It's the end! It's the end of everything. But of course, to be totally cliche, the end of everything is also the beginning of something. For those of you who don't live around Bryn Athyn, and didn't read the title of the post, you may be asking yourselves "The end of what? It's not the end of 2018, we're only about half way through it..." And to that I'd reply- it's the end of the school year. Or we're past the end of the school year now. The seniors have officially graduated and the juniors (aka me) have officially become seniors. 
Scary thought, right? And how exactly did that scary thought become reality? And how did it become reality so soon? The answer to that is that I have no idea. While junior year felt like the slowest possible time ever, looking back it feels like a blur. (Isn't that how life always is, though?) The end of this year just feels like it sort of jumped out from behind a corner and surprised me. I can't believe this year is over, and I most certainly can't believe that I'm a senior. Even writing those words feels wrong. I. Am. A. Senior. That's wrong, that most definitely can't be right. Me? A Senior? Just the other day someone asked me how old I am, and you know how I answered? I said I'm 15. 15. You know how off that is? I haven't been 15 for two years. TWO YEARS. Where did those years go? HOW AM I a SENIOR? 
Excuse my (not) mild freaking out. I am just in total awe and disbelief by the fact that I'm a senior. This really is coming close to the end of my high school career. A year from now I'm probably going to be writing on this blog about how senior year really just flew by and I can't believe I'm off to college. A YEAR FROM NOW I'M GOING TO BE OFF TO COLLEGE. And more importantly to my freaking out brain, this year I have to make some big life choices such as which college I'm going to go to and what I might want to major in. How can I be making these choices when I literally still feel like I'm 15? 
And no, this is not a philosophical post answering that question and all the life questions you've been dying to have answered. I'm just splatting out words on a post because I haven't posted on this blog in a while, and also in a tribute to my senior (now college freshman) friends. 

Here's a quick little word of remembrance (no, they're not dead... I'm just going to see them a whole lot less next year :( ) for my senior friends. 
Caitlin-- thanks for being my partner in crime this year. We did everything together, ranging from tackling defense on field hockey to producing a play and a musical to being the best statistician and statistician's assistant for the wrestling team. (Guess who was the assistant. Hint: It wasn't me.) You're one of my bestest friends, as proven by how well we've gotten to know each other-- we literally know each other's food orders. I'm not sure it gets any more personal than that. Love you so much, and can't wait for the shenanigans we're going to get up to in the months and years to come. 
Rayna-- thanks for being my Broadway buddy. We made some pretty great memories together going to some fantastic shows. I loved having you there to experience the magic of theater with me, despite the fact that people around us start to think we're crazy. Of course, going to Broadway with me isn't the only thing I love you for. I love you for making the field hockey and capes team fun for me this year. Nothing will be the same without your bright, smiling face. 
Ellie-- thanks for being one of my oldest friends. We're so close that we literally finish each other's sentences and thoughts. I can't believe you graduated this year. You're such a talented musician, and I'm so lucky to have you as a friend. You know I'm always down to play you (crush you?) in video games or just to hang out and have oddly deep talks or really random, light discussions about random occurrences. 
Waverly-- thanks for being my lacrosse and musical buddy. You helped me to endure hours upon hours of dry tech and tech, and you made me feel included in the lacrosse team, even though I'm just a statistician. It's a real shame we didn't become friends sooner, because I feel like we really bonded this year and since you're going to college down south next year... Well, it's likely that I'm not going to be seeing you all that much. :( Good luck, though, and I hope you have the best time next year. :) 

And... the Class of 2019 is about to be the top of the school. You hear that underclassman? You have my permission to start running and screaming now, because with my class in charge, I'm sure it's going to be a chaotic year. Of course, hopefully that also means that's it's going to be not just a fun year, but the best year of our entire lives. Look out senior year, because here we come! (and I'm still not so silently screaming about the fact that how are we seniors, what are we going to do, how is this end so near???)
Thanks for reading, 
​Anj

For those of you who don't know, I'm a bit (more than a bit) obsessed with theater. No, I do not like actually being on stage, due to my condition of stage fright and attention fright in general. I love watching theater. Which, actually makes perfect since seeing as I love stories, and story-telling, which is basically what theater is. (Sorry for any major theater geeks screaming at me somewhere.) Basically, I get really obsessed and attached to shows, mostly musicals. (Ask my dad, he has to listen to them ALL THE TIME.) 
I've always liked theater, but the big obsession started two years ago when I began my career as a Cappies Critic. (Cappies is a high school group that goes around and reviews other high schools' plays. It's actually king do a big thing, with a giant "Tony" awards at the end of the season). Les Mis was the first theater production that I absolutely fell in love with, blasting the music at all times of the day. Then came Rent. Hamilton. Spring Awakening. Something Rotten. Wicked. Kinky Boots... etc. Basically I'm very, very obsessed. 
And when I get obsessed with things, it's not a low-key obsession, it's a grand obsession. Meaning I know basically every detail about the show, story-wise, actor-wise, etc. I know a lot of random facts about my favorite musicals. Like Lin Manuel Miranda wrote the song "Dear Theodosia" on the day he adopted his dog, not when his first child was born. Or that the melody for "Burn" is playing in the background of "Take a Break" to possibly signify an emotional affair? Or that Jonathan Groff and Lea Michelle became best friends after originating Melchior and Wendla in Spring Awakening. OR... You know what? I'll shut up now. I research and study these shows for FUN when I get obsessed. Yeah, that's how weird me and my obsessions are.  (Side note: I also know every word to every song to most of the musicals listed above. Want to badly rap along to Hamilton with me? Give me a call, haha) 
Anyway, back on topic. I love theater. Last year was the 25th Anniversary of Rent, so there was a touring cast going around. I really, really wanted to go, but my dad was busy on all the nearby dates... So I was left to be disappointed having never seen the show. Why am I telling this story? Because my dad knew how much I wanted to see Rent and therefore promised to take me to Broadway this summer. 
This would be my first Broadway show, hopefully the first of many. So when the time came, I chose Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 to be my first. Why? Because 1. Okieriete Onaodowan (Hercules Mulligan from Hamilton's Original Cast) and Ingrid Michelson were in it, 2. the plot sounded interesting 3. I'd heard good reviews and finally 4. Philippa Soo (Original Eliza in Hamilton) originated the role of Natasha (Yeah, that's how much of a nerd I am.). 
It was a great show that was extremely unique. It interacted with the audience, performing with audience members actually seated on the stage and actually interacting with random audience members as part of the show as well. It was fantastic, and I'm so bitter that it left Broadway so soon. Well, that day trip to Broadway was probably one of the best days of the summer, and I still think of it fondly. (Shoutout to my father for putting up with my theater obsession and taking a day off to actually take me to Broadway. Love you father!) We left early, and got to New York in time to wander around and see the Broadway area, even visiting the Richard Rodger's Theater AKA HAMILTON. Not that I actually saw that show, but even being at the theater was awesome . (Yeah, I'm a nerd. Sorry) The actual theater for The Great Comet was pretty amazing as well. It was built just for the show (as are all Broadway Theaters) and was extremely unique. (See picture below). Before going to the Comet, though, we stopped in a little Italian Restaurant on Times Square and had the best Italian food I'd ever had. Basically what I'm trying to say, and what I've already said is that was a great day. 

