Speech ideas for class president for elementary school

The article will show analogies between Domain-Driven Design and mathematical modeling

Mathematical modeling

Students are introduced to mathematical modeling in a school. Roughly speaking, it is the translation of a problem from informal human language into the language of mathematics for subsequent solution.
(1) John and Bob ate three apples at dinner. John ate twice as many as Bob. How much did each eat?
(2) Let x be the number of apples that John ate Let y is the number of apples that Bob ate.
Then: (3) x + y = 3 x = 2 * y
Solving the system of linear equations:
x = 2, y = 1
(1) - problem statement in the domain area (2) - mathematical modeling (3) - mathematical model
Another example from the world of physics - we need to calculate how much fuel is needed to fly to the Moon and back. There are Newton's Laws of motion of celestial bodies, there are data on fuel, the vehicle, the mass of the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, the calculated trajectory and other information.
The whole power of the mathematical apparatus is the absence of semantics. It doesn't care whether it's counting apples or the trajectory of a rocket. It is a formalized system that operates with soulless symbols according to established rules. Arithmetic has its own rules, algebra has its own rules, Euclidean geometry has its own rules.
The achievements of the natural sciences depend on how accurately and completely they construct mathematical models for their problems. If the mass of the moon is not specified, it will be impossible to give an answer to the above problem. On the other hand, if the proposed trajectory is mathematically unattainable, physicists will have to change it.
A mathematical model is a general projection of the problem to be solved from the physics side and the math side into some "common" space.

Domain-driven design

This methodology was proposed 20 years ago by Eric Evans in his famous “big blue book”: Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
For many, DDD is when if you are, for example, making an online store, you must have Product, ShoppingCart, etc. classes, i.e., entities in the code must correspond to business entities. This is not really about DDD.
The main goal that Eric Evans set when creating his methodology was to enable you to create a program architecture in such a way that you can satisfy the client's requirements with maximum probability and build a clear, maintainable and extensible system. Get a quality and successful program product.

Comparison of design methods

DDD is mainly aimed at complex non-typical tasks with vague/varying requirements, to minimize the risks of spending a lot of time and money and not getting something usable in the end.
In cascade development (waterfall), the client gives clear requirements to the business analyst, the system architecture is built according to them, and programmers make code according to it.
In agile development (agile, XP, iterative) the client gives general requirements, a prototype of the system architecture is built on them, programmers make code on it, the system is shown to the client, corrections are made, the next version is released, etc. in a circle.
In case of DDD the joint work between domain area specialists and programmers goes all the time of development. The link between them is the domain model and ubiquitous language. For the first few chapters of the book, Eric Evans talks only about them and their importance.
The main point of the domain model is to be a constant projection of the problem being solved from the client side and the developer side into some common space. Everything in the domain model should be reflected in the program architecture. And vice versa - if a programmer discovers that some business rule cannot be applied or it is better to do it differently, he is obliged to open a discussion about it and initiate changes in the domain model, without making attempts to simply code it in “the right way”.
The domain model itself lacks semantics, it is written using UML diagrams and formal documentation. Semantics is given to it by a ubiquitous language in which the whole team (including the client) communicates. Each term of the domain model must be understood equally by all participants.

Parallels

Analogy to the space flight example above: - math model = domain model - physics = ubiquitous language - mathematical apparatus = software development - mathematical modeling = domain model development process
From this we can draw the corollary that just as in the first case, mathematicians' deviation from the supplied mathematical model will easily lead to wrong/unnecessary results, so in the second case, developers' deviation from the domain model can lead to failure in the end.

In his book, Eric Evans gives the following real-life example. Internet Explorer used to save “Favorites” as files with names corresponding to page names. When the user tried to specify his name, he sometimes got an error “Invalid file name”, although it was not obvious what files had to do with it. This was because the developers were using their own model and the client wanted something different.

Summary

Thus, there is a strong idea of mathematical modeling behind DDD

Hello redditors, I have an opinion question to ask.
I just graduated from college, and was accepted to NYU for graduate school in the fall. Only about 50% of students get scholarships, and I received a 50% tuition scholarship from them to attend. The program would put me exactly in the job field that I want to pursue life long, and I genuinely find joy in the idea of pursuing said career (Public Policy Analyst). My career goal requires education beyond just my bachelor’s degree, and I genuinely love school and am excited about continuing going to classes. I’ve met some great people who will also be in my program that I am excited to see there. I also plan to live in NYC for many years to come, and have not found a single other place in the world where I feel like my most authentic self. The program is one of the best in the country, and has faculty who have worked on Capitol Hill and other amazing organizations. The program will be superrrrr good for my chosen field and unlock many connections lifelong. I truly feel like I have the key to my perfect future in my hand with this opportunity.
All of this sounds great, right? Well… as you can imagine I would be taking out an exorbitant amount of student loans for this Master’s program. Even with the 50% tuition, the cost for 2 years of the tuition is a little over $100k total (I have no idea how people pay that without scholarships!!!) Thankfully, my undergraduate tuition was completely paid for through a scholarship that I earned, so I don’t have a lot of student loans besides my living expenses from that time. This allows some leeway for grad school expenses, however, I would be looking at around $100-120k in loans at the end of all of this…
Thankfully, my career field will most likely fall under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness track, so I believe that I will be eligible to get these loans paid for. It is not a 100% guarantee though. My career field makes somewhat decent money, but if these loans don’t get forgiven, I’m looking at a cool 20+ years paying off these loans.
Given the overwhelmingly large amount of net positives of this program, I am thinking of just going for it and taking on the loans. At the same time I am not sure how wise this is given the number and uncertainty in the loan forgiveness. I know that as an adult I need to make this decision and I am the one who will need to pay these off eventually but I was hoping to get some input from strangers with 0 stake in my life who will give me the straight up facts (the lovely people close to me in my life of course said to follow my heart and go for it, but I think they just don’t want to hurt my feelings). So please, if you feel so inclined redditors, give it to me straight!

Hey all,
This may be a pretty lengthy post. At this point, I’m posting to get the support of others (or the pushback to know I’m in the wrong) because I’m tired of the biased answers my parents and everyone else are giving me, and I need an outside perspective.
I wanted to ask for advice regarding a topic that's really been nagging me. My old friend and I are on a call right now just talking things through, and as someone who was honestly hurt real bad I need to ask for advice about what to do. I can't really talk to anyone else in my personal life about it, as my parents would likely try to make the decision for me
I [16M] was best friends with J [16M] for over 12 years. According to my mother, we met at 2-3 years old when we were at preschool and got along very well, and he was invited to my 5th birthday party. There are so many specific memories I could bring up, which I could never stop writing about, but we grew up together. He was my only friend growing up, being born with a speech impediment that has since been corrected and the label that comes with it. We went through periods where we talked nearly every day and periods where we talked once every couple of months. But we made a lot of memories, and each time it’s as if we never stopped talking.
We created things together, spent holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Years hanging out together, pulling all-nighters. And these are less than 0.1% of all our total memories. It was honestly the most amazing friendship I’ve ever had and will likely ever have, unfortunately.
November 2022 was the two year anniversary of a small Roblox game I created. He had been recording and making videos for the longest time, and I had just released a video to celebrate, which he seemed to be impressed by. Again, it was as if we never stopped talking, but from that period on it was every single day. We had never talked that much, spending weekends together and doing amazing stuff. We even streamed together on YouTube to raise money for charity as part of the Thanksmas event. And he’s in a lot of my videos and other creations.
We pulled each other through hard times. High school, as you can guess, is where romantic relationships begin developing. Whenever I needed advice, he was there, and vice versa. I helped him get through a toxic girlfriend he had, and he found love again.
The only thing that really bothered me was that I was the one who introduced him to ChatGPT, which is an amazing tool if I’m being honest. I’m not mad about that, I’m mad that on my 15th birthday, which I believe is a milestone if I’m not mistaken, he didn’t take the time to write just TWO words “Happy Birthday” that would have been enough, and instead used ChatGPT to generate a birthday card, just smack dab copied and pasted. I brushed it off though, as it wasn’t too big of a deal honestly and only stands out now that the events that transpired have taken place.
This new girl he had, we’ll call S. S is an extremely manipulative girl, very good at it I’ll admit, but our mutual friends at the time, L, C, and K picked up on that, as well as myself. I consistently tried to warn him, but it was no use, and he was beginning to change to the point that it was irritating me to new levels. It’s important to note he confided in me about how unhappy he was yet he stayed and acted as if everything was normal, and appeared upset when I brought up the times he told me he was upset about everything.
Eventually, it got to the point that was all we talked about. S. It was so damn annoying. We couldn’t even have normal conversations anymore. And I wasn’t the only one, as C and I talked about it occasionally.
August 23, 2023. The day my world changed forever. He told me to screenshot messages containing him confiding in me, and send it to her privately. I did so, and she posted it to a group chat containing J, herself, K, C, and myself, and just started berating him. It’s important to note I had previously let her off the hook for insulting my mom, which I never do at all. It’s important to know that I’m not forgiving at all, and when I do forgive, it’s pretty rare. Although I can’t be sure, I believe it may be tied to the fact I used to be so forgiving to the point I allowed people to walk over me in elementary and middle school, and I never will allow that again.
The stuff she said, honestly, if she were not a girl (I would never hit a woman) and she were next to me, I would have knocked out her teeth. Although my mother and I argue from time to time, one thing I cannot deny is that she went through absolute torture to keep me alive when she was pregnant with me, and now I’m a fully healthy young teenager.
So I just started releasing everything, telling her how I felt about her hurting the people I care about and trying to play victim. It’s important to note she used J as a rebound from an ex she was clearly not over (you don’t compare exes 24/7 in a new relationship, guys!) and I previously was not going to call this out at J’s request. However, after she started going after my friends, I just said I would do it. J threatened to block me as a way to deter me (which actually solidified my decision to do it) and it was at that moment I just felt the switch of brotherly love and care (he was practically my brother) turn off in my mind. I could not believe he would threaten to do that for a girl he had been dating even shorter than the amount of time since the summer started, after well over a decade.
He blocked me on Discord after I challenged him to see if he would really follow through or take back what he said, and when I say I blocked him on everything, I mean EVERYTHING. If he tried to reach out to me through even Gmail, I wouldn’t know because it would go straight to my spam folder.
I didn’t know much, but what I did know was that he tried to reach out to me twice through mutual friends, asking for forgiveness. I learned through K what the deal was, at J’s request. A week later, S’s mother found out, and although I will not say specifics, let me just say that I’m not even sure if I can legally say anything without landing myself in a courtroom to testify.
I got a video in my YouTube recommendation tab in November (one of my comments on his videos got over 50 likes or something) about him returning to YouTube and addressing “everything.” I was interested, so I watched the entire thing, and I was surprised that a good third or so of the video was about me. I learned that he was fine the week after because this girl spoke to him (which really says a lot in my opinion) and only after his life went downhill did he realize what he did. He expressed how bad he felt about it, how he missed me, and how it’s worse because he feels like he could have fixed it, as (he claims to have lost me, not the other way around) he didn’t lose me to something like a car accident, or cancer, or some killer disease, and he was essentially pleading with those watching that he lost to reach out to talk about it. I ALMOST reached out, as he said we didn’t have to be friends, but I didn’t at the time.
Now, life has gone by at its normal pace. It was very hard living with it every single day. It's been about nine months since it happened, and we finally talked about the entire thing tonight. The thing is, I really do want to forgive him, but I'm just so anxious. I haven't healed, I'll admit, from what happened and I don't think I ever will. I see a beautiful future, but I'm also really scared that something worse could possibly happen in the future.
I wanted to ask, what would you do? If you were me in this situation, would you try to fix everything, or just leave it in the past?

Hi I’m an 18 year old female, this happened 20 mins ago my mom took me shopping at the mall for my birthday, I love my mom she’s so sweet on our way pack I was walking slightly fast to the car because I’m on my period and really needed to sit down and my mom knows this when I got outside I was noticed my mom wasn’t begging me so I happily sat waiting for her for a few seconds and then she came out holding the bags and her coffee she said “hey why did you walk out so fast I need help” she said in an stern voice I said “oh I’m sorry I wasent meaning to walk fast and if you needed help you could have called out to me and I would have came out happily to help” she kept telling me it was disrespectful it turned into an argument and she said “from now on I’m just gonna say no to things you wanna do” I was so confused so I said “what… you’re just making that rule right now because you’re emotional I walked out “fast”” she yelled and stoped me mid way saying “I’m not emotional!” It turned into a bigger thing her just yelling and yelling and I didn’t want to yell and for it to turn to a big thing so I said ”I need some air I’ll be right back” I said calmly and opened the car door and sat in right next to the park door before she came out yelling “ get your ass balk in the car you’re grown ass woman crying on the street” I started feeling slightly embarrassed I got in the back seat seat hung but I bit my young before she started yelling saying she the mom and yada yada yada I dealt my fist clench before u scared out “You’re not mom for the past 18 years you haven’t never been there for me you don’t get to sit here and try to act like one now do you have any idea of the shit you put me through no you don’t so don’t sit here and try to act like a mom now!” (My mom was never there for me till I was maybe mid middle school I didn’t see her as a mom till high school like 13 or 14 and she kept dragging me the relationships I never had a father he had 12 kids and my mom when I was in elementary got into an marriage and he would physically hurt me and things and his friends too it only lasted two years) I’ve never screamed at anyone and especially at that time it was like I was someone else and as soon as I finished I started apologizing and hyperventilating and my eyes got mode my moms head hanged low and I could tell my words hurt, I kept saying sorry over and over hyperventilating I love my mom I feel bad but not it definitely needed to come out in how I felt but not in that way never in that way. We’re still in car driving home and I saw her tear up again I feel bad but u don’t most of my child hood she was out partying she was my age when she had me for a while I thought she was my older sister and my grandma was my mom I don’t remember my mom a lot growing up I feel bad so AMITA for yelling at my mom if I am I understand why we as kids should never yell at our parents.

