so.. it's finally over
well, since i've last written, a fair amount of things have taken place, to say the least. from the ending of school to the beginning of summer, i've had quite a bit of things to keep me busy with. however, now that the excitement has died down some, i think it's time that i finally write some of these things down.
the first of the major events since my last entry would probably be the ap exams. i had three total, but in all honesty, i didn't (and still don't) care too much how i did on them. tech doesn't accept stat, i plan on taking calc over regardless, and really, taking lit over wouldn't be that big of a deal either. still, despite my nonchalance to how i did, i think it's hard to really feel at ease while taking something like that. i guess being locked away for three hours with nothing to do but multiple choice questions and essays will do that to you. i tried drawing pictures on the booklets to ease some of the stress, but it was still pretty nerve wracking. i should get the results of my week of testing in about a month. i'm burning with anticipation.
soon after exams were done, we finally got our yearbooks. i didn't find it especially impressive (i never do..), but really, i guess it's the memories i relive with it that really count. i had quite a bit of pictures in it this year; possibly more than in all the other yearbooks combined. sadly, most of them were taken when i had bad looking short hair.. for some reason, i decided to get it cut short again, despite my better judgement, a couple days ago. i think it looks pretty good this time, but i guess i'll let everyone else decide. i'll try to post a before and after picture as soon as i can get my hands on a camera.
following the yearbooks, there were only a few of weeks before school finally came to an end. with the exception of a few, i didn't even work anymore in most of my classes. in lit we got to watch a nice italian movie called life is beautiful, and in calculus our time was occupied by a movie about an ap calc class somewhere on the west coast. i don't remember the name of that one, but i found it suprisingly good.. especially considering the subject matter. the only classes i really had any work in were stat and architecture. for the former, my group and i wrote a paper proving that shakespeare's plays differ significantly from other works written in modern english, thereby justifying our never having to read his material ever again, and for the later, i built this awesome looking house out of foam board. i should really try to get the pictures my teacher took of the that. i probably spent over ten hours on the thing, so it'd be nice to have something to remember it by..
after completing those projects, school was pretty much done for me. i exempted all my exams, so i didn't have to come for that. i did, however, have to come for a final time to go to one of our graduation practices/the senior luncheon. overall, i thought it was pretty boring, but i did get some free food and our senior dvd out of it (it has the senior production and some other things). the event was made a little worse for me since drew decided not to stay long. despite everything, i still can't help caring about him.. i guess the effects of a four year obsession die hard.
with the first practice done, there was only one more before the real thing. however, before i could even go to that, there was still one thing i had to do - write my speach. i was told weeks before that i'd have to do one, but it wasn't until the day of that i even started on the thing (an hour before i left for practice, actually..). luckily, all i had to do was the welcome, so it didn't have to be long. here's what i came up with, if anyone's actually interested:
Parents, teachers, distinguished guests:
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the graduation of A. R. Johnson’s class of 2005. As students, we’ve been through a difficult four years; we’ve had to endure a constant onslaught of tests, the stress of applying for college, and AP Calculus. Still, through it all, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all matured a bit. From our beginnings as crazy freshmen, to this end as young adults, we have surely come a long way. So again, I welcome you enjoy this end with us. Thank you all for coming.
yeah, pretty awful.. when i got to the practice, i got mrs. rosier to check, and she said it was fine. she was probably just glad i had a speach at all though. other than that, i can't remember anything that was really signficant about the practice.. i think i spent the majority of the time just sitting on the stage daydreaming. drew didn't pay any attention to me, so it kind of put me in a down mood. i told myself to not expect anything, but i think i still did in the back of my mind. i just wanted the maybe last day i ever saw him to mean something i guess. there was still the graduation to look forward to at least. nothing better than getting your hopes squished twice in one day..
soon after getting home from practice, i took a quick nap before starting to get ready for the real thing. i was supposed to wear a black tie for the event, but that posed a bit of a problem since i seem to have lost mine. i ended up wearing a kid's tie my sister had laying around instead. it only came down to the top of my stomach, but with the robe on, you couldn't even tell. my mom didn't want to go and my brother was no where to be found, so after gathering up the few who actually were coming (my sister and dad), we were off to graduation.
