Max, Week 16 - APENG.
I’m confident that I will remember this class for the rest of my life. I’ve never once been in a class that is so prevalent in my life or that takes up so much headspace. It’s like everywhere I go I see APENG. I’m eating Malatown with some friends—this is like a socratic seminar! I’m walking through Westfield Valley Fair—let’s analyze the advertisements! It’s not even a conscious effort for me to make connections to APENG. It just happens.
And the desperation I felt for this class can not be paralleled with any other experience I’ve ever had. Prior to winter break, when first semester grades were almost being finalized, I used to add in every single assignment that I remember doing in class as a “what-if assignment” on Aeries to predict my final grade. I also rolled around on the staircase for like 45 minutes once just thinking about APENG (it was not particularly enjoyable).
This class has forced me to be the most diligent person I can ever be. What even is a late assignment in APENG? Is that even a thing? I’ve never even considered turning in something late. Sleeping 3 hours > turning in APENG work late. I’ve never cared about a class so much that I check the weekly overview ten times a week to make sure I’m not missing anything. I’ve never set to-do-list tasks on top of reminders for assignments of any class. The work was quite unbearable (unfortunately I am not very skilled in the humanities), but it really taught me the ability to work hard consistently and how it feels to truly try as hard as I can and do as much as I can. No other class has forced this mentality on me before.
But most importantly, the experience I’ve had in this class is the most memorable one I’ve ever had. Never once have I had a class so interconnected with each other—these random groups of people coming together and forming friend groups. I didn’t even know half the class, and now we are playing Mafia together?? We are connecting over Gartic Phone and Italian Brainrot? Genuinely unreal and dreamlike. I’m glad to have met all of you this year.
Below I have written my most core memory for all of you:
Eunchan. You’re super funny and super fun to be around. My most memorable moments with you are actually in Reid’s Spanish class, when you used to take selfies and I would just be in the background. I can’t believe we connected over that. Maybe selfies are more than a side effect of social media (APENG argumentative prompt reference!!). It was fun to collab blogs with you.
Colin. You’re a very silly person. Your blogs are INSANELY good like your clickbait blog was so clickbait I genuinely was so impressed with that one. I didn’t know that you existed before this year. Gartic with you was fun!! Please enlighten me on how you have enough pictures to change your profile picture so often.
Devyani. Eres mi sola compañera para la clase de español. Aunque no aprendé nada en esa clase, el tiempo contigo fue muy desirable y agradable. Debemos hablar más después de español AP. No quiero olvidar esta idioma y mi conexión contigo.
Elina. My most core memory of you is definitely us playing some sort of teacher-student game when we were like 7 years old. I remember getting mad at you because I was always the student and never the teacher. Your mom was really nice. You’re a goofy person and we should play Valorant more.
Krish. I saw you playing Brawl Stars during our Mafia session today. Suhas said you are really good and that you dedicate a lot of your time to that game. I (based on what Suhas said) think you should go pro and become the first APENG student to be a pro Brawl Stars player.
Nidhi. You are an amazing writer I just am not on your level and can’t think at the same wavelength as you. I remember doing tone sentences with you and we (I) were (was) a little slow. Sorry for that one. You’re also super smart and knew all of the AP Bio material so I respect you for that.
Ritwik. You’re so smart I am always in shock. I was so incredibly surprised to see that you got 141/150 on the AMC. How is that even possible?? I got like 73.5 or something. You are unreal and I wouldn’t be surprised if you were the next Albert Einstein.
Suhas. I don’t know how I ended up in a Whatsapp group chat with you? You’re a very smart person and I think you over-underestimate yourself too much. We take all the same classes and thank you for the AP Physics practice test you shared with me. The watermelon you brought to our APENG picnic was quite delicious and juicy. Maybe practice your knife skills a bit more.
I genuinely believe that going through challenges together is the best way to bond with others. We’re able to help each other and understand each others’ struggles. We’re able to grow together and know each other on a deeper level.
And with this being junior year, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is maybe the last time that I see some of your faces for the rest of my life? Hopefully we have classes together next year. And good luck in life. Please text me on Instagram.
With tears and smiles,
Max
¡Hola, Max! ¡Muchísimas gracias por tu mensaje! Tienes razón–necesitamos hablar más el próximo año escolar, pero en español solamente si saco una buena nota. Si no, voy a llorar y querer que olvide la idioma, lo siento. Realmente pienso que nuestras conversaciones ayudaban mucho en mi confidencia para la sección de conversación, así que estoy muy agradecida (I only just realized agradecido means grateful and not agreeable. Really great time to have that epiphany.)
ReplyDeleteAs the school year winds down, I’ve also started to reflect on how we as APENG students have created our own community (You might say that in challenging times, you all have given me optimism. For legal reasons, it’s been 48 hours and I’ve checked that the prompts have been released at the time of commenting.) This class has become the basis of so many of my friendships this year, even more so after exams where our personalities are no longer APs. Thank you for sharing, and I’m manifesting that we have classes together next year!
Hey Max, this was such a heartwarming blog and I can tell you thought deeply about it. It's been great getting to know you this past year. I honestly never really talked with you until the last month or so after the Gartic Phone, picnic, and the Whatsapp group chat stuff (I don't know myself how or why this ended up happening). We share a lot of similar classes and I think you are a great spanish speaker (thank you so much for giving me your kahoot pass).
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a great point on how the class helped bring us all together. Starting off the year, I heard many stories about this class from some seniors with its heavy workload; the class felt daunting because none of my close friends were in my period or taking APENG to begin with. However, through the course of the year, I was able to meet so many different people that I honestly would likely not talk to otherwise.
Thank you for helping make the class memorable and it certainly will be something I continue to remember and reminisce about even after high school.
Hey Max!
ReplyDeleteWhat a poetic goodbye. I really enjoyed reading your blog this last final time and agree that this class would be one that I would remember the most from my high school years. It was really wholesome of you to write a mini letter to each and every one of us in this blog cohort! Thanks for glazing my clickbait blog!!!! I remembered in first semester doing the “what-if assignment” on Aeries every time we finished an essay to see what my grade could potentially be. This class was the only class that I got a B in, but I am not disappointed. Rather than feeling salty, I think that this class was one of, if not the best classes I had this year, because I learned most here and enjoyed going to this class (not the homework though). This class has taught me so much, especially the ability to be prepared to write timed writes (first day of school) and was such a valuable class! I hope you’re in one of my classes next year, but if not, I hope you the best in your future endeavors, and I know you can achieve anything you set your mind to!
Congrats on completing APENG.
Colin
Hi Max! The ideas you covered about your overall experience with AP lang was very similar to what I talked about in this week's blog! The amount of time and energy you are expected to devote to this class is crazy and I totally agree that the experience almost gives you a new mentality. It is a challenging class but the growth it produces is also significant. Similar to your experience, this class taught me about perseverance and how to push beyond my limits. The messages you wrote for each classmate are soo cute. How much time did it take you to write all these? I nearly forgot that we had Spanish together last year. Thank you for giving me daily food and blessing our corner group with your intelligence during kahoots! I will miss you sooo much! We should break into Hayoon’s over summer and hangout there! Bring your sister too! Bye Maxy, your blog deserves a 999/10.
ReplyDelete