I’ve noticed this sub in particular has had a very ahistorical and reactionary position on the concept of “patriotism” that I think needs rectified. I’m open to hear everyone’s positions and disagreements on the matter, but I don’t often see the “pro patriotism” position even coherently mentioned so I’d figure I’d give it a shot.
First off, I think it’s important to understand that when socialists say they support “patriotism”, they are talking about proletarian patriotism, which is intrinsically connected to internationalism and is even argue a central component to Marxism Leninism. It is a patriotism that focuses on the betterment of their conditions for its people, for people to come together to help each other, and to promote the idea that everyone should participate and help each other promote and perpetuate these principles. It isn’t nationalism, it isn’t hyper militaristic pro imperialist patriotism, in essence it doesn’t take a class collaborative form. It doesn’t promote the nation above all, nor that class collaboration in the form of developing pro-imperialist positions should be advocated for in order to maintain the nation. It does not uphold some mystical nation as a concept that must be protected.
I think that the idea that America has some uniquely (exceptional) impure history that makes patriotism an unusable tactic to be the same as buying into American Exceptionalism. In fact I think it is an essential tactic that we must utilize, otherwise we give up so much concessions and ground to fascists.(read the Dimitrov quote I give below on the subject.)
I also believe that people often forget that patriotism was utilized by essentially every Marxist Leninist figure throughout all of history. Here are just a few quotes:
“On their own part, the progressive forces in the mass organizations have made considerable appeal to American patriotism and traditions for constructive ends. But this appeal has usually been weak, spasmodic, and ineffective. The workers, farmers, professionals, have not understood how to bring forth in their agitation the basically constructive role they have played historically in building American democracy. ​ In this respect the revolutionary movement has been especially weak. From the foundation of the Socialist Labor Party in the 1870’s, down through the life of the Socialist Party and the IWW, and during the early years of the Communist Party, there was a dominant tendency to ignore and to scorn American tradition and love of country. This arose out of a narrow, sectarian conception of internationalism, and it did much to weaken the position of the revolutionaries in the organizations of the patriotically minded toiling masses. Here again, a better study of Marx and Lenin would have prevented this grievous error. Only during the past few years, notably since the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International and through the writings of Comrade Browder, is real progress being made by our Party in correcting this costly mistake and in basing itself upon a correct Leninist line.
The cultivation of the democratic, revolutionary American traditions among the mass organizations is one of the most important tasks in the building of the democratic front. We must not permit the reactionaries to steal and distort the national traditions and aspirations of the people. The great democratic masses must be taught by constant reference to American history that it was their struggles in the past that built our republic, that the democratic front movement of today is the continuation of all the fights for liberty in the history of our own country; that in the achievement of the current demands of the masses lies the fruition of all that is progressive and glorious in American history; that socialism is the climax toward which the entire historic struggle of the democratic American people inevitably tends.” - William Z Foster.
“Is a sense of national pride alien to us, Great-Russian class-conscious proletarians? Certainly not! We love our language and our country, and we are doing our very utmost to raise her toiling masses (i.e., nine-tenths of her population) to the level of a democratic and socialist consciousness. To us it is most painful to see and feel the outrages, the oppression and the humiliation our fair country suffers at the hands of the tsar’s butchers, the nobles and the capitalists. We take pride in the resistance to these outrages put up from our midst, from the Great Russians; in that midst having produced Radishchev,[3] the Decembrists[4] and the revolutionary commoners of the seventies[5]; in the Great-Russian working class having created, in 1905, a mighty revolutionary party of the masses; and in the Great-Russian peasantry having begun to turn towards democracy and set about overthrowing the clergy and the landed proprietors.
We remember that Chernyshevsky, the Great-Russian democrat, who dedicated his life to the cause of revolution, said half a century ago: “A wretched nation, a nation of slaves, from top to bottom—all slaves."[6] The overt and covert Great-Russian slaves (slaves with regard to the tsarist monarchy) do not like to recall these words. Yet, in our opinion, these were words of genuine love for our country, a love distressed by the absence of a revolutionary spirit in the masses of the Great-Russian people. There was none of that spirit at the time. There is little of it now, but it already exists. We are full of national pride because the Great-Russian nation, too, has created a revolutionary class, because it, too, has proved capable of providing mankind with great models of the struggle for freedom and socialism, and not only with great pogroms, rows of gallows, dungeons, great famines and great servility to priests, tsars, landowners and capitalists.
We are full of a sense of national pride, and for that very reason we particularly hate our slavish past (when the landed nobility led the peasants into war to stifle the freedom of Hungary, Poland, Persia and China), and our slavish present, when these selfsame landed proprietors, aided by the capitalists, are loading us into a war in order to throttle Poland and the Ukraine, crush the democratic movement in Persia and China, and strengthen the gang of Romanovs, Bobrinskys and Purishkeviches, who are a disgrace to our Great-Russian national dignity. Nobody is to be blamed for being born a slave; but a slave who not only eschews a striving for freedom but justifies and eulogises his slavery (e.g., calls the throttling of Poland and the Ukraine, etc., a “defence of the fatherland” of the Great Russians)—such a slave is a lickspittle and a boor, who arouses a legitimate feeling of indignation, contempt, and loathing.
No nation can be free if it oppresses other nations,” said Marx and Engels, the greatest representatives of consistent nineteenth century democracy, who became the teachers of the revolutionary proletariat. And, full of a sense of national pride, we Great-Russian workers want, come what may, a free and independent, a democratic, republican and proud Great Russia, one that will base its relations with its neighbours on the human principle of equality, and not on the feudalist principle of privilege, which is so degrading to a great nation. Just because we want that, we say: it is impossible, in the twentieth century and in Europe (even in the far east of Europe), to “defend the fatherland” otherwise than by using every revolutionary means to combat the monarchy, the landowners and the capitalists of one’s own fatherland, i.e., the worst enemies of our country.” - Lenin
“Can a Communist who is also an internationalist at the same time be a patriot? We hold not only that he can, but that he must.” - Mao
“Communists are the most patriotic Americans I have ever met, and you all are the non-patriots.” ( towards the HUAC) - Paul Robeson.
“Under no circumstances must we underrate fascism's power of ideological infection. On the contrary, we for our part must develop an extensive ideological struggle based on clear, popular arguments and a correct, well thought out approach to the peculiarities of the national psychology of the masses of the people. The fascists are rummaging through the entire history of every nation so as to be able to pose as the heirs and continuators of all that was exalted and heroic in its past, while all that was degrading or offensive to the national sentiments of the people they make use of as weapons against the enemies of fascism. Hundreds of books are being published in Germany with only one aim -- to falsify the history of the German people and give it a fascist complexion. The new-baked National Socialist historians try to depict the history of Germany as if for the past two thousand years, by virtue of some historical law, a certain line of development had run through it like a red thread, leading to the appearance on the historical scene of a national 'savior', a 'Messiah' of the German people, a certain 'Corporal' of Austrian extraction. In these books the greatest figures of the German people of the past are represented as having been fascists, while the great peasant movements are set down as the direct precursors of the fascist movement. Mussolini does his utmost to make capital for himself out of the heroic figure of Garibaldi. The French fascists bring to the fore as their heroine Joan of Arc. The American fascists appeal to the traditions of the American War of Independence, the traditions of Washington and Lincoln. The Bulgarian fascists make use of the national-liberation movement of the seventies and its heroes beloved by the people, Vassil Levsky, Stephan Karaj and others. Communists who suppose that all this has nothing to do with the cause of the working class, who do nothing to enlighten the masses on the past of their people in a historically correct fashion, in a genuinely Marxist-Leninist spirit, who do nothing to link up the present struggle with the people's revolutionary traditions and past -- voluntarily hand over to the fascist falsifiers all that is valuable in the historical past of the nation, so that the fascists may fool the masses.” - Dimitrov.
"Marxism-Leninism is ultimately deeply internationalist, and at the same time, deeply patriotic." -Fidel Castro
"Patriotism is not an empty concept. Education in patriotism cannot be conducted simply by erecting the slogan, 'Let us arm ourselves with the spirit of socialist patriotism! educating people in the spirit of patriotism must begin with fostering the idea of caring for every tree planted on the roadside, for the chairs and the desks in the school.
You have to begin with what is within the grasp of the younger generation, things that relate to their lives, and then gradually move on to educating them to defend consciously the interests of the country and the people. There is no doubt that a person who has formed the habit of cherishing common property from childhood on will grow up to be a valuable patriot."- Kim Il-sung
"From the commencement of the titanic American strife, the workingmen of Europe felt instinctively that the star-spangled banner carried the destiny of their class. The contest for the territories which opened the dire epopee, was it not to decide whether the virgin soil of immense tracts should be wedded to the labor of the emigrant or prostituted by the tramp of the slave driver?" -Karl Marx
"The history of modern, civilized America opened with one of those great, really liberating, really revolutionary wars of which there have been so few compared to the vast number of wars of conquest which, like the present imperialist war, were caused by squabbles among kings, landowners or capitalists over the division of usurped lands or ill-gotten gains.
That was the war the American people waged against the British robbers who oppressed America and held her in colonial slavery, in the same way as these "civilized" bloodsuckers are still oppressing and holding in colonial slavery hundreds of millions of people in India, Egypt, and all parts of the world." -Vladimir Lenin
"We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here." -Martin Luther King Jr
“Us on the Left are second to no one in our patriotism.” - Michael Parenti

I am wanting to homeschool my 10 year old with a mix of traditional and Charlotte Mason methods. I really like the idea of 3-4 hours perhaps 4 days a week. I really want to have more time to do a lot of schooling outdoors, field trips, time for extracurriculars and Spanish class. I do like to follow schedules and like keeping routines. Does anyone have similar schedule they can share or any advice? I did hear the core subjects should be taught daily, like math and reading, is this correct? I’ve got quite a lot to learn and a lot more research to do. Thank you in advance.

I say "apparently" because... well... you'll see.
This happened decades ago now, back in primary school. I only remembered it because I was recently catching up with old friends from back then, and we got to laughing over old stories and then someone mentioned, "The wildest was when you organised that whole protest against our teacher."
"The time I did what?"
The consensus was I did, indeed, organise the entire class to rebel against our teacher that resulted in her being deposed and our class getting a "substitute" for the rest of the year. I almost fell out of my chair hearing this story from their mouths. It wasn't that I didn't remember it, of course I did--that year was awful. It was just that it existed very differently in my memory.
Two important pieces of background knowledge to understand here:

1. I went to a very very small, very very rural school. How small? Each classroom was composed of the entire year level, and the largest had at most 30 kids in them. My class/year level was on the smallest in the entire school, with a piddling 14 kids in it altogether. While we still had our cliques and factions, our small size caused our class to be very tight knit and protective of each other. How rural? The school building itself was incredibly small, but one thing we were not short on was gigantic empty fields surrounding us on all sides. Great for sports, great for (it turns out) student protests.
2. I was, at the time, undiagnosed autistic. I mean I still am autistic, I'm just formally diagnosed now. But back then I was just seen as being a very quirky kid. One of the ways this quirkiness manifested was that I really had trouble adapting to the rules and structure of grade school and how it differed from what I was used to. At home if I wanted to pee, I just went to the toilet. Now I have to put my hand up? Now I have to ask permission to piss? Then I went home and put my hand up to ask my mom for permission to pee and she told me I didn't need to! Madness! Chaos! I don't care what the rules are, please just be consistent!