The next professional theater show I saw wasn't actually on Broadway. I went to go see the touring cast of Wicked when the came to the Academy of Music this summer with my father and Zia. It was a good show, I was already familiar with Wicked, so I just wanted to actually go see it live. It wasn't the best show for several reasons that had nothing to do with the story. The show itself is great, just circumstance wasn't. First off, I left my glasses at home, which is totally my issue. Then secondly both Glinda and Elphaba were the standbys. Glinda was good, but Elphaba? Her acting was really choppy, like she was just saying the lines, but don't get me wrong, her singing sent shivers down my spine, especially during the iconic song "Defying Gravity." And then there was also a guy listening to the show on headphones like right next to me, and I could hear the electronic-ized voices for the entire time. Still, it was a very good show and I did actually enjoy my time. (sorry! My inner critic is showing.) 
Then the next show came as a bit of a surprise. One of my best friends, Rachael, got two free tickets to Kinky Boots at the Academy of Music. Knowing my love of theater, she invited me along. Of course I accepted, despite the fact the show was on a school night and I also had a field hockey game that day. Basically how that worked was I came home right after the game was over (had to miss watching the JV), and throw on a dress over my sweaty body (sorry, too many details?) before jumping into Rachael's car and racing off to the train station. Then we got to Philly and may or may not have gotten a little lost trying to find the Academy of Music due to malfunctioning GPSes on our phones... Yeah I'll just say this circles and RUNNING DOWN TO TRY AND GET THERE IN TIME. We ended up getting there at about 7:26 when the show started at 7:30. So yay! we made it in time, even if we were sweating and panting in our seats for a bit into the show. 
Kinky Boots was a great show, show's humor is spot on and it's music is so catchy. I added basically the entire album to my ever so long and ever going Musical Favorites playlist. 
That night getting back is actually a bit of an interesting story, too. Being the adept duo that we are, Rachael and I couldn't figure out a way to get back into the train station. See, we got out from the Comcast Building, but it was 11 at night, so that was closed. And then the main entrance to the station was closed due to construction. Basically we were a little worried about being stranded in Philly on a school night, but then we saw a security officer, and asked for a way to get into the station... He proceeded to point about twenty five feet away from us where there was an underground entryway. Whoops. I did say Rachael and I are a very adept pair, didn't I? We got back late, and I was EXTREMELY tired the next day, but for the show it was all worth it. Also just want to say I love Rachael so much, and not just because she took me to a show (but that's a bonus, haha). Rach, if you're reading this, you're the best. 

Alright, because I wanted to go back to Broadway so bad, I talked to my friend who is actually very good on stage, Rayna, about if she'd want to go to New York sometime to see a show. Luckily enough for me, she was very enthusiastic about the idea and soon enough we had a plan to go to not one, but two shows in the oncoming months. The first show we went to see was Cats. I really wanted to see this show because literally it seems like ​everyone talks about it, and seeing as it's leaving Broadway in December, I figured now would be the time to take action. Rayna wanted to see it because she heard it had amazing choreography (which it did!!) Basically, it worked out. 
So a couple weeks ago, Rayna, my dad and I all got up early on a Sunday Morning (November 12, to be exact) to head to New York City for a matinee performance of Cats. It was a fun time, walking through the city, stopping to get lunch and then going to see the show. Cats is an amazing show. Sure, I'll admit I had no idea what the plot was, but the singing, dancing, and set? All of it was so impressive. I wish everyone could go see that show because it'll leave you stunned. 
That Sunday had to be one of the better days of the year, and the most exciting part? WE have another one planned this December. What show are we seeing? Well, I fell so much in love with Kinky Boots that I looked it up and found out that the two original leads are back for a short time. OF COURSE I had to see that, so Rayna and I are going back to New York to see that soon next month. I'm so excited, too, because it's such a fun trip. Hanging out with Rayna is great (Love you, Rayna!), New York is great and going to Broadway is great. All the combined makes the best day ever, so as you might imagine, I'm getting pretty excited for the best day ever part II. 
Anyway, thanks for reading! If you ever need any theater recommendations, I'm your girl. :) 
-Anj