when i first arrived, there weren't many there yet. i wasn't exactly sure on the time, so we ended up coming about thirty minutes early. it left a perfect opportuniy to try to figure out how to get all the different cords and medals on, though. when i took the one for the national honor society out of the box, the pendant part fell right off. i ended up using a pin michael had to piece it together for the ceremony. the worst part is i had to pay for that thing.. those cheap bastards.
after finally getting everything on straight, i got to spend the rest of the time mingling with my peers. quite honestly, i don't think i'll miss most of them, and the ones i will, i'll probably keep in touch with. still, when we were all there, waiting for graduation to start, i felt a bit sad to leave them all. i guess i was just caught up in the moment or something, but it felt really nice talking to them all. it was made even better since drew seemed to be paying notice to me. aside from not knowing how to use the bathroom with my robe on, i really had a good time.
i guess all good things must come to an end though. for me, the good times ended when we stopped the mingling and started lining up to go in. before that point, graduation really wasn't much of a source of jitters for me. i wasn't exactly excited for graduation, so i really didn't think about it enough to worry. however, now faced with the cheering crowd and the long walk to the stage, the nervousness flooded in. the fact that i wasn't the only one consoled me a bit at least. i think being at the front of the line probably canceled it's effects, though.. after the teachers filed in, it was finally time to go in and start the graduation.
after actually getting in there, graduation really flew by for me. i guess it was all the excitement or something. i was third up for speaches, but it ended up not being as bad as i thought. i'm sure the fact that i was up there for such a short time really helped that out a bit. my sister recorded the whole thing, and it came up being only about half a minute long. my friend jadiel gave me a thumbs up after i finished, so i imagine i didn't do that badly. in any case, it was over with, and i had the rest of graduation to sit back and relax. another hour or two, and it was all over.
meeting up after graduation was kind of like it was before graduation. there was again that feeling that i was sad to leave everyone, but as an added bonus, there was crying from a few, too. i was actually on the verge myself a few times, but i held out pretty well. i spent a bit of time looming around drew, contemplating actually going up and saying something to him, but going through with it was too much for me. he, at least from what i saw, seemed to be thinking the same thing but ended up doing only as well as me. the thought that he might have at least wanted to say something was enough to make me feel fine about things between us ending. i figure being delusional about what his actions really mean at this point doesn't make much of a difference anymore anyway.
following the final meetup with my class, we finally got our diplomas. they kept them away from us until after the ceremony was done to keep us from doing anything crazy like throwing our mortar boards in the air. apparently they deem that as inappropriate behaviour for a graduation (wtf?). with our diplomas finally in hand, we made our way out to meet up with family and friends. i finally got to meet alisha's grandmother, which is something i've looked forward to for a while, and i said hi to some friends i hadn't seen in a while too. however, pretty soon my dad and sister were getting kind of restless to go, so i obliged and we went on our way. having to leave everyone, i found not crying even harder and shed a few tears. it really felt over now.
with it all done with, the car ride home gave me a chance to recover a bit and think about everything that had just happened. despite me not really caring about graduation in the beginning, it seemed like such a worthwhile experience now. it was so much more than just saying your goodbyes on the last day of school. for me at least, it meant finally reaching closure. it marked the end of high school and the start of a whole new life.
all the pictures i have look pretty much the same because of the picture quality, so i'll just put up this one. please make sure to take note of the outrageous purple gowns and the way the hat fails to fit correctly because of my large head.
well, now that summer break in full force, i wish i could say that i'm making the most of my "new life", but that'd be a lie. i spent the first few days glued to the computer. it became stale pretty quickly, though. after that, i rediscovered tv and video games to pass the time more quickly. while school was in, i all but banned them both from my life, but now faced with the impeding boredom, i don't think i really have a choice. i bought civilization iii and sim city 3000 the other day (only ten dollars each!), and they've been more than enough to devour my life completely.
looking at what i'm doing now, it's funny to think that my initial plans for summer were to work so i could raise money for a computer. i actually did work for a little, but after one day, it became obvious that doing it for the rest of the break was not something i wanted to do. instead, i've become resolute to the fact that i will need loans if i hope to have any chance of surviving. along with getting the essentials like a new computer and food, they'll also give me the opportunity to get some fun things like an ipod and new clothes. i might be going into debt, but at the very least, i'm going to enjoy it.
