Scholarships and College and Junk

This month and this week in particular have been very busy. Last weekend I went up to the valley to visit Western Oregon. I'm so looking forward to it. The sad thoughts of moving away are mostly overshadowed by excitement. And I have a bunch of family up there as well. This week I was stressing a lot about scholarships. Luckily I met all of the deadlines, and now I just need to find more more more. It's really touching to read letters of recommendation. It's difficult to write good essays! I'm in AP Literature and we don't write many essays. I think I actually prefer reading to writing but writing allows me to have a chance to feel proud of my work.

Anyway, this weekend I get to hang out with Taylor after he's done working after the Solo/Ensemble Festival--which I am a part of. This is my first year performing for it and I'll be singing with the Men's Choir. (Ha) It's been a really great experience though. I wonder what the judicators will think when "Summit Men" walks in the door and I'm in there with my folder ready to sing. It should be a good experience though.

Today I'm taking a day off from school, until 1:00 when I have Chorale, to do homework. I didn't have time to do any last night because I was working on a scholarship the whole time. It was actually ridiculous, I got so stressed out to the point of tears and had to call Christian to help me calm down and leave the room and not think about it. I was waiting for my last letter of recommendation. But it got done. I really needed to get this in because it's a scholarship for children and grandchildren of FBI Agents. I only received the application 4 days ago and it's due today. So that was my evening...

I really wish I could somehow just have some substantial style of writing. It comes out more when I tell a real story, but I have to settle for whatever this crap is. ^ Oh well. I think I'll start a new blog after I graduate. Next year I'll have many more interesting topics to write about. New student week at Western starts September 22. It's quite late. That's when I'll be moving in and all that. It'll be great. :) And I'm actually very glad the drive from here to there is only 2-3 hours. I'll visit ALL the time. As long as I have snow tires to get over the pass...

Oh mylanta! Also, I'm going to Spain this summer!!!!

Heo.

It's a bit sad seeing my number of posts decreasing each year. I joined Skyliner Jazz so I've been liking that quite a bit...besides a good mountain of drama. I STILL have to start applying for scholarships. :/ I really do need to start doing that. I don't even know how I'm gonna pay for college. And it's about time I start worrying about it...

I don't have much to write about today. 5 months and I'm done. So scary.

What's New and What's to Come

My, it's been a while. Many things have occured since I last wrote. I was accepted to Western Oregon University and I sent in my housing application. That was very exciting. :) I can't wait to get out of high school and be really independent. I have to send back a couple things to complete the admission process and just start working on scholarships. In January I'll have to work on financial aid things.

I auditioned for the winter play You Can't Take It With You, but I didn't get a part. I was good enough to be one of the more major roles, but other people just fit the certain parts better, and I get that. I was rather upset but I think it'll be good. Jake is in it and a couple other friends are too, so I'll definitely go and see it in February.

Thanksgiving was excellent. A whole bunch of family came to visit. I got to practice sign language with my cousins and I talked to my uncle about acting. One great thing about moving to Monmouth is that I'll get to be close to them. I'll get to hang out with my little cousins there as well. They are so adorable.

Today I made a turkey hand for my AP Government class (it has an amendment on it), added to my satire I'm writing for AP Literature, bought a ticket to the midnight showing of the Hobbit, spent a lot of time in front of the TV and the computer, and started my first scholarship.

There are only a little over 6 months until graduation, but it feels like the school year is moving pretty slowly. I can't really fathom what can happen in that much time. I want to make the most of it that I can. I'm very excited to graduate but it also scares me a bit, because, to put it cheesily, I'll be going out into the big, wide world and who knows what can happen. I'm going to meet so many new people and learn so many things. I'll be on my own, having to deal with a lot of things on my own. Most things that happen in high school are not going to matter. Of course all of these are just facts that I'm stating, but it's pretty insane to think about when I put it like that.

6 months.

Oh, and I got my senior pictures! Thank you Sarah McMurray! I'm gonna go with the bottom left with the red dress.

In the yearbook it has to be in color but I like these ones too. :)

P.S. I'm planning on playing softball in the spring.