Contrary to popular belief, Charter Day is not, in fact, meant to be a cult holiday. For everyone outside of Bryn Athyn that follows this blog or anyone outside Bryn Athyn period, Charter Day may look a lot like a cult thing (as does most of Bryn Athyn to most outside viewers). I mean, I can see where people are coming from... A ton of people in robes and red sweaters marching down to a cathedral... Well, it's not mean to be cult-like, it's actually just meant to be a celebration of our school being granted a Charter. Hence the name Charter Day. 
Charter Day is basically the homecoming for our school, of course we couldn't actually call it homecoming because we're ANC. It always happens close to the midterm (after 6 weeks), though this year it was a little later, taking place on October 20th. 
The only proper way to kick off Charter Day is with the Charter Day Field Hockey Game under the lights. Yes, that is the only proper way. For anyone who didn't attend... Well, your does your Charter Day even count as a Charter Day? No, I'm not a biased opinion at all. 

Our Charter Day Game was also our senior game. That basically means that we honor all our senior players by the Juniors making them posters, and then they walk up on the field, get flowers and we announce their life plans and whatnot. Anyway, you may be wondering, Anji, why did you creepily post a picture where you are in no way shape or formed involved? To that I reply, well, I wanted to show off my amazing best ever, never going to be topped senior poster. Caitlin is part of our conjugal defense line up, so of course I made her poster. Did I stay up till 1 doing it? Maybe, but it was worth it. (FYI she's  number 1 so that's why the i is a 1) 
(Also side note: why didn't I post a fockey picture we me in it? Well, because I don't have any fockey pics with me in them from Charter Day.) 

Scratch that, here's a picture of me from Charter Day! Yeah, that's me playing my game. Am I 20? Nope. That's me in the background, 22, looking like a dweeb. Hey, what else is new? 
Anyway, for those if you who didn't attend the annual Charter Day Field Hockey Game Under the Lights (*gasp* how could you?), we won! yeah 6-1! I'm proud of my team for that... It was almost a shut out too... Almost. 
Anyway to continue on to the Charter Day festivities, after the amazing game under the lights that you shouldn't miss, we go home and get to sleep in. Well, unless you're a senior, then you gotta go in early the next day... (Oh, dang, that's me next year, isn't it?) Anyway, most of the high school gets to sleep in the next day, and then we go into school in our Charter Day attire and have our march to the Cathedral. Also known to some (possibly) as the cult march. But, like I said before, that's a common mistake to make, despite how it may look, it's not actually a cult. I don't think... I'm technically a part of it so can I really be a proper judge of the cult factor? 

When you're just an awkward blob... 

Anyway here's what we do after our (not) cult march. We sit through a long, arduous chapel service... Oh, sorry I mean an enlightening hour long chapel service (or is it an hour and a half?), we all walk around to the back of the cathedral to sing (not) cult songs. Actually though, the Charter Day songs are really fun to sing. Then it's picture time! (as seen above). Seriously, if you get in front of the big, fancy cameras for Charter Day, there's a good chance of you getting added to all the ANC advertisements. My face got put on a billboard in the mall (along with other people) last year, it was weird. But seriously, I swear they enhanced my acne in that picture, which continually horrifies me because that's in the mall. 

Then, after taking about three-thousand, five bajillion pictures, I left the cathedral to go and get my nails and eyebrows done, and proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon half getting ready for the dance and half just lazing around. I always hate it when I have plans but nothing to do in-between because I don't want to start anything but then I'm bored, too. Seriously, I took FOREVER to get ready just because I had FOREVER. 

Alright and shoutout to Camille. She's basically just like an older sister to me and I love her so much. She came to stay with us over Charter Day weekend (yay <3), and took time out of her horrendously busy schedule to come home and help me figure out my hair situation. So thanks Camille, I love you. You're the absolute best. 
Anyway, spent a ton of time just getting ready for the dance/ lazing around. This included make-up, hair and scrubbing the shite out of my legs. 
Yeah, you weren't expecting that last bit, were you? Well, if any of you read my blog last year, I get horrible rashes all up and down my shins from my shin guards. Yes, I wear rash guards every single day, but it just can't be prevented apparently. Well, I spent a good half and hour using my sugar scrub (if interested, the recipe is on my blog) to scrub them down. And then I proceeded to use cover up, you know, to cover up those hideous rashes. Not many people contour their legs, eh? 
Then I got picked up by my date at 7. Yeah! I got asked to Charter Day! which is fantastic because a. I really didn't think I would be asked b. all my friends had plans so if I didn't get asked, I probably wouldn't go and I already bought a dress :(. anyway, I got asked so yay! (When people say "asked to Charter DaY" they mean the dance. Not just the day in general). 
It was fun. We got to Rachael's for pictures, despite my horrible directions, and then got to Bernie's for dinner. Then we went to the dance. Yeah, I'm not big fan of dancing, but like... I love dances, so it was worth it. 

