Cringe. By Owen Welsh

Even my captions were awful

If you've ever written something before, (which I'm sure at least a few of you have) you know that after a period of time, say six months or so, if you look back at it you'll think "Wow what was I thinking, god this is awful.". This happens without fail to most things we do, as soon as a hobby becomes uninteresting we quickly grow detached and repulsed by the idea of ever being a part of that community. Yet even if we recognize this vicious cycle of love to hatred, we still repeat it day after day and year after year until suddenly you're in your mid-fifties with your kids moving out and you realize that you pushed away every friend you did have just to satisfy the wants of other people.

But I can't just let you sit through the ramblings of 15 year-old High Schooler without some sort of anecdotal evidence to back up my claim. If you took a cursory glance at this blog back around October of 2016, you would have noticed a post entitled, "Desks are important too!" It even included an exclamation mark in the title to show my faux enthusiasm for the topic of desks. Reading through it now, I can tell you that the content is mediocre at best, the post just states lists and the reasons why I selected a particular part of each list, not quite the next Tolstoy. Though at the time I felt as though Shakespeare had risen out of his grave and possessed my pale and dainty hands as I wrote the ballad of desks in an English classroom. Looking back at my sonnet now, however, tells me how I'd be insulting any famous writer by even thinking about comparing my work to theirs.

Yet I still fall into the same trap as before, I still look at my work now as if it is the best thing I'll ever write in my time on this pale blue dot, even as I know that by the time the school starts up again I'll forget about my current feelings and look upon this very blog post with disgust and disdain. The frustration this realization causes is unimaginable, the fact that your best work will never actually be your best work kills all motivation to continue, and is the basis of the philosophy of Nihilism. Nihilism states that if you aren't furthering anything with your actions, you shouldn't do it, yet by pursuing these futile attempts at writing, I'm furthering myself to become a better writer and thus eclipse my previous ideas. So I resign myself to this infinite cycle of progression and disdain towards my erroneous ways, as the only thing a person can do is to endeavor to try.

Self-Criticism by Madison Levinson

I, as a student, believe that one of the best skills that an academic can learn is self-criticism. I will often say that I am my own worst critic. At the end of the day you have to be able to look back at what you did and what you could have done differently. In honor of criticism I will look back at all of my blog posts from this year and critique all of them.

#ThrowbackThursday to all my old blog posts 

Blog Post 1: My first blog post was a review of my Summer Reading book: 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I think the idea for a book review is now a bit boring. However, I guess at the time I wrote it I was just getting used to this whole blogging thing. This first blog post comes off just a bit bland and vanilla, not much flavor or voice. It's hard to tell that it was written by me.

Blog Post 2: My second blog post was a tips and tricks guide on how to understand and enjoy Greek literature. I think that this blog post is also a little bland but the tips and tricks are actually useful. Admittedly, Sarah West did a similar blog post to this and I attempted to spiral off of hers.

Blog Post 3: My third blog post was essentially a giant rant. When I wrote this post we were approaching the Christmas season, a difficult and frustrating time for any Jew. When I wrote this I was stressed and annoyed. I essentially just ranted on the keyboard of my computer to write and complete a blog. I think this article is where I start to find my voice and become more comfortable with the idea of a multitude of people reading my writing.

Blog Post 4: My fourth blog post was a modern rewrite of the story of Frankenstein. This was one of my favorite blog posts to write. I felt that through this post I was not only allowed to comment on the ridiculousness of the Novel Frankenstein but the ridiculousness of modern day society as well. I was very proud of myself for writing this blog post, considering that I do not consider myself a creative person. It was definitely hard creating something of my own and posting it for literally anybody to see.

Blog Post 5: My fifth blog post was an appreciation letter to all of the people in my life that have influenced me positively. I don't know who reads this and out of the people who read this I don't know how many of you actually know me but I am not an affectionate person. Writing about the people I cared about came surprisingly easy and really just made me smile, even if I was writing it alone in my room on Valentine's Day.

Blog Post 6: My sixth blog post was a poem written about snow on a snow day. I feel like my sarcastic sense of humor was really visible in this post and (hopefully) made it enjoyable to read for people. I am also really happy that I was able to write a creative poem (again, not a very creative person).

Blog Post 7: My seventh blog post was a sad attempt to mimic my previous blog post. However, instead of a poem about snow I wrote a poem about Spring. This blog post was a sad attempt to relive my poem glory and it should be permanently removed from the internet.

Throughout the year I saw myself grow as a write. I saw myself become creative and not afraid to speak and post what I was feeling. I am proud of myself and the dedication and writing risks I took during this assignment. Writing these blog posts and reflecting on them made me realize how much I have grown and changed throughout just a single school year. Blogging was a positive experience that introduced me to more and new ways to write.
However, I am not upset that I never have to set another alarm on my phone that says "WRITE YOUR DAMN BLOG".