Movie Night & Plans

Today we had a movie night for Fiddler on the Roof and a bunch of the cast came. I was reminded how infuriated I get when people talk during a movie, and how anxious I feel when they aren't following along. I had  hoped people could see the movie and get a feel for how they should behave on stage, but I felt like I was one of the only people paying attention. Despite all the talking I almost cried about five times (I would have if there weren't so many people there) and I actually did once. I can say this has become my current favorite movie. I was also reminded from the movie, though, how sad I get at the sight of an old person crying. Especially (spoiler alert) when it's one of my favorite characters: the sweet, adorable, old Rabbi. I'm really worried though because we won't be able to make it anywhere near as good as the movie and it reminded me of how I felt watching all of the same scenes that we do in rehearsal. Now I feel like I should stop writing about all this because someone could read it and suddenly decide they don't want to come to the show or get mad at me or some other bad thing. Maybe seeing the movie again will at least help me put on a better performance.

In other news, I'm getting my senior pictures taken on Sunday by the oh so wonderful Sarah McMurray. I freaking love her. She's going to get some pictures of me with my mom as well! I have four outfits picked out. Very excited. :) I'm also hoping to send in my college application to Western Oregon University this weekend. I attended an Oregon universities visitation thing at my school and a representative from Western talked to a group of us about it. I'm very excited. With my GPA, Mrs. Future-Center-Unnamed-Lady said I could probably just go to a 4-year school right off the bat. So that's what I'm going to do. Western is one of the only universities in the northwest that offers a Bachelor's Degree in ASL Interpreting and it's the best in the country. I know I'm going to the right place. I consider myself very lucky that I don't have to go too far to get there and it's still in my favorite state. Oh boy it is quite late and I'm very tired. I wonder when I'll start doing some actual quality writing.

Moments of Pride

I learned how to play Mad World on the piano (Gary Jules), and it's very easy to play but still--great song. Also I'm drinking tea. I don't like tea. This stuff is good. I made myself drink it 'cause I'm sick and have junk in my throat and I have to have a clear throat so I can sing in Fiddler on the Roof and tea's good for that. It's almost 1 AM...I'm really just rambling right now. Today I helped Kate set up her basement for her party on Friday. We painted the walls black, or at least added another coat, and splattered neon paint everywhere. Also there are black lights and strobes, and we hung sheets and Christmas lights all over the place. It looks amazing. I'm excited. Also, I finished my homework for AP Calculus today (reading the first chapter) so now I just have to make a chart of political issues and write a paper on who I'd vote for and why. :P Blurgh. I don't even care about politics. I have 11 days to write that, clean my room, clean the bathrooms (because I'm weird and am getting OCD about them), and wash/clean my car. It's been gathering filth all summer. Darn...I'm out of tea. I want more. :( Maybe I'll clean my room tonight. I often feel jealous towards other blog-writers. They all seem so intellectual. I don't even try very hard to have exceptional writing so it just sounds like me talking. In other news, I asked a cute guy for directions today. I know him from school and I saw him on the way to drop a friend off at her friend's house. He smiled at me as I passed him. Then on the way back I stopped for directions because I actually needed them. I never talk about guys on here. I don't see why I shouldn't, at least little things like that. It's just something in my life, and here I go rambling again. I think I'm really tired. I have a lot of laundry to put away and some is in the dryer. At least tomorrow I can sleep in. Oh! It's Keala's birthday! She's 7! Gah these kids are getting so old. And geez, so am I. I've heard that the last year of high school is loads of fun and it goes by fast. It's a bit frightening, but I'm mostly just extremely stoked for it. I can't wait to see what happens to all of our lives, even if I'll be sad to say goodbye to people. I'm gonna be so sad next fall... But that's over a year away. Wow this is a random one! I'm gonna make more tea. At least now I can bring it to rehearsal and stuff since I know I like it. Well, this kind anyway. By the way, rehearsals are SO much fun. We rotate dancing, singing, and acting the last 2 hours of the day. Dancing is my favorite. It's going to be so great! I've invited a bunch of family to come see the show in October. I can't wait to get totally done with all the songs so we can practice with the band/orchestra in the pit. My, my I say I've written enough for one post, especially since this is so all over the place. If anyone still reads my blog, please feel free to comment so I know you're there... Even if no one does, I'm not going to stop posting! :)

Salmon

Well, to refresh things since my last post, I got straight A's but my AP Exam score was crap. I realize now that I'm just not good at taking big pressured tests like that. I'm at about the same intellectual level as my friends but they all did better on the SAT and the ACT. At least most of them, not totally sure. And the AP Exam for that matter. I get A's but those tests just kill me. Lame.

