Vincent English Blog

Response: One thing I heard when I was younger that I wish I could unhear is that everybody dies. I remember the moment in my 3rd-grade class when I was reading a book about the sun exploding in 5 billion years from now, and my mind finally realized that everyone and everything is going to die one day. I know that it is inevitable to come to this conclusion eventually, but sometimes I wish I had never known the idea of death. The idea of death is scary to everybody, and I feel like trying to ignore that fact is what is best for some people. However, without the thought of death, would we be living our lives to the fullest? Anyways, sometimes I just wish I could unlearn the thought of death. Summary: Today, we finished our project. Reflection: Sometimes we aren't meant to hear somethings and sometimes we are; it just depends on how we interpret them.

Response: Recently, I came to the realization that I have never really been living my true self when I am around people, even those who are closest to me. I realized that with every interaction I had with someone, I would try to put up this facade for them so they would see me in this "perfect light" in their eyes. Similar to a prompt I wrote about involving mirrors, I feel like the physical and social aspects of my being don't match up with who I am on the inside at all. To try and make sense of this, I came to the conclusion that the only reason I can hide that true side of myself is that I can hide it behind my physical and social appearance to others. The first impression that someone has of you is your looks, and I feel like my physical looks and social aspects match up pretty well, but is that who I am on the inside? This thought obviously upset me in a way, and I could only think, "How can I show who I truly am to other people?" Then I realized what my pr...

Response: During my cross-country days at Pius, when we would have meets on the weekends, I would always dread the 3-mile run that was soon to come. I still have nightmares about those races and can remember almost everything about them in vivid detail. There was always a specific moment during the race when my body started to give up on me, and it felt impossible to continue on. It would be during the isolated moments of the race when I would run in the woods far behind the other racers, or when someone I had been running next to sped up to pass me, or when I was on the last 1.5 miles of the race. My body kept limiting itself even though this race was something I knew I could do and had done before. The fear and anxiety of racing never helped either, but neither did the cold weather in that skinny jersey and those tiny shorts. However, my favorite moment in every race that I ran was the last little distance that we had to run until the finish line. The amount of time it took for me to...

Response: A time that I didn't feel like myself is when I stared in the mirror for too long. I've never been hard on myself for my looks all my life, until recently. Sometimes when I stare at my reflection for too long, I don't even recognize who I have become after all these years. When I look into my eyes, I remember all the different people that I used to be, and what became of myself after all these years. I can see the versions of myself lined up from oldest to youngest staring at each other like I am doing now, and wonder if my future self is looking at me too. Like Cheryl, it feels like every time I move a part of my face, a part of all my old selves slowly withers away inside. I'll look at old pictures of myself from the past years, and I can barely even recognize myself. I've never been good at holding onto memories from my past, so when I see these pictures of myself, I can't even remember what I was like back then. When I truly take a long look at mys...

Response: The place where I feel the most at peace is the bathroom. I feel like I've written about this before in another blog post about how I manage my time during the day, but the bathroom is the place where I feel the most comfortable. My days this school year are pretty busy, and I am always around people no matter what. The only time that I have a moment to myself is the 45 minutes I have when I get home from school before I have to go to work or get my girlfriend from school. In that time, I will lock myself in the bathroom to just sit and relax before I go back to being social. Sometimes I don't even need to go to the bathroom, and I'll just sit on the counter of the sink the whole time watching videos/shows or playing games on my phone. I think the reason that the bathroom is the place I feel most at peace is because I can truly be alone with myself and my thoughts without any worry of someone coming in to intrude. Summary: Today, we read chapter 2 of Wild  and fou...

Response: When I got my tonsils taken out in the summer of 2024, I had to rely on my mom and sister for everything. It's a well-known fact that the earlier you get your tonsils taken out, the easier the recovery is. I got mine taken out at 17 because of constant strep throat infections all my life and tonsils the size of golf balls. I got them taken out mid-June, and it wasn't until around the end of summer that I felt decently okay to go about my day on my own. For the first week, I was completely bedridden and could barely drink water because of how painful my throat and mouth felt. The medical codeine I was on didn't help either, because it made me so loopy and sleepy. My mom and sister had to do almost everything for me because I was in so much pain. For me, having to rely on other people feels pretty humiliating and embarrassing. It makes me feel so weak when people have to help me with everyday tasks while looking at me with pity, but I'm also really great at it. ...

Response: A rather silly thing to admit, I've always wanted to learn how to do makeup. I just wanted to learn the basics and fundamentals, possibly making a career out of this potential hobby of mine. This thought had occurred to me around 2 1/2 years ago, but it was just a dream of mine and nothing that I would ever act on. However, as time went on, I wanted to explore this potential side of mine more and more. I asked my sister jokingly for some help to cover the basics, and she gave me a rundown of what I need to have and how to actually do it. I ended up forgetting about this passion of mine until around a year ago, when I finally decided to learn how to do makeup. Initially, I was only doing this because I wanted to look cool and alternative at the concerts I was going to and hopefully make some friends. However, around October of this school year, I decided to seriously pursue practicing and wearing makeup, especially at work. It wasn't until the first day that I wore mak...

Response: A time when I had to step out of my comfort zone was when I decided to run cross country in 9th grade. I had done cross country in elementary school, but I was always terrible at it. When I first started at Pius, my friends begged me to join them in cross country so they wouldn't feel so alone in the group, so I decided to give it a try. Similar to Cheryl's story in Wild , I had this feeling that I wanted to run away from all my problems in life, and on all of those trails my friends and I ran, it felt like my mind was finally able to be quiet. Even though starting something like cross country was scary, it really helped me figure out some problems I had in my mind. Summary: Today, we read the prologue for Wild and answered questions. Reflection: It's scary to start something outside of your comfort zone, but it could end up becoming personal growth within yourself.

Response: Back at Pius, I used to do cross country for the first 2 years of high school. My friends and I would all run together along various parks that our coaches took us to, and I remember that my favorite park to go to was Henderson Park because it was so close to my house. We went on a run when the season was starting to turn into fall, so the sun was setting earlier in the day. I remember running with my friends through the big forest of the park and getting totally lost. Practice was going to be over in around 15 minutes, and we still had no idea how to get back. After freaking out for a couple of minutes, we eventually found the right path to take, but on the way, we passed by something beautiful. We were running down this really steep hill within the forest, but when we finally got past the trees, we could see the sun setting on the horizon, and the lake below shining from the sunset. We all stopped running for a second to admire the view, and there was a bench that a few of ...

Response: For the Christmas break, I spent my holidays resting and celebrating with my family and girlfriend. Every Christmas break, my mom's whole family gets together for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and New Years day, and this year I got to bring my girlfriend to all 4 events. Another thing too is that my mom and I finally saved up enough money to buy the guitar amp that I have been begging for this entire school year, and it was absolutely worth the wait and the money. It is way louder and fuller-sounding than my previous 30 year old speaker, and I can absolutely take this amp to play in live shows! Honestly, I've never had a Christmas break that went so well. Here are my four personal goals that I would like achieve this year. 1. The first goal I want to achieve this year is applying to 4-5 colleges. This goal is important to me so that I can ensure that I will have the future that I've always wanted. In order to do this, I will start working on simple ...