Pain surged through my fingers as I persevered through the last sentence of my short essay question. The crackling of my joints echoed as I straightened up in my chair. The waning moments of the exam were approaching, and I had finished just in time. As I placed my answer booklet at the top of the pile, I was officially liberated from the AP Biology exam, as well as from the stress, worrying, and physical fatigue that trailed along with it.

Despite the grey fog that clouds the Pebble Beach sky, the end of spring and coming of summer is just around the corner, marked by the annual Spring Carnival festival! Organized by Student Council, Spring Carnival is one of Stevenson’s largest on-campus events where families and friends are joined by newly enrolled students to enjoy festival rides and foods. A carnival is incomplete without ice cream topped on some type of waffle cone, of course. This year, my club Nanoseed planned to bring egg waffles, a popular Hong Kong street snack, to the food scene at the Spring Carnival.

It’s application season! At the beginning of spring term for each school year, students are given the opportunity to apply for various leadership positions across campus, including becoming a part Stevenson student ambassador program or being chosen as a prefect in the dorms. I was extremely attracted by the prefect position, as I remember my freshman year prefects being a big source of help and guidance when I had first arrived at Stevenson. This experience of moving across the world, away from my family, daunted me, and my prefects were there to help me adjust and feel welcome in this new environment. Having lived on campus for two years, I was determined to become a prefect in my sophomore year and recreate the same sense of safety that I felt for others.

It’s game time! We kicked off our season with a game against Notre Dame, who had a newly formed their girls lacrosse team.

As we walked through the gates, a restless thumping formed in my chest. This moment felt like some sort of reward - a time that I had earned for myself to demonstrate the skill that I had accumulated for the past three years.

During the three-day extended weekend, my friends and I set on our journey to explore areas of the Monterey Peninsula where we have not been before. In the past two and a half years spent in this area, I slowly felt that I had begun to run out of options for places to go on the weekends.

It is almost time for the holidays! The campus has been filled with joy and anticipation for the season, with every corner of it adorned with sparkling lights and tall-standing trees. I arrive in Rosen, where there are tables set up with lines of gingerbread houses waiting to be decorated. Outside, there is a line of cookies and hot chocolate.