Rubik's Cube

Hey everyone! For my last blog post I wanted to do something creative and reflective that was also unique and meaningful specifically for myself. It took me forever to come up with this idea so I hope that you enjoy!

As many of you all probably know by now, I really like solving all different kinds of Rubik's cubes. I have the normal one of course but I also have a crazy number of variation cubes that are each different like the 4x4 up to the 7x7, dodecahedron, mirror cube, ghost cube (the BEST!), etc. (if you know what all of these are I am so proud :)) But anyways, when I was thinking about what I wanted to do for this blog post, I wanted it to have personal meaning so I decided to summarize my years in high school (and one special middle school moment oh no) in a Rubik's cube.

Each of the sides of the cube is organized by a different year of high school or a really meaningful part of my life during the past four years. I replaced each of the blocks on the cube with a different picture. I pasted each side below with a short explanation but keep scrolling to see pictures of the actual cube that I made!

Side One: Senior Year

This senior year has been amazing. I truly can't believe that it is almost over! It has definitely been the most academically challenging for me because I decided to take all IB/AP classes while also applying to college. It has also been insanely busy because I took leadership positions in three different clubs while also playing club soccer and participating in WAY too many clubs for my own good. But it was honestly so worth it because I got to meet so many different people that I never would have met otherwise. I have become friends with so many great people this year that I know will do great things in their futures.

Side Two: Junior Year

Junior year was great because I hadn't really felt challenged academically at all sophomore year. Joining IB was a great decision for me because I felt like I was able to grow as a student and a learner. It was also a really exciting year because I turned 16 and got to get my license, joined MEB for my first year, became a junior marshal, got inducted into NHS, and went to prom for the first time. I was nervous about committing to so many different things at the beginning of the year but they were all things that I really enjoyed being a part of. It was overall a really fun year where I felt like I made many great friendships.

Side Three: Sophomore Year

This year was definitely a transition year and so it was naturally more difficult than junior or senior year.  It was my first year at Millbrook and there were so many more people in my grade than I had ever been used to. I was really lucky that I had a twin going through the exact same thing and that I happened to have both lunches with the one other person I knew at Millbrook (shoutout to Waverly!). That made it so much easier because I never had to sit alone and I got to meet so many great people in my classes and at lunch because everyone sat in the cafeteria. I remember my first day at lunch at Millbrook I met Graycen and then the second day I met Michael, Cole, and Joslin. I was quite shy so reaching out to new people was really difficult for me. But the year got progressively easier as I joined different clubs, like sophomore class council, and started talking to more people in each of my classes. The year was not all too challenging academically, compared to my freshman year at least, so it made the transition much easier.

Side Four: Freshman Year

It is funny to notice how the camera quality gets progressively worse the farther the pictures go back :). Also, look at the top left picture to see one of the hundreds of selfies that Josh took on my phone (big mistake). But anyways, this year was the most difficult for me out of all of my years in high school. I was at a school with eight people in my grade including myself, and also Nicole (yep, we made up 25% of the class). Things were really difficult for me because the academic workload was insanely challenging for freshman year (about as much as junior year in IB) and I didn't feel like I had any friends to rely on or talk to. I think the most important thing for me that year to get me through was soccer. It was a great year for soccer because I had an amazing and kind team that even won state cup and went to regionals. I became a lot closer with my teammates and dedicated a lot of time to getting better at the game. The bottom right picture is the one special middle school moment and you can see me, Josh, and Nicole at our middle school dance!

Side Five: Soccer

Soccer has been such an important part of my life throughout all of high school. I have played both club and school soccer and never stopped loving the game. It has given me some amazing memories like going to regionals twice with my teammates, being the top scorer on JV, playing obnoxiously loud games in the hotels at tournaments, and scoring a game winning goal (center) against Leesville and then a game tying header again against Leesville in the last minute of the game (bottom left corner, I almost got tackled by the 100 people trying to give me a hug). My teammates have always been a support system for me and the game has given me a space where I don't have to think about anything else, I can just play.

Side Six: Traveling

Last, but not least, I wanted to reflect on all of the trips that I have gone on throughout high school because I am so grateful for all of the experiences and time spent with family I have gotten as a result. My family lives all over the world so I don't see them very often but these trips give us the time and memories that we have together. Spending time with my cousins that live in Belgium is no small thing and these trips have given me that opportunity. My uncle in Belgium even let me shadow him in the hospital that he works at which was an incredible experience. I have been so fortunate to be able to visit my family that lives in so many different places while also being able to experience other cultures and parts of the world.

So I actually printed these six sides to the cube and constructed it so that I could actually have a keepsake from all throughout high school. Here are a few pictures of the real thing (it looks a lot better in person, the pictures also turned out a little blurry).

Thank you to everyone for making this such a great year and high school experience!