Sarah Dairiki

Because it is winter break, I have been shopping a lot, whether it was for Christmas presents, presents for my teachers, or shopping at my favorite clothing stores for myself. I wanted to share my favorite stores that I rely on to buy the necessities I need to make each present and add to my wardrobe, in case any of you guys want to check out these stores I will be mentioning. 1. CVS/Walgreens - Lets just say that I splurged on buying many things to help concoct the Christmas gifts I made for my teachers and college counselor. I love CVS and Walgreens because even though they are drugstores, they have the best selection of chocolates and candles, and when it gets closer to Christmas, they stock up on the cutest gifts, from peppermint bark to adorable Christmas cards. Even when it is not the holidays I still am a regular at these drugstores whether to buy hair products, makeup, or other necessities. 2. Sephora - I love Sephora because of the great quality products they sell. I went ...

As 2014 comes to a close, we all reflect on what has happened in the year, entertainment wise, personally, work related, etc. But just as often as we reflect, we also look towards the future, and ponder what 2015 will bring. I personally have a lot planned for the next year, both personally and generally, and I can't wait for the new year to come. Take a look. 1. The fact that 2015 will bring the end of the school year is probably the most important thing to me. Sure, everyone is probably thinking "Yay the end of the school year!" but then get disappointed because they have another school year to handle after the summer, but the end of the school year in 2015 means graduation for me. As a senior in high school, graduation is something I have looked forward to for years. Wearing the cap and gown and walking across that stage to receive my diploma is something all seniors look forward to at the start of their senior year. And at my school we have a tradition where we de...

So many great events have happened in the 2014 year, from Taylor Swift releasing her album 1989 to Adam Levine getting married, and other great bands and singers emerging into the world of fame. However, there is much more to the world than just singers; there are actors, who contribute to what I think is one of the most important forms of entertainment, multimedia. Movies and TV shows have always been my life since I was a tween (pre-teen), and they have continued to be a huge part of my life, and something I do to relieve stress. Because of all the great movies, TV shows, and other forms of entertainment that have come out this year, I wanted to share them all with you. Top 5 Best Moments of 2014: 1. The Fault in Our Stars  - Hands down the best movie that came out in 2014. I remember I got to the theater 3 hours early with my friend, and we even ate dinner in the theater out of fear that there was going to be a huge line. There wasn't a line at all, but waiting 3 hours in...

I am a huge book worm and try to read whenever I have time, which is usually late at night before I go to bed, on weekends, or on breaks. I recently found that I was short on books to read, which led me to research on Google novels that would appeal to me. Because I am a sucker for romance movies, I mainly looked for that genre of novels. I recently got a few novels in the mail along with a few that a friend let me borrow, and I want to share them with you. 1. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green - I have read this book around three or four times, and it is still my favorite novel. It is a story about two teenagers who do have cancer, but it focuses more on the blossoming love story between them and how their world changes because of that as they also go through ups and downs due to their illnesses. It is a great read anywhere and anytime, and will always make you tear up by the end. 2. Let It Snow - This novel consists of three holiday stories written by John Green, Maure...

I went and saw Mockingjay Part One last Friday, and needless to say, it was amazing. I went into this movie with very very low expectations; because I was not seeing the movie opening day like I normally do, I was reading a variety of different reviews on the film. Many people had said that the film was just as good as the first two, while others said that it was not worth watching, thus leading to my conflicted expectations for the movie. However, it was just as great as the first two movies. When I first saw the trailer for this film I was excited, as it captured the tension and action that the book so greatly depicts. I was so excited to see the characters that have led their lives throughout the games and in District 12 plot their revenge on the Capitol, while also wanting to see the new characters that were to be introduced. Although I should have been excited to see the three main characters, I was probably most excited to see Finnick, who was my favorite character in Catching ...

