Last Volleyball Practice

After the Personal Odyssey celebration, we had our final volleyball practice of the season, of this team and of my time at this school! We had a ton of food. I brought in 2 pizzas and a bunch of Gatorade, people brought in 4 different kinds of cookies, lemon bars, cake, and ice cream! I had a bunch of food, but after all the food of the Personal Odyssey celebration, I didn't eat as much as I might have another time! We made a card for our coach and everyone signed it. We also brought in a picture of the whole team for everyone to take a copy of.

We only had the gym for 20 minutes because they had to set up for another event that would be in there that night. We played a scrimmage in the time we had. It was very fun to play with the team, and I did my best. I actually had some really good dives, both in the same point, that saved the ball and got it either over, or able to be put back over the net! It was the kind of dive I had been wanting to do all season, and I was very happy that I was able to do it and show the team, and also just get the good feeling you get when you do something like that really well. Once we weren't allowed to play in the gym anymore, we went outside and played. It was really hot that day, so everyone drank a lot of water and/or Gatorade. It was just fun to have the opportunity to play, and I savored the last moments I had with my team. People had to leave early, so other people, not from the team, played with us on and off. We had more or less than 6 people on each side at any given time, and it kept changing, but we just kept playing, and it was fun no matter what.

It was our last practice of the year and it was very fun, but I was sad that I had to leave my team knowing that I would never play with them on that team ever again.

Personal Odyssey Project Wrapup

We had the Personal Odyssey Celebration on Friday as planned. Before we set our stuff up, we sat in a circle while some of our teachers talked, each said the title of our personal odyssey, and ate cake that they gave us. Then we had 10 minutes or so to set up our stuff and get ready for the celebration. We had 3 setups per table, each from a different class of Humanities (our English, History, Language Arts-like class). After everyone was setup we all sat on the floor facing the stage and prepared to watch or perform in (depending on who it was) the performance section of the celebration. The rest of the grades came in and sat behind us and the teacher, parents, relatives, friends and other people who had come to see stood in the back and on the sides. Then one teacher announced the celebration and had students come up and do their presentations. We had one person go up and sing and play guitar, one person played a beautiful piano piece, one person performed a piece of spoken word poetry they wrote, one person juggled a soccer ball while a slideshow of photos played, etc. A bunch of people also had videos or slideshows of pictures that they played instead of coming up. We watched all the performances, videos, and slideshows and then went on the the exhibition of the rest of us.

We were allowed to set up whatever we wanted to present our odyssey. We could have however much or little we liked as long as it was reasonable (and safe) and we had a summary explaining the project somewhere. We also had to present our odysseys to people in shifts. They had everyone who was in Humanities group A present their projects first, B second, and C third. Basically, everyone would wander around and look at all the projects and the people who were presenting would stand by their presentations and talk about their projects with the people who came by. We would also answer questions and explain things. I am in Humanities group A, so I stood by mine first. I didn't have a lot of people talking to me, although some teachers did chat with me at the beginning. Most people watched the video I set up and sometimes commented on how good I was at volleyball, and how professional the video looked. Also, people who were on the volleyball team with me looked for themselves in the video.

Once I was allowed to roam, I looked at a bunch of my friends and classmates odysseys. It was very interesting to see what everyone had done, how it all turned out, and how they decided to present their projects. One of my friends did henna art as her personal odyssey, and for her presentation she was actually doing it on people, which made her a very popular place to visit. She had a line that was longer than a wall. She was in the first group to present, like me, and actually didn't get to go look at other people's projects because it took her the whole time to do this and she still didn't get to everyone! Another one of my friends did art as her personal odyssey, and had a thing that connected to her laptop that you could draw on and it would draw on the computer! It was amazing, and she let people actually try it out! People really liked that, too. A girl who was also set up at my table made 1000 paper cranes for her project, and brought in all her cranes as well as Japanese candy for people to try.

A bunch of people brought food for the celebration. Multiple people did cupcake making as their personal odysseys, and other people did cooking through family cookbooks, making recipes from a certain culture, or just had baking as a part of their odyssey, like a friend who was studying Germany as her odyssey and made German cake that she brought in. There was a lot of options, so I tried my friend's cake, and an apple pancake that another girl made.

It was very fun to see what everyone else had done, and let people see all my hard work and enjoy my setup. This was the time for recognition of my personal odyssey and I really enjoyed it. I was very happy with the experience.

Personal Odyssey Celebration!

Tomorrow at school we're having a celebration of the completion of our Personal Odyssey project. First, some people will perform something they worked on in their odyssey (those whose odysseys involved performing, or could be performed). Then people will walk around and look at tables set up with a presentation of the odysseys. We're allowed to set up whatever we want to represent our project, as long as we include reflections from during the process (for me that will be my blog) and a summary of our project. People will walk around looking at the setups and eating sometimes (some people's odysseys were about food) until school is over. Then we will have our final practice of this year with this team and we will have a party with ice cream, pizza, and other food and we will play volleyball together and have fun for our last practice together!

For my setup for the Personal Odyssey Celebration I will have a poster board with pictures of me playing volleyball and my summary, a video playing on my laptop of me playing volleyball, and I will have all my blog posts printed out in a book/packet on the table for people to read.

