anahorvath.com

Category: Life

  • Why I am a Self-Critic

    Recently in AP Lang, we had a creative writing assignment inspired by a piece by Zitkala-Sa titled “Why I am a Pagan”. I chose to write about why I am so hard on myself and here is that piece. Enjoy.

    Heavy breathing. Sweat dripping. Mind racing. There was no way I’m going to pull off this match. Two hours pass under the glaring sun and I’m still out on the battlefield. My back burns as the heat stabs into it. My feet burn as I dash madly from sideline to sideline in a frantic attempt to keep myself from raising that white flag. My heart burns as I watch the championship match against my nemesis go up in flames. No matter how many serves I sent penetrating the enemy’s walls or how many shots I fired evening the playing field it wasn’t enough. It never seems to be enough.

    My last play haunts my mind as I walk up to the net. “You just had to miss it in the net didn’t you Ana? I can’t believe you just let that happen. It’s not like that doesn’t happen at least six or seven times in a match. You’ve been working on that! Get a grip!” My opponent and I may have ceased fire on the court but that ceasefire hasn’t reached the strident voice nagging me in my head. I hold back my frustration and overwhelming feeling of crying as we shake hands and head off the court to our families.  

    I knew my family would be proud of me. They always are. They’ll see that I worked hard out on the court. Or did I? Was I good enough out there?

    As I fasten my seatbelt in the car, a single tear rolls down my cheek. And then a second. And then a third. And then a flash flood rumbles down the hill. It seems like no matter how hard I push myself out there, I’m trapped swimming just below the surface of the ocean. I’m left to wander and explore the vastness of the watery depths. I’m breathless. It seems like no matter hard I work on the court, I’m doomed to endure the harsh conditions of a summitless mountain. Progress may be made but sometimes it feels like I’m headed nowhere. I see the same old trees on that horrendous mountain and every time I have to cross that river or climb over that boulder, I might vomit out of disgust. “We’re here again?! I thought we were over this already?”

    I look out the window from the backseat of the car and watch as the cars, trees, and houses go by. As my dad navigates through Colorado Springs, my mom turns to me.

    “Ana, you know not to be so hard on yourself. This is silly behavior. You are stronger than this. You made it to the championship, for goodness sake! Be proud of yourself for that! And who cares about some Jessica-messica Do not let that get to you, okay?”

    My mom may be right. I shouldn’t let someone with poor sportsmanship like that get to me. I shouldn’t be my own worst enemy. I shouldn’t hate myself so much for losing a match in the championship of a tournament, but I have to.

    Hating on myself and kicking myself in the butt for making mistakes motivates me to be better. Losing sucks, I’ll admit it, but it allows me to learn from my mistakes. I may never reach the summit of that awful mountain and I may never get to breathe the fresh, salty air by sticking my head above the water, but I’ll be able to learn from my experiences. Being critical of myself allows me to give flight to the strong, beautiful butterflies that were once weak and struggling caterpillars in my life. To some, being hard on yourself is detrimental. It’s pointless. It’s silly behavior. I don’t see it that way. I see it as an opportunity to educate myself and improve who I am. There is no limit to improvement and I am endlessly willing to become better in all I do. If this is self-improvement and growth, then forevermore, at least, I am a self-critic.

    Why I am a Self-Critic
    Credit to artist. Not my piece 🙂

  • Another Valentine’s Day

    Valentine’s Day is just two days away. It feels like it just comes and goes every year. Being in high school, it’s funny to see people on Valentine’s Day. There’s the couples that have been together for a while and go on cute dates and get each other something sweet. There’s also the couples that go wayyyyy overboard and get each other the big teddy bears for Costco and the most cheesy gifts possible. That just screams “EWW!” to me. There’s also the other people in school who become the saddest people you’ve ever met. They complain and whine about how lonely they are and how sad their life is. First off, you’re only in high school and second, you’ll get over it. You have friends and family for a reason. Valentine’s Day is only once a year and there’s 355 other days for you to do as you wish and find someone to fill that hole in your heart.

    If I’m being honest here, Valentine’s Day is one of my least favorite holidays if not my least favorite. It’s just so commercialized and used as a way to draw people to buy chocolate, flowers, cheesy cards, and other heart-shaped and romantic goodies for loved ones. I won’t deny that showing loved ones your love is a wonderful thing. I think it’s great that people want to do something special for their significant others and family. But shouldn’t that be every day? You don’t have to go out and buy a big bouquet of red roses for your loved ones every day, but you should do something every day to show your love.

    People make such a big deal out of Valentine’s Day and I just don’t get it. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a boyfriend and have never been in that kind of relationship. I’ve always enjoyed picking out cute, heartfelt cards for my grandparents, aunt and uncle, sister, and parents and bringing a beautiful bunch of flowers to my mom but as the holiday has come and gone, I just don’t see the point of it anymore.

