Year Blog: 2024-2025

Hello 'Ilima

As I lay down on my bed, my phone starts ringing. 

"Hey, it's John from the Book Club! Are you ready for the first meeting?" Oh no! I panic. When I first moved in, there was an advertisement for a book club and I decided to join it. The first meeting would be today and I would need to talk about a book I recently read. I looked around my house, trying to find the right book to talk about, but none of them stood out. None except "2425", I grabbed the book, got dressed, and dashed towards where the book club was being held. 

"Hello everyone! Welcome to the first meeting of our book club. I hope you are all ready to share your books" John said, sitting from his spot in the group circle. After the first couple of people shared their books, it was then my turn to share. I took a deep breathe and then began talking.

Summer: After 7th grade ended, there was a short break where we could relax before it was time for Bridge to start up again. Unlike last summer, I was excited for the first day of Bridge. Now that I was going to be a 8th grader, I would have a group of 7th graders to mentor. With this in mind, I had one main plan for Bridge, have a good first impression for the 7th graders. To do this, I wanted to be very energetic and out there so then they felt more comfortable around me. When the first day eventually came around, I arrived to school and headed to the cafe. Compared to last year, I was actually able to communicate with those around me and I sat with the group instead of away. After a bit of talking to pass the time, the different summer clubs were separated into their groups and brought to their instructors. The Leadership group headed to the same circle of benches that we went to last year and while sitting there, Ms. Shayna had us introduce ourselves. We then started working on activities like making a flag and creating our goal buckets. Overall, the first day of Bridge was fun and I was excited to teach a brand new group of students.

The rest of Bridge went on very smoothly. We had did a whole lot of activities from filming TikToks, to playing Frisbee Golf, and there was even a lockdown!. We also played a game of connections with two different teams where The Murders (my team) dominated The Sigmas (the losing team). There is so much other small games that we did that were super fun like magic carpet, pickleball, and guess which food was expired, hint: it's all of them. We even had a field trip to the Swap Meet. It was super exciting as it was my first Swap Meet and I bought baseball cards and a flute. Throughout all of these games, I was able to connect with the 7th graders and I started to learn about them. While I learned about them, they also got more comfortable with me which was great. 

Back in 'Ilima

The Lockdown Blues

The Sigmas got Murdered

Haunting Jacob

After Bridge was the start of Workdays and it was just like year, with last year meaning a lot of cleaning. It was definitely funny seeing Mr. Ing talk up Workdays as being very difficult as I found it to be pretty simple. During Workdays, we got to learn who was in our periods. I was in Period 1 with Group Leader Alex, 8th Grader Mikayla, and 7th Graders Gledys and Cheyanne. On the first day, we had to replace the bulletin boards which was by far my least favorite thing in all of Workdays. Removing all of the staples and having to be pin point accurate with everything was exhausting and boring. But the rest of Workdays went well and in no time it was the Meet and Great. The Meet and Greet was for the Leadership members to meet the Alumni which meant that I would be able to see my 8th graders again. I quickly caught up with my 8th graders, now Freshmen, before they broke us into groups and had to design a group poster. After that, we had to make a dance and I actually liked it a lot. My favorite part was where I got pushed away from the group and then I turned into bowling ball and knocked them all down. After the Meet and Greet, it was time for Schedule Pick Up, the big event for Workdays. My job was Name Caller and I had to make a pack of things for the students that consists of a planner, informative papers, a picture taking envelope, and the student's ID. Then, I would give it to the students before they left. I worked with Marsali and we had a good strategy of preparing these packs ahead of time so we wouldn't be fumbling to make them. The job was very monotonous and during both days of Schedule Pick Up, I was exhausted. But we were able to get the job done and I felt happy with the part I had. The rest of Workdays was just more Schedule Pick Up and we can almost say goodbye to the Summer. 