But one of the main parts of my brain and the way it works is that sometimes my brain, separate from my will, would just make a decision about a course of action and I would very calmly commit to it come hell or high water. Like, it is vitally important that I stay true to this course of action. I can't explain it. It's like I set a rule for myself and if something disrupts that, I just shut down and stop functioning.
So when the school said, "Okay, when this bell rings during recess/lunch, that means you have to leave the playground and go back to class", I was a confused child already struggling with all these completely nonsensical limitations and guidelines imposed on me. So when that bell rang, I got that calm little voice in my head that said, "Hmm, no, I'm good out here actually. I don't think I will go back into class." So I would just continue to sit out on the playground, playing with my plastic spider toys or sitting on the swing. Teachers would realise what was going on and come out to get me and tell me I have to go back to class, and I would just very calmly hear them out and then smile at them and politely as possible tell them, "No thank you, I want to stay out here."
They really didn't know what to do with me. I wasn't getting upset, I wasn't throwing a tantrum, I wasn't yelling, I wasn't being rude in any way. I was incredibly docile and would let them explain things to me with endless patience and then just politely refute them and go back to what I was doing, like this was just a very normal and reasonable negotiation between two equal parties. I have memories of sitting on the swing while three very confused and flustered adult staff huddled around me trying to bribe me with candy to go back to class. It would take a whole lesson block to lure me back to the classroom, and then at lunch the whole thing would start over again. It took me three years at school to finally accept the status quo thanks to a religious nutter I got for a teacher, and finally went back to class when the bell rang (was never happy about it though).
I eventually settled into school life. Excelled at subjects I liked, at least passed subjects I didn't, followed the rules, was seen as intelligent and obedient and was often liked by my teachers. Until my final year, when we got the teacher I can only rudely monniker Mrs Bigmouth.
Mrs Bigmouth should not have been a teacher. She had a trigger temper and would explode into long, verbally abusive tirades against us if we ever did anything she felt was disrespectful behaviour. What was disrespectful behaviour? Damned if I know. It changed day by day, depending on mood. You could disrespect her to her face one day and she'd laugh and say you have such razor wit, and politely ask a question the next and she'd scream at you for ten nonstop minutes then give you a week of DT for talking back. The absolute peak moment of her boiling temper came when she threw a dictionary at a girl's head because she was whispering to me in class. When I tell you it missed her by half an inch...
But believe it or not, this wasn't what made her such an awful teacher. It was so hard to get teachers at rural schools back then, there was almost nothing you could do to get fired, so we had experience with teachers with nightmare tempers. What made her such an issue was her big mouth. She used us, her trapped audience, as free therapy. She would infodump, traumadump, about her very personal, very private life to us. All day. She'd be two words into a spelling list and launch into an extended story session about her marital issues with her husband. We'd be heads down doing fractions and, unprompted, she'd declare to the class that her adult daughter no longer talks to her and then diatribe to us about it until the bell rang. She had money issues, a contentious relationship with her parents, her marriage was on the rocks. She once pulled me aside after school and spoke with me, at length, about how she was thinking of having another child to try to repair her marriage. I was like, okay lady, I'm 11, about to miss my bus, and my house is a 4 hour walk on foot from here.
We weren't learning. We'd hadn't had a complete lesson since the first week of the school year. We were behind on the cirriculum and frustrated. One kid had brought a stopwatch into school and would time lessons vs her monologues and kept detailed lists, and we would come to school each morning and do betting pools on them. What subject would she interrupt, what would she talk about, and how long would it go.
But all that still wasn't the breaking point if you can believe it. No! Still not! The problem was it wasn't just her own private life she couldn't keep her mouth shut about. It was everyone else's. Because parents would make the reasonable assumption that she should be told things as our class teacher that would be important to know, and that she would understand these things were said in confidence. Instead she would veer randomly off in the middle of talking to us about her horrible weekend to let us know whatever private or traumatic thing was going on in a classmate's life that she had been made aware of. That was awful. That was what made that year hell. It wasn't even about when my secrets were shared with the entire class against my consent. It was watching the faces of my small, lovely, supportive class of 11 year old children go pale and scrunch up with held-back tears as things they never wanted to share were announced like morning news. God we hated her.
Then one day that voice came. The one I hadn't heard in years. The bell ring to go back into class and that voice said, "But I don't want to be in that classroom. I'm not even being taught there." So I just... didn't. I didn't go back to class. I just sat in the playground in a daze eating grass (don't eat grass, it's not good for your teeth). Despite how small my class was, I don't think Mrs Bigmouth even noticed I wasn't there. Others did though. Come lunch and everyone came out, my friends asked me where I was and I said, "Oh, I didn't go back to class."
"Why didn't you go back to class?"
"Why would I go back to class?"
Lightbulb moment for my schoolmates. Yeah, why would they go back to class? What was the point? From a practical standpoint, they weren't learning. From an emotional standpoint, it was horrible to be there. A friend who had had her family's dirty laundry aired to the entire class just last week, things even she didn't know because her parents tried to keep it from her, asked if she could sit with me rather than go back to class. I just stared at her, vacant and confused.
"Sure? I mean, I'm just eating grass though."
Over the next few days, two kids turned into four, turned into ten, turned into the whole class. The whole class was doing a sit-out protest on the field rather than go back to class. Of course Mrs Bigmouth tried to do something about it. She'd come out, screaming at us and threatening us with DT and internal suspension, but six months of that behaviour had totally vaccinated us against her. I'd become the de facto leader and spokesperson of the protest by merit of being the first to sit out and also because I was well known to not give a shit (autistic brain: I actually just frequently had trouble reading and reacting with the correct social behaviour but it gave me a cool and aloof bad boy mystique I guess). I gave her the exact same treatment from back in grade one. I would let her scream, let her holler, let her threaten, let her spittle rain down on me, and then I would give her a sweet and innocent smile and nod in acknowledgement and say, "No thank you, we're going to remain out here." And thirteen pairs of eyes would stare at her in total silence. No one, not even the most gobbermouthed little shite in the class, would volunteer a word. The unspoken agreement was all negotiations were my responsibility.
The thing about angry people is that they feed off conflict. They get you angry so they can respond with even more anger and it nourishes them. She had no absolutely no plan of action on how to deal with me patiently hearing her out then refuting her in the gentlest of terms.
Another thing that ended up helping down the line is that we made an attempt to conduct our own classes. I mean, they sucked and we didn't learn much because we were kids with no supervision, but it was really cute in retrospect. We'd have groups of people assigned to subjects, with some people bringing in words they found in a dictionary for spelling lists and others bringing in old 6th grade homework from older siblings. The heart was there and it served a purpose, if not educational.
"Okay, but how did no one else notice this was happening? Surely people would notice 14 kids sitting on the lawn, not in class?"
Rural school. Big. Empty. Fields. Even screaming at us, the most other classrooms would hear would be muffled voices, and everyone was used to hearing her yelling at us or taking us out onto the field abruptly to make us do laps as group punishment. Plus the way the school buildings were arranged was that it was actually all in one straight line of adjacent rooms, and ours happened to be at the very end of the building. No windows faced the field we all sat in except that of our own classroom. It was just a very lucky arrangement of coincidences and preconceived notions, at least for a couple weeks. I couldn't tell you the exact number, this was so long ago and as a kid I definitely had a more stretched idea of time. Minutes felt like hours, especially during that year. But there was definitely at least two weekends that passed by since the "sit-out protest" started.
Eventually someone cottoned on to what was happening, or maybe Mrs Bigmouth humbled herself and finally confessed to her boss that she had lost control of a bunch of 11-year-olds, so we were called into the principal's office to sort this out. As the representative of our class, I was of course chosen to attend the meeting, flanked by the girl who'd had the dictionary thrown at her head and my friend who was the first to sit out with me. Since I understood that this meeting was one where we were probably going to be yelled at for doing the wrong thing, a thing I had ample experience of, I felt like the easiest way to mitigate things (especially since I felt guilty for being the instigator) was to explain in a very rational and logical way the series of events that led up to our bad behaviour. As well, for my entire life my mother had always taught me that it was no good complaining about things unless you were also willing to think of solutions. "I'm hungry!" - "Well, what's a solution to that problem?" - "Uh, make myself a sandwich?" - "Great! Let's do that together!"
So what did I do? Of course, to make things as clean and concise as possible, I interviewed my class one by one to hear each individual story of why they didn't feel comfortable going to class anymore, itemised them under categories (Verbal Aggression; Interruptions of Lessons; Oversharing Student Life) for easier discussion because my little quirky brain loved itemising things, and then as a kind of olive branch came up with solutions (we wanted to finish lessons unhindered, we wanted our personal privacy to be respected, we wanted to be able to catch our bus on time rather than being held back with unfair DT or long "chats"). So many things sort of came together in this beautiful, wholly accidental way. We had months of records of timed rants and monologues, noted down to the millisecond thanks to that kid's stopwatch. We had records of us trying to teach ourselves during the protests, showing this wasn't us just not wanting to go to class but due to us feeling as though we did not have a class to go to. When the principal heard all this, her jaw it the floor. A lot of it was stuff she knew, peripherally, but things had just never been laid out so neatly before. Some of it was stuff we'd complained to parents about, but it was one kid coming home and telling one parent one time, weeks ago. There was no real sense, up until now, the sheer scope of her behaviour. She didn't even answer us. She just said, "Okay, I need to call your parents."
We got the rest of the week off school. That weekend, every parent of every student came to a meeting between them, Mrs Bigmouth, and the principal. Stories were swapped. My exercise book with my tidy little lists and the records of the betting pool and monologue times were confiscated and brought into the meeting. I don't know what went down, but when my mother came home she just told me that Mrs Bigmouth would not be our problem for the rest of the school year, and more importantly, that she was incredibly proud of me and that I did the right thing. Rarely in my childhood had my inability to integrate into normal society led me to doing the right thing, so I just remember crying and hugging and feeling vindicated about, I don't know, just existing or something.
So yeah. From the outside perspective here is what it looked like: I, the ringleader with a history of dismissing school rules, organised a sit-out strike amongst my class. I kept the protest peaceful and non-disruptive to other classes. When negotiations with the principal were finally arranged, as the representative I compiled a clear list of greivances, with evidence, and a list of reasonable demands. I mean, holy crap, yes, yes I clearly organised a student protest.
The actual results of it are mixed. We got a revolving door of substitute teachers of varying quality for the rest of the school year, occasionally being bundled into other classrooms entirely when they couldn't find someone. It wasn't a great learning environment and we continued to struggle a lot, but it was better than before. Mrs Bigmouth was not actually fired but put on leave for the rest of the school year, then returned and was put in charge of a different year level (which happened to be the class of the younger sister of a guy in my class: according to him, she was quiet as a church mouse that entire year so I hope at least she learned her lesson, or at least finally got divorced and went to actual therapy). The entire ordeal caused our already small and close class to become really really supportive and like family to each other and we all remain in touch until this day. And we became fierce about standing up for ourselves.
I kind of learned to parse the difference between when it was appropriate to go along with set societal rules even if I don't understand them, and when those rules were just straight up unreasonable and nobody should be required to follow them. I did, years alter, lead an actual (very small) strike at work but intentionally that time. My mother was proud of me then too. :)

Exploration of an Innovative K-12 School Curriculum and Pedagogical Approaches
Before going over the curriculum we must first discuss how to best teach. All of the following methods outlined below are what would I would suggest be use to teach the students trying to use just one or even just two of these would not be enough and would compromise the students learning and education
Teaching Methods
Project-Based Learning (PBL): In PBL, students work on a project over an extended period, which could be a week or a month, to respond to a complex question, problem, or challenge. The projects are usually multi-disciplinary and require students to apply what they've learned in a practical manner. This allows them to see the immediate applicability of their learning.
Inquiry-Based Learning: This is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems, or scenarios—rather than simply presenting established facts or portraying a smooth path to knowledge. Students are involved in the construction of their learning. They engage with the material, participate in the class, and collaborate with each other.
Gamification: Incorporating elements of game design in education can make learning fun and engaging. This can involve point systems, leaderboards, badges, or other game mechanics.
Experiential Learning: This method involves learning by doing and reflecting on the experience. It can include internships, study abroad programs, field trips, laboratory experiments, or any other hands-on learning experiences.
Flipped Classroom: In a flipped classroom, students review lecture materials at home and do their 'homework' in class, where they can ask for help as they practice new skills and apply new knowledge. This allows teachers to spend class time helping students apply what they've learned and coaching them as they work through challenges.
Cross-Disciplinary Projects: By integrating different disciplines into a single project, you can make the learning experience more holistic and interconnected, much like how the knowledge of different magical disciplines would combine in a fantasy setting.
Competency-Based Learning: In this educational model, students advance upon mastering a skill or a competency. This encourages active utilization of knowledge and immediate feedback, similar to how a magic student might advance only after successfully casting a particular spell.
Now that we have given a basic outline of the teaching styles we can go over the curriculum for K-12 the idea would be to Have an A/B day schedule and some classes would meet less frequently because they don't take much time to cover everything, all of this will be done in order to create well rounded students, people and citizens. They are not only creative in nature, but leaders in their own right as well as capable of doing whatever they desire and succeeding wildly
Core Curriculum Classes:
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics): must Ensure these subjects are covered both within the integrated curriculum (like coding in math, cooking in science, history in art, etc.) and as standalone classes to develop depth of knowledge.
Memory Techniques & Knowledge Management Techniques: Using an Integrated code based system with AI tools to help teacher track progress and provide more targeted assistance as well as help students with how to effectively organize and manage knowledge, covering basic note-taking, the PARA/CODE system. Using AI to provide semi interactive sessions that not only explain how memory works but also actively encourage the practice of using the note taking method & memory techniques
Project-Based Learning: Encourage practical application of knowledge through project-based learning. Gamification & Experiential Learning: Use these techniques to make learning more engaging and fun.
Flipped Classroom & Inquiry-Based Learning: Encourage independent learning and critical thinking through these teaching methods.
Elementary School: Coding & Digital Literacy: Introduce basic coding principles using visual coding platforms. Begin teaching about online safety and basic cybersecurity. Financial Literacy: Teach basic concepts like the value of money, saving, and spending. Potential to introduce the use of real currency and creating student based economy Community Service: Arrange class-based community projects and encourage involvement in community service outside of school. Gardening & Cooking: Teach students about plants, nutrition, and basic cooking skills through a school garden. Literacy & Reading: Develop a reading program that exposes students to a variety of genres. Writing can begin with simple sentences. History: Teach history from a holistic and critical perspective, exploring different cultures and perspectives. Basic Medicine & First Aid: Introduce simple health, hygiene, and basic first aid skills. Physical Education: Encourage a love for physical activity through a variety of engaging games. Emotional Regulation & Healthy Relationships with Technology: Incorporate social-emotional learning and healthy technology use. Leadership: Begin fostering leadership qualities through group activities and responsibility sharing. Self-Defense: Introduce basic safety rules and personal boundaries. Spanish: Introduce basic Spanish vocabulary and phrases, along with exposure to the culture of Spanish-speaking countries. Songs, games, and interactive activities can be used to make learning enjoyable.
Middle School: Coding, Digital Literacy & Practical Engineering: Continue coding education and introduce robotics and basic electronics. Financial Literacy: Start teaching about budgeting, banking, and simple concepts of earning. Potential to introduce the use of real currency and creating student based economy Community Service: Encourage students to plan and lead community service projects, either in groups or individually. Gardening & Cooking: Progress in gardening and cooking skills, introducing sustainability issues. Literacy, Reading, & Writing Skills: Increase complexity of reading and writing assignments. History: Provide more in-depth history education using primary sources and interpretations. Basic Medicine & First Aid: Offer a more detailed course on first aid and health. Physical Education: Introduce a range of physical activities, sports, and body awareness topics. Emotional Regulation & Healthy Relationships with Technology: Develop emotional intelligence skills, mindfulness practices, and education about responsible technology use. Leadership: Teach various leadership styles and emphasize group projects requiring delegation and decision-making. Self-Defense: Continue with more practical self-defense techniques. Study of Government: Begin a foundational study of the local and national government. Teach students about the branches of government, their roles, and how laws are made. Spanish: Continue to build on vocabulary and grammar learned in elementary school. Introduce simple written exercises and encourage basic conversation in Spanish.
High School: Coding, Digital Literacy & Practical Engineering: Offer advanced coding and practical engineering classes, including topics like 3D modeling and advanced electronics.Teach more advanced cybersecurity concepts and ethics of digital communication Gardening & Cooking: As elective courses, delve into advanced topics like food science or agricultural technology. Literacy, Reading, & Writing Skills: Offer a variety of literature courses, creative writing classes, and research-based writing. History: Teach history as a dynamic and interpretive subject, encouraging critical thinking. Basic Medicine & First Aid: Include more advanced first aid, mental health awareness, and basic human anatomy and physiology. Physical Education: Offer a range of athletic options, and include education about exercise science and long-term health benefits. Emotional Regulation & Healthy Relationships with Technology: Provide resources for emotional regulation, advanced mindfulness techniques, and in-depth discussions about technology's role in society. Leadership: Delve deeper into conflict resolution, strategic planning, and ethical leadership, often through real-world applications. Financial Literacy: Start teaching about budgeting, banking, and simple concepts of earning. Potential to encourage student to start their own business or get a job and have students buy things from each other Self-Defense/Mixed Martial Arts: For interested students, offer elective classes in mixed martial arts, fostering physical and mental skills. Study of Government: Expand on knowledge from middle school and introduce international government systems. Discuss the concepts of democracy, socialism, and other forms of government. Involve students in mock debates and simulations, like Model United Nations or Mock Parliament. Study of Politics: Begin a course on political science, covering key political ideologies, parties, and political processes. Discuss current events and involve students in debates and discussions to encourage critical thinking. Creating Change: Introduce a course on social activism and creating change. This can involve studying historical movements for change, understanding how to effect change within a legal framework, learning about peaceful protest, and planning and implementing a small-scale change project within the school or community. Spanish: Continue to deepen knowledge of Spanish. Encourage advanced conversation and written exercises. Students could read Spanish literature or news and discuss in class, fostering language skills and cultural understanding.
This kind of curriculum would be nearly the best, being interdisciplinary, hands-on, and centered around the interests and needs of the students. It would aim to not only equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the world, but also ignite their passion for learning and encourage them to continue learning throughout their lives.
But before we’re done one last thing must be covered. How to assess a student's growth because science shows that paper tests are not suited for the task. There are many innovative ways to assess student understanding and skills without relying solely on traditional exams. The methods that could be used include Assessment Methods
Portfolios: Students could compile portfolios of their work, which could include code they've written, projects they've completed, or essays they've written. A portfolio allows students to demonstrate their learning process, their progress over time, and their ability to apply what they've learned in different contexts.
Presentations: Students can demonstrate their understanding of a topic by presenting on it. This could involve presenting a project they've completed, explaining a concept to the class, or debating a topic with classmates.
Peer and Self-Assessment: Students can learn a lot from assessing each other's work or their own work. This can help them develop a better understanding of the assessment criteria and improve their ability to critically evaluate work.
Performance Assessment: In subjects like self-defense, physical education, cooking, or gardening, students could be assessed based on their performance. This could involve demonstrating a technique, completing a task, or participating in a game or competition.
Reflective Journals: Students could maintain journals where they reflect on what they've learned, how they've applied it, and what they still want to understand better. This can give teachers insight into a student's thought process and their understanding of the subject.
Project-Based Assessment: Students can be assessed on the projects they complete, whether individually or in groups. This allows students to demonstrate a range of skills, including knowledge of the subject, problem-solving, creativity, and teamwork.
Community Service Assessment: In addition to the other assessments, teachers can assess students' community service involvement, their planning and leadership skills, as well as their reflections on their experiences.
The emphasis of Knowledge Management Techniques and Memory Techniques in core classes as a standalone session every day would ideally give students a break from traditional instruction and allow them to process and manage their learnings. This can be in the form of group discussions, independent reflection time, or guided activities for planning and organizing their work.