    We don’t need a designated day to show our love to family, friends, and significant others, in my opinion. Every day should be Valentine’s Day in its own unique way.

    Despite what I think, the holiday still goes on and the cheap chocolates are coming. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. 🙂

  • On Fam: A Word I Absolutely Hate

    It’s lit, fam. You’re the best, fam. There’s no better fam than my fam. Oh, I’m sure there is and I’m also sure that there’s a better word to describe those we refer to as family. Fam is a word I despise and every time I hear it, I cringe. It’s like hearing styrofoam rub against a cardboard surface, ever, so, slowly, making me shudder and causing the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. Fam strips away the elegant characteristics and harmony of the beautiful painting created by the word family, and transforms them into a disarray of ugly browns and greens.

    Being the artistic catastrophe it is, the word is quite a hideous one. It can be understood that in a world drowning in technology and shortcuts to an easier, simpler life, people would want to shorten their speech. But to shorten words that carry importance and value? I don’t think so. Family, as a word, dances with grace and poise over those who know the word well. It makes us feel loved, supported, at home. Fam, on the other hand, is a lump of mystery meat handed to us by the lunch lady at school. Disgusting.

    People want to show love and acceptance by those they hold close to them, but calling them fam is throwing them the weak, brittle twig to grasp onto when they’re waist deep in a bottomless pit of quicksand. Calling them fam is being the querulous toddler tugging constantly on his mother’s jacket at the grocery store, whining for his favorite chocolate bar. Calling them fam is being the person that won’t stop asking, “Are we there yet?” on a never-ending road trip. Calling them fam is finishing the bowl of popcorn while watching the big Sunday night football game and not having the “energy” to get up and go get more. Using this word makes a person sound uneducated and lazy because the word itself sounds lackadaisical, aggravating, and straight up ridiculous.

    Then again, after a long day at school, when I’m feeling drained, I might turn to the more slothful side of me. When I trudge in through the front door I’ll greet my fam, tell my fam how lit my day was, and then head upstairs to make a dent in my pile of homework. Sounds like a plan? Absolutely not! The people I call family and the people I call friends deserve a more beautiful word, and a beautiful word like family deserves to be used for the people I cherish in life. Our friends and our families mean much more to us than an atrocious three-letter word, so we should use a more righteous word to demonstrate that.

    On Fam: A Word I Absolutely Hate

  • The Memory Jar

    Happy New Year everyone! 2016 was quite a year and there were plenty of ups and downs. Hopefully 2017 will be a better year. Something cool my family did last year was create a memory jar. My sister and I found just a regular, old jar lying around our house and then decorated it, and as the year progressed, we put all kinds of memories in it.

    If you want to create your own memory jar, as mentioned above, all you need is:

    • A jar (a larger one will work better)
    • A bunch of small pieces of paper or sticky notes
    • Half of a piece of 8×11 piece of paper cut hotdog style (this is for the outside of your jar)
    • Markers or sharpies to decorate your jar
    • A pen or special marker or even pencil for writing on the slips of paper

    Here’s a few tips for your memory jar:

    • Follow through! Actually keep the memory jar going the entire year. My sister did a really good job of keeping our memory jar in order and made sure that memorable events made it into the memory jar.
    • Persuade everyone in your family to add to the jar. It’s more fun when it’s more than one person adding to the jar.
    • Write the month or even day the memory occurred so when you go back and look at all of them, you remember when they happened.
    • Be detailed with your writing so when you go back, you can actually recall them.
    • Add pictures, movie tickets, maps, and other little memorabilias.
    • Don’t open the jar to look at memories until the end of the year!
    • On New Year’s Eve open your memory jar with your family and share everything that happened over the year.

    My family did a memory jar for the first time this past year and I could definitely say it’s going to be a New Year’s tradition from now on. I hope you all had a safe, fun night and cheers to 2017! 🙂

    The Memory Jar

  • My Letter to Santa

    Dear Santa,

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you!

    There goes another year! This one’s been a good one, now that I’m not wearing that silly boot anymore! (We all know how much I enjoyed wearing that stupid thing.)

    School has been hard this year but I think you already knew that based on the piles of homework I come home with and the lack of sleep I get. Yeesh! Despite that, school has been awesome and I’ve loved all of my teachers and classes this year. If you could though, I’d really appreciate if you found a way to get my teachers to give out less homework. Thanks in advance!

    Tennis has been a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed spending all of the time I have on the court with my dad and sister. This past summer and winter have been a lot of fun. Can’t wait for more! 🙂

    I’m really excited to go to D.C. in January and I also can’t wait for New York this summer. I hope I learn a lot and have fun. Please wish me luck there!