I will post again after it happens with how it went, and pictures!

VA Home Game- unofficial

Today we had our first, and last VA home game! We played a school no one had ever heard of before. Our gym has a pretty low ceiling, which makes it harder to play because serves or the ball could hit the ceiling and it either causes the other team to get the point, or it changes where the ball goes which makes it harder to get. Since we practice there, we had an advantage because we've had to deal with the ceiling and practice playing without letting the ball hit it. A bunch of parents and other students came to watch us play. My friend's dad, who takes amazing pictures with fancy cameras, came and took pictures of the game, and then a picture of the whole team in our uniforms after the game.

We won both games, and therefore the match. We played well, and set up for hits a lot and did some really good ones. Also, the other team wasn't as good as the other teams, although they did some good things. The home court advantage did help us, though, because they hit the ceiling with serves and other things, which we did much less.

We won the first game by a lot. The second game was much closer, ending with a score of 22 to 25, but we won! We did well, but we got kind of lazy later on not going for some things and they brought it harder. It was never a question, though, that we were going to win (at least the match) and we did it!

That was our last game, and the only one we won this year, but it was a fun game! It was a great season and I learned a lot! I'm so happy we had a good coach this year who had us set up hits, and a good team of people who improved so much! I feel like if we'd had more time to practice together we would've done so much better, and maybe even won more games! It was a great season, it's so sad that it's over already! It went by so fast. I am grateful that I got the chance to play on this team this year, and I hope they continue to improve the quality of playing once we leave and new people join!

VA Volleyball Game #6

On Wednesday we had our last official game. It was a school we felt confident we could beat. We left early to get to the game on time. In the first game we were SOOOO close we could taste the victory that could have happened. The ending score was 24 to 26 and they won. It was a devastating loss, and I really could've seen it going the other way with us winning! The girl who served last and won the game for them was one of their best. She had a jump serve that was amazing, and hard to return. The second game wasn't as close and we lost 15 to 25. We played really well in the first game, and in the end of the second game. We had some really good rallies and we set it up to hit more and got some good hits! I felt like I could've done much better, but I did do a pretty good job. I had one thing where I was in the front row and we were returning the ball after a hit, and it didn't get passed to the setter, it was to me, and instead of setting it, I tipped it back over the net and it went right to the spot in the center of the court where no one was! No one got the ball and it was our point! Another thing that I did that was really good was also in the second game. We worked on blocking in practice on Tuesday, and especially where the people in the back row should be while some people in the front row are blocking. In the second game I was in the right back and  the setter and the right front were blocking, and I went right where our coach had told us we should be in that situation (right behind the blockers to cover the tips) and it was tipped over and since I was in the correct place, I got the ball and it was a good pass right to the setter!

Overall, I think we played well, and it was so frustrating how close we were to winning the first game! We were so close! We improved so much since the beginning of the season, and we played a really good game!

VA Volleyball Game #5

Last week on Thursday we had a game against a really good school. We did really well, and had some really good plays, but their team was great. They won the match. We did much better than we have at some other games, though, so hopefully we'll do even better tomorrow (Wednesday), when we have another game. Hopefully we can beat them, having our first win of the season. Tomorrow is also our last game in this official season. We have our first (and last) home game on Thursday, which won't count for the league, but will be fun, and maybe we can win that, too.

Last week we had 3 games in a row, one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and one on Thursday. We don't have practice on Mondays, and our coach had another thing to do instead of our regular Friday practice, so we had no official practice last week.

It's amazing to me that the volleyball season's almost over! It went by so quickly! It makes me very sad, but I feel like I gained a lot from the whole experience, and I hope it has helped me along toward my goal in my odyssey!

VA Volleyball Game #4

On Wednesday last week we had a volleyball game against a team which we were pretty close to in skill. It was a close game, but we didn't win. We seem to not always live up to our potential as a team when we're playing actual games.

Goals

I've been making personal goals throughout this process based on how I've been doing. When I play volleyball, I take note of what I feel like what I've improved on, and what I want to work on.

After our last volleyball game, the one on Tuesday, my goals are to work on:

           1. Aiming where I hit (spike) the ball. (hitting it to a specific location on the court)

           2. Digging. (diving or getting under the ball it's hit at me or is somewhere not very close)

  and   3. Knowing where I should be on the court at different times, like what is mine and what is

               someone else's.

Some other goals I've had in the past are getting more accurate at bumping the ball, and control with my touches in general, getting better at hitting, and more accurate at hitting, and serving. I feel like I am much more accurate with my bumping now, although of course I can still work more. I also feel like my serving is good now, and I just have to make sure I get a good toss for the serve. I almost always get it over when I feel like I had a good toss. I am much better at hitting now, so I should just get better at aiming it.

I am very happy with how I'm doing on my goals. Hopefully that will cause my big goal from the beginning of getting on the team in high school to come true too!

VA Volleyball Game #3

We had our third volleyball game on Tuesday. The school we were playing against was not as good as the ones we've played previously, and they were much closer to an even match for us. I think we actually can be better than them a lot of the time, but we weren't on Tuesday, so we lost. We had some really good plays, though, and I did had a bunch of good passes and serves.