Kayla's Corner

I find it funny how certain names have different connotations. On Tiktok there have been multiple trends revolving around different names. They've included:  girl names to stay away from, guy names to stay away from, mom names who are the strictest, along with many more. Honestly, most of the time they're true. I don't know if people with certain names just live up to the stigma surrounding their names or if it's just a coincidence, but I know first hand that guys with J names are bad news, Emilys are stuck up, and some of the strictest moms have the name Cindy, Susan, or Lisa. (my mom's name is Susan so I can attest to that). My name never comes up on any of the lists which I'm kind of happy about because it means my name isn't super common (even though there are like five Kaylas at Troy High) and I don't have any connotation connected to my name. I've always liked my name. Growing up, my sister always wanted to change hers, but I always felt that m...

For so long, I thought I had this great plan for my life after high school, go to the University of Michigan and then become a dermatologist. Anytime someone would ask me where I wanted to go to college or what I wanted to be I would recite that back to them. However, now as college is only a few months away I realize I don't actually know what I want to do with my life. Michigan is out of the equation not only because I was deferred, but also because I can't pay that much for my undergraduate if im going to grad school too. I'm stuck going to Oakland or Wayne, and because of that the first part of my plan that I had since elementary school had to be thrown out. With the first step of my plan gone, it got me thinking about the rest of it. Do I even want to be a dermatologist anymore? I started looking into the airforce because I've always wanted to fly a plane, but it's an eight-year commitment which is way too long. Also, I would probably end up with a spouse in th...

I try to not be bothered by much and to let most things slide, but recently I've had trouble ignoring those who are hypocrites. I just don't understand why one minute people are preaching about something they don't like or find irritating and then the next minute they are doing that exact thing. I find that with covid people have turned into the biggest hypocrites. Over the summer my friend's mother would not let her daughter go in anyone's house, but then she would go to bookclub and wine nights with her friends in their homes. Just recently my friend had a birthday party with a few friends and the same mother called and told the mother that it was so unsafe for her to have people indoors for the birthday even though she allows her daughter to attend Waterpolo practices where there are no masks or social distancing. Some people need to understand that you have to practice what you preach. This is not just an issue with my friend's parents, it's politicians ...

Back in I think eight grade my teacher would play Sarah Kay poems and we would watch her Ted Talks. I had never heard spoken word poetry before, and I really enjoyed watching the videos because you could hear and see the emotion in the poems. Her name stuck with me until now, and when we were told to pick a mentor poet, her name was the first to pop into my head. This poem, Hands , was the first one we watched back in eight grade so I remembered it the best. I always liked how she told a story about her life through her poems and then connected it to something else to show a deeper meaning. In this poem, she shares about how her and her Dad had a game of holding hands, and about the many things people use their hands for like writing and playing sports. However, she also shows the other side of hands and how they can be used for bad things that they were never meant to be used for when she discusses the Middle East and politics. My favorite part of the poem is when she discusses how ev...

 When I first started my BBC book, I had no idea what it was about. I didn't even read the quick summary on it that we were supposed to. I picked Middlesex to read only because my friends in the class put it as their first choice. I had no idea what I was getting into when I opened the book and started reading for the first time. I guess I couldn't expect much cause I didn't even have the slightest notion of what it was about. I don't think I've ever read a novel with the level of detail and plot that Middlesex has. I'm still not convinced that the book is not based on a true story, and for that I applaud the author. Having just finished the whole 544 pages, I can confidently say I've never read a book quite like Middlesex . For a good third of the book, I thought a character had died and I just managed to miss the section where it actually said it. However, the character never actually died and was alive the whole time. They were just not talked about for...

For some reason, I couldn't get past the meaning of the word. I tried to look up the most beautiful sounding words in the English language, but if the word had a bad meaning I couldn't see the beauty in the pronunciation of it. The example given in class was Gonorrhea. If I didn't know the meaning then maybe I would see how nicely it sounds, but the definition of the word ruins it for me. This is why I had to choose a word with a somewhat okay definition.  The word that I find most beautiful, at least out of the list of the 500 most beautiful words in the English language, is Effervescence with an honorable mention going to Silhouette. I don't know what it is exactly about these words that like. I recently read effervescence in a book. I remember having to read over it multiple times because at first I pronounced it wrong. That is probably why it stuck out to me on the list. Silhouette on the other hand, I'm not really sure why it caught my eye. One possible reason ...

Last week, I finally got to go back to school, after five months stuck behind a screen. There were pros to being online, like sleeping in later and getting up to make myself breakfast on the breaks. However, in the end I was miserable. I couldn't get the social interaction that I desperately needed when I was online. Coming back to school last week was refreshing. I was able to talk to my teachers and actually pay attention during class. Unfortunately, when I was just getting used to the in person routine someone on my cheer team got Covid. Now I have to stay home and sit behind a computer for five hours a day once again. I cant go to school, cheer, or water polo. I don't even have it, but those are the guidelines in place. I don't really understand it all. We wear masks and social distance at practice, so why do I need to stay home? I know they are trying to keep everyone safe incase I actually got Covid from a spit particle that traveled through my teammates mask, flew si...