Recently, my school organized a special lecture on the history of the Orient.This lecture was called "The Miracle of the Han River," and it was given by a professor from outside Korea.I was very curious about Korea, so I was looking forward to this lecture. In fact, the reason why this lecture was held was at the request of the students. Since Korean culture has been penetrating into American society for a long time, and many things that we enjoy without thinking are related to Korea, students were curious about what Korea is like.
Then Patrick, the student leader and president of our school, asked the teachers if they could organize a special lecture on Korean history, and they accepted, and eventually the whole class gathered in the auditorium and participated in the lecture. Often, our school invites outside professors to give lectures like this, and most of the time, the interest in such lectures is very high, and the lecture on Korean history was also extremely popular. However, the lectures that invite professors from prestigious universities and the opportunity to gain new knowledge about Korea are popular enough to fill the gymnasium.On this day, there were many students in the gymnasium converted into a lecture hall.As the professor entered, gave a brief introduction, and announced the topic of the day's lecture, everyone looked at him with interest. The professor said that he was asked to give a lecture on the history of the East, and when he was thinking about what topic to tell the students, he thought it would be better to talk about the modern history and economic development of Korea, and for two hours without a break, he explained in depth, in detail, easily understandable, and really interesting.
The professor's first words were impactful: "You all know Haiti, the country that receives U.S. aid, suffered a major earthquake about 15 years ago and has never recovered from it, and is in a state of chaos as one of the poorest countries in the world." "But how would you feel if, 30 years later, you were told to congratulate Haiti on becoming an economic powerhouse?" "I'm the generation that actually witnessed it. "I'm the generation that actually saw that happen, where we were the poorest country in the world, and all of a sudden, we were told that we were an economic powerhouse and that we should be congratulated."The students were surprised to learn that South Korea was once the poorest country in the world, even though it was still a decade after the end of World War II.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Korea was a very poor country until the middle of the 20th century, but since the 1960s, it has experienced rapid economic growth and made remarkable progress, which has been called the 'Miracle on the Han River', and today I am going to tell you the story."
From the beginning of the lecture, the students listened attentively as the professor engaged their interest, and I was particularly curious about how South Korea was able to develop so quickly.
"Korea was devastated after the Korean War in the 1950s, but in the 1960s, a government-led economic development plan began.At that time, Korea made a five-year plan for economic development under the leadership of the government, and fostered industries centered on heavy chemical industries such as steel, chemicals, and electronics.In addition, the country invested heavily in education, and many talented people were produced based on high educational enthusiasm."
The professor's explanation was very detailed and interesting, and I was in awe as he talked about Korea's economic development.
"In particular, in the 1970s, the Saemaul movement was launched to promote the development of rural areas and improve the living standards of the people."At that time, residents in rural areas voluntarily maintained their villages and strived for the development of their communities."These efforts helped Korea to rapidly transform from an agriculture-oriented society to an industry-oriented society.""And this Saemaul movement has become an example for many developing countries to this day, and countless policies have been implemented to copy Korea's Saemaul movement. "It is now accepted wisdom that Korea's Saemaul movement was a seemingly simple campaign that contributed tremendously to building the country's economic foundation, with reports of rapid development in some cases and failure in others." "Korea has written a textbook curriculum on how to grow an economy, and its achievements have become a model."
I realized how much effort Korea, which was poor in the past, made to grow its economy.It was a huge lecture of 2 hours, so I can only write down the core flow, so please understand.The process of Korea laying the economic foundation and starting the high-speed growth was really interesting, and there were many points where I learned how much effort Korean policy researchers made at that time.And the efforts of Korean people who believed in the government and followed the policy, even sacrificing themselves, were also great.
"Today, Korea is an IT powerhouse, with world-class companies such as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai Motor, which have great influence in the global market and are an important pillar of Korea's economy." "The characteristic of Korean companies is that they have always strived to develop technology. "There are five technological powers in the world," he said, "the United States, Germany, Japan, Korea, and France." "The United States and Germany have been doing research and development since the Industrial Revolution, while France has been doing research and development since the Industrial Revolution, and Japan received a huge amount of aid from the United States in 1950, taking advantage of the Korean War. It was thought that Japan, which started 20 years earlier than Korea, would be recognized as the last technological power of the 20th century, but how Korea, which started research and development from the 1970s onwards, became the world's fifth technological power, was a very interesting topic among professors in the 1990s.
And unlike Japan, Korea became a semiconductor powerhouse in the 21st century, and even succeeded in fostering an industry that Japan did not, and created a great foundation for Korea to become a developed country.Look at the iPhone you're using right now, and look at it.Do you see a Samsung product in there?
Most Americans think that the iPhone is made by Apple and developed by Apple, but many of the components in it come from Korea, and without Korea, the product you're using would be half as powerful as it is today.
The professor kept the students' attention for the entire two-hour lecture, explaining the difficult content in terms of the smartphones they use.
At the end of the lecture, the professor said that there are only two role models of economic development in the 20th century, Germany's development and Korea's development are very meaningful, and if you want to major in economics or international affairs, you should familiarize yourself with these contents because they are all liberal arts contents.
And originally, this kind of lecture should be 200 hours instead of 2 hours, but since it was shortened to a hundred and one, the fun is only a hundred and one, and if you want to hear more details, you should study hard and go to the prestigious university where you are, and the excellent lecture ended with the story.
After the lecture, I wanted to ask the professor more questions, but there were already a lot of students gathered around him.Then, my friend Xiao approached me.Xiao was a student who was educated in China until elementary school and then moved to the United States."Avery, how did you like the lecture?" Xiao asked me. I really liked the lecture and I have a lot of questions, so I wanted to ask the professor, but I could already hear the other students lamenting that they wouldn't be able to because the professor was surrounded by other students.I had to leave the lecture hall with Xiao, who was listening to the lecture with interest next to me.As we walked down the hall, I continued to talk to Xiao.Minhwa and Jia told me that they didn't know why they hated Korea so much, and they had to tell me a frustrating story.
In fact, Minhwa and Jia are two students who are very anti-Korean, especially since the student council voted for and against this lecture, and there were two votes against it, so everyone could tell that it was Minhwa and Jia from China, and their anti-Korean feelings, or even hatred, were very strong.
Xiao told me that today's lecture was very different from what they teach in China, and what the professor told us today. Of course, in China, they teach distorted facts, and they don't believe in it, but if you're like Min Hua or Jia, who went to school in China until middle school, it's natural to have a negative opinion of Korea.
Xiao's words were sincere because he had lived in China until elementary school and had been educated in China, so he knew the reality of China very well.In China, Korea is often taught negatively, and Xiao also said that when he went to elementary school in China, he was taught that way, but when he came to the United States and was exposed to different perspectives, he realized that it was wrong.
At that moment, Minhwa and Jia walked up to us, or maybe I should say they walked up to Xiao.Minhwa had a disgruntled look on her face."Korea is so great? I never think so, Korea is worse than our China," Minhwa said unhappily.Jia, who had an equally unhappy look on her face, also spoke up."Right. What's so great about Korea, our China is better."
I was offended by their words, because the facts I learned about Korea all seemed interesting and amazing, so why didn't they think so? And when they said that China was better, they didn't have any basis, they just said that China was better, what's so great about Korea, and there was no power in their argument.Xiao was also not happy when his two Chinese friends asked him to sympathize with them.
Xiao usually doesn't like to argue with them, but this time he was in the mood for a fight.I intervened first."Korea has made great progress, and you'll see that when you do a little more research," I said calmly to Minhwa and Jia.But Minhwa and Jia didn't listen to me.They wouldn't even look at me when I was talking to them.That's when Xiao stepped in and said.
"I'm sorry Avery, Minhua and Jia have been mis-educated, so I'll apologize for them.I know why they think that way, but I know the truth is different, so I want to apologize to you."
After hearing Xiao's words, Minhua and Jia still showed their disapproval. They even loudly argued with Xiao in the hallway. All the students passing by couldn't help but notice that two Chinese friends with wrong ideas were bullying Xiao, a normal thinking Chinese friend, again.
In fact, this scene was not uncommon, but this day was different. Despite the fact that everyone had attended an impactful and fact-based lecture by a professor from a prestigious university, Min Hua and Jia seemed to have no room for improvement, and they were still shouting distorted facts and misinformation without any basis.
From that day on, they were increasingly bullied by their schoolmates. Even when Minhua and Jia tried to talk to their American friends, all their American friends would scold them, saying, "Are you going to distort American history like that?" and no one would listen to them.
At first, Minhua and Jia's attitude was nonetheless brazen and confident, but two Chinese students armed with wrong ideas can't live in isolation in this school. Our school has group work as the basic form of class participation, so there are many tasks that require the help of other students.
Eventually, Minhua and Jia came to me, Xiao, and our Korean friend Minji and apologized to us.To be honest, to this day, I don't know if their apology was sincere.They said that they had learned that much of the education they had received was false, and they promised that they would never say anything wrong again in the future.Part of me wanted to tell them that I knew they were lying to survive, but I couldn't turn my back on them, so I accepted their apology.After Minhua and Jia's disturbance and apology
Although I'm still a high school student, I know that when I grow up, I want to exercise my right to vote and join the anti-China movement. We also realized that China's policy of teaching the wrong history and the wrong international affairs is having a negative impact even here in the United States, a country so far away, and that it is causing the Chinese people to suffer.China's ambitious plan to turn the tables by playing shallow games is just ridiculous and will not work.
I can't help but think that the impact of these lectures on our school is great: first of all, we learned how important it is to filter out misleading and distorted information, and how important it is to listen to such information; secondly, many students have a deep understanding of what exactly the "Miracle of the Han River" is.
As a reminder, South Korea was very poor until the mid-20th century, but through government-led economic development plans and people's efforts, it has achieved remarkable growth, especially spontaneous rural development movements such as the Saemaul movement, which played a huge role in accelerating South Korea's industrialization.
Korea's development has been not just economic, but social as well, with Koreans overcoming difficulties and achieving remarkable results through their high levels of education, hard work, and sense of community.
Now, do you feel that there is any reason for Chinese people here to say that China is greater than Korea? Isn't it just that Korea has created a remarkable growth in the history of East Asia, and it is because of Korea's development that China's factories are able to operate? Just because China is lagging behind, to say that Korea is a lesser country is an expression of inferiority, and it is seen as a desperate attempt to deny their own lack.
This is a good liberal arts course where you can learn the facts about what Korea has done and speak about it with confidence in public, but I think the disturbance by the two Chinese students clouded the essence of the course, because the impact of the miracle of the Han River was diluted by the emotion of outrage at the Chinese students' behavior.
In my final presentation at the end of the semester, I plan to find more information about the Han River Miracle, add new information, and present it to my class, because I feel that it is unfair that the attention to Korea has been diverted for a while, and I think that it would be meaningful to talk about Korea in front of Minhwa, Jia, and my Korean friend Minji.
I hope that the country will soon develop into a mature society that can accept the truth as the truth.

