It's the End of Public Schooling as I Know It

This is it.  This is my last blog post.  It feels like just yesterday I was writing about Tender is the Night and John Oliver for the first time.  I wish I could say how absolutely perfect and amazing senior year was but that would be a lie.  This was the most stressful year of high school yet.  If I am being really honest, freshman year was actually the easiest year.

But as cliché as it may sound, easy years do not push you to grow as a person.  Did I love getting easy straight As freshman year?  Sure.  But the challenging AP class sophomore year with all juniors and seniors pushed me to work harder than I ever had in a class before.  I was not used to struggling in school.  It had always been fairly easy.  My first AP class pushed me to my limits, but it is the most memorable class I have ever taken.  I learned not only a lot of the subject material, but I learned how to struggle through difficult material and collaborate with others.  My final project that I had to create and carry out on my own was so hard, but I will always be proud of my thirty page final report.

So as this week comes to a close, and the only assignment between me and graduation is my Catcher in the Rye take home test, I am feeling glad that Senior year is over but grateful for the past thirteen years of formative public education.

Let the Fun Begin

This is my second to last blog post, and I am finally enjoying the end of Senior year.  It has been a crazy busy year, but everything is finally starting to slow down.  AP exams are over and all the celebratory events are starting.

Last night we had a Girl Scout ceremony, and it was so nice.  I was almost in tears.  I have been a Girl Scout for 13 years, and I cannot believe I am now an adult member.  It does not feel that long ago I was a Daisy scout making keychains and eating snacks in a giant troop of 17 girls.  Our troop, while only 4 girls, is the only troop in our grade in town that survived all 13 years.  I am extremely proud of my troop and all we have accomplished.

Tonight is the school ceremony for NHS and Century Club which I will also be attending, and able to enjoy, since I have very little homework.  Last year when I attended I could not enjoy the ceremony because I had an AP exam the next day.

In the coming weeks, there will be other exciting Senior “stuff” like the last day of school/BBQ, the boat cruise and all night party, the baccalaureate and ice cream party, class day, and of course graduation itself.  My family has also planned a graduation party that I am very excited about.  We will be renting a bouncy house because nothing says mature like a good old-fashioned bouncy house!

After four years (I would argue thirteen years) of hard work, it is nice to be able to celebrate all we as a class have accomplished and experienced.  I am looking forward to the future, but I am going to savor every moment as a Senior before I am back to being a lowly Freshman!

The End As We Know It

I have been so busy that it just dawned on me that senior year is almost over.  We have less than 20 days until we are done with our K-12 education forever.  I cannot believe how fast the time went.  It does not feel that long ago that I was in 3rd grade, nevermind freshman year.

On the other hand it seems so strange that all the activities and events for the Seniors are now for us.  After watching class officers and teachers plan signature Senior events for years, I cannot believe I will now be attending these events.

Everyone keeps asking if I’m enjoying my Senior year, and while I’m excited now for all of these end of the year events, it has honestly been one of the most crazy and stressful years ever.  Between college stuff, a heavy senior year course load, and my scramble to finish up my Girl Scout Gold Award in addition to a million other activities and Senior year stuff, I have had no rest.

Today I took my first AP Exam.  I cannot believe I am totally finished with Calculus for the year.  I have no idea how I did on the exam, but there is no point worrying about it because the scores do not come out until July.

I have two more AP Exams and then work I need to do for my Gold Award.  Once I finish all of my AP Exams and my Gold Award, I think I will finally be able to relax for a little bit until college starts up in the fall.

April Showers

It feels like it has been such a long time since I have blogged.  A lot can happen in two weeks.  The most important thing that happened was that I visited the two schools I was deciding between, and have finally made my choice!  I am so excited that I paid my deposit, signed up for orientation, booked plane tickets, and submitted my housing application.  I honestly cannot believe the entire college process is over, and I am happy with the result.  I am attending one of my top choices, and I was accepted into their honors program!  