The 2014 AMAs were held on Sunday, November 23, 2014. It began hours earlier with the red carpet, and the actual show followed a few hours later. On the red carpet, many celebrities were seen waving to their fans when they were not being taken aside for interviews on their latest single or latest movie, who they are looking forward to seeing perform, and just to discuss how excited they were for the show that night. Many singers were seen performing on side stages next to the red carpet, with Ella Henderson singing her latest single "Ghost" and Fifth Harmony performing "Sledgehammer" only to name a few. The fans and celebrities who walked the carpet were clearly excited for all that was going to go down later that night in the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, the excitement reflected through their smiles and waves to the cameras and audience. Among the most talked about performances included Taylor Swift, Five Seconds of Summer, Sam Smith, Charli XCX, Lorde, One Dire...

As Thanksgiving approaches, grocery stores are stocking up on turkeys, gravy, mashed potatoes, and cans upon cans of pumpkin purée for all those who will raid the grocery stores on what I call Thanksgiving Eve to do last minute preparations before the big day. And, the final Hunger Games movie Mockingjay Part 1 is coming out on Friday, November 21. However, despite my desire to eat a ton of food on Thanksgiving and watch Mockingjay this Friday, that is not what's on my mind. What's on my mind is school. As Thanksgiving approaches, those days are just adding to the count down to when all my college applications are due. Yes, it totally sounds cliche and like I am obsessed with academics, but really, I am stressed out. The first semester of senior year is always the most stressful; we are struggling to retake the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, and the ACT, while performing our best academically and filling out college applications in whatever spare time we have. I thought the college ...

In May 2014 I was obsessing over this one guy at my school way too much, yet I never realized how insane I truly was, because I had unfortunately fallen head over heels for him. Now that I have recovered from this crush and have moved on, I looked back on my blog and saw that I had written a poem in the midst of when I first started to realize that myself and this guy were never actually going to get together. Because of how powerful that poem was due to the showcasing of my genuine emotions, I decided to try it out again. Here is another poem I wrote. Hope you enjoy! Uncontrollable My heart leaps out of my chest, My mind goes blank, My stomach fills with butterflies, My mouth forgets how to speak. My cheeks grow redder every second, My body starts to shake; These are the uncontrollable motions I go though Every single time I see you.

The Celebrate My Drive and Fight For Hunger campaigns were recently introduced to Menlo-Atherton, spreading the need to become informed about driving safety and global hunger to the student body. In addition to the large banners hanging in Pride Hall promoting the campaigns, teachers, leadership class members, and the leadership advisers encourage their students to go online and vote to support M-A. The leadership class is also dedicating large amounts of their time spreading the campaigns to the students, creating Facebook pages and mentioning them on M-A Today video broadcasts.  T Celebrate My Drive intends to promote safe driving by having students pledge via Facebook to drive carefully. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, teen drivers age sixteen to nineteen have the highest percentage of car accident involvements, and their first year of driving is always the most dangerous. Despite this unfortunate statistic, Celebrate My Drive’s goal is to celebra...

I have developed some pretty severe obsessions and guilty pleasures recently, and although I am fully aware that they are not healthy at all, I cannot stop myself from wanting to procrastinate on homework and instead engage myself in those guilty pleasures. Because my obsessions have been piling up on each other for months, I wanted to share them in case anyone shares the same ones as myself. Here are my top ten guilty pleasures and obsessions: 1. 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) - This band is literally my life. I have around 6 posters of them on the walls of my room, and they are the background of my laptop. I love them to death and have even written blog posts dedicated to them. And I am in fact going to their concert next year, so it looks like my obsession will not be ending any time soon. 2. Brooklyn Nine-Nine - I recently got hooked on this TV show, mainly because I developed a liking to Andy Samberg. He is one of my favorite actors, and he was hilarious on SNL, and is even funn...

