Wednesday, October 29, 2008

A Thought

Because I had to get this out somewhere, and I decided Facebook notes might actually not be the place for it...

Which is ironic, since this is pretty much about noticing things on Facebook.

Basically...I pressed submit today. As of right now, my first college application has left my computer and zoomed across the country to the admissions office of my assumed number-one-choice university. Pretty monumental, huh? AND, even better, It's October 29 - many, many hours before the due date of November 1 will pass. So I have an early early decision application! Haha, cool. :D

Anyway.

As a normal teenager does, I went and changed my status on Facebook to something like "[My name] pressed submit".

Almost immediately, I got two notifications of two of my friends wishing me the best of luck. After I thanked them, I got a third notification of another friend doing the same. Now, two of these guys are already in college, and the other one is a junior (though he is trying to graduate early, so he's technically in the application process, too)...but then I checked other people's statuses.

A few people have similar status messages, the sort of "pressed submit" kinds. Then I noticed they all had similar responses as mine did - other people in our grade wishing them the best of luck.

It sort of struck me as...odd. Pleasantly odd, but still odd. I mean, I go to a fairly competitive school where a lot of kids treat each other as numbers to beat. Maybe I'd just gotten cynical, but I sort of always thought it was funny how you make all these friends, then have to beat out those same friends for the spot in the institution of your dreams. This is especially true with my school, which, although a public school, is very competitive and status-driven.

So it surprised me to see everyone being so supportive. Even people applying to the same school were giving each other words of encouragement, trying to calm each other's nerves. It's the total opposite of how I saw people treating the SAT - after scores came out, it seemed like all anyone wanted to do was compare, compare, compare.

But now, instead of comparing, we're encouraging.

...Okay, who are you people, and what have you done with my classmates? :)

I'd gotten sort of sick of my high school, but this sort of picked up my mood a bit. Maybe even in tough, stressful, super-competitive situations...we're all just nice people underneath the harsh, go-for-the-jugular exterior.

Or maybe it's because my computer decided to start playing a recording of Holst's Jupiter (from The Planets), which always makes me feel hopeful when I hear it (or, even better, play it in band). Or maybe it's because I had a fairly long chat (also on Facebook) with someone who graduated last year that I never really got along with but now am...?

I don't know.

But for whatever reason, despite a test in psychology tomorrow and a fair amount of English homework I have yet to do...

I'm...happy.

Bubbly, in fact.

...Yep. It's official.

Senior year OWNS junior year. :D

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

BFS Update: October 21

1. Two novel drafts - 0/2 - Heheheh...I still have yet to finish Red. I've been working on another novel, though, for GothNoWriMo. I'm not going to finish it before October ends, so it's going on hiatus during NaNoWriMo, but I think it's going pretty well. It's pretty much outlined, so it should be smooth sailing with Azami after NaNo finishes up. But yeah. It kind of annoys me that I've spent so much time writing novels this year but STILL have yet to finish a draft (even through cheating).
2. Script Frenzy '08 - Previously done.
3. Regular exercising (twice a week) - 15/100 workouts - No clue what this number is now, but it's not that high. I've given up on this - I have been unable to create a habit for this, and I started too late, anyway.
4. Regular journaling (seven pages per week) - Oh, I'm so on track with this. In fact, for the past couple of weeks, I've written so many extra pages I could have accounted for...like...eight weeks or something. I had an eventful past couple of weeks, I guess. :P
5. Regular creative writing (one piece per week) - 33/50 pieces, 6/12 accompanying images - I need to draw more and go to creative writing club more...I think...or at least not work on my novels quite so much. Heh.
6. One contest + one submission - Previously done.
7. More socializing - 24/40 events - Guh. I need to be more social, but everyone is always busy when I want to hang out. Except for walking home with one of my friends multiple times. I'm counting that as one (because I can).
8. "Progress" - Okay this is weird, because TECHNICALLY I sort of have been making progress. So I'm un-failing this and putting it on the table as...I don't know...red? For "in progress"? This one is confusing. (It's a zombie goal.)
9. More studying/earlier start on homework/"good grades" - Yeah this one is starting to not be so good again, though my grades are better than last year. Heh.
10. Summer job - Previously failed.

Total:
- Not started: 0
- In Progress: 7
- Completed: 2
- Failed: 1
Overall goal: 5/10 goals by the end of 2008

I really want to complete another goal. Yeah...whooo, October?

Azami is going really well, though. It's fun to write.

Oh, and I decided to expand the Urban Myth/Highness/Eternal Flame trio to being not four, but FIVE books. The "fourth" book, which I'm currently calling Storm Front (working title), is the one that's been stewing in my mind for awhile, but the "zero'th" book, Monarch (working title) suddenly popped into my head. It technically takes place before Urban Myth, but in the series, it would be put as the fourth book since Storm Front pretty much has to be the final book...so...yeah.

I'm going to rewrite Highness soon. :D It's cool because this time I have Storm Front and Monarch in mind when re-outlining it, and since Monarch is sort of a prequel to Highness and Storm Front is sort of a sequel, it helps give Highness some structure.

And it's cool because Jamie comes back in Storm Front. She's pretty messed up (again), but she's there! Storm Front Jamie is going to be so much fun to write (same with Storm Front Sissy from Urban Myth).

But yeah.

Aaaaah, October...