The First Period 1 Picture

Freak Anela

The last part of this summer was the End of the Summer Field Trip. I was much more prepared this summer, bringing swim clothes and a towel. My snack of choice to bring was granola bars and I excitedly waited when I got dropped off at school. For the trip, our phones would be taken away and so we would need to make our own entertainment. The bus eventually came and we all piled on into the bus. The ride to the beach was pretty good and I just spent the time talking to the others. Once we got there, we set up our little area and we were free. Jayden, Jacob, and I started playing games with the ball I had brought, but we quickly noticed how everyone was going to beach so we decided to change and head down to the beach area with everyone else. We spent majority of the day there and I did a mix of "swimming" and finding rocks. Eventually it was time to eat and it was the Leadership Dinner. My head was hurting a bit but the food was still pretty good.  After eating, we shared our Bio Cubes with a random Alumni and a random person from Leadership. I was with Valerie and Jayden and Jayden gave us some nice advice for the year. The last activity was to head over to Magic Island and watch the firework show. The walk was pretty easy and we got there with time to spare. Once the fireworks started, it was very nice and it was really amazing to see the others all crowd together to watch it. The bus eventually came and it was the end of our summer. 

Group Picture

Quarter 1: My first quarter as an 8th grader went very well and to start off the talk on my first quarter, I want to talk about my new classes.. I have all new teachers except for my science and it’s been an interesting transition process. My new classes are Algebra 1, Social Studies, ELA, and Financial Literacy. Each class is different in their own ways and I enjoy each of them for their own reasons. Algebra is filled with a bunch of people I know, Social Studies is quiet, ELA is relaxing, and Financial Literacy discusses interesting topics. If I had to rank my new classes it would be 1. ELA 2. Algebra 3. Financial Literacy 4. Social Studies. But the environment isn't the only factor of what makes a good class as we also had a lot of assignments. The math tests were probably the most stressful assignment, mainly because they had a lot at stake. NHD also started this quarter and my topic is the Civil Rights Movement, specifically the difference in the leaders and how they communicated their messages. Moving onto the events, we had a couple throughout the quarter. I'll start with picture taking. This event took 4 days and our jobs were to either guide the students or watch the students as they were waiting for their turn. The next event was Flag Football. This was defintely my least favorite event because of how long it took and how boring it was. All of the games were not exciting for the fact that the players barely tried and the crowd wasn't cheering. It was also so hot for those weeks we spent doing Flag Football. I'm so glad I won't have to do Flag Football ever again. Moving on, next we have the ISAs. As a SBG member, I am tasked with going to the different ISA events to take pictures. There have been two ISAs so far. Cross Country and Flag Football. Cross Country was first and the better of the two. All 5 SBG attended this ISA and it was our job to interview the students and take pictures of the players. It was a very new experience for me, but I learned quickly and all of us SBG did a good job. The Flag Football ISA came after and it was terrible. 3 SBGs came this time and the goal was the same. What made this event so bad was that 1. Ilima 8th Graders didn't have their jerseys on which made getting pictures harder. 2. There was so much walking because we had to cross a huge field over and over again to get pictures. 3.  Helios himself was angry and shined his light so hard throughout the whole day. I am praying that the next ISA is inside or the day is cooler or else I am gonna be a puddle the next time you see me. Speaking of sports, the next event is Team Flag Football. Now this event was fun. Each team went against each other in a 7on7 Flag Football game. The crowd for the games was electric and the plays made were explosive. I loved this event and I even had a special role. If you know football, you know about the Chain Gang, the group of people who mark where the ball is. Well, I got to be Ilima's Chain Guy, chain coming soon. It was a little confusing at times, but I did a pretty good job in my opinion. The final event was Family Nite, This Family Nite was a mixture of Math and Science with me working a coordinate dart booth. The night went decent with no problems happening. If I had to rank all of these events in order from best to worst it would be 1. Team Flag Football 2. Family Nite 3. Picture Taking 4. ISA Cross Country 5. ISA Flag Football 6. Intermural Flag Football. Besides the events, Leadership also started working on the yearbook. My period was in charge of the Student Life section and we have made good progress on it so far. Moving on to out of school stuff, I had a lot of fun this quarter. I can point to two main things that I will talk about. Ohana Fair and my Big Island Vacation. Let's start with Ohana Fair. This year's event was very similar to last year's, but I still had an amazing time. I was with the same group of friends and we had a blast walking around our old school and doing different things. Spending time with my friends is something I will always cherish which made Ohana Fair special to me. I even adopted a new daughter named Gojo! Then, there was my Big Island Vacation. During one of the extended weekends, my family and I went to the Big Island to have some fun. This was my first trip in over 5 years and it was well worth the wait. The hotel was so cozy and the food all around the island was amazing. Everything I ate was amazing from lobster mac and cheese, to chicken katsu, to the ice cream and slushies. I wish I could have stayed in Big Island longer, but not all good things last forever. Overall, this quarter was very fun and good way to start off a year.

