College and Special Education

I just realized how long it's been since I last updated!

Well, that's because I've just started college. I moved to my dorm on the 23rd of August(my birthday), and classes started the Monday after that. 

I'm not a huge fan of it. My roommate is fine, my classes aren't that difficult, and the people I've met are great, but I just wish that I could be taking classes more related to my major.

There are two classes I'm currently taking that are going to directly help me with Special Education. The rest I'll probably only use if I'm ever on Jeopardy.

Other than that, I sort of wish I was somewhere else. I've never been out of the United States, and at the moment, I'm bursting with anticipation that one day, I'll live somewhere other than the U.S.A..

In this post, I think I'll tell you the short story of how I chose my major.

The story begins in Sophomore year.

I had about four art classes that year(or maybe it was three?) and I didn't want to do anything with my life except continue making art. From my own art teachers, I learned that they were allowed to use the kilns at the school, and since one of my favorite two forms of art is ceramics, so that was one good reason to be an art teacher.

On top of that, I had always wanted to help people, and I knew I could teach. 

So why not be an art teacher?

And that's what I wanted to be, until about halfway through my senior year. 

I was in Psychology, to learn more for my writing, and they had an option to do a program called Kid-to-Kid instead of taking a final. I had heard about Kid-to-Kid the year before, when a few of my friends had been in the class and had done it, and I had planned on doing it because, well, why not? I loved kids, and it actually seemed more fun than a final.

I was placed with a teacher who would work with children either one on one or in small groups, helping them with reading and comprehension of what they had read. I would come in once a week and just help for 20 minutes. Except, I loved it so much I would end up staying until almost the end of the school day. I loved teaching the kids so much, and the one-on-one nature was something I adored.

From that moment, I realized that I wanted to be a Special Education teacher.

My Book's First Birthday

One year ago today, I officially published Watching Over Me.

On top of that, in one month I'll be 18, and that's the same day I head off to college.

Today's a good day.

Greeks and Vegetarians--They actually CAN mix!

Okay, you've all seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, right?

Yeah. So, as a 50% Greek girl who has been raised by only the Greek half of her family, being vegetarian at a young age was as ridiculous as being BFF's with a Turk.

(You're laughing, right? That's supposed to be a joke.)

Anyway, you may be wondering, why was it so ridiculous?

I ate ground beef almost as much as I drink water. And I drink a lot of water. Most meals, whether they were truly Greek or just something Italian that my mom made, and made better (Our Italian neighbor once had some mostaccioli that my mom made, and she said that it was better than her own recipe.), had meat in them.

Besides, I thought Sloppy Joes and hotdogs were heaven.

Being vegetarian would mean no more avgolemono soup, no more pastichio, dolmadas, mousaka(NOT Moose kaka), no more stuffed peppers...it was just outrageous, all the foods I couldn't eat!

Even so, I always ate the processed meat. Chicken nuggets were okay, but a chicken leg was nasty. Steak was just gross, especially when there were still bones on it, and ribs? Oh my gosh...I always thought they were gross. It's a body part for somebody's sake! Why someone would eat it made no sense to me.

I could never eat something that looked like the animal at any time in the cooking process, when I saw it. If it obviously came from an animal, I'd get all sad about the dead animal and refuse to eat it.

So that's how I went on with my life, until a few fateful days in my Junior year of High School. My AP Environmental Studies(or, for short, APES) teacher, Mr. Schmela, had us read Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, and watch a movie, Food Inc.

Food Inc. taught us about the meat industry. And, to be quite honest, it's messed up. What the meat industry does to animals is most definitely abuse.

I decided after the first day of that movie, that I was going to be vegetarian. And I won't tell you that I haven't eaten meat since. I have. I had ham 3 days later because I fainted before a dance and I wouldn't be able to go unless I ate some, and it took me a while to quit eating avgolemono, but eventually I did.

Well, not really. I don't eat any meat, including fish and chicken(or lamb. I didn't even eat lamb before I went vegetarian), but I have an amazing, genius, mother. She found and/or made recipes of my favorite meaty foods, but vegetarian. My family supports my decision to be vegetarian. I just wish I knew that a Greek could be vegetarian earlier.

On a funny end note, I overheard one of my family's conversations when I was feeling a little under the weather. (Since then, my grandma's become a lot more supportive of my choice.)

my aunt(Thea): Is she sick?
My grandma(Yiayia): Of course she sick! She no eat meat!

Graduation and Youtube

This past Sunday, I was a member of the Inaugural class of Metea Valley High School. The ceremony was lovely, the speeches were great, and our robes were rather awkward.

I mean, I felt like I was drowning in the black fabric. Then I realized, we looked like wizards. Literally, we all looked like a bunch of wizards from Hufflepuff. After we graduated and had to return the gowns, I told my mom that I was sort of sad that I lost my wizard robe. 

The day before graduation was also rather important for me. A couple of my great friends came over, and together we filmed and edited the first episode of my youtube show. The Unoriginal Show is going to be uploaded every other Wednesday, yesterday being the first. That episode is called Literally vs. Figuratively and features sock puppets who really don't understand the difference.

If you like what you see in this video, feel free to follow this new journey I've started!

On another note, I'd like to thank Melissa and Lizzie for being so great! Love you both and I'm so glad you two are in my life making it awesome :)

Who Am I?

Hello there! This is the boring first post in my new author blog.

I started this blog so I could have a place to put important things that I want to share with the world, such as poems, news about my novel or another future books I get published, and other projects.

Just to give you a hint of things that may come...

I've been interested in making youtube videos for a while, and since I'm just about to graduate high school(my last day of school is in 5 days, my graduation in a little over a week!) I figured that there's no better time to start something new!

I've got a rather large collection of poems, and I might make a page for them and put a few up! (I'm not quite sure how many I'll put up, though.)

I'm going to work on an unofficial biography. I'm not sure why people would care that much, but I'm still going to write out the story of my life and have a page for that!

I fancy myself an artist, so I'll probably post images of my art every once in a while.

That's about all that I can think of for now! Don't worry, I'm sure I'll come up with plenty more over time.

....

...


Well, the most awkward part of the first post is having no clue how to end it...

So...

Bye! Thanks for reading :)