I graduated!
In year one, I hated Hunter. In year two, I wanted to go to Stuy. In year three, I didnt care. But then I realized that stuy kids all come out crackpots! Haha jk Saish, Rocksheng, Yiping, etc. You guys are plenty okay.
Anyway, graduation was on June 24th, @ Hunter College. I think most of HS graduations are on this day. So on monday and tuesday that week, we seniors had to rehearse for FIVE FREAKING HOURS each day. Here's the stage:
Its like 0 degrees in there, plus all the curtains are a yucky purple.
So then, we come in at 9:00 AM, even though the teachers dont come in until 9:30. Then it takes like 30 min to take our attendance, with the teacher screaming at the top of her lungs (most of us dont hear her, so we're marked absent. Hello? Theres a mic onstage...). Then, instead of having us practice-parade, the teachers start discussing, THEN, what we should do. Then they were showing off their parading techniques and arguing which path to stage was better. No need to say, we were very bored.
Here's Lenny and Theo meditating:
And here is Kyle ominously going around and picking on kids shorter than him:
The boring rehearsals took two days, during which we mostly sat there and signed yearbooks, snuck out to go eat, read Harry Potter (only me), and took pictures. The few times we did manage to do practice runs, we messed up pretty badly, cuz lines were long and only those in front could hear instructions. So we walked in the wrong places, at the wrong speeds, but it's all good. We had to walk through where the orchestra would have sat, but no one noticed. (so during actual Commencement, we had to walk around the orchestra pit, on the edge of the stage, where we could've fallen to our dooms).
I went back to school on Wednesday for the Chem Regents. Everyone in my class was very well prepared (we're so proud of you!!  and I'll have pics of my chem class up later). I also tried to take a pic of the Thomas Hunter Plaque but photo came out icky:
I also went to see Ms. Salzman and Ms. Sewell that day. Ms. Sewell gave me a present! It was soooooo cute/useful it's this drinking glass that looks like a beaker (it was clear glass, had graduations, and a quote from main man Albert Einstein). It was useful cuz the mug I use now to drink @ home looks identical to the one my dad uses, so he steals both. Now even he can't mix them up .
Thursday was graduation. The orchestra had to be there at 3:00, the seniors 4:00, and the guests/parents 5:00. My parents were late as usual.
The graduation ceremony was okay. I walked around the two tables instead of through them, so I messed up my entrance. The orchestra and chorus sounded really good. The speakers were all um...creative...we had counselman Gifferd Miller, actress Cynthia Nixon, Hunter President Jennifer Raab, and principle Dr. Laurenson. They all basically said the same thing. They tried to give advice and stuff.
So aside from the adult speeches, we had student speeches. Everyone said Nora's opening address was good. We also had a musical performance that was decent, and some chorus songs that were good. When we had to sing our alma mater, most of us lipped it, and the chorus did not provide their moral support  cuz they were just as clueless as us. Then Ms. Moore read all our names and we went up to get our diploma case, which was very pretty. She read the names ok (I had to shorten mine from Adam Xianpeng Sang to Adam Sang because I didnt feel like taking risks  ) Also, we turned out tassels at four different times. It was so embarrasing how uncoordinated we were. Some of us even threw our caps in the air. What idiots.
Here's us in the dark:
Afterwards, there was a reception where I got to meet lots of my teachers and take pictures with them  .
Here's a picture of Ira, me and Mr. Tomes. My parents have terrible memory, so I hafta tell them the name of the teacher we're gonna meet ahead of time so they will remember. So I said to my mom and dad "okay we're gonna go find Ms. Salzman now" and they're like OK and tried to remember the name. Then, Mr. Tomes came by, and I was like oh here's Mr. Tomes. So then my parents can up to him and said "HI MS SALZMAN!!" >_<''' HOW CAN YOU CONFUSE MR TOMES AND MS SALZMAN!!! I was so embarrassed.  But fortunately, Mr. Tomes didnt hear that (he was clueless too)  so I quickly asked him to take this picture before he realized anything ^_^.
Next, I took a picture with Amy, my adorable Mei Mei, who came to play for us with the orchestra. She's so cute! She let me borrow her Harry Potters and store my violin in her locker and gave me flowers for graduation! She's in Taiwan right now I think.
And finally I found Ms. Salzman. I owe her so much. She taught me AP Chem, let me intern for her, trained me for the Chem Olympiad, and must've nominated me for all the awards I won. She's one of those teachers who you keep in touch with your entire life. My parents were thrilled to meet her, and she was thrilled to meet my parents. My mom thanked Ms. Sewell for her present and hit my dad.>_<
Here's mom, Ms. Salzman, me, and Ms. Sewell. Ms. Salzman and Ms. Sewell look great.
And, to my surprise, Ms. Brandriss came to graduation! YAY YAY YAY YAY! She was my 9th grade bio teacher, and single-handedly got me to love science. She also recommended me to the Columbia SHP. She left with Mr. Goodman for another school to set up a science department there. Ms. Brandriss may come back to Hunter some time next year ^_^. My mom was estatic cuz she loves Ms. Brandriss  .
Here's a picture of me and my two idols, Ms. Brandriss and Ms. Salzman.
Here is Ms. Goldsmith, the science chair and my AP Bio teacher. OMG AP BIO was SOOOO DIFFICULT honestly it's the hardest course in hunter I think. I had to stay past midnight on several Sundays to finish my 20-pg handwritten lab reports, I had to pull an all-night (my first one ever) to finish my taxonomy project, and I had several near-all-nighters for her research paper. But she tested me every way possible, so the fact that I made it out of her class alive is one giant accomplishment. I also sneaked out of her class once a week (during the triple period lab) to go hang out with my chem class. She made sure to bring this up with my parents . She also praised me on my work on Biosphere.
Mom, Dad, Ms. Goldsmith, Me.
And here's my main man Mr. Randolph. He's so awesome because he lets me use his office as a clubhouse and storage and food place and computer lab. He gave me this advice, which I found is very useful.
"When times get rough, and there WILL be rough times ahead, pick up the phone and call us. Me, Ms. Goldsmith, Ms. Salzman, etc. Your old teachers. Because once you hear our voices, you will think to yourself 'I dont want to disappoint them, after everything they've done for me' and so you are inspired to get through the rough times and make the correct choices."
WOW. Special advice, from special person.
The last person we meet was Ms. Socol, my college counselor. She's an amazing women. She had 7 students apply to Harvard this year and last, and all 7 got accepted. Must be some amazing recommendation XD. My parents were happy to meet her and thanked her a lot and I also thanked her a lot. There was an awkward moment when she mentioned the Thomas Hunter Award and my parents didnt understand what she meant, but she quickly changed the topic and all was good. She also said that I was a very easy student to work with, which surprise me because I thought I made a lot of trouble. Thanks Ms. Socol!
The food at the reception was good. They had these meat on stick (kebob?) with honey mustard sause. Then some chocolate cake. I got to say goodbye to a lot of teachers and classmates. But I couldn't find Ms. Refkin or Dr. Herbert anywhere. T_T Afterwards, everyone started leaving (we were almost last to leave) and I got home at 10:30 then played some Starcraft .
I'm gonna miss everyone. | 