Then on Saturday I did an open house and attended a movie night thing (it was on an outdoor projector, freezing but fun) and Sunday I had Cappies training (Ugh) and then Monday I got to sleep in. Yay. Charter Day weekend (there's a whole ton of other events, but I just didn't feel like writing about them, sorry. ) Anyway, thanks for reading! 
​Anj

I don't know about any of you readers out there, but I, Anji Cooper, am an extremely competitive human being. In my mind, almost everything is a competition, and almost nothing motivates me more than competition. An easy example of this is an exercise competition my friend Ursula and I had back in... February?  Here's the little story behind it. Back in December, I got a Fitbit Charge for Christmas. Since then, I have found that I quite enjoy the product, it helps motivate me to get more exercise, because really, it's almost shameful to look down at my wrist and see I only got 3,000 steps in a day. I have to at least get to 6-7k. 
Anyway, this isn't a product review (though, I highly recommend fitbits, because in my humble opinion, I see them as making exercise more fun). Back to the competition. On the fitbit app, there are several challenges you can challenge yourself and your fitbit friends to. One of these challenges is called the Workweek Hustle. You can challenge up to ten people, I believe. The point of it is to see who can get the most steps inbetween Monday and Friday. So, let's just put this out there. I wasn't doing a sport at the time, and Ursula, was doing ice hockey for ANC as well as for the Lady Patriots. I knew that if I even wanted any chance of winning, I was really going to have to step up my game. (pun intended) 
Monday, Ursula and I were really into it. Staring each other down as we paced across the classroom before each class began (on mondays we have all the same classes.) By the end of the first day, I had over 20,000 steps. Only once before had I gotten 20k steps, and that was when I'd been walking around in the woods all day. And this time, it had been a school day. That whole week, I had the minimal of 20k steps. Reaching even 30k and on Thursday evening, I even got to 35k. How did I do this? I would get on the treadmill as soon as I got home, running for a while, and then walking. Stopping only to eat dinner and do homework for a short time. 
This challenge was pretty even. Ursula didn't have time in the evenings to run/walk, so she literally got up at five in the morning every morning to go on a run. I thought it was a little bit insane, but then again, I was saying up late on my treadmill, so I guess you could say that we were both going a little crazy. By Wednesday, both Ursula and I were tired out, and decided that we would never, ever, do this again on a school week. It just took up too much of our time. I actually was eating lunch at 10, in class, so during our lunch period I could go on a walk. It was a crazy week. By Friday we were both so tired out that we decided no walking past nine. We would both take out fitbits off after nine and be done with it. 
At the beginning of the week, we were both very into the competition, taunting each other and everything. By Friday we were both so tired by the extremes we had taken it to that we were so ready to be done. It came rather close. I won with 140,174 steps, but Ursula was quite close on my heels with 137,737. And that week, I dusted my dad and Zia in the step competition with over double their step amount. 
This shows that yes, Anji Cooper is highly competitive and competition motivates me to work harder. I guess you could say for the fitbit, that it was in a good sense because well, I was getting a lot of exercise and  I ate so much food- like 1,600 calories worth- and I could because of all the calories I burned! Very satisfying. 
Now, Ursula is rather competitive, but Ellie Taylor, my sophomore friend, and I get very competitive with each other. About almost everything. It's rather entertaining, actually. We compliment each other as we're throwing insults at the other. Yeah, we're competitive about a lot of things but the one thing that we're the most competitive over is the dumbest thing in the world. Super Smash Brothers. Yeah. a video game. Now, you may be thinking, wow, a video game, that's the dumbest thing in the world. I agree with you. It's seriously so dumb. Both Ellie and I acknowledge that it's seriously idiotic, but does that end the vicious competitive aura when we play? Nope. Not one bit. 
If one were to listen to a conversation between the two of us as we fight on the video game, it'd probably sound like we're mortal enemies, that is, until we both burst into laughter at one misplaced comment. It's fun. Like seeing who will break the comeback streak first. (It's usually not me.) 
I do believe the highly competitive aura stems from two things. One, we're both seriously competitive people, and two, we've been playing this game since when we were eight or nine. Ellie taught me to play it on her Gamecube back when I was in third or fourth grade. And then we got it for my wii. We played that game almost every day in my fourth grade year. It was an interesting year, let me tell you that. And then it kind of faded out. We'd occasionally play it, but usually chose to play Legend of Zelda over Smash. But recently, our obsession has risen up again. 
This time, it's even more intense. One, because we're older and two, because we're equally matched now. Slash, it is my personal opinion that I have now surpassed her skills in the video game, but she'd probably kill me if I said that for sure, so, haha, I leave it at 'personal opinion.' The thing is, Ellie is very used to beating me easy when it's just me against her, but now, I have beaten her countless times in the game. And given, she's beaten me as well (not as many times recently.) And it just gets very heated and intense between us when we're playing, especially lately. 
Now, I do strongly believe that having a bit of a competitive edge in a friendship is a good thing. But last week, instead of being a fun competitive thing, I feel like we were both about to punch each other in the face. Haha. (not actually) We've since then decided that maybe instead of facing off against each other, we should, instead be on the same team, to avoid situations like that for just a short while. I think that things were getting actually heated between the two of us because neither of us like losing much. Since then, both Ellie and I have acknowledged that it's the stupidest thing ever, arguing over a video game. Not that this hasn't happened in the past, there was quite a grumpy experience that occurred when playing Skyword Sword, but Ellie would legit kill me if I actually told that story. It might've been one of the low points in her life story, haha. 
Basically, I just want to say that competitive friendships are often good and they provide a good spice in friendships. I personally find more competitive relationships more entertaining and fun, because of it. I just thought it was funny to bring up- how competitive my friends and I could be. 
Anyway, thanks for reading, 
-Anj
P.S. I realize that I am a supreme geek for playing things like Legend of Zelda as a child, and know I am a ultra supreme geek for playing Smash now. I accept the title with pride. 

