Sydneyjoto tackles high school blog world

In eighth grade, current senior Sydney Torrens was under the impression that everything crazy happened in high school. With new relationships, rallies, classes and extracurriculars, how could it not be interesting? That, along with her transfer from the San Jose school district to the Los Gatos Saratoga Union High School district, made her and her family both excited and nervous. Surely she would be in for an adventure. So, for fun, Torrens created her blog, “SydneyJoTo: High School’s a Jungle.”

Torrens made the blog the summer before her freshman year, starting off with a post about what she would do if she were locked in overnight at Target — a hypothetical situation proposed by her pen pal in Idaho. Now, four years later, she has written 145 blog posts, which have been received by her 131 followers. One of her most avid followers has been her paternal grandfather.

“After every post he will say something sweet at the end,” Torrens said. “So I think of him when I write and what would he enjoy reading.”

Torrens updates her blog every few months. Her articles range from random thoughts to milestone events such as the media arts trip to Los Angeles or deciding what she plans on doing after high school. Often from there she will expand to a main point that is relevant to her wide audience.

“[Blogging]  makes me step outside of my thoughts and think, ‘How can I make this sound better? Will this make sense to the general audience?’ while also staying personal and finding [a] balance,” Torrens said. “It creates a new kind of journal entry where it’s not just you complaining in a journal about [what is bugging you]. It’s more readable and approachable.”

Torrens finds that long passages of deep writing make blogging stand out from other forms of communication on the Internet. Instead of the short blurbs used in Twitter and Instagram, blogs require more concentration from both the readers and the writers.

“You have to sit and dive into these words and dedicate yourself,” Torrens said.

Since creating her blog, Torrens has discovered a whole community dedicated to blogging. Although most of the bloggers are adults who blog about their hobbies or interests, Torrens feels at home in the blogging world. One lady in particular, under the name of Mrs. Roberson, is a fan of Torrens’ blog.

“Here I am blogging from this high schooler perspective and then this lady comes under the pen name of Mrs. Roberson and she blogs about being a [high school] English teacher,” Torrens said. “She comes with a different standpoint: she’s the teacher and I’m the student.”

Mrs. Roberson’s blog, “a nomadic teacher’s thoughts on preparing teens for life,” posts comments such as “wow I never thought of it that way” to Torrens entries. Torrens and Mrs. Roberson enjoy seeing each other’s views on various school situations.

Overall, Torrens believes that blogging has helped her appreciates other people’s stories more and talk to new people. Torrens knows that her blog will be something she will want to look back on and show her children.

“I see my parents read their old journals and treasure those memories that they took the time to write down,” Torrens said. “We have no idea right now how important these memories will be to us in the future. So the blog will be something that my future kids can look back at and I’ll look back at. ”

Now that she is a senior, Torrens has decided to continue blogging in college even though the blog was originally meant for high school. She thinks it will be a great thing to ask future employers to look at. And since she is looking at film production as a career, she plans on adding more film reviews and other features.

“Personally I like filming and visually showing how things happen,” Torrens said. “I’m an artist; that’s how I think. So writing is just a way to tell those quick stories that happen in day-to-day life that I can’t record and make a video of every day.”

Check out Torrens’ blog at sydneyjoto.wordpress.com.