2019-07-06

【Aiden in English】

        If there was ever a moment of divine intervention, the past two years must’ve included some sort of magical editing. Freshman and sophomore year in my high school felt as if someone copied and pasted the same algorithm into two-time slots of my life. That isn’t such a bad thing either.

        Ever watch a large wave stroll in on the beach? It starts small but eventually becomes substantially larger than the other waves to distinguish itself. While in the water, you see the wave approaching, and in anticipation one normally braces him or herself. Well, due to the carbon copy of 9th and 10th grade, I probably should have embraced myself. Luckily, I found some motivation to hold my breath before the wave came, but it wasn’t before some saltwater rinsed my eyes.

        I’ve mentioned the third marking period flood that consistently drowns my grades. Well, I watched the wave come… and essentially had it slap me in the face. Instead of math, the damage was equally displaced around all my classes. Providentially, I’d built up quite a buffer in the first half of the year that helped mitigate the problems. 

        Well, my grades this year were basically the same as the last, which is a large reason why I thought these two years felt identical. However, within myself, the years differed.

        Freshman year felt like a nursery. Not because I was spoon-fed, but because I was a baby, not talkative or social. Throughout my sophomore year in high school, that definitely changed. I talked in class, got close with teachers. Some enjoyed my presence and voice, others… less. In English, I enjoyed pushing the teacher’s buttons. She was retiring, imperatively trying to enjoy the last few moments with her students. Therefore, she was not about to get angry over some talkative child. At times, she even dropped her professional demeanor, and if I were retiring after a thirty-year career, I would have as much fun in my parting year as I could. That is, whenever I felt awake.

        Speaking of napping, sophomore year involved a bit more effort than freshman year, as I did not have lunch. Therefore, I drank energy drinks to power me through the year, which I felt were completely useless overall. The usage of Red Bull probably correlates to the increased frequency of late nights doing homework. For that, I can thank AP US History and AP Calculus.

        Retirement is a pretty big deal. It appears that I was also a big enough deal to force three of my teachers to retire. Sarcasm aside, it was just a coincidence. While it was tough to see them leave, a slight issue I’m having is the number of teachers needed for recommendation letters. I was fairly certain that those teachers enjoyed my words of wisdom (or terrible puns) in class, but each one of them over the last few months dropped the “I’m retiring” speech on stunned ears.

        In conclusion, sophomore year was exactly like freshman year. I felt a character growth, fueled by Red Bull, and a stronger connection with teachers. Other than that, I can fairly say that high school will have much more in store. Otherwise, high school would be quite a monotonous ride. Now we wouldn’t want that, would we?

【紅霞譯文】

        莫非天助我也，過去兩年成績怎麼從一個模子裡刻出來的，好像有人把我高一、高二考試分數完整複製並照搬黏貼到兩個學年成績單中，那倒不算什麼壞事。

        海邊散步時留意過大浪嗎？它開始很小但最後變得比其它浪大得多。你呆在水裡，眼瞅着海浪逼近，指望人們在通常情況下都能做好應對準備。沒錯，正因為高一和高二成績相仿，我真該心滿意足。多虧在海浪到來之前，我摸出點門道屏住呼吸，但眼睛卻早已被海水打濕。

        我曾說過第三學制所遇災情一向嚴峻到殃及全年總分的地步。是呵，我瞧見海浪衝來……不偏不倚打在自己的臉上。除數學而外，我的各科成績均受到同等程度的影響，幸好在前半學年兩個學制中我攢下老本，這樣才有底氣對付尷尬局面。

        這麼說吧，我今年考試成績與去年各科分數旗鼓相當，兩年混得不相上下簡直不可思議，但我心裡明白，“年年歲歲花相似，歲歲年年人不同”。

        高一感覺像托兒所，不是因為有人用勺子餵我，而是因為我依舊是個嬰孩，既不愛吭聲也不好社交，等到了高二，整個變了樣。課堂上我開口發言，與老師互動，有人欣賞我的出現及聲調，有人……不太感冒。上英語課的時候，我喜歡引爆老師教書熱情，她快退休了，特別想跟學生共享美好時光，因此從不跟個別話癆的楞頭青慪氣，有時甚至放下老師的架子。假若我將離別幹了30年的工作崗位，想必在最後那一年定會隨心所欲，當然，只要我不犯困。

        至於午休時間，高二的確比高一稍微辛苦點，反正我沒工夫吃午餐，所以只好一年到頭喝能量飲料，其實沒啥功效。“紅牛”攝入量多少也許跟深更半夜忙活家庭作業的頻率有關，由此說來，我還得感謝美國歷史和微積分兩門大學先修課。

        退休是人生重大決策。看來我本事不小，一下子讓三位老師同時退出教學講台，暫且撇開玩笑，這純屬巧合。眼見一個個離校固然令人遺憾，但深受影響的還有給我提供推薦信的數量，這些老師肯定喜歡我在課堂上插科打諢（哪怕離譜的雙關語），但過去幾個月來“我要退休”的口號如雷貫耳。

        總而言之，高二正像高一那樣，在“紅牛”的刺激下，我的個性日趨成長，師生關係也變得更加緊密。除此之外，我可以公平地說，高中處處有驚喜；再不然，高中生活勢必相當乏味。現在我們並不希望如此，對嗎？

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2018: Ninth-Grade Summer Internship @ UPenn(高一暑假賓大見習)

2017: Upper Danube—Passau to Linz(多瑙河上游—帕紹至林茨)

2017: Danube—Jochenstein Lock, Germany(德國多瑙河—約亨斯坦水閘)

2017: Passau the God's Ballroom, DEU(德國帕紹—天宮聖境)

2017: Passau the City of Three Rivers, DEU(德國帕紹—三河之城)

2017: Passau Organ Concert, Germany(德國帕紹—管風琴音樂會)

2016: Frederiksborg the Danish Versailles(丹麥凡爾賽宮—菲特烈堡)

2016: Frederiksberg Palace & N Zealand, DNK(丹麥菲特烈堡宮和北西蘭)

2016: Kronborg Hamlet Castle, Denmark(丹麥克倫宮哈姆雷特城堡)

2013: Drama Camp-2(戲劇夏令營之二)

Crosslink(相關博文):

10th Grade(高中二年級)