with my previous plans gone, i really don't have much i have to do this summer. other than getting all the college things taken care of, making a new layout is the only thing i can really think of. a secret benefactor bought me some paid time a while ago, so i feel obliged to make a style before it runs out. i've tried some before, but i seem to be in a designer's block. i have to hurry if i want to get it done though; it expires in a little more than two weeks.
well, if i don't get anything else done, at the very least i've written this entry. it's sad to think that even with this one, i have less than ten entries to remember my senior year by. lets hope that i do better in college.
if you actually read that all, good for you! as a reward i'll give you the link to this cool site that i heard about on g4. it's kind of childish, but i thought it was funny. i heard it doesn't work for everyone, but hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones : ).
the first of the major events since my last entry would probably be the ap exams. i had three total, but in all honesty, i didn't (and still don't) care too much how i did on them. tech doesn't accept stat, i plan on taking calc over regardless, and really, taking lit over wouldn't be that big of a deal either. still, despite my nonchalance to how i did, i think it's hard to really feel at ease while taking something like that. i guess being locked away for three hours with nothing to do but multiple choice questions and essays will do that to you. i tried drawing pictures on the booklets to ease some of the stress, but it was still pretty nerve wracking. i should get the results of my week of testing in about a month. i'm burning with anticipation.
soon after exams were done, we finally got our yearbooks. i didn't find it especially impressive (i never do..), but really, i guess it's the memories i relive with it that really count. i had quite a bit of pictures in it this year; possibly more than in all the other yearbooks combined. sadly, most of them were taken when i had bad looking short hair.. for some reason, i decided to get it cut short again, despite my better judgement, a couple days ago. i think it looks pretty good this time, but i guess i'll let everyone else decide. i'll try to post a before and after picture as soon as i can get my hands on a camera.
following the yearbooks, there were only a few of weeks before school finally came to an end. with the exception of a few, i didn't even work anymore in most of my classes. in lit we got to watch a nice italian movie called life is beautiful, and in calculus our time was occupied by a movie about an ap calc class somewhere on the west coast. i don't remember the name of that one, but i found it suprisingly good.. especially considering the subject matter. the only classes i really had any work in were stat and architecture. for the former, my group and i wrote a paper proving that shakespeare's plays differ significantly from other works written in modern english, thereby justifying our never having to read his material ever again, and for the later, i built this awesome looking house out of foam board. i should really try to get the pictures my teacher took of the that. i probably spent over ten hours on the thing, so it'd be nice to have something to remember it by..
after completing those projects, school was pretty much done for me. i exempted all my exams, so i didn't have to come for that. i did, however, have to come for a final time to go to one of our graduation practices/the senior luncheon. overall, i thought it was pretty boring, but i did get some free food and our senior dvd out of it (it has the senior production and some other things). the event was made a little worse for me since drew decided not to stay long. despite everything, i still can't help caring about him.. i guess the effects of a four year obsession die hard.
with the first practice done, there was only one more before the real thing. however, before i could even go to that, there was still one thing i had to do - write my speach. i was told weeks before that i'd have to do one, but it wasn't until the day of that i even started on the thing (an hour before i left for practice, actually..). luckily, all i had to do was the welcome, so it didn't have to be long. here's what i came up with, if anyone's actually interested:
Parents, teachers, distinguished guests:
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the graduation of A. R. Johnson’s class of 2005. As students, we’ve been through a difficult four years; we’ve had to endure a constant onslaught of tests, the stress of applying for college, and AP Calculus. Still, through it all, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all matured a bit. From our beginnings as crazy freshmen, to this end as young adults, we have surely come a long way. So again, I welcome you enjoy this end with us. Thank you all for coming.
yeah, pretty awful.. when i got to the practice, i got mrs. rosier to check, and she said it was fine. she was probably just glad i had a speach at all though. other than that, i can't remember anything that was really signficant about the practice.. i think i spent the majority of the time just sitting on the stage daydreaming. drew didn't pay any attention to me, so it kind of put me in a down mood. i told myself to not expect anything, but i think i still did in the back of my mind. i just wanted the maybe last day i ever saw him to mean something i guess. there was still the graduation to look forward to at least. nothing better than getting your hopes squished twice in one day..
soon after getting home from practice, i took a quick nap before starting to get ready for the real thing. i was supposed to wear a black tie for the event, but that posed a bit of a problem since i seem to have lost mine. i ended up wearing a kid's tie my sister had laying around instead. it only came down to the top of my stomach, but with the robe on, you couldn't even tell. my mom didn't want to go and my brother was no where to be found, so after gathering up the few who actually were coming (my sister and dad), we were off to graduation.