While I am happy that college is all settled, these two weeks have honestly been pretty rough.  First of all, I am very stressed about all of my AP exams.  These exams are so important to me because if I get certain scores, I will be able to take more advanced classes and not have to repeat much of the course material I learned this year in math, science, and French.  I have a lot of studying to do before the exams, but the worst part is that even after the exams, I will not know my scores until July, which feels eons away.

Another random disappointment is regarding my favorite TV show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.  Way back in January, I wrote that “Now that I am 18 I am old enough to enter the “lottery” to try and get tickets to see the show taped live in New York!”.  It is extremely difficult to get tickets.  You can enter at 3pm every Wednesday and by 3:01pm, the show will be sold out.  Even if you manage to enter, you are still not guaranteed to get tickets.  Well, I finally had a free Sunday (when the show is taped), so I entered the lottery.  I managed to submit a request at 3pm.  There was a certain day they said I would be notified by if I won tickets, but I never heard back.  Then, Saturday night, the day before the show taped, I received an email that they had an extra pair of tickets available if I wanted them.  I was so excited, but by then my dad who was going to take me had a commitment, and we could not go.  I was so bummed out.  When I watched the episode I would have attended on TV, I was even more sad because Lin Manuel Miranda (the writer/star of Hamilton) made a guest appearance!

However, my sadness over not being able to attend a show taping quickly faded that day when we received a call that my Godfather unexpectedly passed away.  I am extremely close with my Godparents.  They are basically family.  We get together for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and for many other events all throughout the year.  They come to see me skate and perform in drama shows.  I had just seen him when he came to see me perform my solo in the skating show this year.  I am still in shock that he is gone.  

It has only been two weeks, but so much has changed.  I feel like this is the beginning of a new chapter in my life.  Hopefully these April showers will bring me some May flowers.

Concerts

For the past few weeks I have been talking all about college.  While there is less than a month until I make my final decision (yikes!), I have decided this week I want to talk about something fun.

Many people look forward to vacations, sports games, and movie premieres.  I however, get the most excited about concerts.  I adore going to concerts.  I love music, and watching someone perform the song I have been listening and dancing to in my room live is always so surreal.

I also enjoy trying to get the best seats/tickets possible.  I cannot afford $1000 tickets or anything like that, but I always try to get the best tickets I can afford.

One of the fun things about concerts is going to all different types; ones with different genres, different audiences, and different venues.  I have see everything from Justin Bieber to Josh Groban, and I have been at every kind of venue from small places like the Paradise Rock Club to large stadiums like Gillette.  Each is fun and special for different reasons.

This Tuesday I went to the Charlie Puth concert; one I had been particularly looking forward to.  For those who do not know him by name, he wrote and sang the hit song See You Again from the latest Fast and Furious movie.  This concert was at a small venue similar to the Paradise Rock Club with general admission for about 400 people.  I was really excited and nervous because I had purchased a VIP package.  I have only once before bought a VIP package and this one was even more special than last one.  Myself, my friend, and four other people were brought into a small room to meet Charlie and listen to him sing an acoustic version of his hit “One Call Away”.  We were all so quiet and nervous.  I was the first one to walk into the room, and I could not believe he was just sitting there on a small couch, right there in front of me.  He sang the song beautifully.  Then we all had the opportunity to take selfies with him.  Again I panicked for a moment because I could not find my phone!  Once I finally found it, I handed it to him so he would take the pictures.  I am pretty sure that if I had had to hold the phone, my hand would have been shaking.  Then I gave him my little gift I made him.  Again, I froze I could not find the words to explain my gift, but he asked if it was a coaster and I told him “No, it’s a magnet”.  He told me he would put it on his fridge which was sweet.  

