Food

What better way to close out my blogging spree than to talk about one of my favorite things on earth, food? I have a very wide variety of foods that I like and most of the time I am not very picky about what I am eating. One of my favorite foods is pizza. I like all kinds of pizza. I like cheese, pepperoni, deluxe, chicken, bacon, and meat lovers. I like deep dish pizza and stuffed crust as well. There are so many things that you can put on a pizza that would make it taste good. I also like to dip my pizza in ranch all of the time. That started with pizza rolls and I thought they needed some sauce with them so I tried ranch and it did wonders for me. So then I tried it with regular slices with pizza and I have needed ranch with my pizza ever since. I am also a big fan of macaroni and cheese. I like to put franks red hot sauce on it most of the time. I also like the chicken and mac and cheese combination. That brings up my next favorite food, chicken. I like all kinds of chicken and cooked all kinds of different ways. A grilled chicken sandwich is probably my favorite preparation of it. I like either ranch or honey mustard on my chicken sandwiches. One of the things I do not like is ketchup, I never really have been fond of it. I like tomatoes, but the consistency and taste of ketchup does not keep my interest. I also do not really like chocolate which surprises a lot of people. I will eat chocolate in certain situations or if there is only a little drizzle of it, but just eating chocolate is not good to me. My favorite food combination of all time is chicken, bacon, and ranch. The flavors present in this combination make my taste buds go crazy. I am also a big fan of Italian, Chinese, and Mexican foods. I love the sauces on the Chinese chicken and the rice and vegetables with it. I love the Mexican meats, cheeses, and combinations. I enjoy the Italian's different types of pasta and their chicken plates. It is very interesting to think about all of the different ethnicities and cultures brought together through food. So the moral of the story is that food is a win-win situation for everyone and their taste buds and their bonding with new people and experiences.

High School

High school is where you define yourself and ultimately what you are going to do with your future going forward. Everyone walks in as a freshman being looked down upon by all of the upper classmen. You have to earn their respect sort of like job opportunities later in life. There are most likely cliques from the different elementary schools who hang out with each other until they find new friends and branch out. Getting involved is the easiest way to connect and make friends very quickly in your high school career, especially with sports teams. If you think about it, you are with your team more than your family most days. You have to learn to get along with your teammates because you are with them often. All extra curricular activities are this way. Everyone gets the experience of their first high school football game, which turned out to be one of my favorite things to do in high school. You are finally a part of the student section, dancing, cheering, having a good time with all of your friends while rooting on the ones who are playing in the game. My junior and senior year I traveled to every football game to root on my friends because I had such a great time doing it. Everyone walks in nervous that they are going to get picked on by all of the other kids and they try their best just to blend in with the crowd. It turns out that the upperclassmen could honestly care less what the freshman do unless they are trying to purposefully make a scene for others to notice them. This could either be troublesome for the individual or boost their popularity fairly quick. Fitting in in high school is all a big game. Sooner or later students find out that it is not at all about fitting in but being yourself and showing people what your are all about. I think that being able to express yourself at a young age will help build confidence and lead to success in your future. Quite honestly, I think that the teaching in high school is poor and only a select few classes genuinely help prepare you for the next level as a collegiate student. High school classes are easy and they present you with ample opportunities to not only pass the class, but to get an A in the class.