Torture Chamber

I AM THE PHANTOM OF 'ILIMA

The Family!!!

Beautiful Picture of Big Island

Pre Cross Country Picture

Aloha Dinner

Retreat: From October 9th to October 11th, Leadership went on a 3 day retreat and it was a truly life-changing experience. When we first arrived to the retreat house, we all had to quickly file out of the bus and carry our luggage into the house. After a little bit of unpacking, I got to soak in the situation and I was hit by a wave of nostalgia. One year later, we were in the same house with the same floors and walls which was very trippy for me. After my little reminiscing, we started our sessions. Across all of the days, we would break up into groups and had sessions which really allowed us to work as a team. We came up with lots of ideas and it was a really productive time. Despite this work, the feeling of being in this house didn't hit at first. I felt normal and it was like a mini field trip. But after a while, it all started to settle in. I started to feel the effects of total isolation and the lack of family and the disconnection to the outside world had me going through some tough times during the first day. But the energy of my friends really got me back into a right state of mind. Throughout all of retreat, I would talk with the others and our conversations would keep me going. We would play many different card games like Uno, Speed, Blackjack, and others while talking that just gave me so much enjoyment. I didn't win all the time, but that didn't matter as the time I got to spent with others really brought my spirits up and allowed me to survive this retreat. I mentioned the sessions earlier and I want to bring up a couple of them now. One of the first sessions was an art one where we had to design our magic note cover. I designed mine based off of my two daughters, Joseph and Gojo. It was really funny looking at all of the other's covers and then looking back at mine because the difference in quality was insane. Later in this session, we got our magic notes and we had to write one for everyone in the house. Most of the others were visibly stressing over them, but I had a simple plan. Pace. I would write a couple magic notes every now and then and eventually I would reach the total I needed. I was actually one of the first to finish my magic notes, turning them in half-way during the second day. On the bus ride home, we got to read our magic notes and I absolutely loved all of them, especially the alumni's. Reading those magic notes reminded me how good it felt because it had been a while since I have received a magic note. Moving on from magic notes, there were two big Period Events that we had been preparing for. Synchronized Swimming and Chopped. To add some more context, my Period had been preparing for these events for weeks and we had multiple hang outs to practice for the events. Starting with Chopped, Period 1 (my Period) decided on creating Smore Cookies. We had cookies, poured marshmallow fluff over them, sprinkled crushed up graham crackers, drizzled chocolate sauce, and then added rainbow sprinkles to create our dessert. I was the narrator for our group and I would say that I did a pretty good job at entertaining the audience. However, our Period didn't win Chopped. But there was still Synchronized Swimming. Broken up into 2 parts, a dance and a cheer, our Period had been crafting the perfect theme that would blow away the judges. We would be Gangsters. We dressed up like how gangsters would and crafted the story of our dance and cheer to be revolved around gangsters. In the dance alone, I shot my Period members, Cheyanne joined a gang, I was hunted down and killed, and so much more. Then for our cheer, we used a mix of our own cheer lyrics with famous gangster songs to roast our competition alive. All of this work was correctly rewarded with a victory which our Period was very excited for. I really want to see the video they recorded because I need to see how it looked from an audience's perspective. Moving on, the food we were served was really good. Throughout the 3 days we had a total of 8 dishes that were all very flavorful and filling. My favorite dishes would probably be either the Spam Bowl or the Leadership Dinner. To end this, I am going to speed through some other things we did. We took our group pictures and I really liked them for the fact that we all look like one happy family. I brought my football to retreat and I actually felt improvement. My throwing was much better and even with a rocky start catching wise, I got better over the course of the 3 days. Overall, retreat was really fun.