    And for the record, two homecomings is a lot of work. I didn’t know that if you attend two separate homecomings, you have to buy TWO different dresses. There’s good stuff other than finding the area under a parabola and SAT prep vocab that you learn in high school.

    Thanks for all of the amazing things you’ve done for my sister and I over the years and for being the amazing, magical person you are. Safe travels!

    Love,
    Ana Horvath

  • Simple Gift Ideas

    Christmas is officially a week away! When getting a gift, remember that it isn’t always about the price, but the thought. As long as it’s something that you feel can be useful and meaningful, it will be a good gift. For those of you who aren’t quite sure what to get for someone special in your life, here’s a few simple gift ideas.

    • A handmade fleece blanket. All you need for these are two large pieces of fleece, some open space, some scissors, and people to help you tie the blanket. These are always really fun to make and useful to the person you’re making them for! Finding fleece with something that the person enjoys or likes can help make the blanket a little more special.
    • A drawing or photo. For this semester of school, my sister and I took a photography class and some the pictures could make great Christmas gifts! A pretty drawing that you did or a nice picture framed can also be special and easy gifts to wrap up and gift to someone.
    • A book or movie they might like. Depending on the book or movie, the price can range, but these are always easy to find and can be used over and over again.
    • Candle or lotion. Once again, depending on where you get these items, the price can range. A good-smelling candle or some nice lotion can be a great gift for a girl or woman in your life. You can never have too much of this stuff!
    • Giftcards or money. Sometimes, a giftcard or money can seem impersonal. Sometimes though, they aren’t bad ideas for gifts because people can choose what they buy with the giftcard or given money. For someone preparing to do some traveling or a college student in need of some money, these two are never bad ideas.

    You’re definitely not limited to this very short list of gifts to get someone for Christmas. Get creative and have fun with it! When shopping for gifts, don’t get to caught up in whether or not someone will like it. That can be important but people should learn to be grateful for all that they get, even if they don’t exactly like it. Happy Holidays to everyone and have a great winter break and Merry Christmas and New Year!

  • Carpe Futurum

    Carpe Futurum- seize the future. For my leadership conference I will be attending during the presidential inauguration, we had the opportunity to post a video on YouTube answering a question given to us. I chose to answer the question of “What does carpe futurum mean to me?”.

    To me, carpe futurum means to take advantage of the opportunities you are given and never be afraid to take chances.

    In my video, I mentioned the opportunity I have this summer to attend IMTA with my modeling and talent agency. Of course I took the opportunity because I know that it’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Attending IMTA will boost my confidence, help me gain different leadership skills, as I will learn how to observe and listen to people in a different way. I will also better develop my communication skills in a professional, more business-like manner. The opportunity with this leadership summit I will be attending also applies to carpe futurum. I know that I want to be in charge of my own dental or medical practice some day and the skills I’ve learned throughout my years in school and in student council as well as what I learn in this summit will prepare me to be the person I see myself as in my future.

    Have a good week everyone!

  • A Review of the Galaxy S7

    Both Samsung and Apple came out with their 7th version of smartphones this year. Personally, I am more of an Apple person but my parents have a plan with Samsung smartphones and finally decided to upgrade their own phones and allow Allyson and I to join their plan. This is the first smartphone I’ve ever had and I’d like to say that I’m pretty impressed with it. Here’s my impression on the Samsung Galaxy S7 phone.

    I really liked the color choices on for the phone, even if black and gold were the only choices. They’re simple and classy. The screen is big enough to see pictures or watch videos and also view and send texts without having to squint or struggle to view them.

    One thing I really like about the Galaxy S7 is how fast it runs and how high-quality the camera is. It takes really nice pictures and also offers many cool options for panorama pictures and even food pictures! The “selfie” camera is not my favorite, however because it makes your subject appear somewhat distorting, giving a person a bigger forehead or bringing out certain features in a weird manner.

    Unlike Apple’s iPhone 7, the Galaxy S7 still has a headphone jack, allowing people to still listen to music through headphones you have to plug into the phone. Honestly, I think airbuds look kind of funny, so I prefer to use earbuds or headphones that you have to plug in.

    The battery lasts for a long time, not that I can tell you exactly how long, but it lasts me throughout the day and even two as long as it was fully-charged.

    The Galaxy S7 is easy to navigate as the apps are easy to locate and settings and other information are easy to access. Another really great thing about the S7 is the security options. I know that Apple also uses fingerprint ID to lock smartphones, but the technology with that is really cool. On top of setting a fingerprint ID on the S7, you can set up a passcode to maximize protection on your phone.

    In addition to these many features of the Galaxy S7, it is water-resistant, meaning it will not be damaged if you drop in water or spill a liquid on it. I would not recommend submerging your phone in water for a long time, just because that doesn’t sound like a good idea, even if the phone is water resistant. What you could do is purchase a life-proof case and then use your S7 underwater if you like. The idea of phones and water just don’t mix with me, but it’s so cool that the technology today allows people to do things like that!

