#bysplteens

Reflections of a Wannabe Dance Teacher

As long as I can remember, my life has pretty much revolved around dance. I was three when I first watched an Irish dancing performance, was hooked on Riverdance from the time I was four and my neighbor gave me a VCR. I’ve been taking class the past 12 years of my life, and competing for the last 8. But now I’m seventeen, and it’s time to look into the future: college, a career. How can dance fit…

Love Among the Walnuts: A Modern Day Farce

Title: Love Among the Walnuts Author: Jean Ferris Gut Reaction: An amusing read that creates humor and charm through its absurdity. Two words encapsulate the essence of this novel: unrealistic characters. Love Among the Walnuts begins with Horatio Alger Huntington-Ackerman, a young businessman who seems to effortlessly make billions, falling instantly in love with aspiring actress Mousey Malone…

Jonathan Safran Foer: A Teen’s Take

I stumbled upon Jonathan Safran Foer by accident. See, my family was on vacation and I really, really needed a book. I was desperate enough to go for a—gasp—supernatural teen romance, but instead, was lucky enough to grab Twenty Under Forty, a New Yorker collection of short stories. This book changed my life, in a large part due to Foer’s addition, called “Here We Aren’t, So Quickly.”  His piece…

What If – What sort of logistic anomalies would you encounter in trying to raise an army of apes?

Title: What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Author: Randall Munroe What If? is a book of bizarre hypothetical questions and scientific answers.   But you could learn that just by looking at the cover, so here is my story about it.  I would not have known about this book if I had not gotten if for my birthday from my mom (my mom says I ask a lot of hypothetical…

Flowers for Algernon – thought-provoking and engaging

Title: Flowers for Algernon Author: Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, is the story of a man named Charlie Gordon. Charlie was born with a brain disorder that caused him to have an IQ of just 68. However, Charlie has just been approved to pilot a radical operation that will turn him into a genius. Well, human pilot. It’s already been tried on a rat named Algernon, and it was an…

The Upper Falls Over spring break, my friend and I took a road trip over to Wallace Falls in Goldbar, Washington, and then went on a hike. Wallace Falls is a Washington State Park, and thus we needed a Discover Pass to park there. The Discover Pass is this yellow slip that you hang on the front mirror in your car, which allows you to park at these state parks. The Discover Pass is $10 for a day,…

College

It’s just past the time that high school seniors have decided on their college, and juniors are looking ahead to applications. It’s nice being able to talk to someone who’s gone through the same process that many juniors will go through. There’s much to think about: the SAT, the ACT, good grades, finding a school that fits your interests, essays, applications, visits, and more. We have the…

Philosophy Class – questioning your surroundings is good for the soul

Philosophy Class Review

Plato

Philosophy…what does this word exactly mean? Well, it’s derived from the Greek roots Filo, meaning love, and Sofia, meaning wisdom. Thus creating the word φιλοσοφία (Philosophy), the love or pursuit of wisdom. I took this class at North Seattle Community College and initially it was just for the sake of earning the credit, but as the quarter progressed I grew to love…