Open Houses!

One fun thing about graduating high school is attending tons of open houses! I *only* went to about 10, saying only since most people go to a LOT more and I was surely invited to way more than that. But I dropped by a few of my close friends and really enjoyed the casual, fun atmosphere that inspired good conversation and really closed off high school.

A few of my favorite things about the open houses I attended:

1) Chocolate fountains!

I mean really...chocolate fountains are amazing things. :) My favorite is strawberries covered in chocolate, but I enjoyed the variety of things people had to offer (bananas, pineapple, pound cake).

But really, food in general in open houses is pretty good.

2) Attention to Detail

Take a fun picture of yourself with the polaroid camera and leave a note!

Most open houses take place in someone's home and have a wide array of hours where people can just drop in, say hi, and grab some food. People really go out of their way to make their open houses cute and fun looking though. Above is one of my friend's labels for her cheese! Lots of accomplishment tables and fancy slideshows and picture sequences are found in every house, which is always fun!

3) Good Weather :)

This isn't the most beautiful picture ever but...it's peaceful :)

Beginning of June is a beautiful time here and almost all the open houses I went to had some sort of outside aspect and it was so nice to sit in nice weather with childhood friends with fun food. Good weather just makes your mood so much brighter :)

4) Hearty Conversation

As I said in my previous post, graduation was a bittersweet time for me. Saying goodbye to people and places you've spent your whole life with can be difficult and sad. But spending time with people in these parties and talking about our future plans and other more random topics really created a smooth transition into summer in some weird way. I'm glad that sort of tradition exists because even if graduating High School isn't that big of a deal now, these parties are a fun way just to appreciate the time and experiences we had together. :)

I Graduated!!!

A few weeks ago actually. :) haha...but it was a very fun day as far as graduations go.

The morning started off pretty early. We didn't have classes on graduation day, but we did have to come to school around 9am (one hour after normal school day starts) for graduation practice. I was up much, much earlier than that to finish up some last minute things (finishing up my high school career in the way I did most of it ;) and opened my door early that morning to a very nice surprise...

A great way to wake up early on graduation day :)

"Behind the Scenes" picture my sister later sent

A few funny things about this:
1) Apparently, my sister had wanted to do this on my 18th birthday six months ago, but I was awake way too late that night for her to be able to do this sneakily. I went to sleep pretty early the night before graduation, so she quietly blew up all these balloons and did this! It is technically Pinterest inspired but she decided not to use a trash bag, and it was much nicer that way.
2) I'm a pretty sappy person and was not excited to graduate like every other person. I love my High School and all the experiences I've had during the 4 years, so I was basically tearing up all through graduation week. But opening the door to this fun surprise made me smile/chuckle, and that was nice. :)
3) My sister obviously has magical breath because these balloons are stilled blown up...3 weeks later.

After finishing up some stuff I actually first went to my former Intermediate school to visit my 6th grade teacher. It was an interesting experience, one because upon walking into her classroom it seemed like her day brightened up a lot to see an old, familiar face and that made my day. Then after talking to her for a little bit I dropped into another old teacher's room and all her 6th grade students were so awed at me because the teacher made a huge deal out of my rank and stuff and it was a weird moment because I remember sitting in those same desks in 6th grade thinking of graduation being soooo far away. It was like a weird mirror into the past, realizing all that lies ahead of these 6th graders and how far I'd come.

After that was graduation practice! We were escorted by police cars as we traveled in 12 buses to the place our graduation would take place. I was pretty convinced we would mess something up because no one seemed very serious at practice...haha. It was also moment I realized I don't mind not seeing some of those people ever again. :)

After practice we were dropped off at the High School, and I said goodbye to my dear HS for the last time. :'( It's weird that you spend hours upon hours in a place for years, and then all of a sudden it's the last time you'll ever be there.

Yeah I blacked out the school name... :)

Then my friends and I went out for lunch! :) I love Panera but I totally ordered the wrong type of salad...I meant to order Greek and got Caesar, which is basically just lettuce. Oops. (#FirstWorldProblems) Oh well, it was a very enjoyable lunch with a bunch of great friends.

BAD SALAD. But I still love my favorite Med Veggie :)

After lunch and some ice cream it was time to go home and get ready! In true Maria fashion I didn't leave when I should have and got stuck in some wonderful traffic. We're not in like LA where traffic is terrible everyday, but you should really leave early on graduation weekends when thousands of people are headed the same place you are. :p

Yay traffic. Hey it's my favorite building!

