It’s that time of the year when juniors in the Ray Dass National Merit Prep Class are seeing the light at the end of the the tunnel.
Juniors such as myself are rapidly approaching the end of what has been a five month descent into madness. Filled with late nights at school, all-nighters and full on emotional breakdowns, it probably would not be that far off to say it has been a turbulent period.
However, as we enter our last week of spending our afternoons and evenings with instructors Emily Block, Laura Mutis, Hasib Nasirullah and Ray Dass, we may start questioning how we are going to spend our now comparably free time.
I know I am going to pick up on some things I had to drop to make time for the class.
For example, I am going to continue my volunteering. In years past, I would spend every Sunday morning volunteering at my temple by taking photos for magazines and pamphlets. It is a fun job that I had to put on hold so I could study for the PSAT. Once the test day passes, I will be able to return to the place where I have volunteered since seventh grade.
Another thing I normally do but had to slow down for National Merit class was reading for pleasure. Under no other circumstance would it have ever taken me more than a week to read something like Rick Riordan’s new book, “The Blood of Olympus.” I would normally have been able to finish the book in four or five days. However, eight days in and I am only on page 167 out of 504. Pleasure reading is one thing I’m really looking forward to picking back up.
The final activity I’m excited to start again is catching up on my favorite television shows. My TV is filled to the brim with shows just waiting for me to watch. This month sees shows such as Doctor Who, Gotham, the Flash, the Big Bang Theory and Once Upon a Time all releasing new episodes of their shows. However, during National Merit class, I have not been able to watch these shows at the speed I normally do. As soon as class ends, my friends will definitely expect to find me sitting in front of my television, binge watching my favorite shows.
While I did lose out on a lot of the fun parts of my life when the class began, the class has without a doubt helped raise not only my PSAT score, but my SAT score as well. However, I am most certainly excited to be able to enjoy myself and get some sleep.
So juniors rejoice. The end of our madness is near.
