I Wouldn't Mind Living in Hell

Last week, we took notes on Dante's Inferno.  In this allegory, Dante describes his journey through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.  If I were to describe all of the notes we took about this book in one sentence, it would be that you most definitely want to go to Heaven, unless you really like hanging out with the great nonchristian people.  This book describes the nine rings of Hell, starting with the first one, which doesn't seem too bad.  The first rings is Limbo, which is where the unbaptised and virtuous pagans go after they die.  Apparently without baptism, people lack hope for something greater than their minds can conceive, so they can't go to Heaven.  However, Limbo includes green fields and a castle with seven gates to represent the seven virtues.  This castle is the home of many of the greatest humans to exist, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Julias Caesar, Cicero, Hippocrates, and so on.  So, the first ring of Hell is actually a pretty cool place because it's basically a deficient form of Heaven.  However, the rest of Hell is a pretty awful place.  The next eight rings go in order of sin, with the second ring being the lightest sin and the ninth ring being the worst sin.  As you go down the rings, the punishment gets worse and worse, so you DO NOT want to end up in the ninth ring.  So, next time you tell somebody to go to Hell, make sure you let them know you mean rings 2-9 because the first ring is kinda cool.

Decisions

With the May 1 deadline approaching, and the last of regular decision admittances being released, it is almost that time of the year for us to decide where we will go to college.  Many kids have already made their decision and have already paid the deposit to their school.  However, much like me, many other kids are stuck between which college to attend.

Ever since junior year, I've been told many times that the application process would be the most stressful part of senior year and that the rest of the year will be a breeze once I figure out which colleges I get into.  As someone who doesn't worry about much, the whole application process flew by and involved absolutely no stress.  As a realist, I had a firm grasp onto which schools I would probably get into and which schools I would probably not get into so I experienced minimal stress when admittance decisions came out.  As someone who loves two different schools, this next month will be tough, but I know that I will spend a lot of time thinking about which school I will attend and will ultimately make the right choice, so I'm not too worried about the choice that I will have to make.

Midquarters

Senior year can be characterized by the theme of ending.  At some point this year, each graduating senior will have his last RMHS game, performance, club meeting, or any other acitivity involving the highschool.  While each senior separately experiences endings at different times throughout the year, there are a few moments throughout the year in which we all experience the sense of ending.  Last week, we had our last midquarters, which means that school is winding to an end.  At this point of the year, AP tests are not far away, and most AP curriculums will be finishing within the next few weeks.  Within the next 6 weeks, most AP classes will be completely finished and the weather will be absolutely perfect.  Even though my English midquarter was not the best (as this blog post is for amnesty), I couldn't have been happier to realize that it is almost the time of the year for the weather to warm up and for school to come to a close.  The third midquarter seems as though it should be an insignificant landmark, but it signifies that we are actually close to the light at the end of the tunnel.

Warmth

Two months ago, I would have killed for a 75 degree day.  Now that it is only the beginning of March and each day is starting to be as warm as 60 degrees, I could not be happier.  Although I enjoy winter, it lacks certain qualities that the warmer seasons possess.  Not only will I be able to walk around town without such heavy clothing and without fear of freezing my face off, but there will also be so much more to do with friends.  Winter's snow covers all of the fields and the cold disallows spending the entire day outdoors.  Now that it is warm out, I can spend all day with my friends at a field, a beach, or any outside hangout spot and enjoy the warm weather.  However, not everything about the summer is so great.  For too many years I have seen kids pass out at soccer tournaments from heat frustration because it is way too hot on the turf, and if you are fair-skinned, it is inevitable that you will have a sunburn at least at a few points of the summer.  Even though it gets pretty hot and it becomes really easy to burn, I cannot wait for the summer, but I will try to enjoy the spring while it lasts.  Which season do you prefer, summer or winter?

Spring

When it comes to winters, the one this year was a failure.  Historically, we have usually been hit by at least a few snowstorms every year, but this time there was only one big one.  However, I will forgive this year's winter because it had such big shoes to fill from last year's record setting snow.  Although I will forgive this year's winter, I will not forgive last year's seniors for having so many snow days.  This year we were only allotted two snowdays, while last year's seniors had what seemed to be hundreds of snowdays.  With this huge disparity between snowdays, it seems as though last year's seniors got the upper hand with the whole winter situation, but there are other factors to take into consideration.  Since last year brought such a strong winter, it took much longer for all of the snow to go away.  Last year I remember shoveling feet of snow off of the track in late March so that we could use it for practice.  Not only was there so much snow, but it was also brutally cold during that part of March.  This year it has been constantly in the 50s and next week it will reach the 70s.  Not to mention that the track team does not need to clear off the track and the lacrosse team does not need to clear off turf 2.  The seniors from last year think that they are so cool for having so many snowdays, but the joke is on them; we're going to enjoy senior year so much more because our spring will start off on a higher note.