After this intimate experience, we lined up to take the regular professional meet and greet photos.  Again, I went first and I asked him if we could do a pose where we hug each other.  He said yes but we were off center so we had to shuffle (while in our pose) to move to the center.  Then, for some reason, they threw us all back outside in the freezing cold for an hour.  Once I could no longer feel my toes, they let us back inside, and I was able to secure a spot front row and center.  The entire experience was surreal, and will go down as one of my favorite concert experiences ever.

Decisions, Decisions...

Last week I wrote about how I was accepted to another school but that I was waiting for the financial aid package.  The package has since arrived, and it is pretty good.  The cost of my two top choices are very similarly priced so it really comes down to where I would prefer to spend the next four years living and learning.  As of right now, I honestly have no idea where I want to go.  I always thought that despite applying to many schools, there would be one clear winner that would emerge in the end.  Unfortunately that is not the case.  I have narrowed down my list of acceptances and am currently trying to decide between two schools.

Everyone keeps asking me which school I am leaning towards, and I honestly I am not leaning toward either school.  Each school has its strengths and its weaknesses.  Even though the two schools are in many ways completely different, I could see myself melding into the culture of either school.  One school is huge (and I do mean HUGE!).  It is a large public university with great sports teams and a lot of school spirit.  The other school is much smaller.  It is a private university without impressive sports teams or parties.  The lack of parties, which some may see as a drawback, is actually a positive for me as I am a pretty socially reserved person.  However, the school spirit at the other school in of itself is very enticing.  The school has one of the largest living alumni networks in the world which can be very beneficial when applying for jobs.

What makes the decision truly tough is that both schools have the same quality of academics.  Both have excellent statistics programs, and both schools would allow me to study biology in some capacity.

I have signed up to go back and revisit each school again before I make a decision.  When I visited these schools over the summer, the focus of the info sessions and tours were how to gain admission.  Now that I have been admitted, I will be attending what are known as “Accepted Students Days” where I will find out more about the classes and what it is like to be a student at the schools.

I am excited to visit these schools next month, but I am also nervous because by May 1st I have to make a decision!

The End Is In Sight

Last week I was super upset about college decisions, but this week I fared a little better as the last of my college decisions trickled in.  Was it a fabulous week?  No; but it was MUCH better than last week.  I received two waitlists to two of my favorite public universities I applied to.  First of all, I am proud to even be waitlisted because it can be hard for in-staters to get in, never mind out-of-staters.  These schools are required to take a majority of in-staters, making it extremely difficult to get in when you are out of state.  While many schools waitlist thousands of kids just to accept ten kids off the waitlist, these schools often take many students off their waitlists which gives me hope.  One school accepted 20% of the students on the waitlist last year, and the other school last year accepted over 400 students off the waitlist.  Obviously it varies year to year, but I am hopeful of my chances.  On top of that, I was accepted to another amazing school this week.  After all the rejections from the previous week and even the waitlists this week, the surprise acceptance Friday night at midnight (Saturday morning) was incredible.  Now I am actually faced with a tough decision to make.  I have no idea which school I will pick.  Part of my decision will ultimately be made when I receive my financial aid package from the school I was just accepted to.

Even though I was accepted, on Friday I thought I had been rejected at first.  The school sent out acceptance packages to students who were accepted, and waitlist letters to students who were waitlisted on Wednesday.  They did not send out any rejection letters.  During school on Friday, I found out students across the country from California to Wisconsin to Massachusetts had received acceptance letters that day.  I went home and nervously opened my mailbox and was devastated when I found that there was no acceptance package and no waitlist letter inside.  I assumed I had been rejected.  Friday night, I opened my decision on my online portal anyways, and was shocked to see I had actually been accepted.  I started screaming and shook my mom who had fallen asleep on the couch.  

While I still have a couple decisions left to receive, all the important decisions are over and now I have two wonderful schools to choose from.  Early on in this blog I said I wanted to get into just one great school to vindicate my years of hard work.  I have been accepted to two schools, and waitlisted at two schools that I consider great, and I definitely feel like my hard work has finally paid off.