I(24M) am currently studying Abroad. Since I was in highschool, I have been suffering from depression/anxiety/insecurity issues. So there was this girl which I had a crush on during my coaching it was around 7 years ago. But during the whole period, I never gathered enough courage to talk to her becaus at that time I felt like a loser and worthless.
So after my high school, I took a drop for jee and left the city and I forgot all about it. Well I always wanted to go abroad for the higher studies so I never really cared about Jee and all and as a consequence I failed. And after some drama and wasted years, I managed to go abroad.
During this whole time, I once visited friend's college (she was in same college) in india (while on vacation) and I saw her but again (after 3 years)and I couldn't say anything (I stood there thinking I should go but couldn't muster enough courage) and after it, I tried sending a request but it was not accepted. i think she doesn't even know if I was even interested. This the matter was closed pretty much and I had forgotten all about it. I had moved on and never thought about it after that ......
Now the best part of all, I attended my relatives marriage recently. And as a part of rituals I had to go to other party's house, and boom I saw her again. First I couldn't believe it but she was there.
So finally we met again in marriage but for whole duration of it, the only thing I could talk to her is " hey we used to study in same class". And she replied " oh is that so, I kinda forgotten about it". It felt like I was back to being a same idiot I once was in highschool even though normally, I can hold really good conversation with anyone on any level. I can talk on world politics, physics, philosophies, spirituality, economy, dark humor , music, mythologies, novels ect. I have grown much kinder, confident, understanding during all these years but I couldn't say even a single word apart from single sentence.
I was depressed during the whole wedding about this and kept staring at her like a desperate fool ( even though this is cringe and I knew it).
Finally when it was least expected, I met her yet again but this time it was at relative's home. This time we talked. It was mostly about the old times in the coaching and apparently we had common friends so we talked about it and how they are doing. She then shared her college journey about how it was and she had loads of fun. And I over shared my journey to college and told her all about my difficulties and depression and I still don't know why did I do that even when I never told my family about it. To sum it up, we had a nice chat for some time. We had same opinions on the mutual guy we know. She seems kind and awesome. It was quite evident to her that I am interested and I sent her a request very next day. But again she didn't accepted it. Then I tried resending it and it was same situation
To conclude it, I feel like, I am being a simp for her even though I never do this kind of behavior. I never had a girlfriend up until now because I always think beforehand that whether I will be able to have something meaningful with other party or not. Because I'll hate if someone will play with my feelings that's why I don't do it myself too. Thus I never tried to make a girlfriend and I'll even say I never felt a need for it.
I'm writing here because it's been months now and I still couldn't get over her. Its ruining my already fucked up mental health. This is the first time something like this happening to me. At the same time I realized it might be due to the fact that I saw her again after this time so my mind is playing tricks on me.
I am thinking about sending her request again ( it's a bad idea). But I don't know how to deal with this situation. It's eating me alive, hampering my productivity. What to do this this situation.
Thanks a lot in advance for answering.

I(24M) am currently studying Abroad. Since I was in highschool, I have been suffering from depression/anxiety/insecurity issues. So there was this girl which I had a crush on during my coaching it was around 7 years ago. But during the whole period, I never gathered enough courage to talk to her becaus at that time I felt like a loser and worthless.
So after my high school, I took a drop for jee and left the city and I forgot all about it. Well I always wanted to go abroad for the higher studies so I never really cared about Jee and all and as a consequence I failed. And after some drama and wasted years, I managed to go abroad.
During this whole time, I once visited friend's college (she was in same college) in india (while on vacation) and I saw her but again (after 3 years)and I couldn't say anything (I stood there thinking I should go but couldn't muster enough courage) and after it, I tried sending a request but it was not accepted. i think she doesn't even know if I was even interested. This the matter was closed pretty much and I had forgotten all about it. I had moved on and never thought about it after that ......
Now the best part of all, I attended my relatives marriage recently. And as a part of rituals I had to go to other party's house, and boom I saw her again. First I couldn't believe it but she was there.
So finally we met again in marriage but for whole duration of it, the only thing I could talk to her is " hey we used to study in same class". And she replied " oh is that so, I kinda forgotten about it". It felt like I was back to being a same idiot I once was in highschool even though normally, I can hold really good conversation with anyone on any level. I can talk on world politics, physics, philosophies, spirituality, economy, dark humor , music, mythologies, novels ect. I have grown much kinder, confident, understanding during all these years but I couldn't say even a single word apart from single sentence.
I was depressed during the whole wedding about this and kept staring at her like a desperate fool ( even though this is cringe and I knew it).
Finally when it was least expected, I met her yet again but this time it was at relative's home. This time we talked. It was mostly about the old times in the coaching and apparently we had common friends so we talked about it and how they are doing. She then shared her college journey about how it was and she had loads of fun. And I over shared my journey to college and told her all about my difficulties and depression and I still don't know why did I do that even when I never told my family about it. To sum it up, we had a nice chat for some time. We had same opinions on the mutual guy we know. She seems kind and awesome. It was quite evident to her that I am interested and I sent her a request very next day. But again she didn't accepted it. Then I tried resending it and it was same situation
To conclude it, I feel like, I am being a simp for her even though I never do this kind of behavior. I never had a girlfriend up until now because I always think beforehand that whether I will be able to have something meaningful with other party or not. Because I'll hate if someone will play with my feelings that's why I don't do it myself too. Thus I never tried to make a girlfriend and I'll even say I never felt a need for it.
I'm writing here because it's been months now and I still couldn't get over her. Its ruining my already fucked up mental health. This is the first time something like this happening to me. At the same time I realized it might be due to the fact that I saw her again after this time so my mind is playing tricks on me.
I am thinking about sending her request again ( it's a bad idea). But I don't know how to deal with this situation. It's eating me alive, hampering my productivity. What to do this this situation.
Thanks a lot in advance for answering.

“I attended middle school with her, although we did not attend high school together (she instead attended a high school that was supposed to help students gain college credits. She earned two liberal arts degrees while there in Social and Behavioral Sciences and Natural Sciences. She now attends an HCBU, and has on her LinkedIn profile that she is presently working toward graduating from her college with a degree in Health Sciences, Pre Med, and a minor in Military Science. She is apart of her school’s Army ROTC.)
I remember that a lot of people in middle school did not like her (although that was also the case for me,) and I understood why. She seemed noticeably introverted, yet also didn’t seem like the kind of person, at least from my perspective, who would try to appease you in the way I imagine a lot of people feel the stereotypical woman might. She had a strong glare (I remember mentioning this to my then best friend’s mom, who agreed with the suggestion) and stood out to me as being weird (it wasn’t necessarily anything she said or did - not her personality, exactly - it’s just the strong glare I mentioned, like she didn’t tend to look sincerely happy nor would she pretend to be unless she was around friends of hers. I remember that she didn’t tend to look happy, in my opinion. It’s possible that she was depressed, or she may have just tended to look irritable, I don’t know. She didn’t strike me as being the kind of person who would make an effort to be polite, struck me as being tomboyish and unladylike, the kind of person who wouldn’t try to change the way she was for you - I wasn’t used to it. Seemed competitive, too. I had truly never interacted with a girl who was like that before. She also struck me as being smart, although she was in the normal math class whereas I was in the advanced one (I was known for being smarter, but thought it should have been her. However, I did notice after looking at her LinkedIn profile that there were more grammatical errors than I expected.)
I remember that she and her friend (who I later on ended up being on good terms with) decided early on that they disliked me, although I hadn’t done anything to them, which bothered me. They also once used me for food in sixth grade, which had also bothered/upset me.
I remember that my former best friend had issues with her ranging back to elementary school, and that in sixth grade in particular they were competing for the attention of an ISFP they’d both been friends with since elementary school. This girl is the one who won the ISFP’s attention/was officially her best friend by the time they were in seventh grade. However, around seventh or eighth grade (it’s been so long that I no longer quite remember,) she “ditched” (in the words of my former best friend) the ISFP and the other friend I’d mentioned in favor of a new crowd. I actually remember my former best friend suggested that the people in her new crowd didn’t like her, either (although she hung out with them throughout eighth grade, and briefly went to high school in person with one of them as a junior whilst presumably taking courses at the other high school online, so I assume that she never knew this/didn’t read them well enough to know or understand this.) I notice that she unfollowed the ISFP at some point as a senior, though the ISFP never unfollowed her (she strikes me as being the kind of person who likely took note of the fact that the ISFP’s life doesn’t seem to be heading in a good direction - the ISFP was abused a few years ago, and has had substance use issues since, in addition to having had to repeat a year of high school. She also unfollowed my former best friend, and my former best friend recently unfollowed her back.)
She figured out that I was the one who owned the middle school gossip account (although most of our peers already suspected, and technically, this girl couldn’t prove it either.) She figured this out because she remembered that I was standing nearby when she told my former best friend who she had a crush on (I was being mean and told our peers who she was crushing on.) However, she never directly confronted me about the matter, even though she told my former best friend that she suspected it to be me. She later on changed her mind when I was kind to her friend who lost the role for graduation speaker to me toward the end of eighth grade (but she was right the first time.)
I noticed around junior year that she has actually turned out to be quite nice looking, even though I had once meanly suggested that she was fat in middle school (she was a tad bit chubby, though as an adult I’m inclined to suggest that this was likely simply baby fat/that with us being so young there wasn’t really anything wrong with this.) She does seem to wear makeup, but also has nice style (she is light skinned, and has a looser hair texture, which are likely factors in me thinking she’s attractive, if I’m being honest - she’s mixed race, with a black mother and white father.) I can’t possibly know, but she gives off the impression to me of being someone who knows that she’s attractive (just something about her energy/facial expressions in photos. She has her Instagram account public now.)”
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So I graduated high school with my associate's degree and a full scholarship to any public university and some trade schools. I attended my first year of university this past year and realized it wasn't for me. I loved the culture of it, walking everywhere and the social aspect, but realized psychology just wasn't what I wanted to do anymore, especially with the idea of having to attend school for 4 more years to get my master's to be an art therapist. So I finished my semester and dropped out.
I am stuck between two decisions, esthetician (which I just posted on a board about) and an elementary school art teacher.
I want to take the summer and fall to just work and think. However, I am hoping to work at this daycare my friend does in hopes to see if I like working with kids and could see myself going down a teacher route. Is it worth it?
With having to deal with the board's control over your moves and decisions and the pay, is it worth it? I could see myself really enjoying it, especially because it would leave time for me to create and sell art on the side. But I have a feeling that's not the reality of it. How bad are the stressors? And is working that childcare job a good start? What are the difficulties of working with children and art? Do you wish you had chose older students? Is there anything I should know before working as a teacher? Do you regret it?
Anything is helpful. I really appreciate your time. Thank you! :)

Hello!!! I personally have no idea what it’s like to be bipolar but i’m sure it’s not something that easy to live with. I’ve come here for advice on how to handle my friend
My friend has been my best friend since elementary school (we are 17 now) so many years , i know her inside and out and something is off.
i’ve done some research into bipolar 1 since we don’t discuss it often and i think she’s manic she’s snappy at me and then the next minute she’s going to go hook up with other guy (she always been really insecure so hooking up with guys is WAY out of the ordinary) i’ve tried saying something but she just gets WILDLY upset like i said something offensive
i just need to know at what point do i intervene and how do i do so with making her hate me
edit : there’s a lot more to it this is just a very short summary please be mindful of that ❤️

So I graduated high school with my associate's degree and a full scholarship to any public university and some trade schools. I attended my first year of university this past year and realized it wasn't for me. I loved the culture of it, walking everywhere and the social aspect, but realized psychology just wasn't what I wanted to do anymore, especially with the idea of having to attend school for 4 more years to get my master's to be an art therapist. So I finished my semester and dropped out.
I have been pretty interested in facial and massage school for a while. A few years I'd say just in the back of my head. As of recently, I have been actually considering it more recently but im stressing myself out about it. I have a school near me that I toured and was told by other people it was really good. I have talked to people there and through my scholarship and it seems its possible I can use my scholarship to cover my license but I am scared of whether or not to go through with it.
I have decided to wait until the spring term to start there, if I choose to. I want to take the summer and fall to just work and think. I am hoping to work at this daycare my friend does in hopes to see if I like working with kids and could see myself going down an elementary school art teacher instead. Is there anything similar to that course of action for esthetics? I have watched plenty of "day in my life" of esthetician videos but I don't think it is enough. Should I try contacting estheticians? I am just afraid. I went to university thinking it was exactly for me because I loved school, but I hated the reality of it, at least for psychology. I am scared of making the same mistake.
I have come to terms with the reality of being an esthetician: building clientele is hard, probably will have to work another job on the side at the start, its competitive, etc. But something tells me I could really enjoy it. I loved studying in school. The idea of learning what chemicals do and how, face muscles, and overall skincare procedures sounds so interesting. but what if it isn't what I think it is? Could you give me some reality checks?
The only thing keeping me sane about this is if I decide to get my licenses they would at least be a paying job . I know this is loaded, but i have changed my entire life and I think I need some more reality checks.

Does anyone else not have a teacher for one of their subjects? (Like their school hasn't been able to hire one). I'm taking tutoring for the subject in question but it doesn't feel the same. I feel super demotivated. I feel like I'm not taking advantage of the class because everyone else is going in with knowledge about the stuff before hand but I'm like seeing it for the first time there. I've been thinking of pre-studying before class but I feel like that'll take so much time and energy. It's making me feel kind of hopeless, I just wish we had a teacher. It doesn't help that the subject, eco, is question is like actually kind of hard for me. I feel like I always have to say the right key words but I have no idea how people get those exact key words or phrases in the first place.
To be honest I actually feel like garbage. I didn't expect it to impact me this strongly but it feels like everything is piling up.
Any tips?

