#yuko usui

[pawprintsweekly]

By YUKO USUI | STAFF WRITER

I currently have a nearly endless list consisting of all the changes I want to make in my lifestyle, including those of fashion, attitude and even diet. These goals motivate me to drag myself to class every morning, and since I’m in my third year of high school, I’m finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  

Sometimes, in the midst of my daydreaming I lose sight of the whole year I have ahead of me. As if that isn’t disheartening enough already, I’ve been counting down the days until this treacherous year is over.

Also, it’s true what they say about junior year. It’s a year of H-E-double hockey sticks. The stress of keeping up my grades in my AP classes and doing well on the corresponding tests, the anticipation of achieving satisfactory scores on the SAT, and not to mention the importance of internships and volunteer work (both of which I still have yet to do), all topped off with extra-curriculars are the sources of all of my sleepless nights.

My lack of preparations for these aggravating forms of student enslavement are weighing me down internally. The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to dim, and I’m starting to lose sight of who I really am and what I am doing. 

My personality is starting to resemble that of a hermit and my resistance towards change is growing stronger as I am getting more and more comfortable in the boring, sheltered routine that is my life. Wake up. Go to school. Go home. Do homework. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.  I see less of the world everyday and I haven’t moved a step towards improvement. Through this infinite loop, I am starting to question myself. Can I move on and break out of my shell? Is there hope for me to renovate my future so I can successfully change my identity and move on from my adolescent past?

The “support” from my friends, parents and teachers are all starting to only turn into pressure, and my future is fogging up. I don’t know what I want to do in my life anymore. My attempt to start anew to lead a more exciting life seems to be plummeting into failure, and when I look around I fear that all of my peers are maturing and escalating into success, while I am left behind in the dust of disappointment. 

[pawprintsweekly]

GRAPHIC/STEPHANIE MA

By YUKO USUI | STAFF WRITER

   Many people often say that laughter is the best medicine, but how much truth lies behind these five words?

   I personally believe that joke-telling must be told with full respect toward the joke itself; each word in the antic is essential. If you’re not going to mean it, why say it?

   Just like an empty apology, an empty joke without proper sentiment behind the voice is dead, lifeless. Laughing at such a pathetic outburst of meaninglessness is just as pathetic as listening to it.

    In my years of obsessing over “lame” jokes, mainly puns, I have acquired many strange looks and reactions that break my heart. Most people’s first impulse upon hearing my puns is laughter, yet they follow the millisecond of satisfaction with a crude comment or two.

   I do not understand why the haters cannot express their true feelings of happiness upon hearing the beauty of my simple-minded humor. They snort, after all, so it would only make sense for them to carry through with their feelings and express it whole-heartedly without any shame!

   Compared to all the tasteless, highly inappropriate jokes that seem popular in today’s society, I think my puns are beautiful.

   Puns are so wonderful; they have multiple meanings and are so magnificently thought out. I am one of the few people I know who can think of puns on the spot in any situations, and I take pride in my “dumb” humor.

   There aren’t many circumstances in which one can say something witty to break the ice on the spot, especially one that can mean so much more than what meets the EARS.  

   I nurture my puns and think of them like my own un-born children, and I honestly take pride in them so greatly that I have cried on numerous occasions after hearing them, both from laughter and from the pure beauty of the art.

   Puns have played such a big role in my life to the point where I am thinking about them nonstop, regardless of whether I’m doing my homework, marching from set-to-set in band rehearsals, watching television, or even when I’m about to sleep.

   When met with nothing to do, I typically look up new jokes and laugh tirelessly for hours on end, while other teens pour their hearts and souls into pitiful statuses on social media sites and aimlessly look up pictures of happy teenage couples holding hands.

   My life has more meaning, if you ask me.