The Sapling (Description for Field Trip)

Here is my link

Box Man Discussion

1.       I learned that the use of the words “good fortune” and “luck” were used to describe the Box Man despite his meager accommodations. It pointed out the seemingly contradictory scenario that this man could be both lucky and have “blistered legs.”

2.       I wished we talked more about the paragraph right after the thesis. It stated that throughout much of our lives we deny that we are solitary beings. I was curious about how that applied to the Box Man. Had he gone through all the phases described? If most people continually search to avoid feeling alone how come the Box Man had come to accept the nature of human solitude?

3.       In the discussion, I wished I had talked more about the two lonely women in comparison to the Box Man. We discussed how the Box Man was content because he had accepted solidarity but it would have been helpful for me to mention that the women were unhappy because of the discrepancy between their expectations of continual human interaction and the reality of human solitude.

Take Home Essay #1

Take Home Essay #1 I Am A ... Link
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M17ligh_EX0wGCtsjiSEKTaNAQS91A3qdtRmIg24NEQ/edit

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman Long Form

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman Long Form:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z-iHr151VSrwL5cj40QdeOu_vvjO4cr3z2li1nd6SYE/edit

Senior Project

For my senior project I was initially considering doing something involving soccer. However there were very few viable options; I could neither coach a soccer team nor learn a fundamentally new skill. I considered music or an interesting hobby. I already have taken years of violin lessons only to drop it because of my lack of free time. I also find little value in taking up a hobby that has no intrinsic value. Then I thought about learning a skill that would be helpful, such as computer programming. Computer programming is a necessary tool for all engineers – even chemical engineers. It might be helpful to know in advance how to program basic functions rather than have to learn on the spot. 

My brother introduced me to basic computer programming when he added his own program to my laptop. Whenever I opened up my laptop from sleep mode a huge picture of a clown would suddenly appear, which completely freaked me out. My brother, who is all too aware of my irrational dislike of clowns, had asked my aunt, a professional computer programmer, to teach him how to create a basic program that involved pictures of clowns. Despite my initial shock and annoyance directed at my brother, I started thinking about learning how to program.

Specifically, for my Senior Project I will be creating a rudimentary computer program, such as tic tack toe, using the computer programming language basic. It will be a small program but it is important to start with the fundamentals. Although I do not have a lot of knowledge in programming, I have multiple family members and friends of the family that can help me with my project.

About Me

Hello, my name is Kathryn.  My family includes my parents, my two younger siblings, Ashley and Cole, and Jazz, my adorable dog. Ashley, who is going to be a freshman at Napa this year, is often thought to be the oldest sibling because she is 4 inches taller than me – the age confusion situation vexes me to no end. Despite our little squabbles when she raids my closet, she is one of my best friends. My energetic 12 year old brother, Cole, spends every waking moment playing sports, when he is not shooting me with his vast collection of Nerf guns. That is saying a lot considering how much time our family devotes to playing sports. This summer, in the course of one week, our family was three different corners of the country because of sports: I was in Chicago for Nationals, my sister in Washington for a lacrosse tournament and my brother was in SoCal for a couple lacrosse games.

Unlike most people who attend Napa High, I was not born in California. Instead I was born thousands of miles away in Boston. I lived in upstate New York for a couple years and then moved to a small town outside of Seattle, Washington, called Bellevue. I moved down to Los Altos, CA when I was nine before finally coming to live in Napa. It was a huge cultural shock when I started school here with its small town atmosphere. It seemed so odd that everybody knew everyone and my friends’ parents all knew each other in high school. There was also a distinct difference in diversity compared to the other places I had lived. In Los Altos, one of my friends, Annika, was the closest thing to a modern day Indian princess. Whenever her father returned from business trips to India, he would buy her real diamond earrings and solid gold rings. I was the first person she had met with natural red hair – it took her a couple of weeks for her to fully comprehend that it naturally came out red.

My main focuses right now are on academics and soccer. I try to take as many AP classes as I can which takes up a huge amount of time. When I’m not doing schoolwork, eating, sleeping or hanging out with friends I am playing soccer. Whether I am juggling in my backyard, going to soccer practice or flying across the country to go to tournaments, I am constantly doing something involving soccer. Earlier this summer my team, Napa United, won State Cup and qualified to go to Nationals in Chicago. We are the first soccer team from Napa to ever win State Cup.

During this next year, I have to decide where I will attend college. However there are two critical components I have to consider: academics and collegiate soccer.  Some of the schools that I am interested in, such as Stanford and Cal, have such amazing soccer programs that a player needs to have national team experience to even be looked at. I have to consider the tradeoff: go to a school with a great chemical engineering program but not play soccer at the school level or go to a school with less prestigious academics and play collegiate soccer.  One thing I know for sure is that my college major is going to be chemical engineering – I enjoy solving logic problems and don’t mind math and science. 

Senior year will be fantastic and I will enjoy getting to know everyone better.