Hey everyone I just finished watching Jane Schoenbrun's "I Saw the TV Glow" and I have a lot of thoughts. I wanted to post my letterboxd review here to get some discussion going. A lot of people liked this movie but I did not! School me on what I missed !
I really wanted to like this movie, and there were some hits for sure, but mostly, mainly misses:
Hits: • The musical performances and soundtrack. Caroline Polachek!! •A handful of moments with particularly haunting imagery (Mr melancholy spotlight, the shower scene, "opening up" scene) • The practical effects, although I was left wanting more... • Some first-class themes, explored in an original way
Misses • Plot: was there a plot? or was there just a half-baked idea that was played out through 40 fast years of someone's life? • Characters: awkward dialogue on top of bad acting on top of flat characters. There are only really two characters in this movie and they have negative chemistry with each other. We also only learn one thing about each of them and see basically no growth over the course of the movie (except for some absolute cop-out "growth" in the "opening up" scene. see my point on metaphor) • Nebulous metaphor: IMO metaphor is not often done well in movies and this movie is no exception. I would say the use of metaphor was actually notably bad. As soon as "this" has to represent "that" for the movie to make sense, I'm calling you a bad screenwriter. especially when the metaphor falls apart when you try to poke at it... • Final act: the last 30 minutes of the movie had me screaming "SHOW DONT TELL" If I wanted to have the entire finale of the movie summed up in a monologue with no compelling visuals I would just read the movie's Wikipedia page. Especially, disappointing considering the super fun practical effects and visuals in the middle of the film!!!! Also I acknowledge that the "opening up" did show us something but... nothing good... • Lighting: if you like it you like it, but for me the coloured lighting was a little overdone.
I've read a lot of positive reviews and I'm happy for the people for whom this resonates, but I was just hoping for something ..... better