Leadership Group Picture

Period 1 Hangout

Quarter 2: The second quarter was began to ramp up on how much work there was going to be. There was a ton of different events that went on during this quarter. We had the last couple Family Nites, the first Recognition Night, a lot of ISA Events, a bunch of Intramurals, the first Talent Show in years, the CAS visitation, and the Winter Fair. If  I were to rank these events, 1. Playable ISAs (Cornhole and Bowling), 2. CAS visitation. 3. Talent Show 4. Recognition Night, 5. Winter Fair 6. Family Nite, 7. Boys Volleyball and Girls Basketball, 8. Intramurals (Cornhole and Turkey Trot). Starting with the bottom, we find the two intramurals. Now, this ranking is more about one than the other. Turkey Trot was pretty decent. Cornhole, however, is a totally different story. To illustrate what I would otherwise rant about, would you rather spend 1 hour outside doing something that nobody involved wants to do or literally anything else with that hour? I choose the second. Next is Boy’s Volleyball and Girl’s Volleyball. This ISA continues the streak of me suffering during the ISAs as it was blazing hot and pretty boring. Even bringing my water didn’t help much and I was just miserable. This goes right into hand with Family Nite as that ISA was on the same day as one of the Nites. That was the Social Studies and ELA Family Nite and I was working outside. I was doing fine originally but all of the heat eventually short circuited my brain and I was dying. The actual Family Nites themselves were pretty meh. Nothing bad would happen but nothing good would happen either. After this we have the Winter Fair. The Winter Fair was a big party during school that had a variety of booths and shops set up for the students. As a member of Leadership, I had to help set up the event and also run the booth during certain shifts. The fair itself was pretty fun, but Winter Fair is low in the rankings due to all of the setup that was needed for the event. Moving on, the first Recognition Night is next and it was cool. It was pretty typical to the Recognition Nights from last year and it was still fun to cheer for my friends. But now we can get to events I actually had fun with, starting with the talent show. It was very exciting to watch the different performances and the overall work load was light. Next is the CAS visitation. The Complex Area Superintendent (CAS) was set up to go to 'Ilima for a tour and presentation which the SBG were in charge of . I was very scared for this as we would be representing the school in front of the one the biggest bosses. But I practiced my part and when the CAS came, everything went smoothly. He loved our presentation and the tour was very informative. Despite the stress, it was actually a pretty fun event. But the crown goes to the ISA events that I got to play in. The first one of these was Cornhole which I absolutely sucked in but it was still a cool environment. My favorite out of the two was next, being Bowling. I used to bowl very often when I was younger, but I was pretty rusty. I definitely improved from last year, but that is more of a reflection of how bad I was last year. But the main reason I have these two the highest is because I was able to have actual fun and not just be doing work. Moving on, a main part of this quarter was the school work, especially the Big Bad, NHD. Every week was a different assignment for NHD that just stacked over and over again. And then we had to start working on our projects which was just so draining. You can ask anyone that I know about their feelings on NHD and they could rant to you on how much they hate it. At least I have a slim to chance to go to Washington which is something. But besides NHD, there was also just so many tests. There were Financial Literacy presentations, stressful math tests, stupid science tests, big ELA essays, the a boatload of social studies CFAs that all just stacked onto each other and causing the biggest mess. To move on from all of this academic nonsense, I’ve had a really good time out of school. For starters, this was a very festive quarter. Three different holidays happened during this quarter with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. All three of these holidays have a very special place in my heart and in each one, we have tried something new. For Halloween, I dressed up as Satoru Gojo and it was a new experience for me. I never had to put in so much time for a wig for a costume like I did for the Gojo costume. For Thanksgiving, I made a brand new dish that none of my family has tried to do and it was amazing. And Christmas might have not came yet, but it’s already been a festive time with setting up trees, parades, and present shopping. Then, there has been the Fishing Club that has been really fun. I’ve gotten to learn a lot of new things that I would have never thought I could have learned. The best part has probably been casting the reel outside because it was fun emulating fishing. Next, I have to talk about the GT joining Leadership. The GT consisted of three girls, Sonora, Meygan, and Alexis, but Alexis would shortly leave. Meeting Sonora and Meygan was very fun and they quickly became apart of the Leadership family. Moving on, my TV antics have gotten much more intense and I’m loving it. Coming up with silly ideas and putting them into motion is so fun and it really drives me and keeps me motivated. I’ve also gotten to spend a lot of time with my friends, whether it’s online or in person. What I can take from this is that despite all of the negativity that happened during this quarter, there is still some happy that allows us to stay alive during the tough times. Finally, the 8th graders got to visit Campbell for a tour and it was fun. We got to learn a lot about the school and it was nice to actually walk around the campus. So overall, Quarter 2 was long but still manageable. 