But my friend and I weren't actually that late because a lot of people were just hanging outside the check-in place with family. :)

Picture of the lines of graduates waiting for the ceremony to begin!

I actually really enjoyed our ceremony. I've been to all 4 graduations during my time in High School (my brother's and then 2 for this volunteering ambassador program) and I thought mine was the most entertaining, but that might have just been because it was my own. Everyone seemed to have so much personality on stage and we gave a standing ovation to a student who graduated that has down syndrome (I believe, not 100% sure) and that was a very sweet moment.  With over 600 students to hand diplomas to in less than 2 hours, it's notable when people make fun faces on stage or we take a moment to give a standing ovation to a deserving individual!

Before I went up

After I went up :)

Being artsy? haha 

I left near the end when the whole place was nearly empty and quiet and it was almost a weird foreshadowing (?) closing to High School...to see it go from super crowded/hundreds of people to completely empty, dead silent. Normally this is the very last school thing for graduates, but due to all the snow days we had, we had on more Senior event the following Monday where we got to see each other.

Last school event, Senior Breakfast!

And that was the end of my High School career. It really was an amazing time full of great people and opportunities, and created a strong base for wherever I go next. Now I have about two months until I head off to college and travel new paths. :)

Graduation Flowers from family :)

Exams, Estudiar, and Ends

These are kind of in a random order so sorry about that. But here's some random updates from the last 2 months :)

Studying studying studying and more studying for AP exams. This is an Econ practice exam I believe (supply/demand graph? haha) with my fun tricolor pencil

Drew fruit outlines for my nephew and discovered my drawing skills are pretty terrible :D

There is a canal walk about 30 minutes away from my house that is really nice to walk through. My parents and sister went on it a few weeks ago and also got this beautiful picture :) 

Filling out biodata for exams. This question is always funny because technically I know English waaaay better than Urdu (considering I fluently write, speak, read English whereas I can only fluently speak Urdu and reading/writing is like 2nd grade level) but occasionally still put this slightly false answer :p

The biggest event the Student Government at my high school does was in April. It's a Dance Marathon for our local Children's Hospital. This year we raised $23,900 which was cool...it's bittersweet to do something you've done for 4 years for the last time (although the college I'm going to raises million for the same cause through the same event, but I'm not sure if I'll be involved with it there).

One thing that really helped us raise $23,900 was a video that got national news attention and ended up raising about $4,000 alone. This is a shot from above when ABC News wanted to record us for their #AmericaStrong segment...very very cool.

We went on a Field Trip to an international market nearby called Jungle Jims. They had sugar cane! It was really cheap so I bought one green and one purple one...ironically the green one (which is the more common variant in Pakistan) was not as sweet as the purple one. Florida Sugar Cane is different I guess?

New phone! :) haha which may be why i have more random pictures from just the last 2 months alone :)

After AP Exams = how several classes will be now. (others find this the perfect time to bombard us with projects :/)

End of AP exam celebration! AP Exams are ~3 hour exams for AP classes. If you pass an AP exam, you can get college credit for that specific class which equals money and time saved. After 2 weeks and 7 exams, several of my friends and I went to Orange Leaf (Frozen Yogurt!) after school to celebrate. :) Only 2 weeks until graduation!

End of class = Maria completely lost in her phone. haha...

Pesto Cavatappi (spelling? haha) and Thai Curry Soup from Noodles and Company with my sister. :) This along with Qdoba and Panera are some of favorite places to eat out together. Fun stuff

Next time this type of post comes along it will probably be filled with COLLEGE COLLEGE COLLEGE. :) Only two weeks until High School graduation! It's a bittersweet time that is flying by...interested to see what the next several months bring. :)

Food, Fun, and Frostbite

School hosted a food drive early December that I helped organize/collect...fun to participate in community heartwarming events things like this. This is a pic from the last day from the winning teacher who brought like 1,000 food items on the last day alone. :)

A "Christmas tree" I made to decorate the display case with info regarding the Food Drive. Pretty decent for not having a clue about Christmas Trees, right? :p

Got accepted to my fav college :) :) :) They sent the acceptance letter sealed with a WAX SEAL. Obviously I'm a bit easily impressed but......it's soo cool! Now it's just a matter of getting scholarship money so I can *hopefully* go there!

