Postmodern Eyes

When it comes to my swimsuits, I get super picky. I like comfortable swimsuits that are just one color, not a design. I've been swimming for over ten years and I feel as if I've come to a few realizations about what swimsuit brands are better than others. 1. Jolyns. Jolyn is a pretty expensive brand but you definitely get the bang out of your buck. I've had a jolyn for over three years and it has not faded or stretched out! They also have a wide variety of styles. For instance, they have different styles of the back end of your suit, the straps, the colors, and the design. While most brands don't have any variations of styles, Jolyn is the queen of cool, fun, and comfortable suits. Jolyn also sells really cute stickers, spandex, leggings, and sport bras.  2. Arena. Arena is another expensive brand but like Jolyn, they last forever, the color doesn't fade, and they're comfortable. They're about the same price as Jolyn's but it ranks under Jolyn bec...

Taper: single word capable of extreme happiness and excitement. Taper is something a swimmer dreams of. It's the point in the season where it's okay to goof off a little during practice and talk a lot to teammates with the excitement build up of an important meet. Characterized with a lot of start and turn work, it's physically easy but can be mentally challenging. For me, taper sucks. Physically, it's supposed to be easy. But no matter how slow I go during warm up or rest that day, I never feel too good in the water. I'm guessing that's because my muscles are taking their coveted chance to finally fully recover and regain strength/energy but it has it's negative side effects. While it might not be a big deal that I'm not going fast in the pool, it takes a toll on your mentality. It sucks to swim slow but it sucks even more to be swimming slower than you usually do even if you are "resting". As much as I tell myself not to care about my tim...

This is a short list of my favorite snacks: 1. Apples and peanut butter. This one is an all time favorite especially in the fall and winter seasons. My favorite apple is honeycrisp which tastes even better when thinly sliced and cold. I'm fairly lax about the type of peanut butter I eat but it's mostly been either Trader Joe's roasted peanut butter or Jif natural peanut butter. Although CU does not have a Trader Joe's, my mom always stocks up and buys 5 or 6 jars when we go to TJ. Out of all the peanut butter brands I've tried, the Trader Joe's one always tastes like real peanuts and is very smooth, perfectly dippable for apples. 2. Greek yogurt with fruit, granola, and honey. I'm aware this one is a staple in most households and isn't too surprising to appear on this list, but I've recently gotten very into it. I really enjoy greek yogurt by this brand that looks very Greek (I can't remember the name) mostly because it doesn't taste chal...

When you walk down the hallways of Uni, you tend to notice that a lot of the lockers have bright and colorful posters on them. If you look closer, you can see the posters have inspirational quotes or memes for whatever sport that person is in. To me, those posters are what makes being on a high school team feel like an actual team. It's weird to say that getting posters from someone you don't know makes your team feel like an actual team but I have my reasons. Before joining the swim team, I didn't know much about "having a team" or "team chemistry". I swam (and still do) with Heat and I love the people on it but it doesn't feel like a team. I train by myself a lot and travel to meets by myself usually without a coach. Going to a meet alone doesn't sound too awful until you get there and you're surrounded by teams who wear the same jacket, have coaches, cheer for each other, and get super excited when their teammates do well. I just didn...

Yesterday at practice, my team sang happy birthday to me for my unbirthday. However, the song they sang came with a twist. They sang "Nutella" over and over again to the tune of happy birthday. It was then and there that I realized I have an addiction. I am an avid consumer of Nutella. Ever since I can remember, I'd always spread Nutella on bread, bagels, muffins, cookies, bananas, apples, etc. This one time I put it on pie. Pie and Nutella do not mix, but I did it anyway and it even made the pie taste better. I never thought of my addiction to Nutella to be a negative thing. Yes, I consume 3x the normal amount a person eats in their entire lifetime but is that a bad thing? I will admit Nutella isn't a healthy spread, or even close to being healthy. This one time I got into Justin's Hazelnut Spread, which kind of tastes like Nutella but is much better for you. After a few weeks of eating the same jar (few weeks of the SAME jar, what? I'm ashamed of myself)...

During the summer, I was dreading to begin senior year. The thought of stepping foot inside Uni made me cringe, trying to brace myself for the oncoming stress of school, social life, sleep, and swimming. Now that I'm decently into senior year, I can assure you that I'm somewhat trying to cherish my last year with my friends and team. But recently, just like Kylie Jenner said once, I started to realize stuff that I didn't before. To start off, I can't believe I'll be done with high school. It's so crazy that I'm already a senior when it felt like only yesterday that I was starting subbie year. The first day of senior year was such a weird day. I had practice in the morning like usual, but only this time my mom got up before me to wish me luck on my last day and give me an extra hug. I remember standing there hugging her back thinking "This is kinda weird mom stop getting so emotional.". Now it's five/six weeks into school and I'm the one a...