    If you’re looking for a new smartphone that has a good battery life, good storage, high quality camera, and many other good features, I would recommend the Galaxy S7. It’s a neat phone with a lot of great features to help make your life more simple!

    Galaxy S7

  • How Was Homecoming?

    My school’s homecoming was yesterday, which is kind of late for a homecoming. I am definitely tired today and I slept in until around noon which was really nice. Homecoming was great!

    My school does an entire celebratory week around homecoming with spirit-dress-up days, Llabtoof (Powder-puff football), a huge homecoming assembly, and the big home football game on Friday.  This year, our theme was games, board games, video games, really any type of game (not including sports). We called it “It’s Your Move: A Week of Games” and our spirit days revolved around the theme. We had Cranium Day where everyone dressed like a nerd, Dance Dance Revolution Day where everyone dressed in Jazzercise attire, school-spirit day, Game of Life Day where everyone dressed as either a baby, toddler, frat boy, mom, dad, or senior citizen, and then class color day. The days were easy to dress up for as well as a lot of fun. Who wouldn’t enjoy wearing leg warmers and fuzzy green dance spandex to school? (I definitely wore leggings under the spandex.) It was cool to see most of the students participate in the spirit days.

    Throughout the week we also had our llabtoof game which is the powder-puff football game. The junior and senior girls played flag football and the junior and senior guys were the cheerleaders. Freshmen helped cheer for the juniors and sophomores cheered for the seniors. Before llabtoof, student council helped put on a tailgate and a lot of people came to hang out and eat some good food. It was really cool to see the entire school come together and have some fun. This all took place on Wednesday.

    On Friday we had our homecoming pep-assembly which was sweet! We called it “Battleship” because the whole week was like a battle between the classes, like the game Battleship in a way. So clever… Anyway, there were several games that were played and there was a lot of cheering during the assembly. People seemed really excited about homecoming and I heard that many people think it was one of the best homecoming assemblies yet! At the big football game Friday night, we won 54-13 (YEAH!) and announced our homecoming royalty. Another special thing done that night was a presentation of roses to all of the alumni.

    After all of the excitement during the week, on Saturday we had the dance which was themed Candyland, still tying into our theme of games in general. Even though the dance floor was small and our DJ could’ve been a bit more enthusiastic and passionate about his work, the dance was so much fun. We had a photo booth, jumbo chess, checkers, Connect 4, and even Dance Dance Revolution at the dance. There were a lot of activities for people to do besides dance and I think that helped make it a packed and successful homecoming.

    I’m so glad homecoming went well and I hope it went well for all of you that attended it! I hope you all made smart decisions and made some lasting memories at homecoming. Most schools don’t have many dances, and homecoming is a special time in high school. Until next year! I’m probably going to go take a nap now. 🙂

    homecoming

  • Getting a Grasp on Junior Year

    I’ve had friends tell me that junior year of high school is the most fun year besides senior year. I’ve also heard that it’s the worst, in that you’re swamped with homework and you’re contacting colleges, and everything is a mess. While I would say that I’ve enjoyed school so far, I would definitely agree with others on that junior year is rough!

    Almost every night, even during the first week of school, my minimum homework load is 2 hours a night. That makes sense granted that I’m taking three AP classes and advanced physics (ugh). It’s important to challenge yourself and do what you can to learn all that you can, so that you’re prepared for college. Something important I’ve learned about junior year, is that you need time for yourself and time to let your brain take a break, otherwise you’ll be toast. At the beginning of the school year, I was staying up at least until one in the morning most nights doing all of my homework and I was absolutely miserable. I relearned that procrastination is NEVER the way to go and time-management is key to balancing school, tennis, student council, piano, and everything else I do.

    I’ve also learned that I really enjoy using a planner this year. I have a color-coding system I use to symbolize what assignments I’ve completed and still have to do. I also use different colors to highlight events in and out of school daily. This ranges from quizzes and tests to a tutoring  session or something for student council. Writing for my blog is even in my planner! What I’m trying to say, if you didn’t get it already, is that organization is crucial to knowing what’s going on in the world around you. You want to stay on top of your life and a planner is a good way to do that.

    One other thing that I’ve found to be really important with junior year is allowing myself to have some fun and do things I’ve never done before. I’ve gone to more sporting events to support a variety of my school’s athletic teams. I’ve been more vocal in student council, attended multiple leadership conferences, and done a bunch of other cool things to make this year even more memorable than freshman or sophomore year. High school only happens once so you have to make the most of it while you’re there!

    So for those of you curious about junior year, yes it is hard, but yes it is also a lot of fun. Study hard, ask questions, stay organized, and have fun. You’ll stay afloat that way.

    Have a great week! 🙂

    junior year