Pets

I am on the fence about whether or not I like certain pets living in my household. I am a big fan of dogs, preferably big dogs. After all, dog is a man's best friend. Once they get past their very energetic, crazy puppy days they are very fun to have around. They are fun to be around when hey are puppies because they are very playful, but they also get into trouble very easily. I like big dogs because I can't stand the yelp of many small dogs and because they are more humanlike in my opinion. My dog is a mix between a pit bull and a boxer. She is very well tamed, but she also can run around and play when she wants to. She also doesn't shed which allows her to be inside and be a bigger part of the family which is always a plus. My favorite dogs are German shepherds and golden retrievers. They are both known as very loyal breeds and they are also quite friendly. I also have two cats which are not quite as playful as my dog, but they have their moments. They just roam around for the most part or play with each other. Cats are nice because they keep to themselves for the most part but they also will come give you some company. Most other animals living in my house is not my cup of tea. I am not a big fan of any type of reptile like snakes, lizards, turtles, and others. They are just creepy and don't really serve a purpose as pets in my opinion. I also don't really understand why people have fish in their house unless it is merely for decoration. We have aquariums for animals that live under water, they are not meant to be contained in a small glass container in someone's house. I think possibly the most annoying pet that any person could have is a bird. All they do is talk and talk. The only exception is a parrot because they amuse me with their excellent mocking skills. Overall I do not enjoy having animals in my house, especially those that are not meant to be domestic and kept in households. I have nothing against people who have a lot of pets, more power to them for being able to maintain all over their animals wants and needs at all times of the day. Pets are definitely a big responsibility, especially for those who have jobs and need to be away from their pets for extended amounts of time.

Christmas

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year. The year is coming to a close and we get to celebrate the birth of Christ with our families. It is a great time of giving and spending time with those who we love the most. I have multiple Christmases due to the separation of my birth parents. I have one Christmas on my biological dad's side at my grandma's house with all of his family. Then on Christmas eve, I usually go to my aunt's house on my step dad's side. We usually play some dumb family games have a nice dinner and spend quality time with each other. On, Christmas day we usually either have Christmas at our house or at my grandma's house on my mom's side and celebrate with her family there. It is usually a very chaotic couple of weeks but I am very grateful for my situation and all of the families that support me in everything I do. It is an awesome time to be able to see all of your family that you do not get to see that often because a lot of people are off of work. There is usually some amount of snow on the ground to allow you to go play in and act like a little kid again. I usually tried to build some version of either a snowman or snow fort and bring out my inner child that is left in me. Holidays in general are always a very good opportunity to have an excuse to eat a lot of food, most of which is not good for you. Snow also calls for the annual trip to go sledding and take part in many other foolish winter activities in the freezing cold weather. I am personally not a big fan of the cold, but I can still always manage to find a way to have fun during the Christmas season. You also get all of the classic Christmas movies on tv that must be watched because it is tradition. All of the stores, schools, businesses, everyone gets in the Christmas spirit and it makes it quite difficult not to enjoy this time of the year. Other than the very cold temperatures, I would say Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. It brings me joy being away from school and being with my family for an extended amount of time.

Basketball

I didn't start playing basketball for the school until my eighth grade year. Everyone said I was tall so I should play, so I tried it in eighth grade for the first time. I always shot around with my friends on my hoop in the driveway but this was my first time playing organized basketball. We had two teams, a green team and a white team because our school was so big. I was on the white team and we were very successful throughout the season. I began to earn more and more playing time going into the playoffs of the season. We won a couple of games then had to play our green team in the semifinals and we won in a very close game. We lost in the championship to our rivals but we put up a good fight an it was a very exciting experience for me. I went on to play my freshman year for the same coach because he moved up to freshman. We had a very successful season again and I moved into a starting position. We only lost a couple of games during the regular season and went on to win our conference tournament. We won by twenty points in the championship. I then received the news that I was going to have to transfer to another high school which was obviously very disappointing. So I began my career at Harrison playing JV at the beginning of the year before getting called up to varsity about halfway through the year. After playing my first game on varsity I got injured during a JV game ending my sophomore year of basketball. Junior year, injuries again kept me from playing a lot but I played a lot more. Senior year, we got a new coach which was the best thing that could have happened to our basketball program. He made my senior year very enjoyable and somewhat successful with the talent pool that we had to choose from. We won a lot of our conference games and put up great efforts against teams much better than we were. My senior night against one of our conference foes was one of my favorite games in any sport. Me and my friends played our final home game with an excellent crowd. We found a way to have fun and play a very fundamentally sound game. I had one of the best games of my season and we won by twenty points. I also earned WLWT player of the week and got an interview on tv which was a new experience for me. We then went on to lose our first tournament game in a very tight game ending my basketball career. After not playing until my eighth grade year I ended up with some very fond memories during my basketball career.