As a senior in high school, I have had my fair share of ups and downs in relation to academics and my social life. I will openly admit, I am socially awkward. So much so, that I have even made other people I am talking to feel uncomfortable because I am so awkward myself. I feel like all students go through this sort of awkward and difficult phase some time in their high school life, and that although it may seem completely unfair, it is normal. Feeling like you don't blend in with the other students at your school is not something that should bring you down; I have experienced times in high school where I walked to my next class without my friends and felt insecure because I didn't have someone by my side to talk to; instead, I had strangers next to me who kept bumping into me because of how crowded the hall was. Instead of just attempting to blend in with others by sitting in the back of the classroom every single day of each year, you should embrace yourself for who you ar...

As a teenager, many adults think, Oh she is young, she can do whatever she wants!  Although that is true, it's also not true. As a senior in high school I find myself thinking about the future more often than I would like to admit. While many picture their senior year of high school partying, graduating, and spending time with friends, I think about academics, SAT and ACT testing, and the most stressful thing of all, college applications. Thinking about the sudden push to succeed from my parents and elder peers, I created a jar of inspirational quotes. I pick a few quotes from the jar daily and read them, becoming inspired and redeeming myself to continue my hard work towards success. Because of how much such a simple task has helped me, I wanted to share some inspirational quotes with you all with the hopes of inspiring you guys also. *Some of these are song lyrics, or quotes from novels/movies 1. "Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you." ...

Social media. Everyone uses it, in some form or another. When the words social media are spoken, many teenagers minds immediately jump to Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, among many others. And although many kids, teenagers, and even adults possess accounts, they are all used for different reasons. For adults, they use social media to keep in touch with relatives, friends, news, and the like. For teenagers, it's an entirely different story. Teenagers use social media for a numerous amount of reasons. Whether it's to get constant updates on  celebrities, post pictures/videos, or to keep in contact with friends from across the world, social media is beneficial. So, even though social media is seen as positive in many people's eyes, why are so many teenagers insecure as a result? To me, the answer is simple and complex at the same time. I have an Instagram account, and there have been so many instances where I will scroll through my news feed only to find numerous p...

With the new film The Maze Runner  being released in theaters all over the world on September 19, 2014, it quickly rose to fame, becoming the #1 movie in America. Not only did the movie attract readers of the novel, but it brought both the young and the old. Needless to say, I found myself sitting next to a teenager, and sitting in the same row as a little boy. That goes to show that the movie appealed to not just one particular audience. I saw the movie the day it was released with two of my friends, and there were not many open seats when the movie began. As the lights dimmed and a variety of movie trailers started rolling, the excitement for the movie heightened, each viewer perched on the edge of their seat. And, just as I had predicted, when the movie finally began, screams of joy burst out from everyone's mouths, and the film was welcomed with a hearty applause. As the movie went on I found myself enjoying the tension between all the characters, as each one of them e...

I feel as if the younger generations start dating much earlier than the older generations now, like the age when people start dating decreases every year. Personally I have no experience in this field (I haven't even had a boyfriend, and I'm a senior in high school), and sometimes I wonder why I am single anyways. The answer to that question varies. Some people are single because they choose to be, some are because their parents have a specific age as to when they will let their kids date, and some are simply afraid to throw themselves out into the dating world. The definition of a relationship is different for everyone. Some people think it's all about making out and physical contact. Others believe it's about emotions, love, and the chocolate and flowers. I think that a relationship is a combo of the two. I feel as if the "honeymoon" phase is initiated when people start dating; everything is perfect because two people have just gotten together; however, a...

Younger generations today are obsessed with their physical appearance, but for each gender, the obsession is at different levels. For the boys they think it's all about sagging, wearing fashionable clothing, and of course, the quiff. For girls, it's completely different. Girls always feel the need to wear makeup, find the best scented perfume, wear the most fashionable clothing, and be super skinny. So many teenagers today, especially girls, are obsessed with how they look, and they need to understand that being what's considered perfect is not mandatory. People come in all different shapes and sizes; not everyone is super skinny with a flawless face. I have seen and heard stories of so many teenagers who desperately want to be skinny, and because of that they starve themselves, thinking that's the way to become flawless. It's not. The dictionary says that the word beautiful means having qualities that delight or appeal to the senses and often the mind. Although t...

