Blogging means sharing your thoughts, even if it means telling the hardest parts of your life that you want to share. A big part of my life is high school, and as embarrassing it is to say, my grades (more like grade) aren’t as great as it should be. It’s safe to say senioritis hasn’t caught up to me that bad, I’m just bad at math.

This year, I took an AP Statistics class online, which has been my hardest class I’ve ever taken. With my other classes ranging from A’s to B’s and only one or two C’s, I fear this class will take me to a D or F. I find that the material has been hard to grasp and I’ve been struggling. What has made this worse is my typical class grade has actually stayed in the C range which is what I’m used to, but my midterm and final have plummeted my grade.

With senior year coming to a close, I find myself having breakdowns thinking of the work and the studying I have to do before my final, and whether this grade will cause my University to question my work ethics. When I am at my worst, I think of ways that help me de-stress the best I can, and I realized these techniques can work in multiple situations.

• Talk to someone you feel comfortable with – When I’m feeling horrible and thinking of the stressor too often, I’ll turn to my boyfriend who is often my de-stressor. I’ll tell him everything that is frustrating me on video chat and let out all my feelings, and in return he’ll talk to me as if everything is fine and tries to do things that make me laugh.
• Listen to your favorite music – During the times I can’t talk to someone, I’ll put on my favorite upbeat tunes that help me calm down when I’m doing my work.
• Think of solutions or positives to the situation – I hate being told to take a breather or meditate because it only makes me think of my stressor even more when I’m left with nothing else to think about. During the times I can’t stop thinking about it, I try to find the upsides or solutions. My solution to my University questioning my acceptance was to send an email prior to them receiving my transcript explaining my situation and what I can expect from then.

Being stressed can be one of the worst feelings. Find ways that you feel help you best, everyone has them.

(Old Blog Post Written in 2017)

On January 21, 2017, I had the honor in participating in the Women’s March on Washington with another half a million people, and more worldwide. The event embarked us on an adventure of a lifetime with Nasty Women and Bad Hombres from all over the nation to come together as one to create another piece of history that will be talked about for decades to come.

I’m a seventeen-year-old girl and a woman of color with little voice in the government because I am only one person, but many forget that one is all it takes. To make millions there has to be one person, and it continues to pile on until all those little voices make the loudest roar across the land, the seas, and everything surrounding it. We underestimate the power that one person makes until that power is the one that is making the difference in this world. I didn’t truly understand what this meant until the age of fifteen once I acknowledged that you should not let someone else be your voice, YOU be your voice. Being an advocate at a young age was difficult because of the limitations age puts you through. I had the privilege of marching across Washington DC, finally feeling as if I had no limitations and I was not bound down by anyone criticizing my views on Feminism by calling me a Feminazi. I was not in fear of feeling I would get in an argument with someone who disagreed, but rather I was liberated. From the moments before the march I had gotten into various online fights with older Trump supporters, ignorant to the facts of what it all meant and why, and to this moment and forever on, I will probably never truly comprehend how some can be quite clueless. Angry and upset about the turnout of events and how divided we had become, I turned to the most hopeful thing left, The March on Washington.

It’s crazy how different things become in such a short span, but in just 8 hours I could not have felt more inspired. Women of color, men, children, and more had all gathered in one spot to fight for the rights we felt have been threatened and to protest against the remarks Trump has labeled us minorities as. Not a single fight had broken out, and during my whole time there, I had not met a single grumpy person around. It was not ONLY about women’s rights, but everything America stands for which was the most beautiful thing that came out of this. We marched from street to street filled with determination. The most memorable event I will hold onto is reaching the Trump Hotel and yelling from our hearts how shameful he is, and while we were able to protest, there were no arrests and no destruction of property. It is truly remarkable how peaceful it had all turned out and the impact our actions are going to make for the people. The crowd cheered, cried, and laughed together. We wore our hearts on our sleeves unafraid of who saw, all we wanted was to make a difference.

While this event is set in stone for history, it does not mean there will not be more to come. We cannot make a difference if we do not continue to push our way past the barriers, and past the walls that are being built. We will continue to shout until our voices are heard and we will not settle down until there is something done about it. Although I have little respect for our current president who I would label as a racist and misogynist, I still have respect for my country. We will not forget about those without a voice, those who are threatened, and those who are hurt about this outcome. There is hope, and we will continue to make history.

March 14th marked the national school walkout in protest of the Parkland shooting. We were to leave at 10 am, and protest for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims killed by the mass shooting. The problem is, how do you deal with creating a successful school protest?

My general gist of a school protest is “I don’t go because most of the people don’t care. They end up leaving school or ruining the seriousness of it all.” I decided to backtrack my thinking and give it a try. The point of it is to call attention. When I stood in line to walkout, I realized I wasn’t all that wrong about my original thinking.

School protests should be truly changing because of the young people that are trying to call attention to lawmakers. A big problem for many young people is that grownups view us as illiterate and inept of making our own decisions. When people goof off in a school protest, how can anyone take us seriously?