PUPPY CHOW/MUDDY BUDDIES ARE SO GOOD. For those who don't know, it's Chex cereal covered in a chocolate/peanut butter mix and then rolled in powdered sugar. SO. GOOD. finally made some! :)

Birthday was in December...legal adult now! That's kindda crazy because the tagline of my blog for so long was "Pakistani American Teenager" and I'm not quite sure if I'm still a "teenager" now. Does that end at 18 or 20? Anyhow, i find it cute that Google "makes" a Google Doodle for you on your birthday if you're logged in

Part of the college process is scholarship apps! One of the scholarships I found was design a greeting card, so I thought of doing a henna-y Christmas Tree. Sister said one on left is better...gonna add some color and submit it soon :)

Sometimes you get bored and spell your nephew's name out of his kid lego things. :) (I've been trying to teach him to spell/recognize his name for like 2 weeks and it's...a slow process. haha)

My sad snowmen friend :p all my friends were busy so I went sledding ALONE (I know, sad life :p) and made myself a friend...hehe. The snow wasn't as packed this day so that's why it's so...oddly shaped. You can vaguely see the sledding pathways in the background

This is a google automatic GIF affect, but we did get 12+ inches of snow this week! School was cancelled for the whole week (roads just were not clean at all ALL week) so that was nice/made me appreciate school. :p It was so cold earlier this week that they said being outside for 10 minutes would get you Frostbite, so that was a little scary. 

:) Back to school after an extended winter break Monday! Last semester of grade school :'(

Thoughts

Living very far away from family, deaths in the family did not affect me greatly throughout my childhood. But recently, after my grandmother passed away (who still wasn't extremely close to me, considering I only saw her for weeks at a time several years apart), I started to think a lot about death and scope of human lives. Maybe it was just being older, but the idea of a human no longer being able to think, make decisions, and merely move was very mind-blowing for me. Of course, I've known what death is my whole life. But well...some background info. In Pakistan (and probably nearby countries) instead of having a "viewing" at church people almost always bring the deceased person back to home for a viewing. (This might be slightly off since I've never been to an American or Pakistani funeral, but this is what I'm conjecturing) So to imagine my grandma who was just recently walking around and talking to us on the phone at her home to come back as a lifeless individual is very...unsettling. There isn't a lot that separates me, you, or anyone else from her- our organs and skin and blood is basically identical. But in minutes we can go from this goal-aspiring, life-planning individual to a lifeless corpse. It gives a major perspective, especially for religious individuals, on the purpose of life and the fragility of humans my life and how sometimes we I get so caught up in future planning dreams (especially with university just around the corner) it's easy to overlook things that should be happening every day (on a religious aspect) that are a lot more important than materialistic aspirations.  

Just some thoughts. 

"Best Tag Ever"

Hey-lo! :) The past month-ish has been basically school, college/scholarship applications, nephews, aaand recently watching YouTube vloggers (video bloggers- quite fun actually). So I was watching some random other vlogger who did this "Best Tag Ever" and it was quite entertaining so I thought I'd blog it and break all the rules because....yeah. :)

(warning: it's kindda a wacky crazy what-why-is-it-asking tag)

3...2...1...go!

• Favorite toe?
• ooh this is easy. I have an extra toe (no really, I do). As far as I know it's like heredity-genetically traced thing because my aunts/grandma had like a lower 4th toe and so I guess it just mutated the mutation for me and just got an extra toe. but yeah, surely my favorite one. no offense other toes 
• Innie or outtie?
• I thinkkk this refers to like belly buttons which is innie (random) but if I wanted to like skew this in theory I like being outside and breathing fresh air and all that loveliness but I think in reality I don't do a lot of that. Mainly since in a live in a small town, it's cold 1/2 the year, my school is one building, and we drive everywhere (literally). So let's go LIFE CHANGE a year from now when i will be walking to all my classes blocks away in college (aka university people out of USA). I should get a new coat by then.
• Third favorite flavor?
• uhhhhhh so I like chocolate, watermelon, and....and....and... uh... let me answer the other questions and get back to this one.
• Favorite tree?
• APPLE TREES. just kidding that's more like "what's the first type of tree that pops in your head?". So in our district all the elementary schools are tree names (i don't really know...) and I remember liking evergreens when I was in elementary school because my school was an evergreen tree name. But NOW I like any tree that changes colors in the fall because it's BEAUTIFULLLLLL. Random side story, the drive to my 'dream' college is full of trees and it's beautiful in the summer/fall so yay more reasons to like it

  

  exhibit A :)

• Which eyebrow do you prefer?
• creativity running out.....now. Let's go with right because right > left, right? :)
• Toilet paper or hand?
• So the video I watched who did this tag did this like interesting perception of this of like...doing everything in your daily life? Hand of course. Sorry for the weird questions :p
• What was your first impression of yourself?
• WHEN DOES SHE STOP TALKING? haha (I think every year the speed and quantity of my talking decreases at a constant rate, so this is first impression ONLY. and if this is true, will I stop talking at like age 100? no.)
• How many?
• Three. Three family members eating food right now (actually my brother is drinking coffee). Three screens in front of my face right now (TV some random Hum drama, computadora, and ipod-y). Three programs open (see picture below. I don't know why OneNote is open on a NO SCHOOL DAY [woot!] so let me go close that now). Three cushions in our couches (where did the rest of them go?!).