Recently I have been watching more beauty focused YouTube channels, and have been obsessed with a few of them, especially Zoe Sugg's (Zoella) channel along with Niomi Smart's. They have such inspiring YouTube channels, and they post many beauty inspired fashion videos that I love to watch. Whether it's a makeup haul or a get ready with me video, I always love seeing the products they use and advertise to their viewers, and because of that, I decided to do that in this blog post. When I shower, I use multiple products of different brands. Here is a list of all of them: 1. I use the Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Shampoo and Conditioner. I switched to Herbal Essences a long time ago, and turned to the hydration one because of how unhappy I was with my dry frizzy hair. In using this shampoo my hair has turned noticeably softer, and even though I have tried out different shampoos/conditioners from the same brand, I always go back to Hello Hydration. 2. After I put condit...

This may sound completely cheesy, but when I say that a band has changed my life, it's true. I have mentioned in previous posts that Five Seconds of Summer is my favorite band, and they are, in fact, the band that has changed my life. Five Seconds of Summer originally started out as four ordinary boys growing up in Sydney, Australia. They quickly rose to fame when they formed their band and posted covers of songs on YouTube, and toured with One Direction while doing multiple radio interviews and other acoustic performances. Now, they have a huge fan base all over the world, and continue to grow every single day. Whether it is a meet and greet or just watching them perform, multiple fans are seen crying due to sheer bliss, or the large amount of emotions coursing through their body, so strong they can't handle it. For me, it is both. Seeing these four boys living their dream makes me so happy, and the fact that they never thought they would even get to perform out of their o...

The VMAs were today (August 24, 2014) at the Forum in Los Angeles, California, and I have to say, the show was amazing. I personally had been waiting months for this day, only to find out I didn't have cable, so I had to wait until about 8:30 pm to watch clips of the performances and to view the winners, which was TORTURE. However, the wait was so worth it. After the show started airing live I probably refreshed the MTV page and their instagram page about 100 times, trying to figure out the winners and watch the live red carpet stream. I was mainly waiting to see Five Seconds of Summer walk the carpet, and screamed in agony as I walked over to my laptop to find they had just walked it and I wasn't there to see it. However, their performance made up for it. I was excited for all the nominees and winners, however the performances I was the most excited about was Five Seconds of Summer (duh) and the collab with Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and Jessie J. When the performances fi...

Ah, the start of the school year.... always a fun time, right? Haha not. Going back to school is something that all students hate; one has to give up their days of sleeping in until 11 a.m. and replace that with alarm clocks and homework. For those in high school, I feel you. I too have lost myself in the world of homework and not sleeping enough every night. To be honest, for the first few weeks, maybe a month into the summer of 2014, I found myself waking up at 6:30 a.m., maybe 7 at the latest, so used to being up that early for school every day that it became like clockwork for me. Not being able to sleep in was torture. However, I slowly went back into my days of sleeping in happily, and I continued to do that along with wasting my time watching television shows instead of being productive this summer. The summer has flown by; at one time it was the first day of summer, and just as suddenly, it is the first day of school. I am a senior in high school this year (yay!) and I cou...

The Menlo Charity Horse Show is one of the most popular horse shows held at the Circus Club in Atherton, California. Hundreds of riders compete in this show annually, with the number of entries increasing each year. My barn competes there every year, and I was able to stop by the show on the second to last day with one of my best friends to support my barn. We were amazed by how gorgeous the horses were along with the high level of competition both the jumper and hunter/equitation arenas had.   This year the horse show was held August 5-10 and had a huge number of competitors, with all the money that went into the competition being donated to the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I constantly switched from arena to arena, watching the hunters/equitation along with the jumpers. However, the class that made me smile and scream with glee was the Lead Line class. Not only does everyone win first place, but for 10-20 minutes, the cutest little kids are led around on thei...