Immediately walking out of the school building, people were talking and weren’t very orderly. One disrespectful boy jokingly asked, “would it be funny if someone had a rifle?” The crude comment caused me, and a few of my friends, to turn our heads and say “that’s not cool”, “don’t say that dude”, “that’s so disrespectful.” He responded with, “maybe I said that a little too loud.” Once the megaphone started with the chants, only a few people were willing to participate. To the side of me were a group of girls singing and dancing the chant, basically not understanding the seriousness of the situation. At the end of the walkout, I came back to class extremely disappointed of what could have been an amazing protest. I understand that not everyone will care or follow the rules, but is it wrong of me to expect more? Coming from an extremely diverse school near DC that tends to run more liberal, I saw potential change. Those that didn’t take this seriously ruined it for those that did. I am envious of the schools that were able to have a successful protest. What I am proud of is myself for still stepping up to the plate and protesting, even if everyone around me wasn’t willing to listen.

Based on my experience from today, I have a few words of advice:  Do more to advocate the cause in schools, some people are just generally ignorant. Have a list of chants and sayings ready, get yourself and the group pumped. Have administrators looking for stragglers trying to leave and make them go back to class. Create a leadership group to handle the walkout that actually care about the issue and has shown passion for it.

My message for my fellow classmates that seem to not care for the lives of those lost by gun violence, change will never happen until you grow up.

In honor of International Women’s Day, Feminism Friday is Feminism Thursday for today.

International Women’s Day is “a day of recognition and celebration of women globally.” While many people are trying to bring equality for both men and women, it seems as though almost every day is “men’s day.” To recognize our efforts and who we are, International Women’s Day is a way to bring that awareness to the front, where men and those that look down upon us have to pay attention. Although we shouldn’t need a specific day to remind us how valuable we are, there is still oppression in our patriarchal dominated society that may tell us otherwise.

While many people may have celebrated International Women’s Day in different ways, I was able to have my Girl Up Club meeting as celebration. If you’re not sure how to incorporate this day into your life, search up women you might have not known made a difference in history, learn new feminist facts, attend a public event, or have a discussion about this topic with your friends and family.

During my club meeting, I had asked some members, “a strong woman is…”

This is what they had said:

Fierce, Brave, Powerful, Confident, Opinionated, Independent, Imaginative, Active, “Nasty Woman”, Fearless, and Undefeated are just a few ways to describe what a strong woman truly is.

We are the next generation of activists ready to tackle inequality. We are hope. We are the future.

Take a look at the women in your life and truly appreciate them, for we are unstoppable.

Where you fall among the college spectrum is always especially tricky. I’m a 3.4 GPA, which is decent, but my SAT’s fell below average. The reason being because of math, of course. I was worried about this because college competition is extremely high and there were thousands of people ahead of me. What I had to do was show how I stood out, but even then, I still held self doubt on whether I could get accepted. Here are a list of tips that I went through when college searching and officially applying to limit my self-doubt.

• Understand where you stand on a college level for the specific school

Even if you may not have the exact GPA or ideal SAT scores for each school, what they’re actually looking for may be different. When I was looking at schools, I based it off of what they look for in a candidate. I knew my GPA was okay and my SAT scores weren’t good, so I applied for test-optional schools. Although every school wants good grades, sometimes the personality of a person can shine in other ways that can make a school want to take you.

• Have one or two reach schools

I applied to colleges I figured I would have a pretty good chance getting into, but the doubt I held about getting into them stopped me from applying to a better school. I love the school I’m currently committed to, but now I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if I applied to a better school.

• Don’t talk to toxic friends that will make you feel bad about where you applied

It’s always so great to be supportive of others just like you want them to be supportive of you. I created so much self-doubt for myself when I applied to schools and thankfully my friends helped me feel better by saying, “but you do so many activities! A lot of schools would love that.” You don’t have to necessarily straight out say they’re going to get in if you don’t think so, keep that to yourself. Instead, highlight the strengths of the other person. In the same sense, don’t surround yourself with people that will put you down and make you feel worse about where you have applied and who you are.

• Create a resume or keep a list of accomplishments and activities!

Self-doubt for a lot of people can stem from their grades, but what often makes a person unique is what they’ve done through high school. Whenever I felt bad about my academic life, I realize that not many people can say they’ve accomplished what I’ve done and I have a different experience from what others may have had. You’ll have your own story to tell if you can show you’ve succeeded in something other than academics.

• Even with the best and worst of applications, there is always self-doubt

Even if it does not happen for every college you apply to (unlike me), for almost every student there is always a college they applied to that will make them sizzle their teeth (I’m really hoping you know what I mean by this), and say “I don’t know if I’m getting in.” It’s okay to feel this way. Just understand college works in mysterious ways and stay hopeful.

A girl with big adventures is where I would begin.

My name is Amanda Luna and I’m eighteen-years-old living in a big town on the East Coast. What life has in store for me is still a mystery, but I’m prepared to go on this adventure to find out what that is.

I’d like to think that my story starts during the summer of 2015 when I went to Rwanda. I traveled there for a 3-week camp called WiSci Girls STEAM Camp which was filled with 120 others girls from all over the United States and countries in Africa. I’m not exactly sure what happened once I came back, but when I did it was as if I had created a new mindset for myself.

A girl who didn’t even know what feminism was in 9th grade suddenly came back to the states as a feminist, and ready to advocate. I even created my own Girl Up Club in my high school, which the short version of it would describe it as a group of young advocates with the dedication to change the lives of adolescent girls in developing countries.

Since 2015, I’ve learned, traveled, and advocated as much as I can. Although I’m still young and growing, I know there are so many more experiences yet to come and more knowledge that I’m willing to share.

I am consistently learning something new everyday and who I become, well, only time can tell.