considered going by Anna-Sophia but technically that’s already “taken” by another celebrity if we’re being fair here. The last name is the hardest part to envision. My last name is Barger which is not very nice looking or sounding at all and I do not want to go by that. I considered going by my grandmother’s maiden name which was Avena, I find that name to be very pleasing. I feel like having a stage name will be very unnatural to me since it is not the name I am used to, so whatever I choose it is going to have to be something that feels right. I do not believe I will go by this name every day, my friends, family, and associates can call me by my real name but for the public, I will go by my stage name. That’s usually how all famous people do it too. Most of all looking into my future I hope that I am happy and successful in the life I have. 

[tpwk-giannablog]

Blog #5 - School and Career Goals

The pursuit of a higher degree is very important to me. The reality of finishing my degree with a large amount owed in student loans concerns me. My parents intend to contribute to my education and I intend to work while I am in school to contribute as well.  However, the reality is I will need to take on student loans to achieve my goals. Doing well in school and getting good grades is also very important to me. I would like to be able to balance and limit the amount of work hours the cost of school will require of me with the time needed to focus and excel on my studies. I would like to set myself up for future success without having my future controlled by high student loans debt. Most people coming out of college can barely afford to live on their own and find it difficult to begin adulthood without the assistance of their parents. I hope to be able to offset some of the cost of college through scholarships and other financial assistance. Any assistance I can obtain through scholarships would be extremely appreciated and very helpful to my college journey so I have been applying to every scholarship I qualify for.

I will be going to McHenry County College in the fall.  I believe MCC is a great place for me to begin pursuing a higher degree.  I am impressed by the many available programs MCC has to offer and felt at home recently when I visited the campus.  I think MCC will be ideal because it will be a step up from my high school classes but not overwhelm me immediately going to a 4 year university would. I am looking at it as a stepping stone between high school and University.  My only experiences with McHenry County College so far are the dual credit classes I have taken in partnership with McHenry Community High School and MCC.  I have completed 2 dual classes in Fall 2022.  These classes were ENG-151 and FRE-151.  I am currently completing 2 additional dual credit classes this semester, ENG-152 and FRE-152.  I have communicated with MCC program leaders in Health and Fitness and Physical Therapy Assistant during a recent MCC Open House as possible career paths. However, I was also looking into the Media Journalism programs as well and feel I have made a decision in my future career goals. My plan is to eventually transfer to a University after my A.A. in order to pursue a career in film editing. 

[tpwk-giannablog]

Blog #4 - Social Anxiety

As far back as I can remember I have had difficulty with social anxiety.  I was a very shy student that never wanted to draw attention to myself in class. In fact, I actively avoided any instance where I would need to speak in front of my peers. I have a 504 plan that outlines accommodations that I require because I live with ADD and social anxiety. My social anxiety was so pronounced that even the idea of standing in front of a classroom would bring me to the point of passing out. I would panic, hear buzzing in my ears, and lose feeling in my legs. After returning to school from remote learning, I decided that I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to try new things in order to make the most of my senior year. My first step was to request a theater class because I always wanted to act, but I lacked the confidence to try. Unfortunately, the theater class was not being offered. Instead, I was placed into the Broadcast Journalism class, a new offering at my high school.  I had no interest in this class, and I thought it would be a boring waste of time. I was very wrong. From the very first day, Mr. Stengel became my favorite teacher, and I thoroughly enjoyed my Broadcast Journalism class. In my second semester, I repeated the class, and Mr. Stengel chose me to be the lead anchor.  This role gave me additional responsibilities including writing the anchor script, choosing anchors for each week, and recording the anchor footage. This class was a turning point for me. I was able to be myself, explore new skills, and gain confidence in my abilities. This class, and specifically my teacher, helped me step outside my comfort zone. It also helped me almost completely get rid of my social anxiety. Mr. Stengel encouraged me to audition for a part in the school play.  This is something I always wanted to do, but never felt confident enough to try. I was chosen for a part and had an amazing experience during the production. He has shown me how fun Broadcast Journalism is. More importantly, because of the confidence I have gained, I have been able to put myself out there more in other classes without feeling contained by my anxiety.  I gained the confidence to submit one of my broadcasts for a scholarship opportunity and I have been selected to compete in the IHSA Broadcast Journalism sectionals which could potentially lead to competing at state. I am considering a career in Media and Communications because of his influence but feel I will be successful with whatever path I choose because of the confidence I have gained in myself.