So, Sadies was last week! Out of my two dance experience, this was probably my favorite dance. Even though the physical dance wasn't actually that great, the group was a lot of fun. I was friends with basically everyone in my group, which made it more enjoyable in all. We met for pictures at Camryn's house around 6:30, even though I lie down the street from her, I still wasn't the first one there, which was a little weird. Actually, not really but whatever. Before Sadies, I was at a wrestling match, but more on that later.
For dinner, our (rather large) group went to Bertucci's. That was fun, except it was a long table to I only really ended up talking to Weston, Serena, Will and Rachael. So, after dinner was where things got a little weird. Someone (I'm fairly sure it was you, Camryn Alix Buss) decided the desserts were too expensive and got the brilliant idea to go buy ice cream at Weis Supermarket. Sure, it was right across the road, but it was freezing literally, it was freezing, and walking over in dresses was so freaking cold. Everyone at Weis probably thought we were really weird, walking around fancily dressed in a grocery store. I ended up being the only one who got ice cream (ugh), because everyone else refused to get ice cream with me. (Thanks, guys) other people actually just ended up getting candy. 
We arrived at the dance around nine, which gave us plenty of time (since it ended at eleven.) There was a photo booth, which was fun (sorry, I'm saying fun to much, should I switch to the word 'enjoyable?'). And there was actually a slow dance, which was a bit awkward at first, but after a bit, it was enjoyable (see? See what I did there?) 
Anyway, after the dance, I went over to Camryn's for an overnight. We sat in the hot tub for a while, and let me tell you, it feels amazing to be in a hot tub when it's way below freezing outside. 

The day after Sadies was Valentine's Day! And sticking to yearly tradition, I remain single and alone. Scratch the alone. On Valentine's Day, I, first of all,  made these little red velvet heart cakes, filled with fresh whipped cream and topped with cream cheese icing. Yum. I heard they were good. And then, I hung out with Ellie. 

Now let's flash back to before Sadies. Before I was getting ready for the Sadies Hawkins Dance, I was at the Field House bright and early at nine thirty in the morning to take wrestling statistics. If you were unaware, Serena and I were doing statistics for the wrestling team. This year, ANC did really well. We won Champs :) and today they're going to States. 

Now, way back before Sadies, let's look at the week before. Ursula challenged me to a fitbit challenge (Work Week Hustle) and for some highly stupid reason, I accepted. For those of you that are unaware. I, Anji Mei Cooper, am a highly competitive human being. Even for things I don't like. For instance, exercise. All week long, Ursula and I were just walking around the school and staring each other down. The treadmill was definitely my best friend last week. I went on like three runs a night an minimum an hour long walk. On one day, I even got up to thirty-five thousand steps one day. It was a very close competition, but I pulled ahead in the end with 140,174 steps and Ursula was quite close on my heels with 137,737 steps. :)
So anyway, thanks for reading, sorry for the short post, but I should really get started on homework! 
​-Anj

Three weeks ago, I had my first actual day in high school. It was a big moment for me and let me tell you, I was nervous as what. Practically shivering with nervousness (and a twinge of excitement) I stepped into my new school, the Academy of the New Church, or ANC. The first day is called Orientation where the new kids get some things explained to them and you meet all your classmates (new and old) and your teachers. It was quite the interesting (and nerve racking) experience. What if I did something wrong and everyone in the entire school thought I was a freak for the rest of the year? 

Luckily, I didn’t do much anything wrong. Aside from walking into the piano on the way out of the auditorium. That was embarrassing. On orientation, we get our yearbook pictures taken and get talked to by some teachers in the morning. Then, after lunch, we have 20 minute classes, introducing us to all our new teachers and showing us where our new classrooms are. 

That was fun, we met all our new teachers and got introduced to our classes. Our soft-speaking History teacher- who turned out to be completely awesome. The English teacher- she’s hilarious, Freshman English class is a lot of fun. Religion- surprisingly one of the best classes I have this year. Latin, we’re actually learning a lot in a fun way. Geometry- Our teacher, Mr. Glenn is quite hilarious and sarcastic. I also love his teaching beliefs and method. And IPS, the most dreaded class of Freshman Year. Why? Because the grading system is so completely harsh in that class. It is, but it’s more interesting than science class back in elementary. 

Surprisingly, by the end of the first week of school, I had already fallen into the ‘hang’ of things. Only 3 weeks ago I walked into ANC for the first time, but by now I already have gotten a feel for things. 

Unsurprisingly, High School is a lot more work than elementary. Sometimes I swear the teachers all get together and just think oh, wow, I think we all should just pile on all the homework for Tuesday! or Let’s all have big tests/quizzes on Wednesday! 

Usually school work isn’t overwhelming for me, I just stress myself out about it. It isn’t overwhelming, yet, but I do find myself working on it quite late. My school week schedule is something like this 

Wake up

Go back to sleep

Actually get up, have breakfast, get ready for school and then go to school

go to school

field hockey

homework

sleep

Start cycle over again. 

But I’m actually really enjoying high school. It gives a lot more freedom than Elementary did. A lot of my classes give five or more minutes of break in between. That’s the best part because if I’m super tired, I can run down to Mare’s, the school store, to buy coffee. The only issue is that I am spending way too much money down there on food, haha. 

If you didn’t gather, I’m also now playing field hockey. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it at first, but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. I really enjoy being on the team and playing. Drills aren’t that great and I swear I’m probably allergic to sprinting but field hockey is a great way to get excise, meet new people and it looks really good on college transcripts.

Games are definitely a lot of fun. Except when big girls that are totally loosing decide to hit me with their stick when ‘going for the ball’. Hmph. Not that I’m resentful that my right hand hurts or anything. 

The one thing I’m stressed out over is Charter Day. Charter Day is our ‘homecoming’ dance. It’s the day our school Charter was signed or something like that. NO ONE HAS ASKED ME YET. Yeah, I am the type to stress out about things but it’s three weeks to Charter Day and now is the time to ask. And no one has asked me yet. This is stressful. Especially since I only have one class with guys and it’s only two guys- Atticus and Louie- a new addition to the class of 2019. But there’s no one specific I really want to ask me but I would like someone to ask me. 

Hmm, what else is there to tell? I guess if you’re reading this, I should just tell you that high school is a lot of fun and not to stress over it (like I did). As long as you keep up with your work and study for your tests, so far I’ve found it works. 

