Month: November 2019

The Art of Overthinking

Posted on by jlliu1

So have you ever had that situation where you’ve completely blown a problem out of proportion? Have you completely panicked and overdone something by about 1000%? Welp, if that occasionally applies to you, I’m jealous because for me, that is something that I experience on the daily.

So welcome to the life of Jeremy, the master of overthinking.

If you don’t already know, overthinking (as defined by google) is “[to] think about (something) too much or for too long” and it doesn’t even have to apply to one specific thing. You could be overthinking about that test problem, overthinking one logistical aspect, or even just overthinking one small action. If you can think of it, I bet that I can make it over-thunk.

For example, I will overthink in…

School

For me, multiple choice tests are not my forte. Even though the right answer is buried somewhere in there, my mind will end up jumbling up all the information. Sure, I’m good at process of elimination but there will always those two choices I end up having to pick between. They both could be right but I always try to think it out.

Boy is almost always a mistake.

From what I’ve learned from days (albeit more like months) of sat prep, ap prep, or any darn class that offers multiple choice, my instinct are almost always right. For some reason, every time I think the problem is iffy, I’ll go look at it, think it over, and brainstorm possible ideas. And in that moment when I do is when I’ll finally mix up Mesopotamia with the Incas or Lagrange’s theorem with the ideal gas law. I cry a little bit inside every time I think about all the points I’ve missed from this stupid blunder.

Social environments

Now before I completely surprise you, I wanna say one thing. If you’re looking at some of my previous blogs you might think I’m a robot or something, I’d like to just take this moment to say that yes, I am human and, yes, I do experience emotions too. Now back to the blog, sorry.

So additionally, I’m also prone to this phenomenon in social situations, whether that be with friends, family, or (more prodomonentally) to that female individual that occasionally happens to pop in my mind. For some reason, I guess I just stress about every little snap I send or every single comma I use and it usually doesn’t turn out great either.

So specifically, let’s take this female *ahem* distraction that occurred a long while back, where I lowkey became distracted and infatuated in trying to make progress and spending probably half an hour on hangouts every day. Let’s say instead of climbing the ladder, we hit the snake that went past the start and into the negative zone. I guess trying to perform a rhetorical analysis on three word phrases was not the move.

Planning

But lastly, sometimes my talent isn’t always for naught. Sometimes, it doesn’t cause me to lose my chances and friends. Sometimes, it actually makes good things happen.

I’ve found that, through my death stress attacks and thinking of every scenario humanly possible, it actually makes me quite a good organizer. It doesn’t really matter if it’s pasta parties for cross country, a quick night with friends, or hosting one of the largest charity events here at North, it makes me anticipate almost everything! It brings me to the realization that not many other organizers can visualize and helps address problems prior to them arising!

But even though I do overthink, it still has it’s benefits and drawbacks. However, one thing I don’t want you to confuse is that overthinking does not (EVER) mean is that it makes you indecisive. In actuality, it’s this overthinking that helps cement my decisiveness and help me content and satisfied with my decision.

So, if you’re are gusty human, someone who’s rash, or just afraid that you’re overthinking too much, don’t be! Overthinking is a great trait and (from my half-an-hour think time before I fell asleep) thought process, I can guarantee that it will be a mistake… I mean it’s a choice that you will probably seemingly not seem to probably maybe accordingly regret.

Sleep is for the weak

Posted on by jlliu1

It’s two am. My vision blurs. I’m dizzy. Then suddenly, I’m out.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Welp dang, there goes four hours of my life. Now I need to work ever harder to make that back up.

This is kind of a weekly occurrence that has revealed one fact to me: that sleep is pretty pointless. Sure, we need it and sure, it feels nice but its a granderous waste of time. As many say, time is money and I’d like to have some more of both. 

So, to begin with, I just imagine how much more work I could get done in this time! Like think of the options! I could do so. Much. MORE. HOMEWORK!

Example of some MVC homework.

Like just take it into perspective. I’m sitting here writing this blog at 12:30am and I still have an MVC test to study for tomorrow. While yes, I could go to sleep, that sounds pretty ridiculous. I have my priorities: 

  1. Doing all my homework
  2. Doing all the extra, optional homework to save my grades
  3. Writing all my college apps
  4. Not sleeping

Additionally, when else am I supposed to socialize with my friends? During school? Pshhh. You wish. It’s gotta be at 11pm at night. This is the prime time where I can to complain to my friends about every stupid driver I run into on the road, where all the meldramatic tea happens, and when the best jokes happen.

But last of all, this extra time for what’s important: video games and netflix. LIke I still got 6 seasons of the Mentalist I want to binge, I still have Tiny Tower to grind (curse you Kevin, I’ll never catch up), and I have video games that wont play themselves.

And after a long, sleepless night. Everythings fine! It’s not like I still manage to fall asleep in class once after drinking two cups of coffee or anything like that. And it’s not like my grades have slipped or my running has stagnated or anything. 

