Back again

I hate how I keep going months without posting, but oh well, I'm back. So let's see, where did I leave off? Gosh, I was still in high school the last time I wrote. Okay, so I guess that means I should start with graduation, last day of school, and all that. Well, the last day of my senior year was exciting. The sad part was having to leave the peer helpers. That was pretty emotional, all of the seniors leaving that class. I'm hoping to be able to go back and visit them though. And also, the seniors got to do all the fun stuff at the end of the year, like the senior breakfast, and the senior barbecue. The breakfast was especially awesome because we got Chick-fil-A! Gosh, I love that place. Best chicken ever. Haha but anyway, yeah, that was fun, and then we all got out of school earlier than everyone else. I remember the same day as our last day was when I had my dress rehearsal for my recital. My grandma and great-aunt also came into town that day. They stayed with us for a little while so they could come to my recital and graduation. So anyway, the dress rehearsal and recital both went well. As usual, I did three dances, one for each class, ballet, tap and jazz. Ballet this year was "Mozart's Symphony #40, tap was Cha Cha Heels, and jazz was Tainted Love. It was a lot of fun! And a few of my friends came too, which made it even more fun. My friend Shaun even came! He's a really good friend to want to come and sit through a dance recital to see me. haha. A lot better than my brother, who just complained about how long it was back when he'd come to my recitals!

So then of course, there was graduation. I wasn't exactly thrilled about having to get up early in the morning to go to graduation practice. The especially bad thing about the practice was that apparently, besides just having us go through our lineups and find our seats, they also decided that all 700 of us needed to practice walking across the stage. I was just like, "Are you serious? For Pete's sake, we all know how to walk across a stage!" So we were there for what seemed like 5 hours (or maybe it actually was pretty close to that...it might have been 4 hours) while they called every single person's name, and we ALL had to go across the stage like we would later that night. Sheesh. Well, we finally got out of there and when I got home, it was so late that I barely had time to get ready for the actual thing. But I managed to get all ready and get in my cap and gown, and we all went back to the civic center. Since we had to get there a lot earlier than the ceremony started, they just put us all in this big room to wait, but luckily since we were all in there I found some of my friends that I could talk to. Then they finally told us to get in our lines. Then I started getting a little nervous...what if I tripped and fell while I was walking across the stage? What if I messed something up? I know, seems a little silly, but I tend to get nervous about stuff like this, especially if it's in a huge arena with like 2 thousand people. They finally took us out of the room and we went outside and lined up right by the doors that went in the arena. We heard the band starting to play the graduation music and they let us in, and I don't remember exactly how it was done, but we were behind the stage and some curtains and on both sides, two people from the lines walked out, and luckily there were people standing there telling us when to go. So that was at least pretty easy, plus we had practiced earlier. When I finally walked out, I of course felt pretty nervous and awkward, knowing how many people could be looking at me. But at least there was another person next to me and two more people coming out the other side. So I just walked over to the rows where we were going to sit, and kept walking, and then...CRAP, I realized I had walked too far back and passed the row I was supposed to go to. So of course I panicked but tried not to look like anything was wrong since that would only make it more noticeable that I had made a mistake. I just walked back as quickly as I could and looked for my row letter, which was marked on the floor next to all the rows. I found it and just went down the row and quietly squeezed past the people who were already sitting there. I felt like an idiot, but hoped that I hadn't made the whole ordeal too noticeable. At least none of my friends saw, because they all happen to have names at the beginning of the alphabet and were sitting way up ahead of me. None of my teachers saw because they were all sitting down on the floor part with us but were outside of the students, so there were already other people sitting in the rows blocking their view! So, I guess it made me feel a little better that most of the people who saw were just random people sitting up above who didn't even know who I was, and were hopefully focusing their attention more on their own kid. But luckily there were no more disasters after that. We got everybody seated and then the valedictorian and salutatorian did their speeches, the principal did his speech, and they called all 700 of us again to walk across the stage and this time we actually got our diplomas! With my name being towards the end of the alphabet, I had to wait awhile, but I finally did walk across the stage, and thank goodness I didn't trip! lol. So when the ceremony was finally over, my mom took some pictures with my friends, and then me, her, my dad, great-aunt and grandparents all went for a late dinner at Nothing But Noodles (I LOVE THAT PLACE- even more than Chick-fil-A haha). Then we went home and I opened graduation gifts, and we had one of those giant cookies that you can get instead of a cake. So overall it was a great night!

