Yolo?

You know how in high school, everyone goes through some phases? At least on some level...

There's a period of bliss, (freshman year) where you've made it to high school and classes are fun and friendships are simple and easy and everyone loves everyone. This one is nice. Everyone is innocent, and discovering the newfound independence of being labeled a high schooler. Everything is new and exciting because you're doing it as a high schooler. Going bowling is cool. Dates are still awkward. But you're in high school. So they're legit.

Then there's an era filled with drama and friendship fallouts and absolute disasters (sophomore year). Spring break tears apart your primary friendship, and all your other friends get awkward, and you have an identity crisis and worry that you'll spend the rest of your high school career floating between social groups, drifting, without friends, and with no weekend plans forever. This phase passes.

The next phase, (junior year) so far, is kind of like the first. You have to recover from the wreckage of the drama, but when the smoke clears, the friends remaining are the most bomb ass friends you could ever picture yourself having, and you have grown into a more tolerant, mature person that resolves the same issues as the previous phase, but with a text message, a short talk, or letting each other cool off, instead of yelling and crying. 

(I'm not really sure what senior year will be like as a "phase," but junior year has been the most mature and nice of the three so far.) 

Everyone is busy and we all coexist nicely. We tick each other off sometimes, but we have separate interests and issues and we spend a lot more time helping each other out. We're becoming individuals, and junior year becomes a time for discovering ourselves. I guess senior year is the decision making year. (pick a school / major / career pathway) It's interesting to see each other grow and change and truly become young adults. 

My advice to anyone entering that fateful sophomore year is that it will be okay. The friends we make in high school aren't necessarily the friends we have in college. They could be, but nothing is forever, and that dumb fight over one person texting another person's crush, is actually trivial nonsense. Almost a year has gone by since that painful spring break trip, and any time someone brings up the Disney orchestra trip of spring, 2015, there's always a cause for laughter. Remember when everyone was sunburnt and we spent $15 on a tube of aloe vera for our hotel room? Remember when we gave each other the silent treatment on the 18 hour bus ride home? When we cried in the hotel hallway and thought we had made up our friendship but continued fighting? So glad that's behind us...

And it is. I know there's plenty of junior year still ahead of us, but here's to senior year. Junior year has been so awesome, and I've grown so much. Senior year is going to be full of wonderful lasts, and a lot of terrifying firsts, and I couldn't be more unprepared.

Yolo? (if that's still a hip thing that the kids say)

Claire

New Hampshire Primaries

Well, Iowa is no longer in the political spotlight. The New Hampshire primaries are approaching, and I'm personally rooting for Marco Rubio to make a comeback on the Republican side and bump Donald Trump down one place, but where Republican support lies is a total crapshoot. Polls have shown that Trump is trending in New Hampshire, but the candidates are all so spontaneous and unpredictable, and their voters are just as unpredictable. I'm excited to see what happens.

On the Democrats' side, Bernie Sanders will probably win. And based on the rumors I've heard from a few of my more liberal peers, Bernie Sanders will win by a lot. Lots of liberal supporters out east...  We'll see what happens, I guess!!

Anyway, I'm just really excited. We'll see how it goes, I'm tuning in via the new snapchat filters that you can refresh to show the latest polls. It's exciting to follow the heated political stuff that's happening this year, because I can truly understand a lot of what is going on and I feel educated enough to form some opinions of my own.

Get informed and vote this election season guys!
Claire

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Iowa Caucuses Part 3

(read my last post before this one, it's kind of the second half of a weird adventure.)

My mom says I'm still totally welcome at the democratic caucus if I want to observe. We're almost home, but dad makes a u-turn and takes me to Viola Gibson to watch the Democratic caucus. 

I arrive in the cafeteria just as they have determined that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are viable, but those supporting Martin O'Malley will not be viable. The people running the caucus announce a short break for each side to try to sway those siding with O'Malley, and the three or four people standing in the O'Malley corner disperse to join Hillary and Bernie's sides. The cafeteria is filled with a dull rumble of chatter between supporters, and after about 10 minutes, it gets quiet and no one is changing sides. 

The guy with the microphone asks for one person from each candidate to count heads and report numbers and they will total the votes and make sure there aren't any counting errors. It's so peaceful and organized, and as I watch them count heads, I pick out nearly a dozen familiar faces just from my school, seniors, young voters. I saw some neighbors caucusing for Hillary. It was refreshing to see democracy in action, and comforting to see people I knew after having been surrounded by 3000+ complete strangers downtown at the republican caucus. 

The democrats were done in less than an hour total. The guy pulls out a calculator, and the sides add up to the original total of voters present. 
"Okay folks, that's it. Thank you for coming and participating." Everyone stands up and shuffles out of the cafeteria. My mom and I make it home by 8:00.

So, that was my caucus experience. In a way, I got to see a little bit of both sides of the Iowa caucuses, and I definitely preferred the relaxed democrats. Yet, when casting a secret ballot at a republican caucus, no one tries to sway you to change your position, and your vote goes to your candidate. The results from a republican caucus are probably more accurate for that reason. 

I was mostly just excited to take part in the process and observe. I'm proud of my state. We're the first to determine the front runners in the presidential election, and I felt special for living here. Go Iowa. Corn and caucuses. And good people.

It's still quite early in the voting season, and I am excited to see who is elected in the fall. If there's one valuable takeaway from the Iowa caucuses of 2016, at least Trump didn't win.
(He came in second in the republican caucuses.)

Happy voting season, Iowa. You shined this week.
Claire
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Iowa Caucuses Part 2

So I went. My dad and I went downtown to the Double Tree hotel to weave through a crowded lobby and find the voter registration table to he could become a republican and cast his secret ballot for whichever Republican candidate he wanted to support. I just knew it wasn't Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. He wouldn't tell me. We got there an hour before the caucus began so we had plenty of time to find seats and sign in and stuff. Two guys tell us that he can fill out the registration form at his chair and someone will collect it and bring him a ballot. 

Easy. Nice. We sit down. I'm reading. And then at 6:45, with 15 minutes until the caucus starts, someone walks up to the microphone and announces that you have to go to a table for your precinct to sign in and get a ballot. We had been misled by two different people and had sat quietly for half and hour, along with about 500 other people, who also stand up and make a beeline for the door from the conference hall back to the hallway. 500 people to fight through just for a ballot. My dad hadn't eaten dinner and he had seen so many posters for candidates other than his that he gave up, right then and there. 

"We're going home. I know I'm not being a great parent right now, but I'm hungry and I'm tired and at this rate we won't get out of here until 11 pm. Come on, you've got homework. Let's go." I was disappointed to say the least. We shuffle out of the grand hotel, past Ted Cruz, chatting with starry-eyed voters.

Now don't get me wrong. For all the people voting for the popular republican candidates, that must have been a very exciting night. Ted Cruz was there! Wow!

But when you don't idolize the people being supported, it's not fun. My dad was really upset by the lack of organization. On the way home, we are listening to the radio. People across the state were calling in to echo my dad's concerns. There was a HUGE turnout for the Iowa caucuses this year, and I'm not old enough to participate. And of course I didn't get to even go observe the process on either side. This is history being made, and I missed it because my dad was hungry. We're almost home when mom finally texts back. She's at Viola Gibson Elementary for the democratic caucus.

Maybe there's still time...
Claire
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