Advice to Underclassmen

If there's one thing you should know about junior year in high school is that you should prepare and register for the SAT or ACT early. In doing so, you are giving yourself a stronger motivation to study and it also gives you more flexibility if you actually screw up on the test. I chose to ignore the fact that I needed to take the tests until January, and by then my options on when to take the tests were quite limited.
It's the same thing with applying to college. You don't need to make a decision about where to apply during your junior year, but you should have a general idea of where you want to go.
Before you select the place to want to study, you need to have a general idea of what you want to study. Look at your own interests and make a list of what you would like to study. Then, consider where you want to study. Pick a school that is strong in the area you wish to study. It would be stupid to pick a school known for its arts programs when you want to study science instead.

The Silver Fifty Sen Peices

I was surprised to be reading this story in British Literature, because the author is not British but Japanese. The story is written by Yasunari Kawabata,who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. Set in pre- and post- World War II Japan, the story is very short, only consisting of three scenes. In the first scene, the main character Yoshiko buys a glass paperweight with a carving of a dog after much deliberation. Yoshiko and her mother are shopping in the next scene. In the last scene, Yoshiko huddles in the ruins of her neighborhood and realizes how much she has lost to the war. It's amazing how the author uses so few words to strongly bring into focus how the inconstancy of life. The method Kawabata uses to state his message is subtle, but that's where the beauty of this story lies.