WPA – A Completely Average Roadtrip
Disclaimer: Not canon, and I don’t use patreon so please don’t spoil me. Also, any opinion held by a character is that of the characters and not my own. Enjoy.
Town of Ljosalfington, local time 14:00, week 7
Emma Booker
“Again Illunor, I warned you before that this is a utility vehicle, not a party rated smart-limo. I am already compromising more than I should by allowing you to use the sample cooler as a minifridge, one which I can’t even use!” I said as I loaded the materials I had just purchased into the back of the high-G All terrain fusion-ethanol-electric hybrid 24th-century legacy pickup truck that I had printed out earlier this week, carefully avoiding the heavy ordinance hard point.
“That is hardly an excuse for that abysmally cramped leg space barely fit for cattle, never mind the bare minimum for standard decorum suitable for nobility. If this is what a car is like, then I don’t see why you care for your technology,” complained Illunor, who was sitting around idly with a malformed garish bowl of icecream that he had stashed away from lunch.
“If it bothers you so much, perhaps you could help next time with your ‘bigger-on-the-inside’ magic,” I retorted as I slid the last core sample into the back before covering it up with a tarp and strapping it down.
I had originally planned to visit Ljosalfington by myself to acquire much needed exo-materials to test various mana manipulator configurations as I worked to develop my first wand as not all of the materials I needed were procurable locally from Elaseer. I eventually yielded, much to my regret, to allowing Illunor to come with me as he insisted on wanting to deliver a letter personally in town after Thacea had pointed out the wisdom of not travelling alone.
We continued our back and forth for a bit yet as I finished securing my payload a voice called out to me from the direction of the town.
“Excuse me a moment, I couldn’t help but notice but are you from the academy?”
I turned to see an elf dressed in a plain brown buttoned up tunic matched by a slightly shabby pair of trousers with what appeared to be a lute upon his back and a plain and unenchanted longsword on his belt gesturing at our robes. Mine especially were new and unusual, tailored by the academy to go over my armour and allow access to the anchor points and allow me to exit my armour with minimal hassle. Illunor scoffed at what was evidently a commoner’s arrogance at approaching nobility and turned his head away in disgust. I glanced at Illunor and shook my head before turning to face the new man. I had time to spare, and any opportunity to engage in a hearts-and-minds dialogue with the locals outside the bounds of the managed environment of the academy was more than worth the time to chat. Especially as most of the other locals seemed to be content in ignoring me.
“Yes, we are currently studying at the Transgracian Academy. I am Cadet Emma Booker representing the United Nations of Earth and Luna from Earthream, and my aloof compatriot is Lord Illunor Rularia of the Vunerian courts. We were just about to head back but are in no rush. May I ask your name and what brings you by?” I asked with my hand outstretched in greeting.
“Ah yes, yes. My name is Edhel Redoehdelnif, a wandering bard by trade like my father and his father before him. My apologies, Cadet Emma Booker, I am unfamiliar with Earthrealm,” said Edhel as he grasped my hand with both of his and shook it tepidly yet vigorously. Or rather, tried to, as the motors on my suit resisted his efforts.
“News doesn’t seem to spread all that fast around here, so it makes sense you haven’t heard of us. We’re a new realm, and only just got here. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Edhel Redoehdelnif,” I replied.
“Absolutely fascinating! And a knight no less, or perhaps a squire? I’m sure you have many stories to tell of Earthrealm. Say, by chance are you about to head back to the academy? I have business in Elaseer and the usual coach has been absent as of late so I would rather not go it alone,” said Edhel.
I was hesitant to bring a stranger back in the car with me, even if Illunor was present. However, the opportunity that meeting a bard presented was too good to pass up from an intel perspective and to win the favour of the populace at large.
“That is a great idea. I think I have room for one more…” I paused before gesturing towards Illunor, “provided everyone is ok with it that is.”
Illunor gave a huff and turned his head away in silence.
“Very well, I will allow this. But he will not be joining me in your sorry excuse for a coach,” said Illunor dismissively.
Illunor approached the backseat expectantly and the door opened for him automatically, allowing the dlc kobold to gracefully enter and lounge across the length of the seats, once again ignoring the seatbelts. I sighed as I made my way to the driver’s seat, and Edhel entered from the passenger side as he marveled at the automatic doors and the interior.
“What a strange carriage this is! Although I must say, shouldn’t you be retrieving your horses? I didn’t see any harnesses or sense any artifices,” inquired Edhel as he attempted to make himself comfortable on the car seat, lute in front of him.
“Oh no, this thing doesn’t need horses or magic,” I said with a chuckle as EVI started the car. The elf raised his eyebrows at the sudden hum of the engine and made an expression of alarm when the car started driving itself without my input. “See, purrs like a kitten.”
“Earthrealm must have some large kittens if they purr like that,” noted Edhel, “but you must be concealing the enchantments somewhere. Such a thing as this with such strange yet precise craftsmanship is only possible in the crownlands.”
“Nope, no magic,” I said cheerfully.
“Then how?” Asked Edhel.
“It’s rather simple really. Are you familiar with the workings of a mill?” I asked, deciding to keep things surface level and elementary to avoid provoking the IDOV threshold.
“Somewhat, though I confess to not being familiar with their workings. Are you suggesting this is akin to a mill?” Asked Edhel perplexed.
“It’s the same principal. A mill works by taking a source of rotation such as a waterwheel or windmill, transferring that rotation along a series of rotating shafts and interlocking gears, and finally putting that energy to work by rotating a millstone,” I began as the car pulled out onto the smooth cobbled road in the direction of Elaseer. A notification popped up in the corner of my vision indicating my recon drone swarm had shifted from a holding formation to a convoy screening formation, and while the roads were clear I kept the speed at 60km/h to account for my passenger’s apparent distaste for seatbelts.
“Rotation…” muttered Edhel. He turned to face one of the wheels and EVI pinged an alert for a probable match for a detection spell, “fascinating.”
“Edhel, what are you doing?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, perhaps I should have asked first. Yes, I can see how it all fits together. But the source of this rotation? I see no mighty river or great wind to power this, so where does it come from?” Asked Edhel, not really apologizing. Elven arrogance, it seemed, was not limited by class.
The act reminded me of Sorecar when he inspected my gun, but where the armourer had been respectful with it, Edhel was more flippant. I considered the possibility that he was a spy sent by one of her peers or the crownlands, though this did not mesh with the methods I had seen so far. Edhel may have been just overly enthusiastic. In either case, I quickly decided to only reveal the antique design for the ethanol engine, and not that of the batteries or the emergency coupler to my suit’s fusion reactor.
“Right, well please ask first next time. As to your question, I won’t bore you with the details, but the rotation is generated by creating a periodic sequence of explosions inside of a machine – a manaless artifice – called a combustion engine, said Emma.
“So that’s what that sound is…” pondered Edhel, “are these artifices typical in Earthream?”
“You are awfully inquisitive for a commoner,” noted Illunor as he inspected his nails for dirt, “and rather accepting of something which should be impossible.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a bard if I wasn’t, my lord,” said Edhel shifting uncomfortably in his seat, “perhaps some music might set the mood better?”
“That would be preferable, bard. I have heard enough of the Earthrealmer’s Road Trip Playlist and would like to listen to some music of real culture,” said Illunor.
The bard agreed and proceeded to awkwardly play a ballad about an adventurer who slew a hydra in some frozen wasteland. Partway through, I politely interrupted the Edhel to point out the seat controls much to his fascination and Illunor’s grumbling at their common nature, and after some adjustment the bard went on playing and I half-heartedly listened while I paid attention to the road and my drone feed.
Particularly after EVI detected something unusual and alerted me to its presence.
”Attention Caded Booker. There is a disabled vehicle blocking the primary route to destination. Heat signatures in the woods are consistent with that of an ambush.”
“Damn it,” I muttered.
I glanced at the drone feed to see a broken cart strewn horizontally across a wooden bridge over a brook. On the surface it looked like a pair of civilians who required aid and assistance, but off in the woods were several heat signatures, several of which held weapons of varying levels of enchantments. Occasionally one of the pair on the bridge would talk with them, suggesting they were in cahoots rather than hostages. I recalled crossing that very bridge not a few hours earlier, so the blockade was very recent.
“EVI, did we pass that cart on the way here?” I asked.
”Negative,” replied EVI.
I grimaced. I had been trained to handle road-side ambushes, but it was only something that was a theoretical possibility. Something that should only occur in a warzone or a corrupt and unstable polity. I knew I had the capacity to handle such an encounter, even non-lethally, but that didn’t change the fact that these were civilians and as such were the responsibility of local law enforcement. Combined with the fact that I had passengers I was responsible for and engaging the ambush was a risky option.
“EVI, give me a list of alternative routes,” I commanded.
”Affirmative. Here is a list of routes in order of recommendation,” replied EVI.
I looked over the routes superimposed on a map of the region and quickly dismissed taking a shortcut through the forest and cutting through farmland. A detour caught my eye that extended the journey by roughly ten kilometers and I immediately sent a pair of drones to scout it out before committing to the detour.
“Are you alright, Cadet Emma Booker? You seem distracted,” asked Edhel, snapping me back to reality.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just focused on driving,” replied Emma.
“I suppose it must be quite taxing to command an artificed carriage of this complexity. Perhaps it might ease your mind if you were to regale me a tale of a hero of your realm?” Said Edhel, strumming a complex tune from his lute as he spoke as each and every pluck triggered a low-level spell.
“Well, that may be a problem. We don’t have any monsters to fight, and wars are a thing of the past,” I said while desperately tip-toeing the subject of aunt Ran, the subject of war, and our voyages through the cosmos, “though we are not without the adventurous spirit. We certainly have many stories of grand voyages. Some mythical and fictional such as The Odyssey as told by the Greek poet Homer and some historical such as the race to the south pole.”
“The south pole,” muttered the bard, “so you have explored all of Earthrealm then? I suppose that makes some sense, if you have artifices such as this then traversal of a globe would be quite manageable.”
“You are quite perceptive,” I said, not wishing to elaborate.
“A great performer knows his audience,” said Edhel with a charming, honest, almost human smile.
I felt a pang of homesickness as an intrusive thought reminded me that I could have gone to a real college surrounded by friendly faces my age, engaging in nightly holostreams and dreaming of adventures in the stars from the safety of a college dorm room. The sight of Illunor in the rear camera was the only thing that kept me grounded, as I almost felt like I was back at home on a road trip rather than returning to a fantasy feudal court, constantly evading death at every turn with the fate of humanity on the line. As such, and prompted by EVI, I barely had the wherewithal to take the planned detour.
A fact which did not pass by Edhel.
“I believe you may have taken a wrong turn, Emma,” he commented.
“Nah, I’m just taking the scenic route. I came from that direction on the way here, and you have inspired me to see the other road and I figure it should only add a few extra minutes to our travel time,” I said, gesturing at a paper map which I had referenced exactly once, “though on that subject, you seem to know these lands quite well. Do you have any recommendations on places to visit in the Nexus to scratch that itch?”
Illunor raised his eyebrow at the detour excuse, knowing full well this was not part of the plan. I worried that he might complain about the issue and but thankfully remained silent as he snacked on the contents of the misused sample storage unit. Edhel himself took on a more pensive posture.
“I’m happy to have been such an inspiration, Emma, though I am sure an explorer such as yourself has little need of such. I would normally suggest the skyward fountains of Verdellan or the cloud tides of Asturia, but that may be too casual for someone of your calibre. Perhaps the severed chasm or the fire marsh of Bhandahova may be more to your liking. Or perhaps…” Edhel leaned in, “I have heard rumours of a dragon in the glassy obsidian wastes of Vurcanar.”
I chuckled at that, knowing how I was fortunate enough to fish a dragon scale out of the nearby lake for the ECS. “The thought of going dragon hunting had certainly crossed my mind…” I mused aloud.
“Yet you sound hesitant. Perhaps it is too much for a newrealmer. Perhaps a slime or a dire rat might be more appropriate,” he said with a tease.
“No, it’s not like that! It’s” I stammered, before attempting to change course after realizing I had been goaded, “what I mean is, I was under the impression that dragons were an endangered species. Where I come from, hunting endangered animals is usually illegal, and big game hunting in general is frowned upon. We do make exceptions in the case of problem animals such as if a large predator starts hunting humans, but as a rule we prefer conservation and try to find ways of coexisting with wildlife such as the use of barrier fences and scaring away dangerous animals rather than being forced to cull their numbers. Having a species go extinct would prevent future generations from appreciating them and risks destabilizing the ecosystem they are a part of. Now if this dragon was actively razing villages and eating civilians and livestock, that would be one thing, but this does not look to be the case. I don’t imagine the Nexus has any settlements in this wasteland, and the dragon clearly wants to be left alone. Killing an innocent dragon would be murder.”
I grinned to myself after delivering a diatribe that would have made my tenth grade social and environmental studies teacher beam with pride, though by the expressions of my passengers my view did not appear to be shared. Edhel’s mouth was agape in shock and fascination, while the Venurian in the back seat merely huffed in disapproval.
“I assure you Newrealmer, there are no innocent dragons,” stated Illunor with a hint of terseness breaking through his otherwise regal demeanor.
“Illunor, I understand that Venurians have personal reasons for not liking dragons, but you can’t just extend that disdain to their descendants or those uninvolved just because they are the same species,” I said.
“If I may interject on your behalf, my lord, I believe I can address Cadet Emma Booker’s concerns,” said Edhel with a bow. Illunor nodded in approval.
“Very well, you may proceed,” he said.
“Thank you, my lord. My dear Emma, you must understand that dragons are not simple animals driven entirely off of instinct as it appears to be the case in Earthrealm. They are monsters. Intelligent, long-lived, violent, greedy, cruel, territorial, selfish flesh-eating monsters. They are evil by the very nature of their being, unable to change by their own accord, and unwilling to change when His Eternal Majesty offered them freedom from their nature. It isn’t that they want to be evil. As intelligent animals – intelligent monsters – dragons are capable of understanding morality, and many have tried to overcome their evil nature at great expense to themselves. A well intended and noble sentiment, yet a doomed one as like all animals, they all succumb to their nature in the end. Overcoming one’s nature is impossible,” said Edhel. His eyes took on a stoic, almost remorseful gaze as he spoke, and Illunor nodded with approval.
I was appalled by this claim, not by the contents so much as how blatantly false it was. As a representative of the human race, I was a living counterexample to his whole argument. We had remained physiologically unchanged as a species since the last Ice Age, and yet in spite of that, in spite of our many flaws, we had found peace and balance. If we could do it, anyone could do it.
“Will all due respect Edhel, that is nonsense. Monsters aren’t born, they are made. It is the mark of any intelligent species can adapt their behaviour to their environment for better or worse, and under the right care any so-called monster can grow to be a force for good,” I began, but while I searched for the right words Edhel shook his head.
“I appreciate your race is an empathetic one, Emma, your idealism is unfounded. As flesh eaters, a dragon must take the life of another animal or person to survive, or they will perish. As such, every dragon has taken a life. As long-lived creatures, they will have amassed a significant number of kills. As the land can only support so much animals, a dragon must be fiercely territorial and aggressive to remove competition, lest they starve. As such, even the most kind-hearted dragon alive must be violent and greedy, and their intelligence fuels this even more so if they know a bountiful land of morsels exists just outside their range.
Now perhaps a multitude of dragons may find a way to co-exist together in some settlement, but to support such a venture would require a large territory of prey, or a livestock animal. Perhaps they could support a large colony by farming grain for their livestock, but that would require effort on their behalf. As large animals, such efforts require a great deal of energy. Yet that size makes it easy for them to intimidate smaller races to do their labour for them, and to keep their client race in line dragons must be cruel. And even so, as their numbers grow so do their needs. As such, they must expand into the lands of their neighbours to survive until there is nothing left to devour, at which point they must turn against their own lest they starve. As such, it is the nature of dragons to conquer and devour. That is why there is no such thing as an innocent dragon,” finished Edhel.
I was speechless, not because I believed Edhel had a point, but because I was horrified at how easy he found it to rationalize the extermination of an entire sapient species. If this was how the elves thought, then it wasn’t the dragons who were the monsters. I suppressed that dark thought. Edhel’s thought process was a product of his culture, not a feature of his elven heritage. If there was any hope of peace between our people, I needed to show him there was another way of being. I needed to prove that co-existence was possible, no matter one’s nature.
I took a deep breath to steady myself before replying.
“That- that is a callous way of seeing things,” I began, though the shock was still there in my voice, “you speak as though there is no natural equilibrium with a dragon, that their only state of being must be to be cruel, to devour, to conquer. But I see things differently. In fact, I might wonder if a fledgling civilization might see the presence of a dragon as a boon rather than a curse. Being intelligent, the locals may be able to come to some agreement with the dragon. Perhaps they might leave some land as a hunting ground or offer up a share of their cattle or guard the dragon as it sleeps. In exchange, the dragon might allow them to build a town outside its mountain and protect them in times of danger. An equitable exchange. A civilization might even create artificial lairs to attract dragons for this very reason. True, some dragons may behave tyrannical towards their town, but a well armed populace of a large city would be more than capable of fighting such a threat, and a rational dragon might reason that threatening their own populace would put their reliable source of food and shelter at risk. You see, it’s all a matter of perspective.”
“You certainly are an imaginative one, Emma, to wonder up a quixotic world where the hare and the fox live together in harmony as equals. Even so, you seem to have ignored one key detail to such a society. What would happen should the dragon not be fed for months on end?” Asked Edhel with his eyebrow raised.
“The same thing as stranded a dozen starving, stranded Elves!” I spat back.
[Alert: Vehicle speed above recommended limit for conditions. Recommendation: slow down. ]
“I am driving slow!” I seethed, not realizing I had sped up with manual control enabled.
“I grow tired of this common prattle,” interjected Illunor just in time to prevent an awkward silence, “bard, play us another song.” “As my lord wishes,” said Edhel with a bow before turning to me with another smile, “perhaps a more soothing melody would be in order? A love song perhaps, to honour Cadet Booker’s compassionate nature?”
I said nothing as Edhel began to strum his lute again to the tune of a love story of a pair of doomed lovers named Ramian and Junette, hating his cheeky knowing grin that only served to get under my skin further as I focused on calming down and slowing the car back to a more reasonable pace before investigating a priority alert which I had been blinded to moments prior.
[Alert: hostile roadblock is absent, location unknown.]
Shit.
“Illunor, we may have a problem,” I said.
“Shush, Newrealmer, have you no class? We are almost at the best part! I’m sure it can wait,” replied the contextually clueless lizard.
I had never wanted to throttle Illunor as much as I did now.
“Illunor, shield, now,” I said with a raised voice.
“I don’t see-“ he started, pausing mid-sentence as his ears perked up.
[Alert: Multiple manafield and spell signatures detected!]
I took evasive maneuvers as Illunor tried to piece together a shield spell, fumbling it twice as panic appeared to set in and providing me with a reminder that Illunor was a civilian, not a soldier. A hail of arrows pelted the exterior of the truck, piercing but not penetrating the composite armour. I was tempted to do nothing but just drive away from the arrow fire, but a foreboding premonition of danger filled me as I recalled Sorecar’s hunter-seeker arrows.
Seeking to avoid that fate, I triggered the active defenses.
The smoke screens deployed around the vehicle, obscuring the sight of any who depended on visible light to see me. A barrage of decoy flares equipped with wooden cores shot upward at angles and diffusing to the side like a pair of giant wings which when combined with the MFD, short for mana-field dampener, inside the vehicle meant that the pelting hail of arrowfire softened to a whirr as the arrows whiffed over the top of the truck, retargeted away from the soft flesh of my passengers and even invoking friendly fire amongst the ambushers.
In the chaos, EVI and my drone swarm fed me complete tactical information on the ambush. Of the 26 individuals at the first blockade, 20 were accounted for, and 3 had died from friendly fire. Ahead at the bridge, 5 more of them were at the bridge where a barrier had been hastily erected to cage me in as the river valley was too deep to cross.
“Illunor, we need a bridge,” I said, taking stock of the wellbeing of my passengers.
The bard was huddled down low and suppressing his manafield, but otherwise rather composed. Illunor, on the other hand, was cowering in the gap between the seats with his hands covering his eyes and his tail tucked in.
“A bridge is no small request, Ne- Cadet Emma Booker,” replied Illunor, “and your ‘Emeffdee’ has blinded me to the outside of this moving death trap.”
“If I drop it, can you at least make a ramp?” I asked as I circled the battlefield. Or tried to, at least, as earthen ramparts emerged from the ground from a yet unseen source to cut off other avenues of escape.
“A ramp? Surely you don’t mean-“ he stammered.
“Yes or no,” I said.
Illunor paused, before taking an unsteady breath.
“Yes. But not with that Emeffdee,” he replied.
“Good. Steady your nerves and prepare to make a ramp ahead of us on my signal,” I said, “in the meantime, get your seatbelt on. This is going to be hairy.”
As I circled around to make my approach on the bridge, the final combatant made his appearance on a nearby tree, revealing himself as an elven mage. An alert focused on the air around him indicating he was preparing an unknown high-tier spell, and I locked the predator drone on him indicating the elf as a high-priority target if our escape plan failed, and I was forced to use lethal force.
If I was forced to kill.
It was one thing to know you may have to kill in the line of duty, but it was much harder to reconcile that with reality. No number of simulations could match the real thing, and a part of me wanted to simply offload the responsibility to EVI to keep my hands clean, but to do that would be betraying my duty as a human being. I breathed in deep and tried not to think about it, instead hoping to rely on the ace I held in my sleeve instead.
“EVI, ready the spell jammer,” I said unevenly.
“Acknowledged, the prototype Exo-Radiation Wave-Field Distruptor is primed. High risk target identified and locked, permission to engage?” EVI asked, forcing me to address the dreaded question.
“Negative,” I replied, “hold your fire. If the ramp fails, then you have permission to engage,” I said.
“Affirmative, on your mark,” replied EVI.
I lined up the truck with the bridge and bolted through the smoke, keeping a careful eye on the mage as I went. His spellform took on a more concerning shape as I accelerated, and I realized I could not afford to let him finish his spell. I triggered the spelljammer.
A terrible roar erupted from an array of speakers printed from mana-resistant materials that would have made Godzilla herself beam with pride. The sound was decidedly unnatural, gnarly, dubstep drop composed of an electric eel, a whale, a mountain lion, and a tyrannosaurus rex all being simultaneously assaulted by a swarm of angry cybernetic murder hornets as an equally chaotic wave of mana blasted outwards from the exterior of the truck, with the interior thankfully sheltered by audio and mana dampening.
The ambushing assailants cowered and panicked, and it was enough to cause the Elven mage’s spell to backfire in his face as his form exploded into ashes, meeting a horrific fate which I had tried so desperately to help him avoid. With all the combatants momentarily incapacitated or dead, I lowered the dampener and turned off the smoke.
“Ramp!” I shouted, snapping the lizard back to reality.
The Venerian nodded and hastily formed an earthwork ahead of us right before the blockade, and the truck leapt off the ramp with a not insignificant amount of air beneath our wheels. I braced for impact, regretting skimping on the shocks in the name of preserving materials, but the impact never came.
[Alert: Friendly spell designated ‘Feather Fall’]
Illunor thankfully had enough wherewithal to gently land the steel brick, and I sped off into the distance away from the trap that had unfolded behind us, leaving the interior of the truck in an awkward silence as we each processed our brush with death in our own way. “How many are dead?” I asked EVI.
“6 hostiles confirmed dead,” replied EVI.
I drove on in silence. Those were six deaths I had tried to avoid, and I became lost in thought as I wondered what I should have done differently to avoid the confrontation entirely.
Edhel broke the silence with a bout of laughter.
“Terrific! Absolutely terrific! Why, I can conjure up many a tale from this encounter alone! I live for this kind of inspiration!” Exclaimed Edhel a little too chipperly considering the circumstance.
“I would rather not hear stories about how I bravely ran away,” I moaned in deadpan sarcasm.
“You think too little of yourself, Cadet Emma Booker. It is plain to me that you are no ordinary rabbit. Make no mistake, I see it as a privilege to bear witness to the roar of a vorpal hare!” Said Edhel as he supressed his laughter, “though I am afraid with all the excitement that I must finish my song some other time.”
“How about I play some of our music?” I offered after the elf revealed his thrill-seeking side.
“Splendid, I would like that. Perhaps something of your ‘Roadtrip playlist’ you speak of? It sounds like a collection of your voyages,” said Edhel.
“That would be an improvement on the truth,” said Illunor dismissively as he eased from his state of shock, “it is little more than noise under the pretense of music.”
“Illunor…” I muttered to myself before turning the mic on, “no, no it’s not like that. I have terabytes of pre-recorded songs from various artists back home which can be played by… an artifice called a speaker. A playlist is a set of songs which are grouped together, usually to listen to in specific situations such as studying, partying, or travelling. The latter collection is what Illunor is referring to.”
I very deliberately chose not to reveal my ‘Unfortunate Daughters’ playlist.
“An artifice which plays music, and a magicless one at that. I must say, Emma, I fear for the bards in your realm,” said Edhel with a laugh.
“Your fear is misplaced, Edhel. Entertainers live like kings where I come from,” I retorted with a smirk of my own, “well, the ones with talent at least.”
“Well, well, I suppose I have to hear my competition!” Said Edhel with a laugh.
“Do as you must, though let it be known that I warned you,” said Illunor as he watched a play on his sightseer.
I had EVI compile a list of songs that left out content offensive to Nexian sensibilities or violating OpSec and as it compiled I mused over what type of sample spread I wanted to show off. Then it struck me. What better way to show off our culture than with some good old blue jumpers and nova rock! Sadly, jumpers were unavailable to show but I still had a whole list of modern artists to choose from.
Moments later, the car speakers sprung to life to the tune of ‘Innocent Youth of Mine. Edhel’s eyes lit up like a child visiting a zero-g gravity park for the first time, seemingly star-struck by the antique electric guitar and the synthesizer-drums in particular.
“What… what is this? I have never heard anything like this!” Proclaimed Edhel.
“Dreadful, isn’t it?” said Illunor, doing what he did best and pretending to hate it.
“Oh there is a lot more where that came from,” I said with a cheeky grin of my own, “this one is called ‘Innocent Youth of Mine’ by ‘Cannons and Poppies’. It’s part of the Nova Rock genre.
“And those strange instruments?” Asked Edhel.
“Oh, you mean the electric guitar and the synthesizer. They are electronic instruments, taking advantage of channeled and modulated electricity to create near any sound we can imagine,” I replied.
“Channeled electricity… are you suggesting these sounds were made by some form of lightning?” Asked Edhel.
[Suggestion: Avoid topic of electricity due to OpSec risk]
I nodded at EVI’s warning, thankful that it caught me before I discussed the very thing that all of my equipment ran on.
“It’s not exactly lightning, but close enough,” I said.
“If I had not witnessed to your display of power earlier, I might have perhaps been more skeptical of such a claim, but I suppose a lady must keep her secrets.” said Edhel with a raised eyebrow and chuckle, “but I digress, this music is most interesting.”
“There is a lot more where that came from,” I said with a cheeky grin of my own.
“If I ever have a prisoner in need of torture, I will turn to you first,” replied Illunor, “if you are willing to subject your peers to this madness then I cannot imagine what you would force upon your enemies before dunking them in ice.”
“In your dreams,” I retorted.
I played a few other songs including Astrodesee’s ‘Meteor Struck’, the Martian classic ‘Hotel Cydonia’ and even ‘Switching to Warp’ before Elaseer emerged from the distance, and I pulled up outside the gate to drop Edhel off.
“Here already?” Asked Edhel.
“Well, yeah. I was just running a quick errand, I didn’t want to go too far,” I replied casually.
“That was a distance worth at least five days of walking by foot, and you call that a ‘quick errand’?” Asked Edhel. I shrugged, and he laughed.
“Well in any case, thank you for allowing me passage in your car. I must apologize for my lack of gift or payment…” said Edhel. “Don’t worry about it, it was on the way,” I replied.
“I see, how generous. Perhaps we might one day meet again?” Asked Edhel.
“Maybe, but I’m not sure how likely that is. The academy takes up most of my time,” I replied, “though you never know. I still have a lot of quest hours to complete.”
“Is that so? In that case, I hope we meet again! Goodbye Cadet Emma Booker and farewell Lord Illunor Rularia,” he said. “And good travels to you, bard,” said Illunor.
I waved off Edhel and drove back to the academy, Illunor still sulking in the back seat.
“Perhaps next time, you should steer us away from danger?” Suggested Illunor.
“I tried, but we were tracked,” I replied.
I groaned inwardly at the additional work needed to fix the truck. EVI compiled a list of upgrades for future engagements, batting away my idea for a ‘turbo mode’ and a ‘jump boost’. Though at the end of the day, meeting the bard wasn’t a complete loss. It felt good to talk to someone almost normal for once, and I hoped I met him again.
Edhel Redoehdelnif
I watched as Cadet Emma Booker’s vehicle went off into the distance, getting one last look at the Earthrealmer’s strange artifice before turning towards the gate. The voyage was an exotic experience, not unlike that of a fever dream or a peak into a world completely alien to my own. Indeed, it was a struggle to contain my excitement and enthusiasm and process the experience rationally as I made my way through the southern gates of Elaseer and turned the corner of an alley before entering an impossible structure that did not exist.
“You are earlier than expected,” said the shadowy figure of my handler as I made my way to the meeting hall.
“The Earthrealmer’s means of transportation proved far more expedient than anticipated, my lord” I spoke as I knelt before him, “even with her unexpected departure from the anticipated road and the ambush we traveled for scantly more than an hour.”
“Yes, I will require a full report from you. Perhaps you can shed some light on the ‘smoke dragon’ my men claim intervened on the Earthrealmer’s behalf,” said my handler.
“Smoke Dragon, my lord?” I asked.
My handler responded by activating his sight-seer, revealing how the ambush had appeared from the outside. The Earthrealmer’s uncanny artifice traversed down the road, a pair of manafields displaying proudly from within until the archers began their assault. The artifice then transformed as smoke billowed out from its pores and wings sprung forth above until it was the form of a mighty wrym with a pair of glowing eyes springing forth from its ever extending head where it then gave forth a terrible unholy roar which sent waves of mana outward. The mage working to seal the area and trap their mark vapourized in an instant as his spell backfired. It was apparent to Edhel that his exceptional experience in the carriage was merely a muted rendition of the events unfolding around them.
It would seem the hare had the shadow of a dragon.
“I do have some insight, though I must confess the Earthrealmer did very little in the way of direct action. I suspect she has some unseen means of commanding and scrying through her artifices,” I said, “one which does not utilize magic as we know it.”
“Such a statement is heresy,” said my handler, “but such special circumstances are your reason for being. I will require you submit your memories for verification. What is your appraisal of the new realmer?”
“The girl is far more dangerous than a surface appraisal would suggest, though she prefers to conceal that power rather than utilize it out of a misplaced sense of compassion. Her people appear to have a boundless creative drive through which such artifices are birthed, though again it is misdirected towards more common applications. I believe that if properly tamed, this human animal may provide us with great works of art,” I said with a bow.
“I see. Does the girl know you work for us?” Asked my handler.
“She may harbour some suspicions, though did not voice them outright beyond concealing her knowledge,” I said, “though nothing significant. Provided our next meet is under believable circumstances such as a festival she should view me as cordial.”
“She has indeed proven clever,” conceded my handler, “very well, I will make arrangements for your paths to cross again. Perhaps I will arrange for her to be a contestant at the next inter-academy tournament. In the mean time, prepare your report and don’t wander far. This is a priority assignment.”
“As you wish, my lord,” I said with a bow and a smile.
Emma Booker had proved to be an interesting animal indeed, and I hoped our paths crossed again.