Campbell Building

CAS Presentation

Halloween!

Cornholers

The Battle of Wits

We Were Recognized!

Who is Gonna Tell Him?

Advisory Invasion

Thankful Cassell

I'm Such a Gamer

Talent Show

 Bowling Team

 Evolution Over Time

Quarter 3: The third quarter of this year was very chaotic and was full of many ups and downs. Let's start with the biggest events of the quarter. The biggest thing we did this quarter by far would have to be Spirit Week. One whole week full of work that climaxed on an eventful Friday that consisted of Cheer Off and Relay Race. I went into much more detail about Spirit Week in my blog dedicated to it, but I will still mention some of the biggest parts from it. So like I mentioned earlier, Friday had Cheer Off and Relay Race. These are like the two headline events of Spirit Week and they did not disappoint. Both events had all the teams compete against their grade level to see who had the best cheer or who could finish the race the quickest. Besides the actual events being fun and flashy, the environment was probably the best part of these two events. The crowd was so electric and they were full of team spirit. Besides Cheer Off and Relay Race, there was the Synchronized Swimming which I was a part of. Me and a group of 8 other students had been practicing and preparing for the synchronized swimming in Ms. Acob's class weeks ahead of the competition so that we would be ready. It was a lot of fun learning the choreography, specially with a group of people who are fun. The next biggest things were the last few ISA events of the year. I only attended two of the last ISAs, those being Boys Softball/Girls Volleyball and Track and Field, and what a difference these two events were. I'll start with Boys Softball/Girls Volleyball because it was by far the worse of the two events. First of all, the weather was abhorrent, it had recently rained and it caused the fields to be very muddy and flooded. This made walking in the field miserable, so of course I was the one who was going to spend my time in the field, taking pictures of Boys Softball. Speaking of taking pictures, that was also one of the worse parts of the event. Because Softball is such a spread out activity, it's hard to know where the best action shots will be. So I could walk across the wet field to try get a picture, only for the action to happen on the other side of the field. It was just an awful experience and one of my least favorite ISAs. On the other hand, Track and Field was probably one of the best ISAs. Comparing the weathers, the field was also wet but not nearly as wet and I didn't need to spend as much time on the field for picture taking. Then, picture taking was much easier because everyone is running on the same track and aren't very spread out. So all I needed to do was find a nice angle and the pictures then came easy. To summarize the experience of both ISAs, it's like a devil and angel on someone's shoulder. Boys Softball/Girls Volleyball being the devil and Track and Field being the angel. Moving on, we had three afterschool events this quarter. These events being Recognition Night, Graduation Meeting, and Elementary School Dance Competition. Starting with the Elementary School Dance Competition, I was expecting to have a fun time. We would get to watch the different schools preform their hearts our and we could just be doors. Oh but how wrong I was. For this event, all of the tables were taken out and replaced by foldable chairs. I didn't put up those chairs as it was dance, but I would have to help put them away. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, so let's rewind a bit. My job was working as a door, greeting and welcoming people in. The first part of the day was boring and I just passed the time talking with my fellow doors in Jacob, Emma, and Cherish. While we talked, the different schools practiced their dances. After the practices ended, the door group went to our respective doors and got ready for work. I had the special task of working the VIP door where I had to open the door for the VIPs. The job was pretty simple for the most part and I kept on working until it was time for the event to start. When it started, the different judges were introduced and then the order of elementary schools were announced. When it was