A lot of people think my sister Gabi and I are the same. They say we have the same looks, the same expressions, the same reactions, and basically everything the same. Nothing gets more on our nerves than getting mixed up, especially when our parents do it. A very small part of me understands why people get us mixed up. We look about the same height and we both swam, hence the broad shoulders and somewhat muscular bodies. But other than that, I cannot nor do not understand why people mix us up. I agree that we have our similarities but those similarities aren't obvious to people who don't know us that well. We look absolutely nothing alike. I have my father's nose while Gabi has my mother's nose. She also has a nose ring, whereas I would probably never get a nose ring. Her eyes are smaller and her face more square like. Mine are big and I have a long face characterized with a large nose. She also has very nice teeth that I'm super jealous of. I never had braces w...

I don't know why I like swimming. I really don't. Swimming seriously sucks. You can't breathe when you want to (wtf is up with that), it's way too much cardio, you have to wake up way too early, your hair is always wet and damaged, you're constantly hungry, you're exhausted 99% of the time, everything smells like chlorine, you fall asleep during dinner (true story), you have to buy SO much lotion, the water usually tastes gross, it's SO EXPENSIVE, it's SO TIME CONSUMING, dryland/weights are so hard, and the list goes on. There's so many complaints and reasons of why not to do it, I could probably convince Michael Phelps to quit during his prime. But when people ask me why I do it, I go completely blank. Why do I do it? There's always a point in your workout or practice where you just stop trying as hard as you did on the last effort. Maybe because you're just too tired or out of breath to go equally hard on the next one. But that moment, wh...

I've always been pretty into food and the idea of flavors. It seems like a weird thing to be fascinated with but the more I travel and taste different flavors around the world, the bigger this hobby or mere interest becomes. I'm guessing this interest started when I was young. My family is Croatian and we are continuously surrounded by European/Balkan food at home and place a heavy emphasis on eating real food, not junk or heavily processed. Somewhere along the way, I became interested in eating food for the flavors, not just for the purpose of eating to feel full. My dad probably cultivated this out of me. He's always on his phone looking up cool places to eat, ordering the strangest of seafood, and encouraging me to taste different flavors. Whatever I don't eat or deem too weird, my dad finishes it off shaking his head at me for being too "boring". The memory that always comes to mind when I think of strange food would be when I was 8. My family was in Bei...

As the school year comes to a close, so does Sag Harbor . As one of my favorite books we’ve read this past semester, Sag Harbor I think exhibited some big coming of age landmarks that some other books didn’t. Starting the book, Benji is excited for the summer and all the things he’s going to do. At the end of the book, Benji takes a few moments to reflect on the past summer. In those moments, I think, really reflect Benji’s age. While he reflects, he talks about getting his braces off, kissing a girl, and getting his first job. Those might be superficial to some people, but I think that around high school age, those moments define your life. Benji now has the status of not being completely innocent which could definitely help him get more girls during high school. I feel like in the long run it won’t matter but for now getting girls can elevate his status a lot. I think a true coming of age moment is Benji getting his braces off. Since braces are physical and can be seen by a...

Yesterday (April 21) we had a brief discussion over the end of BlackSwanGreen , specifically how Jason feels about the move and how Julia helps him deal with it. Coming from a personal standpoint, I wanted to say how well Jason is dealing with this. Jason was me a few months ago, after my parents broke the news that we would be moving to Texas from Illinois (granted, this was move was a little bit bigger than Jason’s move and came at a terrible time for my family). But while reading the last chapter of BlackSwanGreen , I could completely relate to Jason’s feelings 100%. In a way, the last chapter of BlackSwanGreen mirrors my life. First, Jason will be living with his mom only and has the opportunity to visit his dad. Although my parents are getting divorced, I will be living with only my mom for a year and will have the opportunity to visit my dad during breaks and extended weekends. Secondly, Jason and I both have an older sister who can relate to what we are going through and o...

Unlike Housekeeping where emotion and the overall plot was a little boring for me, BlackSwanGreen is the complete opposite. One of the reasons why I like BlackSwanGreen by David Mitchell is Jason’s use of syntax for expression of emotions and sounds. Although the book does have a pretty jam packed plot that keeps me engaged and anticipating the next page, the syntax and language just heightens the overall experience of reading the book. For example, Dean’d gone yahoooo ooo oooooing down Ali Baba’s Helter Skelter ahead of me. Just as I got my mat ready fireworks erupted in the sky over toward Wellan. Guy Fawkes Night’s not till tomorrow, but they can’t wait in Welland. Stalks climbed, then popblossomed into slow-slow- slow … motion Michaelmas daisies. Raining-silvers, purples, phoenix golds. Chunkly booms arrived a second late … boom … boom… Fireworkpetals fell away and faded to ash. Only five or six big ones went off, but what beauts they were. (page 251) Within just this ...