My so called best friend, let’s call her Katy, and my best friend who’s been by my side and also hates Katy, let’s call her Angela. Here’s a little background story, me and Angela are great friends I met her in middle school. Now Katy I met in elementary school and we didn’t really like each other. During that time period she almost got suspended for cyber bullying someone online, which led her to big trouble. Many people hates Katy from elementary and still middle school. Me and Katy eventually became friends because she was one of the only girls that I knew in our new class. We eventually became good friends. In December of 2023 I met Angela. We became a trio and it was great. Katy though kept on thinking the Angela was trying to steal me from Katy. She had this Diary that was like her burn book. Soon after Katy started being toxic to teachers, classmates and sometimes even me and Angela. She was really mean and called people we didn’t even know ugly. Me and Angela started getting closer. Katy got mad at us easily. There was this one time when Katy got mad at me and Angela for doing something together because we needed to and not doing something we didn’t want to do with Katy. She said we plan things without her, which we don’t. Before Katy and Angela tried out for a school team. When they both didn’t make it, Katy said that she should have but if Angela didn’t it was right cause she was horrible at it, even though Angela really wasn’t. After that she started saying on how half of the people shouldn’t even be on the team. Now fast forward a few days ago me and Angela made a school team. We were both very excited cause I have never been in one before and she was very happy for me. We told Katy twice and she didn’t even care. Eventually we started talking about how some of the people shouldn’t be on the team because they didn’t go for some of the tryouts and was being rude. Then Katy comes and has the audacity to say “ you guys are so rude, everyone deserves a chance to be on the team.” That comment really pissed me and Angela off. She eventually said that why were you being so mean to the people that made the other team. She responded with cause they suck. Which was being offensive because those people were pretty good since they did win second. We had a heated argument online with Katy and Angela about Katy’s feelings. After a while, Angela just stopped caring. Now to my part, Katy has told me many mean things like calling me fat, ugly, dumb, etc. So one day I told the principal that Katy was cyber bullying me and that got her in a lot of trouble, and by the way she was, I showed Angela and she was my witness. In the office, Angela defended me saying that Katy was being mean to me. That almost got her suspended, but since it wasn’t going on for a long period of time she didn’t. Eventually me and Katy were friends again, but since then she had done many things to try to ruin my life, like ripping up my papers, trying to embarrass me, etc. She also done some of these stuff to Angela, but it was worse. Occasionally she would bully us and sometimes lie to make us in trouble, when we try to control her she just plays it off like nothing happened. Me and Angela want to get revenge on her, but now I think that, that would make me the ahole. What should I do, any advice?
( Btw Katy never tried out for the team me and Angela both made )

Not an out of the ordinary student profile. No I'm not only applying to UMiami but it's definitely my #1, it's just the only one I'm really interested in doing a chanceme for.
Might apply ED based on how hard of a reach this is.*
Demographics: White/Native American (registered member of state recognized tribe, not BS), Male, out of state, single income middle class
Intended Major: Marine Biology/Ecology
SAT: 1390 - 760 English 630 Math - (Just the first try, will try more to improve superscore)
ACT: Will take in June
UW GPA: 3.95 (got one B freshman year geometry) -- Weighted GPA: 4.15
Class Rank: 10/375
AP's: (Took all AP's offered by school, which was unfortunately very few) AP World History, APUSH, AP Environmental Science
Other Honors*:* Will take all of my classes for senior year at a community college through a high school program (allows oustanding highschoolers that want to get more challenging classes to instead take college classes for dual credit). I don't know how much this will impact application since by the time I will be applying there will not be a transcript of this. Does anyone have further insight into how things like that work?
EC's: Slalom + GS Varsity Ski Racing athlete, President of school's Marine Conservation Club, Internship with US National Forest Service (analyzed and monitored local aquatic fish populations alongside a Supervisory Fish Biologist), Key Club Member, NHS member, and Green Club member (another general environmental conservation club)
Essay: About my experience being trapped in a forest fire for two days while hiking when I was 11, and how the event inspired a deep respect for wildlife management and conservation. I'm pretty confident in my skills as a writer and I think I can make a strong essay.
Other: My school is somewhat rural, and has limited opportunities for excelling students (hence the lack of AP's - we literally don't have any more than what I took), might mention that to demonstrate that I wasn't justslacking and not taking AP's that were offered.
*I am considering ED to increase my chances of acceptance, but if I don't recieve any significant financial aid package, I don't want to be locked into that contract. I've also heard that ED students get smaller aid packages since they don't need to entice you, you're locked in. I don't need a full ride or anything like that, but some base level financial aid or annual scholarship would go a long way.
Anyways just lmk how much of a reach this is, and ways to improve my application come december. Thanks for reading.

I don’t really know what to do. I think he is cheating on me. My boyfriend of over a year and a half has had a couple of incidents of talking to other girls while we have been dating. For context, we are both on the summer break in between freshman and sophomore year of college. We started dating when we were seniors in high school and I knew I would be attending a 4-year university when I graduated. His parents were advising him to attending Community College to save money, but ultimately followed me to college and we lived together in the dorms. We are looking into renting an apartment for the upcoming school year. The first time, it was right around my 19th birthday and our one year anniversary. He was texting a multitude of other girls on both Snapchat and Instagram. The messages did not consist of much, and many of the girls didn’t even respond. I don’t remember how I found out, all I know is that it crushed me. We’ve known each other our entire lives. My parents both work together with his dad and our mom’s were pregnant with us at the same time. We didn’t grow up close but we’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve had on and off crushes on each other for a while, but the timing never worked out. After I found out, it was really tough for me to get over it. I’ve been cheated on in the past and had a really hard time trusting a significant other again, all of which he knows about. The second time it happened was only a few months after the first, right at the beginning of December. I found out because he had a secret account on Snapchat that connected him through his phone number. I went through his phone, just to verify to make sure I wasn’t bringing it up without evidence. The texting, again, was over both Snapchat (on a second account) and Instagram (another secret account). The messages consisted of the same thing, with a limited response from the women. This time, he decided to text his ex-girlfriend. This one was really hard for me because he dated me very very quickly after breaking up with her (he claims she cheated on him, but I can’t know for sure because he never confirmed it from her, which was his reason for reaching out to her in the first place, for “closure”). We had a company Christmas party that we were attending together only three days after I found out (both sets of parents and the entire company that we grew up around would be there. It would have been awful explaining we had broken up). After that, he deleted all social media and I worked on building my trust back up. For 4 months it was great. We were in a super great place… until I started getting new suspicions. He downloaded Instagram about two months ago for a valid reason that I was okay with and just kept it downloaded, which I knew. About a week until we are supposed to move out of the dorms, I see him get an Instagram notification. He clicked on it, and when the app popped up, it asked if he wanted to view on his personal account. This only happens if you are logged into a different account before and it has to switch to the account of which the notification was received from. I simply took this as a red flag, and looked through his phone the next day, but didn’t find anything. Fast forward to now, only two weeks into summer break and I saw another thing that raises a red flag. He was on Instagram, and it was very clearly an empty (or maybe only one or two texts) DM of someone. I didn’t get a good look at the screen before he swiped out of it (not fast, like he was trying to hide it though). Now I’m just wondering what the hell im gonna do. We are both staying at our respective parents’ houses for the summer, so we don’t see much of each other during the week because I work 40 hour weeks and he is taking summer classes online. I trusted him enough to download his socials again, but I don’t know if I will ever get completely over this situation, even if he isn’t talking to anyone. We have our fair share of issues within our relationship, my dad and him have a slightly strained relationship, and me and my parents do NOT like his dad (but his dad doesn’t know I don’t like him). His family is wonderful, and I truly do love him, and I genuinely believe that he loves me. But my trust is so thin and I don’t know if I will ever fully trust him if he has social media. The first time I stayed with him because he was sorry and I knew that, I needed to put more effort into the relationship. The second time, I felt like I was staying more out of convenience, and told him that if this ever happened again, I will walk out without even speaking to him. I don’t know what to do. The strain that he has between himself, me, and my family is a major factor into my decisions because I am super close with my family and there have been many arguments about him between us. I don’t know if I should go through his phone to see if I’m just making a big deal out of nothing. I don’t know if I should just break up with him because I don’t trust him. I don’t know if I should confront him and see if he will come clean. I don’t know if I should just shut up because our families are so intertwined. I don’t know where I would live next year when I go back to school (my parents think it’s a bad idea to get an apartment, his parents fully support it). There are just so many factors pulling me in different directions that I don’t know how to handle it. I never told anyone about his shenanigans, so I feel like I can’t talk to anyone about it either. If you were me (or have been in a similar position), let me know what you would do. We are so young, but he has told me many times that he wants to marry me, and he would today if I would let him. I’m just so upset that I thought I could trust him, and he’s broken it many times. Please help!
TL;DR; My bf (19m) and I (19f) have been together over 1.5yrs. We live together at university, but are apart for summer break. I have caught him texting other girls (not full convos, and many without response from the girls) two times, but I am starting to suspect that he is doing it again. What should I do? Try to find an opportunity to look through his phone? Just break up? We have a lot of family that know each other (our parents work together) so it would be so awkward. Confront him? Open to ideas!