I've officially graduated from Middle School. Ah this feels so weird. Yes, yes, I know, graduating middle school is nothing compared to college and high school, but right now it seems pretty big. This Thursday I went out to lunch with Atticus, Ryan, Josh and Josh's little sister, Emme. It was fun. I had to leave early (2) because my mom and Aunt Sandy were taking me to get my nails done. I also got my eyebrows waxed. I used a blue color that matched my dress almost perfectly on both my fingers and toes. And then I got sparkles put on my... I don't know what it's called the finger next to the pinky. I think it looks cute. 
As soon as I got home from getting my nails done, I got to work on my gift for my class (lip balm, sugar scrub and soap 100% homemade). Unfortunately I wasn't quite on schedule (I was supposed to finish the gift the day before) Anyway, making that stuff took forever, I was up till 9 making it. Then I had to shower. I'd told myself I'd go to bed early that night since I had to get up early the next day but... 
Anyway on the morning of graduation/ yesterday morning I woke up at 5:30. Slowly, I got my breakfast and brushed my teethies. Then I woke up Zia. She helped, lie, she did my hair and makeup for graduation which was really nice of her. She didn't even get to eat breakfast before going to school. 
Anyway, after Zia left, I went upstairs and started making packages for the gifts for my classmates. I just cut a paper plate and folded it up. I didn't have any better packaging. But hey, it worked out. I ended up being 8 minutes late because I was working on the packaging. So if any of my classmates are reading this, THAT GRADUATION GIFT TOOK LITERALLY FOREVER TO MAKE. *smiles sweetly* love you guys. <3 
We had to get to the school at 9:45 for pictures. (or 9:53 for me.) Turns out we actually didn't have that many pictures, we just stood in front of the stage in pretty much the same position as all the parents snapped pictures of us, but hey, it's cool.
I found it amusing that all the guys matched with their purple tie/bow ties (for the Peppelmans) and then the girls were just like bleh. Mrs. Hogan Fiona's mom, is a florist so she brought in these adorable little bouquets for the girls and purple boutonnieres for the boys. The girls were supposed to put the boutonnieres on the guys.... Lol that didn't work out too well since none of us knew how to do so. I tried, Atticus! I tried. 
As we were standing in the hallway behind the gym, waiting to walk out, I had a mini heart attack. I was kind freaking out. Let's just leave it at I get nervous easily. 
You know how when you were younger you could really feel it when it was Christmas and as you got older the feeling you had on Christmas was just normal and nothing special? It was kinda the same with Graduation. I always thought I'd feel different on graduation like feel that it was graduation. But I didn't. So graduation felt so surreal, like a dream, like it wasn't actually happening. But it did happen. I'm pretty sure.. 
The graduation ceremony went by very quickly. And shockingly, I didn't trip and face plant on the stage. Though I did take my diploma with the wrong hand... Aw when the kindergarteners gave us the flowers? It was adorable. 
Fiona was our class speaker. She did great. Her speech was funny and well written. I really enjoyed listening to it. Nikos Casto was the Valedictorian for the boys. His speech was hilarious. It was about the 'war' going on between the boys and Dr. Feerrrar throughout the whole year. I was laughing the whole time. He was a good choice for Valedictorian. 
After the class speakers, Dara and Zach presented the class gift- donating money to Nepal. Then the slideshow. It was great, I'm disappointed that we don't get a copy of it. In the slideshow was a recording of the 8th Grade Girls singing Appreciated by Rixton. I used it in the video I posted on Youtube, which I'll link to below. Feel free to like and subscribe to my channel! (In fact, I encourage it.) 
After graduation we walked out and screamed and all that stuff. Then the parents and friends and family and all that stuff came out to congratulate us and give gifts and take many many many pictures. Here are a FEW

For my graduation lunch, I chose to go to Kyoto, my FAVORITE RESTAURANT. Can you guess what kind of restaurant it is? SUSHI, of course. 

After graduation my Aunt Sandy and Aunt Sue left to go home :(. Then I went home, changed into my bikini and waited until 3:30-- there was a pool party at the Trautmen's-- I didn't actually swim at all. It was a very short party- ending at 5. I then went home and worked on editing together my video (as I said before I'll link to that below) (Like and subscribe) and then my dad made me a hot dog which I didn't want/eat and then I showered. 
I was doing great on time and then Zia said she couldn't do my make up for the dance party... So I was late because I did my own (and I know next to nothing on make up so I had to work really hard at making it look almost mediocre.) And then the dance party turned out to be mostly in the dark... 
The parents planned out the dance party and it was really cute how much effort they put into it. So parents, if you're reading this, THANK YOU! It was a lot of fun. 
The dance party was club themed, which was cool. There were three main rooms, the club area where there was a dance floor, strobe lights and next to no lighting, and a 'bar' that served sparkling apple cider, strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas. The next room was the food area with a air hockey table and the last room had the 'photo booth' and T-shirts that read Club 2k15. Then there was an area out back with chairs and an area out front with a fire. I spent the majority of the party hanging out with Atticus and just kinda floating around. We went down to the fire for a bit because he was really cold. Then we went back to the main house area. I didn't dance much because I SUCK at dancing and also don't get how to do it. (Yeah, I'm dumb) but when Shut up and Dance with Me came on I had to dance. Atticus just kinda awkwardly stood there. As soon as that song ended we went back out of the dance room. Then we did shirt signing in which I obnoxiously signed a lot of people's shirts very large. It was fun. 
Anyway that was the last time I'll be seeing Nikos and Lance Casto for a while (they're moving). Bye Castos! I'll miss you guys in next years geometry class. 
Is there anything else I'm really dying to say? Nope not really. Thanks for reading my blog! 
I'll see you guys next time, 
-Anj