time for the first school to come onto stage, I had to open the doors so that they could walk into the Cafeteria. I had Valerie help with this as she had nothing to do and I needed a second person to open the other door. There's nothing else much to say about my door job, so I will focus on the actual performance. I had already watched the performances from their practice, but you could see the increase in the student's energy when it was time for the actual performance. When all the performances was over, they all did one big performance in the crowd which was pretty cool. Finally, all the schools were brought to the stage where the winner was announced. And first place was..... August Aherns! I agreed with the decision as August Aherns had nice props and choreo, but I am a bit salty that Holomua didn't win. So after the winner was announced, we had to start the clean up. For this clean up, we had to put away every single foldable chair, then carry those foldable chairs to a place to be put away. To say this was tiring would be an understatement as there was so many chairs. That was no joke the most amount of chairs I've seen in one room and they were also uncomfortable to hold. But after all the chairs were put away, we then had to move all the tables back in, which just added to the exhaustion. But we were able to get the job done and go home. Moving on, Recognition Night and Graduation Meeting are next. These events were both similar to the Elementary School Dance Competition in the fact that I had similar jobs. Being a door. What that entails is a mix of greeting and smiling and lot of standing. Both events were not very exciting but not at all bad. The last event to talk about would be Graduation Picture Taking. Graduation Picture Taking was a four day long event in school which was for the 8th graders to get their graduation pictures. The job we had to do was pretty simple, just dressing the students up and then undressing them. An overall fine event that didn't take too much gas out the engine. Those were all of the events from this quarter, and the last thing I will talk about in this paragraph would be my brand new elective. Since Financial Literacy was a one semester elective, I had to switch to a brand new elective during the second semester. This elective being Computer Science. The beginning to Computer Science was pretty boring, it was a lot of introductory stuff and note taking. What made it worse is that our actual teacher wasn't there. Ms. Milli apparently had some kind of job thing which made it so that she wasn't going to be here for months. But this slow start soon sped up when we were introduced to the computer lab. In this computer lab, we would actually program and make code that could do certain commands and it has so far been really fun. We learned a lot of different types of commands in one main form of code called Python. It's really beginner friendly and pretty easier to learn. I've learned a lot of new things from this class and I've actually been coding things out of class. I've mainly programmed formulas and calculators that uses my inputs to give me an answer and they are really fun to make. A quick example of one my programs was for my Retro Bowl League. I've been making an offensive efficiency stat and I've used Python as a sort of calculator. So overall, I've enjoyed the Computer Science elective and can't wait to learn more about programming. But if we are talking about school, there is one thing I have to mention. For one month in this quarter, we had a substitute for Science. This substitute, Ms. Leonardi, was the worse substitute teacher I've ever had. First of all, she seemed totally lacking of experience. She barely knew the topic she was covering, she constantly needed the assistance of other teachers or students to do things, and she would always go on weird rambles that had do correlation to what we learning. But what makes this worse is that she was also very ignorant. When we would point out mistakes to her for her to know, she would often get mad at us. Even when she was 100% in the wrong, she would not accept it and just tell us to stop asking questions. It was truly awful and not a good environment for students to be able to learn. So in conclusion, this was a roller-coaster of a quarter.