[tpwk-giannablog]

Blog #3, Senior Assassin

For the past few years, we have not been unable to play senior assassin at our school because of Covid restrictions. But this year Covid restrictions have been lifted and the game is on, just in time for my senior year. I recall in the years before Covid my senior friends took part in senior assassin.  I could not wait to play it at the end of my senior year. With everything else Covid took away from our class, I was nervous that we would not be able to play, especially with how strict the school has been getting recently. Thankfully we found a way to play the game this year and it came with a boatload of rules that you have to follow. The rules state that there are to be no assassinations on school grounds between 7:25 and 3:00 pm except for open campus lunch where you can play in the parking lot. Other rules state you cannot eliminate anyone while they are on shift at their job but you can get them before or after their shift. The day of prom is completely off-limits so no eliminating can take place for the entire day. If you want to eliminate someone in their house you must get permission first before going inside. The safe zones are in school, places of work, places of worship, and inside private locations or school activities like sports. There are no shields and shots to the backpack do count. If your target shoots you in self-defense there will be a 2 hour grace period before you can attempt to eliminate them again. Recently, the school administration heard about this activity.

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, they are taking it way more seriously than they did in years prior.  Mr. Eiserman sent out a very angry email one week into the game stating that this game should not take place on school grounds at all or you will be suspended or even expelled. Other punishments were loss of prom or the ability to walk at graduation. In the past years of this game I do not recall the school ever getting mad about it, so naturally, everybody is upset that they enforcing these potential punishments. The senior assassin's Instagram account said that all previous rules still stand and they advised us to just be extra careful when playing during open lunch at school which can be very risky.

[tpwk-giannablog]

Blog #2, MATCHA MATCHA MATCHA

For the past few weeks a tiktoker by the name of Bria has been popping up on my “for you page” and everyday she creates a tiktok of her making a different kind of matcha. Matcha is a type of green tea that can boost brain function and is loaded with antioxidants. Bria was specifically using matcha powder to make matcha lattes. In her videos she would talk about another tiktok creator by the name of Kate who had started this little matcha trend. I discovered her page and saw that she was also making these fun matcha recipes everyday. I have always loved matcha and it has been my go-to Starbucks order for months now, ever since I tried it for the first time. At Starbucks I would regularly order a venti iced matcha tea latte with sweet cream cold foam on top, just to make it a little sweeter. I discovered this drink through my best friend, McKenzie, who let me try it one time when she brought it to school. I quickly fell in love with watching these tiktok’s of Bria and Kate making fancy matcha drinks so I wanted to try it myself. One night when my mom was ordering groceries I added matcha powder and oat milk to the grocery list. Bria and Kate always used oat milk when making their matcha lattes so I thought that was what I should get too. The oat milk got delivered that night but the matcha took two days to get delivered. To waste some time I decided to try the oat milk just to see what it was like. I drank it straight and thought it was a little gross so I tried it with cereal next. It was better with the cereal but I think that was just because the cinnamon from the cereal had mixed with it. When the matcha finally arrived I instantly wanted to make some, I started by taking one teaspoon of matcha and mixing it with a little bit of hot water, then I added ice cubes and the oat milk. It was disgusting! I could not taste the matcha at all, I could only taste the gross oat milk. I forced myself to drink it so I would not be wasteful and the taste got tolerable the more I drank. I still did not enjoy it though and I was very upset so I decided to try it again with more matcha. It was still terrible, I was just about to give up and cry when I realized I could just use the regular milk we already had. I took two teaspoons of matcha powder and mixed it with hot water, then I added ice and the regular milk. I mixed it all together and it was DELICIOUS. It tasted just like how it does at Starbucks just without the sweet cream cold foam on top. I was instantly obsessed and extremely happy that I could now make matcha at home instead of spending $6 at Starbucks whenever I was craving matcha. I also added frozen strawberries to the grocery list but since I had to go to work I did not have time to attempt strawberry matcha yet. Strawberry matcha was the first fun flavor that Bria and Kate had tried. I wanted to try that one first too. My mom told me I should try to make the strawberry matcha with the oat milk so we do not waste it, and since I would be adding more flavor it would probably taste better. When I woke up the next morning after making another regular matcha the night before after work, I decided to make the strawberry matcha. I got out all the ingredients and I got out the hand mixer. I basically made a very bland strawberry smoothie with the frozen strawberries and milk before mixing it in with the matcha. Again, the oat milk ruined the whole thing so I tried again with regular milk after that. The drink was really yummy but I think strawberries overpowered the matcha. I ended up making a few more regular matcha drinks that day because I could not get enough. I also made another strawberry matcha drink that night for my mom to try. It’s been two full days since I have received the matcha powder and I only have enough left for one more drink. I really need to manage my matcha making better. I want to try mango matcha next and maybe after that i’ll try matcha lemonade.