After dinner was Cold Stone, which I felt a little awkward about, too because, Serena's diet. Luckily everyone else was able to get something. At Kyoto (my favorite Sushi restaurant ever) they figured out it was my birthday so they came down with a big drum, sang happy birthday to me and gave me a free ice cream dish. Rather embarrassing, actually. I was laughing the whole time in embarrassment. When we got back to my house, we all went into my room and just hung out for a while. Serena knows how to do this muscle testing thing so we had a lot of fun seeing what people think and things they didn't know about themselves. Once Dara came over I opened presents. Camryn got me this really cute dress from Forever 21 that I wore on ballroom dancing week 4 (look below.) It's an extra small, which I was shocked to find fit me. Then we played a few stupid games. Watched a movie and fell asleep watching the movie. The next morning I felt super bad because Fiona had to leave due to a migraine. She is now banned from sleepovers at my house for the time being. Ugh. 
The next morning Dara left (Serena had left the night before) and Camryn and Ursy were the only two remaining. We ended up shopping at the mall for the excellent mother's day mall sales. 
From the mall, I bought two white strapless dresses from Charlotte Russe, heeled boots (on sale because they were out of season!) and oh yeah, a crap load of things from Bath and Body Works. 
Remember how I had that post about a flashback to Ballroom Dancing? Well ballroom dancing is back! Well, it's about to be over but I'll write a little about it anyway. Some people don't like it, but I find ballroom rather enjoyable. We've learned the Cha Cha, Tango, Jitterbug and uh one I can't remember and this friday we're having the final dance which is two hours and we have to dance with the 7th Graders. Not that I'm complaining, it's just the majority of the boys in that class are the same height or shorter than me... and I have an affinity for heels. 
Mother's Day was this weekend! And guys, I decided to work really hard on Mother's Day. All Saturday I spent getting my mom' gift ready. I made two scented candles, scented soap and a exfoliating sugar body scrub (IT REALLY WORKS). If you want soap or body scrub I'm thinking of starting to sell it, so... And trust me on this one, they smell amazing and work great. Mother's Day was a little disappointing since mom was tired all day, but that's okay. 
I've found some new friendships in the last months or so, too. I've befriended my old friend, Atticus Boatman recently. He's a really cool guy, a lot of fun to talk to and willing to listen. Camryn, Serena and I are becoming friends. 
So I'm trying desperately to think of new topics to talk about, like I can think of them when not blogging but when blogging? Totally blanking. Sorry guys! I'll write soon (graduation is just around the corner) 
xoxo 
Anj