My Period is Very Interesting

Yippee!!!

Me Prepared to Preform

Aura Farming

I Got You!

Fantasy Football Trophy

Movie Day Outfit

Dylan Breakdown

New Chair

The Giver

Quarter 4:  This fourth quarter was my last quarter of 'Ilima and what a quarter it was. There so many big events that happened this quarter that I can't even believe they all happened in the fourth quarter.  The Leadership events from this quarter were Orientation, Graduation Picture Taking, Recognition Night, 7th Grade Class Day, Dance Competition, Awards Night, and Aloha Dinner. Despite being a lesser amount of events, all of these events required more effort compared to other things from other quarters which made this quarter just more painful. Let’s start with Recognition Night and Awards Night. I want to begin with these two events as they are very similar. Both are night time events that reward people for their efforts throughout the year. Also, both events were major strains on my body as there is SO much standing. Another funny thing to mention is that I had similar roles in both. In Recognition Night, my job was to bring the students toward Mr. Ing so they could hear what he was saying. In Awards Night, I had to control the stage area as students were called up to the stage. Moving on, Graduation Picture Taking. This event spanned across 2 (or 3) days and Leadership was in charge of changing the students and keeping them orderly. Graduation Picture Taking was much more simple compared to the other events, but I did have to miss class which is never good. The final event I want to mention that belongs in this category of long but not hard is 7th Grade Class Day. For the 7th Grade Class Day, the SBG needed to go so that they could take attendance, but that also meant that we could ice skate with the 7th graders in Ice Palace. I was very excited to skate as I could revenge my 7th grade self as I was horrible last year. But I didn’t do that well this year as I ended up falling 23 times and my whole body was bruised. Besides the skating, the actual work of doing attendance was very easy. The next category of events are the ones that took a lot of effort to do. The first one I will talk about is Orientation. This is as the first big event of the quarter and was multiple quarters in the making. The job for Leadership was to provide a memorable experience for the 6th graders so that they could remember everything they needed to know for middle school. My role was as the Pre Show host and my job was to entertain the 6th graders as they were waiting for everyone to arrive. I had a lot of fun being a host for the students as they were always cooperative and energetic. Besides my Pre Show job, we also had to give a tour to the 6th graders. My tours went well every single time and I am thankful to not have any problems. The last thing I needed to do was the fashion show where I was absolutely stunning. Every time I first appeared on stage, all of the students would clap. Moving on from Orientation, the next event was Dance Competition. The Dance Competition required the Leadership students who were not in dance to work the props for the Prodigies. The competition took place on a Saturday and was held at the Blaisdell. The Dance Competition day was very eventful with many ups and downs. But the best part of the Dance Competition had to come from winning the event. I was just very excited and energized from winning. The final event to talk about is Aloha Dinner. The big farewell for the 8th graders in Leadership, the Aloha Dinner was very fun but also very stressful. The first part of Aloha Dinner I want to talk about is the most stressful part, that being the gift giving. The gift giving involved the 8th graders presenting gifts that they made for the parents, hosts, and Mr. Ing and it was stressful because we (the 8th graders) wanted the gifts to be special. We strived to make memorable and unique gifts that would be cherished and it took a lot of strain on all of the 8th graders. But in the end, the gift giving went well which is great. Then, there were the speeches that the 8th graders gave which were our last goodbyes. I enjoyed listening to all of their speeches for the unique perspectives and lessons that were in each speech. Overall, the Aloha Dinner was fun and I enjoyed attending the event. This concludes all of the Leadership events from this year, but there were still so many other things that happened during school. The biggest assignments from this quarter would be SBA testing and the Math End of Course Exam as they had heavy implications for my future in Campbell. The SBA testing happened during one specific week where only 8th graders would go to school on the first two days while the 7th graders went to school on the other two days. During those two days, there were three tests that we needed to take. The ELA test, the Science test, and the Math test. All three tests had their own parts of the day to complete and all of the tests were held in the advisories. To say that I didn't enjoy testing would be an understatement, but at least I got good scores. On the other hand, for the Math EOC, the test would be taking place during normal school in our math classes. This test was different from the Math SBA as the EOC covered the Algebra 1 standards we learned while the SBA was the 8th grade standards. But both tests were difficult and it took a lot of time and patience to finish. Other assignments from this quarter that weren't as big but still noteworthy to mention are the ELA essay and the Science debate. Both assignments took place over multiple days and required either a lot of writing or a lot of research. But I didn't just have a lot of work to do this quarter. First of all, the All State Academic Team Banquet was this quarter and it was pretty neat. Students from all across the state that had a GPA of 3.8 or higher and participated in two or more events attended the banquet where we were fed and recognized. Then, 8-3 had two field trips during this quarter. The first field trip that we went on was to Iolani Palace. During this field trip, us students toured the different parts of the historic palace. This was actually my first time going to Iolani Palace and it was a great experience. I got to see so many wonderful antiques that told stories and I walked into many rooms full of beautiful decals and furniture. The second field trip we went to was Wet n Wild. At Wet n Wild, we were free to go to all of the open rides and I had an absolute blast with my friends. Overall, this quarter was chaotic. 

Period 1 on Top

Mall Antics

Orientation Boys

The Blaze-Kicker!!!

Trippy!

The Stage is Set

One of the Last Group Pictures

Immediate Reaction to Winning Dance Competition

All-State Academic Trio

Behind the Scenes of Interview

Look at Those Smiles!!!

Fancy Bus

Mongoose Performance

Quality Bonding

Family Dinner!!!

8-3 Bus 2 Group Picture

I'm Graduating!!!

