In general, I love airports. I love traveling. I love airplanes. I used to live in Massachusetts, so I would always go to the Boston Logan Airport. It’s a really nice airport, and I assumed that was the standard everywhere until I came to Colorado. The first thing that I saw outside of the airport was Bluecifer, the Nightmare Horse. I don’t know whose idea it was to randomly just say one day, “Hey, let’s put a demonic, nightmare-fuel horse with red eyes outside the airport,” but whenever I see it, I feel like it’s a bad omen. The next thing that struck me was the failed attempt to make mountain peaks out of the roof. I understand what they were going for, but every time I’m waiting at security, I feel like I’m at someone’s wedding tent that happens to be infested with TSA. Don’t even get me started on the music they play on the trains. It sounds like creepy circus music, which is fitting, considering the whole airport is a clown show, and the trains are simply clown cars. Also, what’s up with the construction? It’s been forever since they started, and I see no improvement. All of the conspiracy theories are probably right; the airport basement is definitely linked to the Backrooms. I hate that place.

I understand that some people have different taste in movies, but there’s no reason to criticize a well-made film in such an aggressive and ignorant fashion. The movie has a highly talented cast, breathtaking CGI, and a phenomenal soundtrack. It’s in my top three favorite movies of all time and one that my family has watched upwards of ten times. The first time I saw Avatar in theaters, I was completely awestruck. It’s so rare to find a film with such a powerful and complex plot that’s also supported by the budget to make it truly excellent. I hate hearing people reduce the film to “blue aliens” and “weird space stuff” and complain about how long it is. If you can’t sit through an engaging, beautiful movie, then you clearly have an unhealthy attention span from the amount of time you spend on TikTok. And if you can’t acknowledge how high-quality Avatar is, then you’re obviously uncultured. It’s literally directed by the same person who directed Titanic, which is a cinematic masterpiece. So if you still insist on hating on Avatar, then I guess we can’t be friends.

Three years ago, my sister and I tried watching Avatar. It took us three days to get through a two-hour and 42-minute long movie because every time we resumed, it felt like it went on forever and we had to turn it off. Despite having a pretty decent cast for the time of its release, the movie had an odd, boring plot and still haunts my dreams. It’s a story that follows the consciousness of an ex-marine being transported to a land of massive, seven-foot-tall blue aliens who inhabit the forests of Pandora in order to gather resources for Earth. Soon, he falls in love with a female avatar and decides to leave his home for this new life. I mean, that’s not normal. It’s just weird. The movie spends three hours trying to explain to me that the world is heading towards a future where we deplete the earth of resources, but in the worst way possible. I am severely traumatized by the whole experience of watching it and plan on never watching it again. And before you ask: no, I haven’t seen the sequel, and I don’t plan on it.

The reason for this is that almost all of my favorite foods have large amounts of gluten in them, so I can’t even eat them. I went about my life being able to eat as much gluten as I wanted until one day after I turned 14, when a doctor decided to test me for gluten sensitivity, and it turned out I actually shouldn’t be eating it. This wasn’t the only discovery I made that day though. I found out that almost every single food I like has at least a little bit of gluten in it. Whether it’s Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, nacho cheese Doritos, or even some nice, plain old pretzels, gluten is everywhere. The worst part is that the tiniest bit of gluten intake is enough to make my stomach cramp for at least a week. I often find myself reminiscing about the days when I could carelessly eat whatever I wanted without having to check the package to see if it was gluten-free. Now I have to switch to eating gluten-free alternatives, which taste awful and unfamiliar. Even if that’s a little bit dramatic, hate is truly the only word strong enough to describe the feeling of frustration that comes along with having to avoid eating gluten.

First, there is no cell service in Superior. A cell phone dead zone for miles, I have to warn my family that they won’t hear from me because I’m going to Superior. It’s all “open space” bought out by companies that refuse to build anything. There are two massive neighborhoods spread out between miles of dead grass. The mall isn’t even considered to be in Superior, even though everyone who lives there likes to say it is. The houses are massive, everyone is rich, and the only decent thing there is Target. Louisville, however, is so much worse. At least people in Superior know they have a boring town. I’m sick of people in Louisville saying they live in a “small town.” The main street is cute and has two good restaurants, but all the stores just suck. The library has a fireplace, so that’s nice, and the Rec Center is good, but Louisville is not a small town by any means. The residents of Louisville didn’t vote for Redtail Ridge because the idea of change scares them. So now we have to stare at a flatland of dead grass instead of anything useful. Finally, Lafayette gets dissed for having Centaurus, when the street fairs and festivals are ten times better than Louisville’s farmers market. “But at least there’s no trailer park like Lafayette.” It’s Parco Dello Zingaro Mobile Home Community. Stop being entitled, your towns suck.

Sure, they’re supposed to start up conversations and help people learn more about each other, but I know for a fact that when the teacher says, “Time for icebreakers!” everyone in the class sighs. Questions like “What’s your favorite candy,” or “What’s your walkup song” are completely irrelevant to the world today. No one cares what your walkup song might be, and it’s not like they’ll remember it anyway. Small talk can be helpful to start a conversation, but that doesn’t mean you need to ask silly little questions all the time. At that point, the teacher is no longer starting a conversation, they’re just being annoying. If I felt the need to learn more about a specific person, I would. I don’t need a teacher at the beginning of the year forcing every single student to ask and answer these stupid questions.

When my phone claims it is running out of storage. I currently have 12,356 photos on my camera roll, and I have no intention of deleting them. As a person who enjoys photography, I probably take 100 photos on every outing. If the sky is pretty, that’s ten. If my friend looks fabulous, that’s another ten that I’ll make sure to send to the group chat. However, every night when I scroll through my camera roll to look at the gorgeous pictures I took, I get a pop-up warning on my phone claiming that my storage is full and my iCloud isn’t backed up. If my storage is full and my iCloud isn’t backed up, why am I still able to take pictures? I can send them just fine and my camera roll keeps growing, so why is my phone lying to me? My phone storage seems fine to me, and I would appreciate it if my phone wasn’t preying on my downfall and would just let me keep taking pictures.