Kate Knight, Feb. 8

Hey Patch Readers,

Well, finals are through and we are beginning to settle into the second semester. I definitely feel a lot more relaxed and like a large weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that they are over.

Last night was Newport Harbor’s Winter Formal dance at Knott’s Berry Farm and it was a total blast. At first I thought that I was going to be terrified of roller coasters, but I ended up going on the Silver Bullet three times and thought it was super fun. It was also really cool riding in a party bus to and from the park with my group of friends; we blasted music and danced around the bus the entire time.

Tomorrow I am beginning my Mandarin course and I am freaking out a little because I still have a lot of things to do to prepare for it and I don’t have that much time. I am also extremely excited with the turn-out of my finals; I got all more tha 100 percents except for a 98 in one class, so my grades are definitely not going to drop. It was kind of stressful realizing that for the first time in your life your grades are going to count towards college, so I am glad that they are over.

In other news, our school has quite a few foreign exchange students; one of them is from Sweden and is on the tennis team. We’ve been playing together at the same club on the weekends and it is really interesting to meet people from another country. I’ve gotten to know him from classes and tennis and his accent is really amusing to me.

In tennis, my first big tennis tournament in the 16s age division is coming up and I can’t wait. It’s going to be a totally different type of play and the tournament is for some really big National points, so fingers crossed. The first week of the second semester should be really exciting and I can’t wait to tell you guys all about it.

Have a great week!

Kate

(Editor's note: If you are a student-athlete at Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor or Sage Hill and would like to write a weekly column for Newport Beach Patch or Corona del Mar Patch, contact sports editor Bob Rohwer at bob.rohwer@patch.com.)