So, my summer was pretty good...I finally got to go back to Virginia, where I used to live to visit! I'd been waiting 5 years to finally get to do this, and I finally got to go back. And what a good time to go back too, right as we were all graduating. So while I was there, I of course visited all my friends, and I stayed with one of my best friends I had there. We went up to our old middle school and visited our old teachers who were still there, which was awesome. It was so much fun seeing them again. With my other friend, we drove around the town and stopped by both my elementary schools. I just looked at the outsides of those though. I was tempted to go inside and see if Mrs. Snow, my favorite teacher from 4th grade, remembered me, but I wasn't so sure she'd know who I was! haha. Also while I was there, I went to downtown Washington DC with my two friends, and I went to their school's prom...for some reason they had prom really late in the year, but it was a good thing! They just get out of school a lot later there than where I live, so I got there right as the seniors were getting out of school. The prom was so much fun. I got to go with all my old classmates, and it was like, how it would have been if I hadn't moved. Since they allow guests at prom as long as you purchase a ticket and have an ID to show, I went, and plus, I still had my dress that I wore to my school's prom, so I took that with me. So that was a lot of fun going to the prom! While the whole experience (dinner, taking pictures, etc.) was good at both proms, I have to say, the actual dance was actually way better at my friend's prom!! Haha. They had a lot better music, and a wider variety. And my own prom they practically played all rap music the whole time, and after awhile I was about ready to just wear earplugs. haha. So yeah, Virginia was awesome! Also this summer, my family went on a small trip to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. We basically just toured the downtown parts of both places, and also toured this ship that was used in World War 2, and went to a plantation to see a mansion that someone (I forget who lol) lived in in Charleston.

So yep, that was basically the summer! Last week I started my classes at the community college. They're going well! I go to the campus for Intermediate College Algebra (fun, haha, but at least it's not precal or geometry!) and US History. I'm just taking English and music appreciation online. I haven't seen a whole lot of people I knew from high school there, and sadly all of my good friends went off to far-away places already. But I've met one girl in my history class who seems nice, and I actually saw her today during my break between my classes and we both sat at the same table to eat and study, so I wasn't all alone. I like both my teachers that I have. The math teacher is pretty laid back and not too hard, so far. lol. We actually had our first test today and it actually wasn't too hard and I guess I did okay. The history teacher is really easygoing too, and he seems like he'll be pretty easy! I was a little worried about that class because I heard about how some college teachers just lecture and talk really fast and you just have to write everything down. But he actually types up notes in power point and puts that up as he lectures, so it makes things a lot easier. And he doesn't really give homework except for asking us to keep up with reading the textbook, and we'll probably just have one or two reports to do at some point in the semester.

And what I LOVE about college is the freedom! Gosh, it's almost weird having so much freedom now, compared to how they practically treated us like prisoners in high school. I mean, we're actually allowed to just come and go as we please. I have a break between my math and history class that's almost two hours long, and it happens to be right around lunchtime. And I can actually leave the campus and go get lunch somewhere, and come back! Man, I just never could have imagined having such a luxury in high school. lol. We're also allowed to use cell phones in the hallways and lobby...I still don't really do this because I'm so used to not daring to pull out my cell phone in high school because one of the assistant principals was really strict about that and would jump down your throat if he saw you with a phone! lol. Plus I don't really need to use it anyway. And also today, when we had our math test, we were just allowed to leave as soon as we finished the test! Not like in high school, where you had to just "sit and find something quiet to do" all the way until the end of class. lol.

So yeah, everything's going well so far! Maybe I'll be able to update more often now. We'll see. lol