Hemingway

I think that the time that I am writing this blog, only a small portion of class will have an idea of what they are going to read for their independent reading. People might wonder that since I am writing about independent reading that if I have a book already decided for it. In fact, I already do. Instead of reading three books by three different authors, I decided to concentrate on one single author. The author I chose is Ernest Hemingway, one of the most influencial writers of the 20th century.

Photograph of Hemingway



People might ask, why Hemingway? There are various reasons why I chose Hemingway. It was in 7th grade that I read my first novel by him, The Old man and the sea. I enjoyed the book alot, and I tried reading his other major works but back then my reading skills were not high enough for Hemingway's writing. So given an author to study for our independent reading, Hemingway was definitely the first author that came up in my mind.

Out of Hemingway's works, the three novels I chose to conduct his author studies are For whom the bell tolls, The Sun also rises, and A Farewell to Arms. These three books are all considered his major work and his masterpieces. For my first reading I chose For whom the bell tolls since it is the longest out of the three, and I am least chained by my college apps right now compared to the following months.

Some thoughts about the last year of high school

This year I am finally a senior after 3 long years of high school. One more year of high school and then onward to college, where everything is new. I am extremely excited for high school to end and for college to begin with everything being new: friends, location, and education. If i get into my first choice college (which i hope i do), a year from now I will be walking the streets of the quiet city of Pasadena.

The college that I am interested in is the California Institute of technology, otherwise known as caltech. It is one of the top tier colleges in America, ranking fifth overall. Everything about this school is great, and by everything I mean everything. The food is great, the campus is great, the weather is great, everything is great!

Since caltech is a top tier college, the application is extremely competitive. To increase slightly my chances of getting in I am having a miserable high school life which will last through first semester. Go to school, go to research, get home and do homework, write essays, look at scholarships, work on the application, rinse and repeat.

It is miserable but I am hoping all this work pays off. I want first semester to be done and over with, like now.