So our 8th Grade Play is this week! Are you coming? You should! It's going to be.. interesting haha. Our play is Beauty and The Beast. The showings are 7:30 PM at Heilman Hall (IDK how to spell it) Tuesday (March 3rd) and Thursday (March 5th). I'm excited to get this play over with. I was always so excited to do the play and it was fun at first. But then it got boring, around the time when we were done all the props a month before the play and had to work on something even though there was nothing else to do. Then it got really really boring last week. Like I almost prefer school over having all day play. 
As I predicted pre all day play it would be fun on Monday. And by Tuesday we would be totally done with it. Like seriously, the play is so boring now because we've rehearsed it like, three million times. But it'll be different because we have an audience. Okay, so here's the casting, I hope I remember everyone.... 
Nikos Casto as the Beast 
Joshua Engelke (IDK how to spell your last name SORRY JOSH) as the Prince 
Caroline O'Hagan as Madame Rondeau (the mom) 
Emma Reuter as Isabelle (Beauty's sister) 
Faith Tracey as Marguerite (Beauty's Sister) 
Serena Boyesen as Stella (Beauty's Sister) 
Lance Casto as Greedo (Isabelle's husband) 
Zachary Lambertus as Graspo (Marguerite's husband) 
Kevin Buss as the Clock and Grungyo (Stella's hubby) 
Coleman was going to be Grungyo but he left the school -_-
Fiona Hogan as Princess Macy (the beachy princess)  
Anji Cooper (aka Me) as Princess Avide (the flirty princess) 
Ursula Friesen as Princess Garnett (the quiet Princess) 
Weston Trautmen as the Old Beggar (the guy who casts the curse) 
Layne Trautmen as Louis (the servant) 
Winston Roth as the chair 
Maurice as the hat rack 
Michael Loeb as the rug
Hannah King as the painting 
Ryan Needle as the magic mirror
George Divincent (how do you spell your last name? Sorry George) as Brutus (the dog) 
Atticus Boatman as the Rose Guardian 
Camryn Buss as Beauty 
Dara Rogers as Helen (the Housekeeper) 
Krista Debow as Princess Richelle (the other princess) 
Tenzin Wade as Wolf #1
Matt Tygensen as Wolf #2 
Yates Pendleton as Wolf #3
Andrew Carr as the Captain 
Colin O'Hara as Lt. Fort
And I think that's all, sorry if I forgot you! 
Anyway, I can say pretty much every line from the play word for word- does that show how many times we've rehearsed it? 
Aside from the play looming up, SPRING BREAK IS THE WEEK RIGHT AFTER. So I've been trying to loose some weight for it and have bee going to G-Fit as many times a week as possible. I actually almost forgot about G-Fit yesterday when I woke up so I had to get ready REALLY fast. I'm so excited to be going down to St. Kits, it's in the Caribbean, if you didn't know. Also, if you haven't read my last posts, I'm going down to St. Kits in a private jet with my family, some family friends, Fiona and Zia's friend, Sammy. It's going to be so much fun minus the part where we can't use our phones with service unless there's Wi-Fi. I really hope there's Wi-Fi in St. Kits. Also Fi and I are going to try and vlog daily and take a bajillion pictures maybe some vlogs will go up on YouTube and pictures on my blog. 
If you didn't know, when I set plans, I like them to be in stone. When Fiona sets plans? They're in Jello at best. She changes her mind a lot and I find it annoying to an extreme. We were all excited to go shopping this weekend for spring break but on the day she decides oh, yeah, I don't wanna go. UGH! I forced her to anyway, bwahaha. But then she was in a bad mood about it. So I gave her the silent treatment until she stopped being so miserable. She did end up buying a lot of stuff though. 
I actually only bought two things three, if you count top and bottom. I got a bikini set from Aerie and shorts from American Eagle. AND THAT WAS ALMOST ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Talk about over priced. I did go to Starbucks though. 
So apparently I'm way behind on the news and just this week I found out about the 'Secret Menu' at Starbucks, so I decided to try something off it. I tried the Cotton Candy Frappicino, It was good,  I'm not sure which I prefer, that or caramel, probs the caramel. 
AND MY DAD BOUGHT ALEC A BED AT THE APPLE STORE! THANK YOU! Alec really wanted a bed. If you were unaware, Alec is my beautiful and beloved MacBook Air. I bought him this summer and am typing this post off him. Yes. I like to name things. Stop Judging me. Stop it. STOPPPPP. Even though I would've liked a Vera Bradley case, I quite like the black case that I got, it matches the rest of my devices now. 
Oh yeah! and we got SUSHI last night!  If you know me, you'd know that I ask for Sushi literally every night. It's my favorite food. If I were to only eat one thing for the rest of my life it would most definitely be Sushi. To all you sushi haters out there, why? Just, why? 
And before I forget, MY BUBBLE TEA SUPPLIES CAME ON FRIDAY! Since then I have made at least three maybe four cups of bubble tea for myself. It's actually not as addicting when Im drinking it,  but when I'm not I really crave it, I have no idea why. Fiona thinks that the bubbles have heroin in them because she's convinced I'm addicted to them. Haha. 
See you next time, 
Anj. 
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Sorry for not updating sooner! I've been really busy with schoolwork. I've pretty much just been going to school, getting home and doing homework and then going to sleep. Oh yeah, and going to GFit and a little TV here and there. I haven't read a book in a while though :(.  
Okay so last weekend I skipped school on Friday in favor of driving about ten hours down to North Carolina with my parents. They were going down to see a Duke basketball game and I was going down to see my friends that live there, Max and Elise Moses. It was a lot of fun, sadly we could only stay one full day because I had to be back at school on Monday (way to be a downer, BACS.) It was really nice being able to sleep in the car. I was just lying across the back like it was a bed. Then we also stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch! I love Cracker Barrel, the food there is so good. We arrived at the Moses' house, I don't know, around sixish? From there we sat down and had dinner. Unfortunately I was still filled from Cracker Barrel so I didn't have much of an appetite. I'm sorry, but that dinner was not too interesting. Whenever I'm over at anyone's house, it takes me a bit to warm up to everyone so I was just kinda quietly sitting at the table while my parents talked about their work. Not the most interesting topic for me. 
After dinner, Max and I started a game of Monopoly. By the time Elise got home, I was already winning by well, a lot. It's funny because last time I saw Elise and Max I was constantly beating Max at card games. Ah, I love card games. 
On Saturday Elise and I made cookies, but they were out of vanilla so they tasted a little funny. Then I went to Elise's soccer game. It was really cold and I just kinda sat there and watched whilst listening to music for four hours. North Carolina isn't that much warmer than it is here in Pennsylvania. Kinda embarrassing but I was falling asleep on the car ride back to the house. I was very tired, besides, whenever I'm in a car I get tired. Once we got back to the house, Elise and I went up to her room and I spent the next hour trying to convince her to put on a bathing suit. She finally did so, probably just to shut me up. But when we were all ready to go in the hot tub, the dinner guests came over, so we put clothes on over the bathing suits and went down for dinner. So the dinner guests were also friends of my parents' and they brought their grandson, Cam, with them. Elise and I had fun playing with him, that is, until he started crying. Funny story about that, actually. So when he started crying Elise and I tried singing to him, he started crying harder. Then later we tried singing to him when he was happy... seconds later he started crying. Ouch. 
Then we finally got into the hot tub! I love hot tubs. Especially in the winter. It was warm. Haha. We had Max take a bunch of pictures. 
One of the things I really loved down there, were all of the Moses' dogs. If you were unaware, I've always wanted a dog. Man's best friend, right? The Moses' had four. It was awesome. Their names were Lulu, Clint, Izzy and Maggie (I think it was Maggie and Clint). My favorite was Lulu, she was really cute and sweet. It was funny because when we were in the hot tub, Izzy kept dropping a basketball into the water so we'd throw it for her. 
Our 8th Grade play is coming up fast! March 3rd and 5th at 7:30 PM in the Bryn Athyn Church School, you should totally come. I can't say it's really good because I haven't seen many other scenes (haha) beside m own, but you should still come. All our work on building the set is almost done (it looks interesting) and I'm pretty sure we've rehearsed all the scenes a couple times. Next next week we're going to be having all day rehearsals, NO SCHOOL! :D 
As mentioned before, I've been going to GFit. In my last post I'd gone twice, now I'm no even sure how many times I've gone, I'm going to try and go three times a week, but sometimes things come up and I can't go every class. It's a lot of  fun and I'm getting better at it :D Like I'm not sore afterwards anymore, which is great. 
Valentines Day is tomorrow? Have any plans? I do, I'm making myself cupcakes tonight haha. #loner But I'm helping Caroline bake cookies and cupcakes for Drake today, so that's something. 
See you next time, 
-Anj