[tpwk-giannablog]

Blog #1, basically just a bunch of word vomit.

“I can’t do this.” 

This is what I say to myself every time I sit down to work on my assignments for College Composition. Out of all my classes, this class is by far the hardest class I have ever taken. Every time there is a new assignment I can only think about how much I want to drop this class and how much of a toll it is having on my mental health. I want to succeed in school, I want to have good grades, and I absolutely do not want to be a quitter. But OMG when I tell you this class is hell on earth I mean it from the bottoms of my toes to the top of my head with 0 hesitation. My teacher is a lovely and powerful woman, I look up to her truly. I understand that she also only wants to see us succeed in her class. I also understand that this is not a high school course, it’s a college course, meaning this is the real deal and it won’t be getting any easier than this any time soon. I love my teacher, she is a great person to talk to and bond over literature and school activities. I just wish her class was easier because right now I am drowning and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to reach the surface again. Right now we are in the middle of our second unit and it is nowhere near easier than the last unit, in fact it is way harder. When I first found out about these blogs I was pissed, I thought it was totally unnecessary to assign us a completely different writing assignment alongside our already hard enough writing units. I still believe this to be true, I wish I could choose to only have one of them but right now I am actually happy that we have these blogs to do but I am only using it as a distraction from my annotated bibliography. This isn’t really a good thing though because in the end I am still going to have to find a way to finish my annotated bibliography on time. On the bright side at least I can say that I completed my first blog…many weeks late but that’s not the point! Don’t even get me started on the actual literary analysis essay, as if the prospectus and the bibliography aren’t hard enough I need to mash it all together to form a 5-7 page long essay. At this point, with only 150 words done on my annotated bibliography I feel I’ve already exhausted this topic. How can I possibly write 5 pages about it now? I never truly understood what senioritis was but I definitely have it. Everyone says I only have 3 more months of this but those 3 months cannot go by any sooner. In those 3 months I still have to do all of this pointless work. I just want to be done already, I want only 3 more months of easy filler classes like astronomy, broadcast journalism, gym class, etc. Instead I have to deal with 2 college courses and an independent living class who’s teacher gives us a new assignment every day and work day maybe once a month. I thought college composition was going to be beneficial to me, it would give me college credit and take up my final english credit that I needed to become a distinguished warrior, you're welcome mom, and I thought it would help improve my writing skills. I definitely needed that last part because I am a terrible writer, believe me. And this blog doesn’t count, it’s basically a diary entry. Instead of all those benefits I was hoping for I’ve just become depressed, stressed, and unmotivated to do anything. So far this blog has been nothing but a huge rant about how much I hate college composition and senior year in general but there have been a few good things. Gym class has always been my favorite class, I love fitness and I love feeling tough. That has only increased since starting the second semester of senior year. When I started the year in august I was not going to be on the track team so my gym teacher suggested I join a different gym class to offer up a spot in strength to an actual athlete. It kind of broke my heart that he didn’t want me in strength anymore but I still made the switch. I ended up joining track again a couple days later but it was too late to go back to strength. Cut to the second semester, I’m back in strength and my lifting partner is one of my best friends. It’s only February but I’m already seeing results, physically and mentally. I’ve found an ever higher appreciation for fitness and I’m super excited for this track season. But remember it’s not that simple, I have to keep good grades to participate in sports and this class is going to be the death of me.