One Final Post

    So here we are, one final post left. This will be the last piece of writing of my high school career, so I am pretty excited. It's getting pretty late as I begin to write this, but I want to finish. It's not that I'm in a hurry and I just want to rush and get it over with, but I want to have a clean slate for my last day of high school. No outstanding assignments and nothing weighing on my mind.

     Tonight I attended the senior awards night. Luckily it was not as long as I thought it would be. I was very surprised that Mr. Bakr and everybody else were able to maintain the brisk pace. Although there were many awards to be given out, most of the speeches and introductions were relatively fast. I was fortunate to receive an award, but I couldn't help noticing that many of the awards had vague and broad criteria. For example, there definitely was not one person in the entire school that demonstrated character or what not. I guess what I'm trying to say is that senior awards are nice, but they certainly aren't all that.

     All in all, I'm really excited about leaving Reading Memorial High School. Don't get me wrong, I've had a great time. I don’t have any deeply rooted hatred against the school or anything like that. But I am definitely ready for the next part of my life.

The Office

     Earlier today I finished watching The Office. For eight long years from 2005 to 2013, the American comedy TV series was a classic hit. I was able to watch all 9 seasons, 201 episodes in the past 3 weeks. I had never binged watched a show before, but I've had a decent amount of time these past weeks and I figured why not. I don't really know why I chose The Office;  but after finishing of the series, I am very glad that I did. For years I have heard people talking about the show, and how hilarious it is. My expectations were high, but even they were blown out of the water. Every character was incredible comical in their own unique way and there were endless one liners and funny moments.

     But what amazed me the most was how genuinely real the show itself felt. Sure the writing and the characters were amazing, but it all came off so natural and effortless. Of course, looking back on it, that really is the whole idea of this show in the first place. Just your average, everyday business office with average, everyday people. But what the show really proved is another essential truth; all of those ordinary people, in their own unique way, are special.

     The last few episodes, and especially the finale, were really fantastic. With many shows, the grand finales don't live up to the expectations. Any show that has been on for 9 years is no doubt, hard to end. But The Office did a really great job and reminded us how much we really cared about all these people. As the whole show is the filming of a documentary, the finale was set a year after the documentary had aired as sort of a "where are they now" type of thing. The timing also coincided with the wedding of two of the characters which gave all the characters from the show an opportunity to get back together. The finale definitely had an emotional nostalgia feel as characters who had been missing for seasons made heartwarming returns.  Even I will admit that I was feeling a little sad as the characters said their final goodbyes and parted ways. Which is crazy because I have only known them for a couple of weeks! I can only imagine how emotion that finale would have been if I had invested 9 years of my life in that show.

     The finale ended in dramatic fashion with one of the characters addressing the central theme of the show itself. As everyone starts to get up and leave the office, Pam says "There is a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?". Yes. Yes it is.

Leicester City and the Impossible Dream

     Although many people on this side of the pond don't know it, this week the world witnessed one of the greatest sporting feats in the history of sports. I know what you're thinking: that's an exaggeration. IT'S NOT. Earlier this week Leicester City Football Club clinched the Premier League.

     Everybody loves an underdog story. This is the underdog story of all underdog stories. This time last year, Leicester City were bottom of the league and nearly a sure bet for relegation. (In European Soccer, the bottom three teams from the top league get relegated to the second division. Top three teams from the second division get promoted up). Everybody wrote Leicester off. They had dug themselves too deep and it was too late in the season to save themselves. Miraculously, they avoided relegation by winning 7 of their last 9 games!

     Despite staying in the Premier League, pundits had little to no confidence in Leicester at the beginning of this season. They were one of the favorites to be relegated again, and it was widely thought that their new manager, Claudio Ranieri, would be the first to be sacked. The foxes stood up to the critics and started of the season at a blistering pace. They played quick and exciting counter-attacking football which saw them hold their place at the top of the table through the first month of the season. It is not uncommon for a surprise team to get off to a good start, but it never lasts. At some point they begin to fall off as teams figure them out. So why should Leicester City be any different? It seemed every week, the media would say "this is the week Leicester will fall". But they never did.

     Even a few weeks ago, some people still doubted that Leicester had what it took to see it out till the end. Finally on Monday, when the second place team could not mathematically catch them, there was nothing in Leicester's way to make history.

     As it is with every other aspect of life, money, unfortunately, runs football. The biggest difference when you compare European football to American sports, is the immense gap between the top and bottom teams. Top Premier League team such as Manchester United and Arsenal have net worths of $1.6 - $2 BILLION. That's more than 10 times the value of Leicester. The top clubs have the money, which should buy them the best players, which should win them the titles. And in European football, that is usually what happens. That is what makes Leicester's incredible run even more improbable.

    There is no reason this should happen. At the beginning of the season, the book makers had Leicester at 5000-1 odds to win the league. 5000-1 is essentially impossible; to give you some context, the odds of Kim Kardashian running for president in 2020 are 2000-1! So in addition to making some loyal Leicester fans very rich this year, LCFC reminded all of us what football really means. Especially now, the footballing world so often gets lost in transfer fees, merchandising deals, and money laundering scandals. Leicester reminded us that team work, dedication, and passion can still trump all those superficial aspects of the beautiful game.   

Assassin

     This week saw the start of Senior Assassin at Reading Memorial High School. I was very happy when I heard we would be playing it this year. I have heard countless exciting stories from my older cousins who had played it in their towns in the past. Basically how it works is everyone playing is assigned a target that they must "assassinate" with water. Any assassinated player is out, and their target is assigned to the person that shot them. Eventually our pool of 191 players will be whittled down to two. In the end, there should be one winner. So after four days of intense competition, here are some observations.

     First, I have realized this week that being a stalker in the 21st century is unsettlingly easy. All it took was a few Google searches and I had my target's address. Now stick the address in street view and you have a pretty solid idea of what the target's house and neighborhood looks like. You can even pick out the bushes that might be good to hide in. As you're reading this, you're probably having the same feelings I was having while I was doing it: this is not ok. Don't worry, I know. But this is really the only time in our my life where being a stalker won't be incredibly illegal, so I might as well embrace it!

     The other funny thing I've noticed is the increased level of paranoia around the game. While some people claim to have made "alliances", we all know it's every man for himself. Everybody is incredibly suspicious and very hesitant to trust anything anybody says. I feel like this game has a strange way of bringing the class together as a whole, while at the same time, destroying friend groups. The past few mornings I have run from my house to my car with water gun in hand. Every time I hear a noise outside I immediately stop whatever I am doing and check it out. It's certainly deafcon 1 around my house and it will be interesting to see how the game progresses.