Nope, I have no idea what your talking about. I like to think I’m doing a darn awesome job.

~

But, in all seriousness, exhaustion is a major issue that plagues our society today. With extreme lack of sleep, studies have shown that there are numerous mental and physical consequences. 

For example, a lack of sleep can lead to problems with obesity and heart disease. Additionally, since sleep is the body’s natural recovery tool, exercising becomes hard and your body doesn’t recover. But most of all, a lack of sleep can prove fatal. Over 40% of all car crashes result from tired individuals and additional studies have shown that a lack of sleep is as, if not more, dangerous than drunk driving!

And while you might be thinking that extra episode, that extra conversation is completely worth it, think again. The dangers of sleep deprivation aren’t worth such a risk. Sure, I can justify staying up late for homework assignments, tests, etc, but please understand. Being me isn’t the way to go. I don’t know how I’ve pulled it off and in all honesty, it’s a painful way to live. And plus, you don’t want to end up like this situation on the right.

But don’t worry! If you struggle from distractions (like how I use to), apps like “Flipd” help lock my phone out for a set amount of time and completely remove me from distractions. Or, even just somewhere quiet really helps you stay focused and planning out your day helps you stay on top of things. 

And hey, second semester is just around the corner so just go get some sleep. You’ll need it. 

Or… just pull a Jeremy and continue to overwhelm yourself even more (and also end up forgetting to post your blog on time too). 

#TeamTrees

Posted on by jlliu1

About two weeks ago on October 25, 2019, a single video was uploaded to YouTube that started one of, if not, the biggest fundraising movements that the internet has ever seen. This video, titled “Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever!” made by Mr. Beast in collaboration with Mark Rober created the TeamTrees challenge which strives to plant twenty million (yes, the number two followed by seven zeros) trees by the start of 2020.

To accomplish this ambitious goal, these two individuals have partnered together with the Arbor Day Foundation, a non-for profit organization, to plant all these trees. As stated and proven by the foundation, every dollar donated will equate to one tree being planted in an environmentally safe and sustainable way by December of 2022.

Furthermore, they’ve also collaborated with numerous other YouTubers on the platform to help raise money. Even YouTubers like PewDiePie, one of the largest channels on the entire platform with over a hundred million subscribers, have also expressed and provided their direct support.

But even with all this is going on, how did it all start?

To explain, we need to go back to May 2019 when Mr. Beast, a YouTuber, first hit twenty million subscribers. Known as the YouTuber who completes numerous extravagant and attention-grabbing stunts (many of which pertains to assisting those in need), he wanted to do something extremely large for such an impressive milestone. As such, he turned to Twitter for answers, ultimately concluding on this result.

However, even though this was the case, there was still a large challenge in front of him. While attempting to manually plant all the trees, he found that, even with an army of over five hundred fans, they still barely managed to plant over three thousand trees in a day, a rate which would have been much too slow to complete this challenge. Because of this, he teamed up with Mark Rober, an educational YouTuber and ex-NASA engineer, to help discover other methods to accomplish this goal.

Through their collaboration and research, they finally concluded on two sources. One was this video and movement stated above and two was through many automated drones which would spread seeds to help plant trees in recently devastated areas (like by wildfires).

But why plant trees?

As you may be able to see from right outside the window, the climate has been rapidly changing. Even within the past five years, we’ve seen much greater variability within the temperatures. We’ve shattered record highs and lows and even here, we are seeing record-breaking early snow falls within the year.

And that’s not surprising, given what we are doing to the environment. As researched by CBS News, we are releasing upward of 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide per second. Furthermore, the parts per million (or basically the ratio of carbon dioxide) in our atmosphere has also nearly tripled since 1950 (as discovered by NASA).

Because of all this carbon dioxide, its starting to change the only home we have. We’re seeing predictions of sea levels rising upward of 2 meters, estimates of global temperatures increasing by three degrees, and projections of over fifty percent of all animal species going extinct.

But there’s still things we can do to prevent this impending future.

As researched by North Carolina State University, a single tree can absorb around 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. And even though that’s not a lot compared to the amount we are producing, it’s still a step in the right direction. However, not by very much.

A research conducted by CNN concluded that we would need to roughly 1.2 trillion trees to reverse ten years of climate change. But even though this figure is sixty thousand times greater than the goal of TeamTrees, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and make a difference.

Every tree, every dollar, every word still makes a difference in protecting our future. Even if you can’t easily or cheaply plant a tree, go to teamtrees.org and donate a bit. They’re currently at $14.8 million raised! And, if you can’t do that, still try to spread the word! You can attend a local climate strike, post something on to raise awareness on social media (like #teamtrees for example), or even just tell your friends!

ANY effort can make a difference and let’s help create a future that we won’t regret. #teamtrees.