• Death or not?
• So like I despise bugs...okay not really but they creep me out a lot and I cannot stand them and I know they can't really harm me at all but I am like a true teenager when it comes to bugs. But I also cannot kill them 97.65% of them time (YAY SIBLINGS TO THE RESCUE). there was like a period of like 8ish months where all my siblings were not constantly here and my parents were like "grow up" so I had to fend for myself with bugs. Which I still do really but occasionally my sister will kill spiders for me because <3
• Which person have you not met?
• Our new neighbor, who seems really nice so far! The house to the left of my house has had like 8 different people live in it in the 11 years we've been there (in contrast, house on the right, only one super-nice-awesome family). So interested to see who these people are!
• Salad?
• YES. Panera Greek Salad. Homemade cut-up salad with tomatoes croutons cucumbers and carrots. But for a while those packaged salad things were creepy because there was a news report about a frog inside one lady's package and that's gross but I mean...you can't stop life over crazy news stories, right?
• Name all six presidents?
• Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams! This is perfect because last year I took a US history class that has an end of the year national exam (out of US people, this isn't normal practice in US. But you can take these "Advanced Placement" aka AP classes that have exams in May that millions worldwide/nationally take and it's supposed to be college level and yada yada) so our teacher told us we should probably know all the US presidents in order and time period and so I TRIED, I really did TRY and I tried to memorize this song  and was only able to get the first six down. I mean, I know plenty of others, but this was the only part of the song i got down. 
• Which color do you prefer? Black or white?
• White Iphone. That i really want. I think I've been saying this since the iphone 4 came out and I should just like really make some sort of actual movement towards buying one before college at least
• How many haters?
• 2.135. Haha this is why this is a famous-youtube-vloggers-tag and not random-weird-teenager-unknown-person-tag. :p
• Scale from 1 to 10 where are you?
• like a 7.56. I realized that I made a to-do list yesterday night of all the things I wanted to accomplish today and I don't think I accomplished a single one of those things so.......fail. But i'm not too sad because I still have 1.5 hours until this day ends so maybe I'll accomplish something before sleeping! :D

Hope this was relatively comprehensible. I always say, no school vacations = brain doesn't function. (which is why i plan to be in school for a very, very long time :p).  

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrate, Happy Black Friday and Happy Small Business Saturday and Happy Sunday and Happy Cyber Monday and Happy Tuesday! :) 

-Mahreeyah

Life in Pictures (and captions)

Studying motivation! Which epically failed since i started sending emails instead of reading....

Weekend omelete with onions, tomatoes, dhanya (coriander), and tons of spices! This type of peaceful, yummy breakfast and some Pakistani drama mornings are things I'd probably miss in college a bit :)

Kind of a big thing right now-- applying for colleges! Getting constant email and postcards (and sometimes really fancy booklets) and I really need to apply for scholarships this next week! This was my first acceptance too :) (Well, I only applied two places, but it's still exciting to get accepted to a school, even if the whole world is getting accepted there :p)

In the school parking lot with a beeeautiful sky :) Little things 

Studying Econ with my great-great relatives (not really :p) on KhanAcademy and eating my current favorite snack-- Cocoa Puffs!

I've done 2 mehendi/henna fundraisers in the past through months. These type of designs (or love within the infinity sign) are always SUPER popular. Maybe I should do a post in the future with all the random designs we had. (oh yeah, we were totally doodling on napkins :p haha)

Eid ul-Fitr mehendi! I have started a new "tradition" of doing my henna like the DAY of Eid instead of the day before...haha we'll see where college leaves mehendi doing

Ramadan calendar! We always get mailed these iftaari calendars from the local mosque/masjid, and I always highlight each day when it's over (so it's easier to read). The past few years I've started making a color pattern and making it all pretty!

New school year binders! (yeah these pictures are in no particular order) I'm all about color-coordinating. But that teal and green get confusing sometimes...

At my list high school Homecoming game, I may or may not have spent $11 on Dippin' Dots :p haha but these things are sooo good! :) We won the game and it was a fun time with friends. One of the many "lasts" of this year 

:)