My experience with a Google Pixel

So, I got into high school, a somewhat good one mind you. But that's not the topic of this post. I said that I would make an update post on my blog as soon as I got into high school, but to be honest.I honestly got tired of doing updates since they are just promises and nobody would read or watch them. I'm not (yet) a big name on the internet, so making updates online is just like if you're going to the city center and expect that people would give you money by just doing nothing. It just isn't going to work.

On July 9, 2026, I got a new phone! Now, some of you might think it is overpowered or not worth it for a teenager like me, but just think about it. I have used a Samsung Galaxy A13 since October 6, 2022, without breaking it too much. The last time I cracked my screen was in 2023 or 2024; I can't recall exactly when it was. Also, I only cracked my screen two times while using that phone. So, getting a new and also a flagship phone was a no-brainer.

Now it has been around two weeks or so since I got this Google Pixel 10 Pro, and let me tell y'all. This phone is the most wonderful thing I've ever seen! It's an improvement, nonetheless, from my old Samsung Galaxy A13, which started to show signs of death, beginning with the USB-C port throwing errors.

One thing that I love about this Google Pixel is its AI integration. Now, don't get me wrong, I hate AI and I think it should be regulated.But keep in mind that the Pixel 10 can run local AI very well. Okay, now there are only small models that can run on this thing, but at the end of the day, they get the work done. For example, right now, as of writing this post, I'm doing it on my Pixel, and the Pixel has this built-in local AI into the keyboard that corrects grammatical errors and helps you rephrase a piece of text. Which is really helpful in my opinion when it comes to non-native English speakers like me who write. Now I haven't used any form of AI in my internet career, and I won't use it in the future.

Other things I love about this phone are the camera quality and that the software is so light compared to the One UI bloatware that comes with Samsung phones. Now I know that not even Pixels are the best. I mean, it is under Google's umbrella at the end of the day. But, at least Google isn't as strict as Samsung is when it comes to installing custom ROMs. For example, you could install LineageOS, GrapheneOS, or even Ubuntu Touch, I think. That's the art of owning a Pixel, the art of not having a locked bootloader or a bootloader that is literally impossible to unlock.

Now another thing that I like about the Pixel is that it feels alive in a way. The sounds, the launcher, and the "At a Glance" feature are just components of a product that, in my opinion, has life in it. Also, I don't know if this is the new Android that's just better or the phone, but now my default browser IS my default browser! For example, on my old phone, every time I opened a link in the Google app, it just opened up Chrome, but now, every time I do the same thing on the Pixel, it just opens Firefox, like a good phone would do.

Also, I can't held but notice that for a simple task like browsing, the Pixel is faster than my old phone! Now this may have been because Samsung dropped support for the A13, making it suck on Android 14, but now I'm happy that I can finally browse the web as I'm supposed to, with no lag and no frustrations over it not loading a page.

I forgot to add, but literally two days ago, I released this video, which in my opinion blew up. If you haven't watched it already, give it a watch, but if you have, just as a fun fact, I filmed it all on my Pixel. Later, I encountered a problem with the video being an HDR one...

Anyway! I love this phone so far, and I hope (know) it will last me at least 8 years.

Now that is over, here comes a new era!

So, I did it. I got through the 8th-grade exam, but the grades I got weren't exactly as expected. Like, I got 7.20 in Romanian and 8.65 in mathematics. I think you can very clearly see that I did much better in math compared to Romanian, which in my opinion is strange, since it has been "scientifically" demonstrated (by myself) that usually I get a higher grade in Romanian than math. But, I guess this was a strange situation.

Either way, I am more than pleased with my results, since they are higher than what I was expecting (especially in math, because as for Romanian... I don't even want to talk about it).

Now there's still a big step that I need to take to be done with all of this school stuff, and that is picking a high school! Now the problem here is that at the middle school I attended (and I still am there to some extent right now), I've made some promises, some big ones in my opinion. For example, one of them was to a retired teacher, promising that I would help him with the school's theater stage. Now, while dodging such promises might seem like an easy dodge to some, unfortunately, I have something called empathy, which is kind of holding me back from leaving. Besides that, I also have another stupid fear about leaving, and that is abandoning the friend that I've made along the way. But at the same time, I realize that I can still communicate with him even if we aren't in the same classroom, so that fear is completely unjustified. So, I guess it's more of a F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out) than an actual fear.

Now, which high school do I actually want? Well, because I want to go to a pretty beefy university in Amsterdam. Yeah, I really want to leave Romania and everything related to it behind eventually, because I really want to move to The Netherlands. Which in my opinion is a better-off country than Romania in all fields.

Anyways!

So, basically I want to do much better in life, and the profile that my middle school offers is a humanities/philosophy one, which is not recommended by the university I want to eventually get into. Instead, the university recommends a mathematics/computer science profile, which is essentially non-existent at my current school. And that means that if I want to follow my dream, I will need to change schools. Now sadly, I don't know which one I should apply to yet, but I will discuss that with my mom in the days that follow.

As for how long this process will take, well, it depends. If I choose to remain at the high school my middle school is offering, I would be done by the 10th of July. But if I choose not to, then say goodbye to half of my summer break! Since the bureaucracy in Romania is so bad, I need to basically wait another month until I find out if I was accepted into the high school or not.

I will make sure to post an update once I get into a high school, but I will not say the name of it for privacy reasons. But until then, I hope you're having a wonderful summer wherever you are!

The end of an era

 Today is the 11th of June 2026, as of writing this post I am at school. But that is not important at the moment...

Now what do I mean by "The end of an era"? Well, the national evaluation (also known in Romanian as "evaluarea națională") is in about 11 days. And for these passed 3-5 days I've cried a lot, but not for the reason you've might expect. It's not like I'm not prepared for this exam, is only that I don't really have a choice for my high school and that I won't see my current classmates in the autumn when school will start again.

I don't think that I am the only one going through this "pain", but for me, it seems strange because we aren't in 12th grade to say that we've had so many moments together. Now this may be debatable because not all of us have the same opinion regarding this topic, but for me nonetheless is strange.

Fortunately, someone's parent decided that it would be awesome to have a little notebook in which we wrote notes to each other. Now some of them were like this: "I hope you will pass the exam and have success in life". But, some of them are more elaborat, explaining events and other things that we've gotten through. This was a good idea, since we consider that most of us would go on different paths.

Now as I mentioned, I'm really in the fog when it comes to what high school I want to go at. But we will see after the exam! After all, I will see after the exam since I want to get a 8 or above because I made a I made a deal with my mom. Where if I get a 8 or above, I will get a Google Pixel 10 Pro and a Framework 16. So, fingers crossed!