Also, I've decided to go to community college for a couple years before transferring away. In the end, if I'm going to learn the same things at both schools but one is way cheaper, I'm gonna go with the cheaper. Plus it would mean I wouldn't have to move away for a while. I want to live in the dorm though just to get that experience and be on my own, doing my own thing.

I'm hoping that this year I get an open 1st period. Plus it would give Jake more reason to hurry and get a car and a license and stuff since I wouldn't be driving him to school. That is, if he doesn't also have an open 1st...I'm going to switch out of AP Lit and into Writing 121 because at this rate I won't pass the AP Exam and I'm going to end up taking Writing 121 eventually anyway. Plus I wouldn't call myself much of a reader. Also I won't have to do summer reading. Yeah.

 In other news, I've been making more money doing random jobs and babysitting than my regular job. Things are slow during the summer. Also, starting the 13th until the end of the month I won't be working at all. I'm going to visit Maya in DC and then I'll be doing Fiddler rehearsals. I should probably take a look at my lines and the songs...

This summer has been great so far--Kacie came to visit from Texas last month and we took a family trip to the coast. And a lot more is to come!

(Jake and I went out on a boat at the coast and caught salmon!)

Summer!

Whoop!!! It's summer! We just got back from camping for a few days. Maya came with us. We took the boat out onto the lake (Lake Billy Chinook) and found a nice big cliff to jump off of. Jake and I never had before and it was seriously scary. But YOLO. I kept straight but I was tilted slightly backward when I hit the water, so I have a nice big bruise from my upper right thigh to my butt. The worst part was that my swimsuit just about cut me in half. It was a good experience overall though.

The next day, yesterday, we found a spot and Andy set up a zip-line. It wasn't very successful though and I zip-lined into/through a tree. My legs are all scratched up...oh well. :)

Jake, Maya, and I are all going to be in Fiddler on the Roof this fall. I'm so excited. I'll be playing Chava, the third daughter. I fall in love with a Russian guy who isn't Jewish and it's a big deal.

It's weird to have to make plans to see my friends all the time. It still hasn't really hit me that it's summer and I'm a SENIOR. In less than a year I'll be graduating high school. Geez. I'm still trying to decide if I want to take a year off before college. I've got a pretty good plan for after high school, I just need to figure out the nitty-gritty stuff. It's all kind of scary to think about, so I'm trying to hold off a little until it gets closer to all happening...I've started figuring out some things to take with me when I leave home. I have a box of kitchen stuff. I think I'm mostly worried about being homesick.

I should get my report card in a couple days. I'm hoping for straight A's...these would be the best grades I've ever had in my high school career. :) Kind of exciting. I should get my AP Exam score sometime in July. I hope next year is a good one...I would really love it if the drama would just go away...

Plans

Luckily the thing with my car window only lasted a day. Andy pulled it back up pretty easily. I'll just have to open my door when I buy gas.

I've been getting very excited because I've pretty much figured out where I want to go to college and what I want to do. I want to go to COCC for the first 2 years and get my general eds out of the way. Then I want to go to Western Oregon University. My plan is to major in American Sign Language/English interpreting and minor in Spanish. They have the best ASL program in the country and I know I could have a very solid career as an interpreter. I'd get to have flexible hours and I'd see all kinds of different areas--anywhere that they need an interpreter. By areas I mean different fields. I could have my own business! I really love sign language and I'm really excited to learn.

I'm taking the PSAT on Saturday at 9. I have to be there at 8:30, though. I've had a pretty fun time recently, teaching my friends how to dance. West-coast swing. I'm no expert but it's so enjoyable to teach them and see them improve. It's in preparation for homecoming. I won't be going but I know they will have such a good time. Next week is spirit week! School is always much more interesting around homecoming or different events. The whole place seems to wake up a little more and it's sort of a different experience.

I'm hoping to connect a bit more with some of my friends...

Wow, I haven't written this much in one month since March!