New Blogger :)

Hi everybody! My name is Annie and I'm the newest blogger to join Girl Talk :). I'm a junior here at UC and am a Student Ambassador, Big Sister, part of the Academic Team, Forensics Team, National Honor Society, and R.E.A.C.H. (Raising Educated Awareness for the Causes of HIV/AIDS). I am also in the Distinguished Scholars Program, taking Accelerated and AP classes this year. I'm really excited to be blogging and to let you all get a look at my life here at UC.

This past weekend, I went with the Forensics team to a tournament at UPENN. For those of you that do not know, Forensics is public speaking. It's made up of several catergories, including both speech and debate events. We left Friday right after school. Saturday was an early morning for our team and we started to compete at 9 AM. We finished around 7 that night. After going back to the hotel, I found out that I had made it to the semi-final round! I was surprised, since it was a national tournament. I met people from schools as far away as Orlando and Colorado!

I compete in Original Oratory, which is an event where you write and memorize your own speech. We returned to campus Sunday morning, where I competed in my semi-final round. It was a really hard round, so I was even more shocked when I found out that I made it to the final round (the top 6). In the end, I placed 3rd! It was a great experience for me and it was nice to see all of my work pay off. I know that the entire team enjoyed their weekend and enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed the long the weekend, but now it's time to go back to school! Talk to you all next week!

Last week I had the chance to fall in love with Emerson College. I went for my official visit Thursday to Friday and did not want to come home! Thursday morning I woke up and went for a four hour car ride to Boston. Once there I met with the coach and went to one of the softball players dorm. After talking to the girls I got to sit in on a college class. I was not ready for an hour and 45 minute class! It's so different from high school. After class I got to eat dinner in the cafeteria with the team. The food was so good! After dinner I had to go watch the team lift weights for 2 hours! From 9pm to 11pm. I was with other recruits for next years class, so we attempted to discover Boston on our own instead of waiting for 2 hours. Boston is such a beautiful but big city. After lifting weights, I went to one of the softball players room and got to meet other people at Emerson. Everyone was so enthusiastic and I really got a great feel for the school. The next day I met with admissions and talked about the application process then finished my day with lunch with the upperclassmen. The whole atmosphere was amazing and I really liked college for a day (:

But back in High School a lot is going on with Union Catholic. Last week we had our 8th grade day of Recollection. The 8th graders really enjoyed the day as they heard stories from our upperclassmen. The day started with name tags being filled out including an adjective that best describes the 8th grader. My favorite activity for the 8th graders is for people who put that they are "crazy" as their adjective. These kids have to peel open a banana and eat it after it is passed up and down a row full of their peers. Other activities include People who are loud had to scream into a microphone and people who are athletic had to shoot a basketball. This was a great day for the 8th graders and they got to bond with their class.

Up next is the Senior Day of Recollection and Welcome Back Dance. Union Catholic is so busy!

Accomplishing your dreams

Welcome back to school! I hope your summer went well.

This summer was life-changing for me. As I've talked about plenty of times before I play softball more than I sleep and my dream in life was to make the high school varsity team my freshman year - I worked hard and accomplished that dream. So freshman year I decided that my new dream would be to play in college and I accomplished that dream this summer! My top school choices have been number one Boston College and number two Emerson College. This summer I contacted both coaches and my number one school invited me for a camp. Unfortunately I was unable to attend because I would be on vacation.

So Emerson was now my number one choice. I continued to talk to the coach all summer and my tournament in New York, he told me he would be there to watch. I didn't know what game and I'm really glad I didn't know. Playing under pressure is difficult because you're trying so hard not to mess up. I played right field that game the coach came to watch me play. Some coach was standing on the right field fence the whole entire game, literally 20 feet away from me. I paid little attention and continued to just play my game. At the very end of the game I looked at his shirt and it said Emerson!

The next thing I knew, my mom and I were on our way to the heart of Boston! I took a tour of Emerson and fell in love! I want to major in Broadcast Journalism and Emerson is one of the top 5 schools for my major in the country! After the visit, I went to the coaches office where he told me I was recruited. It was such an amazing feeling to have all my hard work finally pay off!! I go for my official visit during the end of this month, I am so excited.

Always try your best and NEVER give up on your dreams. If you work your hardest and have your mind set, you WILL accomplish your dreams.

Sister Pat's Kids Camp

Hey everyone! Hope you all are having a safe and relaxing summer. Only about three weeks left, but it’s not over yet!