The first highlight from this year would be my 7th graders. The main reason I rejoined Leadership for my 8th grade year was because I wanted to teach a new generation of Leadership students. Well I am so happy with the group of 7th graders I had. All of them have such unique personalities and varying skillsets that made teaching a challenge, but a challenge worth while. I loved all of the moments that I spent with the 7th graders and I'm glad that I could be a positive light for them. The next highlight from this year would be seeing my impact on those around me. Back when I was consistently on TV, I would always here how I made people happy from my antics. Every time I heard this, I would smile as I knew my goal was being accomplished. What is this goal? Make others smile. The world is very cruel and dark so having something to smile and laugh at is needed. So hearing how my efforts to make a better world worked made me very proud. The next highlight from this year would be all of the friendships I've made. Throughout this year, I've met a lot of friendly faces that I am able to share many happy moments with. Everyday, I know there is at least some person I can talk to because of friends I've made which is nice to know. The final highlight from this year would be seeing myself grow. I was a very different person at the start of 8th grade so seeing how I have changed over the course of year has been very fun and intriguing. The big lowlight from this year that can basically describe most of my lowlights is stress. This year has been insanely stressful and I've had many moments where I have just wanted to give up. But I'm glad to have such a great support system that I can talk to and get better from. The next lowlight would be the people I've lost throughout this year. I've lost two people during this year. My dog, Chewie, and my Grandpa. I guess it's only one "person" but I count a dog as a people. Both losses, happening very close to each other, were both heart breaking and truly devastating. Before them, I hadn't loss anyone so close to me before. So having both of them pass was depressing and made me think a lot about life. But as I've moved on, I continue to live on the life that I know they would have wanted me to live. But overall, this has been a good year.

The main lesson that I've learned from this year is to always have confidence in myself and the things that I do. Before 'Ilima and throughout my time in 'Ilima, I have felt stressed. A lot of this stress came from me not feeling confident in my ability to do something. But each time I had something I stressed over, I was consistently able to beat my expectations and achieve something great. So what I take away from this is that I need to be more confident. I have the ability to do the things I set out to do, but I consistently doubt my ability time and time again. The other big lesson I learned from this year is patience. From a lot of self discovery, I've learned that I am highly impatient. I can easily switch what I am doing if I am not totally engaged which is a problem of mine. But the first part of solving a problem is identifying the problem and I found my problem. So, if I can improve on my patience, I can have better results in the work that I do. So those are the two big lessons that I have learned from this year.

After I finished explaining my book, the whole club looked in astonishment. 

"I've never heard of story like that."

"The details are so realistic!"

"What is that book called?" John asked, staring at the book I was holding.

"2425 I found it on a shelf when I moved in to my house." I said. John looked confused so I handed him the book. Looking through the pages he looks excited. Eventually he gets to the end of the book and says, "You forgot some pages. It goes-"

THANK YOU!!!

My 8th grade year has been one of excitement and chaos and I couldn't have done it without these people 

Period 1 (Alex, Mikayla, Gledys, Cheyanne, and Sonora):

When we first met each other, I thought you guys were all interesting. Now that I've spent a whole year with Period 1, I know that you guys are weird. But you guys are the best weirdos I know. You have made my Leadership experience so amazing and funny in ways I can't even describe. I enjoy every time that I get to see you guys and I am glad I was in a period with you guys.

8th Grade Peers (Alex, Riselle, Olivia, Sienna, Mikayla, Naomi, Cherish, Valerie, and Jacob):

These past two years have been the most exciting and fun times of my life. When I first met you guys during Summer Bridge, I was scared of you. But with all of the time I've spent with you, we have become one family. I am so glad that I could share these past couple of years with you and I hope to see you in Campbell.

7th Graders (Cheyanne, Gledys, Sonora, Anela, Marsali, Meygan, Emma, and Ariya):

I am so glad that I could be your 8th grader. Even if I was being annoying, know that I was doing it to make you guys laugh. Ever since I first met you, I've always wanted the best for you and I am so proud of the people you have become. Continue on being the people you are and good luck in 8th grade. 

Mr. Ing:

You have been such an amazing mentor for me as I've gone through my middle school years. I may not always have the best common sense, but you have helped me navigate through a lot of obstacles while I was in 'Ilima and I couldn't thank you more. Thank you for being a great teacher and giving me this great opportunity. 

Family and Friends:

Thank you for being there with me throughout all the highs and lows. Your support has allowed me to grow into the person I am today and I am so grateful. I love every moment we share together and I can't wait to make more memories.

Cheers to Another Day!