Strangely enough, I seem to have drawn a connection between Jason’s dad and Jason himself. This connection, which I briefly mentioned in class, is almost like a Star Wars father/son relationship. We first get a glimpse of something Star Wars like with the dad’s chair, “Dad’s swivelly chair’s a lot like the Millennium Falcon’s laser tower.” (page 4). From just that line, something clicked in me to equate Jason’s dad and Jason with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. The first line of connection I drew between the two father/son relationships was the way Jason defies his father by going into his office to sit on the Millennium Falcon chair. The Millennium Falcon is a sign in Star Wars of the good side. For Jason to defy his dad (Darth Vader) almost seems like Jason is defying his dad to become part of the good side (Millenium Falcon) whereas his dad (Darth Vader) is on the Sith/bad side. Another way Jason’s dad reminds me of Darth Vader is the authoritative style of Jason’s dad. Jason’s dad...

I am honestly not quite sure what to think of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. The plot, for me, is confusing and I end up forgetting what I just read. So far into chapter 6, I’m not actually sure what is going on in the book. I know the girls are in school and by the lake a lot. For some reason, I don’t feel like I’m reading much about human relationships and connections in the book. The book seems flat and empty, almost without emotion. I’m not sure if everytime I look at the book the cover inspires the flat/dead feeling I get from reading the book, or if the actual plot itself is confusing and doesn’t really have a point. Not that I have anything wrong with reading a book without an actual plotline, but it definitely makes it harder to read and remember what I read. However one thing I really like about this book is the writing style and descriptive qualities. The most interesting thing about this book is how Robinson manages to describe everything in long sentences and wei...

The beginning of The Bell Jar brought up something pretty significant for me. As we start getting to know Esther, something very apparent is brought forth. Esther brings up the issue of just “life” and what happens after school. For me, Esther brings up several questions after her meeting with Jay Cee. Esther seems to have problems with figuring out what happens after school and life after school life. She doesn’t have an answer to Jay Cee’s question and seems to ponder it for a while. This got me thinking. What does actually happen after school? What are you supposed to do what to do after school? Is life just a blender of all school subjects? School is so structured and planned, it’s pretty hard to imagine life without a strict schedule where we are held accountable for showing up to school and participating. But in the grand scheme of things, what does school actually prepare you for? Esther seems to really be struggling with this to Jay Cee’s dismay and personally I definitel...

Today in class we discussed whether The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger was a coming of age novel or a failed coming of age novel. Several comments were made about how the novel, which takes place in a couple days, is too short to accurately depict a coming of age story. However, I disagree. While the novel does only last three days, I found that Holden does indeed come of age by the end of the book. He starts out in the beginning of the book as a lost cause, failing school and not giving a damn in the world. Slowly as the book progress, Holden expresses more and more emotions to the point of completely breaking down. By the end of the book, Holden seems to have completely changed his outlook on school, stating that he will indeed try to succeed at school (For me, this is a relief. Finally I can put a little faith in Holden’s future lifting off some stress.). Also by the end of the book, Holden wants to go off west and live in pretty much solitude. When Phoebe asks to join him, it ...

Stephen has very little interaction with girls in this coming of age book. One of the most memorable interactions was with E.C. in chapter 2 at the party. It begins with Stephen being his usual antisocial self, hidden in a corner mysteriously watching the party go forth. Naturally, Stephen feels too sophisticated to take a social role in the party however a girl catches his eye, E.C. They exit the party and take a train ride together where they converse during the entire train ride. Stephen feels attracted to E.C.’s black stockings. He wonders if E.C. wants him to touch or kiss her. I think this shows the more social side of Stephen. As we see later on in chapter 5, Stephen doesn’t converse at all with the bird girl and instead just stares at her. At least in chapter 2, he has more normal social skills. Another important interaction with girls for Stephen would be in chapter 2 when Stephen encounters the prostitute. Stephen seems a little reluctant and hesitant at first but eventu...

In the beginning of James Joyce’s coming of age novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce introduces us to the main character, a young boy named Stephen. Throughout the first two chapters, Joyce gives us chronological information about him ranging from his very early life to his teen years. James Joyce begins A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with a small and relatively incoherent section about Stephen’s very early life. Joyce carefully constructs this first section with rambling incoherent thoughts from Stephen. Knowing that this is a coming of age book, one can clearly understand the first section is part of Stephen’s very early life by the type of language used. For example, Joyce writes a lot of small factual thoughts that lead from one fact to another with very simple child-like connections. Joyce also suggests Stephen’s young selfish immaturity through restating facts in terms of possession, “He sang that song. That was his song.” (page 3). Restating facts i...