Ball Knowledge

  At the start of Scene Six, a part of the heading mentions Allen Iverson starting his playoff journey with the Philadelphia 76ers. To us, being from Michigan, this didn’t feel that relevant, but to the people of Reading, Pennsylvania, this was huge. Just last season they had los t th e Eastern Conference Finals, and this year they were back in the playoffs hoping to win it all with their star player, Allen Iverson, leading the way. At the same time, with unemployment dropping to its lowes t ev er, consumer confidence must have been at an all-time high during this period. Since Reading is in Pennsylvania, people there likely felt a strong connection to the team’s success. However, at the same time many of these factory workers didn't even know the owners were planning on replacing them with cheaper international labor. When a local team wins, people often spend more on celebrations, especially at bars or restaurants. That excitement, combined with job security from a low unemplo...

 When I first heard the word catharsis , it just sounded like another fancy word people throw around in writing to sound smart. The more I thought about it throughout the week, the more I realized how common it actually is. From the random Instagram reel I see at 2 a.m. telling me to lock in, to the music I’m listening to at 1 a.m. while trying to finish the homework I procrastinated on, the idea of catharsis has been tied to almost everything I do. Twenty minutes ago, when I saw the Lions stuck on the one-yard line at fourth down and watched Monty rush through to score a touchdown, that mix of nervousness and excitement I felt as he crossed the line was a form of catharsis. This past week, when I was pushing deadlines and trying to finish everything I had due, the music that kept me awake at one in the morning and gave me a sense of urgency was catharsis too. Everything I consume online has some kind of catharsis built into it. What I find interesting, though, is how it’s been mo...

  After Gatsby’s funeral, I stayed back to get things in accord for him. Made sure all of his loose ends were tied up, tidied up the house, and was ready to pay my last respects to him. Just as I was leaving his new butler, Mayor Wolfsheim’s worker, handed me a letter saying to Nick Carraway and instantly I knew who it was from. In his fancy signature was addressed Jay Gatsby. Curious as to what surprised he had left even after he was gone, I opened it:  Hello Old Sport, if you are reading this now then it is like I predicted that I am no longer living. It’s weighed on me for so long, but I haven’t been honest with you or anyone in fact about who I truly am. It’s time you find out. While my past that I told you was true, what I have been working towards in my life is very different from what you perceive.  I presume you are standing on my dock right now looking out at the green light. Now look a little to the right of it and you’ll see a simple, humble house situated righ...

  The past week while we’ve been reading Gatsby , everything always felt so deep and complicated. While I was reading at home, I’d often have to reread some parts and check over things on the internet just to make sure I interpreted a detail the right way. After all that, I’d still get a 2 out of 4 on the Gatsby quiz because I forgot something. In class, we brought up the idea of how Fitzgerald’s purpose for writing The Great Gatsby was to critique the “American Dream” and bring up how people behaved back then, but once we put this into a skit form, it felt so surreal. By converting everything into modern-day slang, adding our own slight personal touches, and acting it out, The Great Gatsby went from being the most sophisticated thing to comedic and almost a little dumb. For example, no way some guy worked insanely hard to get super rich, buy a house across the river from her to stalk her, and throw lavish parties that cost loads of money, just for a girl he met five years ago t...

  The psychological phenomenon of the do not press red button has always intrigued me. If the button were to just be there and exist, no one would pay attention to it. The second that the “do not press button” text is placed onto it, the thoughts that flow into your mind drastically increase. What would happen if I pressed the button? No, I shouldn’t press the button. But i realllllly want to know what happens if I push the button. Are all the thoughts that your brain is filled with, when placed in this scenario. The more your brain tries to suppress the thought of pushing it, the more you think about it and the more appealing it becomes. This is a famous phenomenon known as the Ironic Process Theory. When I was growing up whenever my parents went out somewhere they would tell me to not play on my Nintendo switch. This felt like a big DO NOT PRESS sign placed right on top of my Nintendo switch. The second they ended up leaving, that switch in the corner of my room would always be...

I want everyone to think about someone they admire for something great they did, invented, or changed. Now if all of those people were put together to see common traits, two traits would emerge above the rest: courage and disobedience. No matter what time period or industry, it’s visible in those who strive for change. Starting off with the science industry, Gilbert N. Lewis, who in 1916 proposed the idea of the covalent bond and the Lewis model, which were both met with skepticism, but by not listening to skeptics—who in this case were the “norm”—he was able to make his idea a revolutionary chemistry concept that we used a lot as a foundational topic in AP Chem; going all the way to the sports industry, the tennis legend Billie Jean King, who in 1970 boycotted against the pay gap in the tennis world, leading to equal pay in tennis today, where at the most recent Grand Slam both players won five million dollars. These are just a few examples, but the depth and time this idea goes back ...

  In a tennis match, winning comes from dozens of small points that eventually add up.In high school tennis, a win can take as few as 48 points but can go as far as 150 points. That’s more than triple, but either way, stressing over every single one doesn’t make sense . If your opponent hits an insane shot past you that you can’t do anything about, he still needs to win at least 47 more points. Whenever I play tennis, I think about Roger Federer’s Dartmouth speech: “What percentage of the points do you think I won in my career? Only 54%.” Him being one of the greatest players of all time yet only winning every other point and still earning 20 Grand Slam titles shows the power of his mindset: “It’s only a point.”  Federer’s commencement speech at Dartmouth had one major goal: to have graduates understand that things will not always go their way, but what’s important is how they see the bigger picture and keep moving. On the other hand, David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water com...