So, this summer, I went to my first sleep-away camp. The only thing is, this was not a normal sleep-away camp. The camp was called Sister Pat’s Kids Camp, meant for kids with cancer or various blood disorders. I applied over a year prior, and was accepted as a counselor for the camp’s 25th year running. In June, all of the counselors attended an orientation that explained camp and where we would find and make our place in it. All of the first year counselors, except lifeguards, were not only counselors of specific groups, but were on kitchen crew as well. At orientation, we were given basic training and explanations of the kids we would be dealing with: basically, between the ages of 6 and 14, with some type of cancer or blood disorder, most commonly sickle cell anemia, and which campers would be receiving treatment while at camp. I honestly didn’t know to expect going into the camp, but I can say that it was the greatest week of my life. I was assigned to a group of 14 girls between the ages of 10 and 12, and they were the most amazing group of kids I have ever met. Along with my regular group, I was a part of the kitchen crew, meaning that we would set up, serve and clean up all meals, spending an average of 8 hours together each day. After being in the kitchen, I would have to run and find my group to play with them during their activities. Although they were sick, they didn’t show it while making the most out of the week they had. At our orientation, the woman in charge continued to tell her fellow counselors that this week was all about the kids, which was proved to be completely true. Each day was divided up into 6 periods spent on a variety of activities with a special night activity. The day activities included biking, swimming, fishing and boating, weaving, arts and crafts, gym activities, music, tie die, and cooking, and the night activities included a carnival, roller skating, a campfire, a Disney theme night, and a dance. The kids loved every minute of every day, and it is proved when some campers return as counselors at the appropriate age. Not only did camp change their lives, but the kids and this camp changed the lives of every single counselor. The kids are such an inspiration, and the other counselors and I all agree that we cannot wait until camp next year!

Seniors’11 and Summer

Me and three of my best friends on our Rite of Passage day in the courtyard

Hey everyone! Welcome to summer! :] A few weeks ago, during the last week of school, the juniors had their Rite of Passage Ceremony. At this time, the juniors are inducted officially as seniors of Union Catholic. We had a prayer service, were given breakfast, and got to go out into the courtyard for the first time. For those of you who don’t know about our courtyard, there is a big grassy area enclosed by the school walls. Only seniors and teachers are allowed to be in it and walk through it during the school day. There are benches for the seniors to eat on during lunch and some play football or just relax in the sun. When my friends and I went into the courtyard, it really hit us that we are officially seniors! As shocked as we all are to be seniors when freshmen year doesn’t feel too far in the past, we are all so excited.

Now that it’s summer, everyone is going to the beach and relaxing. A lot of my friends have left to go on vacation already, and I leave tomorrow to go down the shore with my family for a week. My two best friends, Jenna and Brian, are anxiously waiting to go to Spain for three weeks, and all the other fun things summer has for us. I know some other people are lifeguarding at pools for a summer job. This summer, I’m going to be working as a camp counselor at Hyatt Hills Golf course for the kid’s camp every day, which I’m very excited for.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe summer! :]

End of the Spring Season and Sen10rs

Hey everyone! The past few weeks of school have been busy, even with school winding down. Two weeks ago, we had the spring sports banquet, the upper classmen academic awards, and the senior prom. The spring sports banquet was held at the Westwood in Garwood as usual, but there was something different to this year than any other. At the spring athlete’s breakfast earlier that day, the athletic director told us that our season was special because we were the first to ever have a full season on our new turf field. As a result, there were very few cancelled games and practices. Everyone was very excited about this. Since I’m on the golf team, I didn’t get a chance to play on the turf but I know everyone from the lacrosse teams and baseball teams loves it. The banquet marks the end of another successful sports season. For our golf team, this was the best season we have had in a while and I’m sad to see it come to an end. We have two seniors leaving, and I know it will be hard to fill their shoes!

This Tuesday is the annual trip to Six Flags that the school takes. Normally, the freshmen, sophomores and juniors go on one day, and the seniors go on another, but this year everyone is going together. I’m really excited about this because our seniors have already had their last day of school last Thursday, and they graduate this Saturday. This was a great senior class, and I know they will be missed. I personally am very good friends with some of the seniors ,one being one of my best friend, and it’s going to be strange not having them walking the halls next year, just as they have been for three years.

Good luck to all the seniors! You will be missed! :]

Students really can make a difference.

On May 18th, I was selected to represent Union Catholic at the Youth Leadership and Government Day held at town hall in Woodbridge. What a great opportunity this day turned out to be. When I first arrived to town hall, I was joined by eleven other high school Juniors focused on improving their town. The first couple of hours, I watched a council meeting take place, and then went to sit in on a court, there were a lot of speeding cases. (If you get a ticket for speeding, it is so much money!) Next it was our turn to become the council members and all 12 of us Juniors got to voice our opinions on what we think is important. My main issue was recreation sports, especially since in Woodbridge the freshman sports are being cut. The recreation director thought that I had a great idea and offered to send out e-mails and post more links so that teenagers can get involved in recreational sports. I was so excited when he took up my idea, I felt that I could really make a difference. Aside from my idea, the other eleven Juniors had such great ideas, my favorite was making student more aware of what drugs and violence can do to you. I had such a great day, but the best part had to be when I took a chance and talked to the council member who was in charge of communications. I told him that I was very interested in majoring in communications, right there he offered me an internship at Woodbridge's local television station. I was so excited, this day really turned out to be great.

I haven't updated about softball lately. First off, our athletic banquet was on May 18Th and it was great to get together with the team outside from the turf field. We shared lots of memories watched a video of our sports teams, and got called up to get our awards. The digital film class did an amazing job with the videos. I got my small plaque this year for being a 3rd year varsity winner, I'm so excited for my 4th year plaque. But really, Senior year is next year? wow. Junior year has been great for softball. We are 15-6. We made it to quarter finals of Counties and in our first state game, I hit my first home run!!! I was so excited. Our next state game is Tuesday, I hope we advance to the semi-finals!!!