when i first arrived, there weren't many there yet. i wasn't exactly sure on the time, so we ended up coming about thirty minutes early. it left a perfect opportuniy to try to figure out how to get all the different cords and medals on, though. when i took the one for the national honor society out of the box, the pendant part fell right off. i ended up using a pin michael had to piece it together for the ceremony. the worst part is i had to pay for that thing.. those cheap bastards.
after finally getting everything on straight, i got to spend the rest of the time mingling with my peers. quite honestly, i don't think i'll miss most of them, and the ones i will, i'll probably keep in touch with. still, when we were all there, waiting for graduation to start, i felt a bit sad to leave them all. i guess i was just caught up in the moment or something, but it felt really nice talking to them all. it was made even better since drew seemed to be paying notice to me. aside from not knowing how to use the bathroom with my robe on, i really had a good time.
i guess all good things must come to an end though. for me, the good times ended when we stopped the mingling and started lining up to go in. before that point, graduation really wasn't much of a source of jitters for me. i wasn't exactly excited for graduation, so i really didn't think about it enough to worry. however, now faced with the cheering crowd and the long walk to the stage, the nervousness flooded in. the fact that i wasn't the only one consoled me a bit at least. i think being at the front of the line probably canceled it's effects, though.. after the teachers filed in, it was finally time to go in and start the graduation.
after actually getting in there, graduation really flew by for me. i guess it was all the excitement or something. i was third up for speaches, but it ended up not being as bad as i thought. i'm sure the fact that i was up there for such a short time really helped that out a bit. my sister recorded the whole thing, and it came up being only about half a minute long. my friend jadiel gave me a thumbs up after i finished, so i imagine i didn't do that badly. in any case, it was over with, and i had the rest of graduation to sit back and relax. another hour or two, and it was all over.
meeting up after graduation was kind of like it was before graduation. there was again that feeling that i was sad to leave everyone, but as an added bonus, there was crying from a few, too. i was actually on the verge myself a few times, but i held out pretty well. i spent a bit of time looming around drew, contemplating actually going up and saying something to him, but going through with it was too much for me. he, at least from what i saw, seemed to be thinking the same thing but ended up doing only as well as me. the thought that he might have at least wanted to say something was enough to make me feel fine about things between us ending. i figure being delusional about what his actions really mean at this point doesn't make much of a difference anymore anyway.
following the final meetup with my class, we finally got our diplomas. they kept them away from us until after the ceremony was done to keep us from doing anything crazy like throwing our mortar boards in the air. apparently they deem that as inappropriate behaviour for a graduation (wtf?). with our diplomas finally in hand, we made our way out to meet up with family and friends. i finally got to meet alisha's grandmother, which is something i've looked forward to for a while, and i said hi to some friends i hadn't seen in a while too. however, pretty soon my dad and sister were getting kind of restless to go, so i obliged and we went on our way. having to leave everyone, i found not crying even harder and shed a few tears. it really felt over now.
with it all done with, the car ride home gave me a chance to recover a bit and think about everything that had just happened. despite me not really caring about graduation in the beginning, it seemed like such a worthwhile experience now. it was so much more than just saying your goodbyes on the last day of school. for me at least, it meant finally reaching closure. it marked the end of high school and the start of a whole new life.
all the pictures i have look pretty much the same because of the picture quality, so i'll just put up this one. please make sure to take note of the outrageous purple gowns and the way the hat fails to fit correctly because of my large head.
well, now that summer break in full force, i wish i could say that i'm making the most of my "new life", but that'd be a lie. i spent the first few days glued to the computer. it became stale pretty quickly, though. after that, i rediscovered tv and video games to pass the time more quickly. while school was in, i all but banned them both from my life, but now faced with the impeding boredom, i don't think i really have a choice. i bought civilization iii and sim city 3000 the other day (only ten dollars each!), and they've been more than enough to devour my life completely.
looking at what i'm doing now, it's funny to think that my initial plans for summer were to work so i could raise money for a computer. i actually did work for a little, but after one day, it became obvious that doing it for the rest of the break was not something i wanted to do. instead, i've become resolute to the fact that i will need loans if i hope to have any chance of surviving. along with getting the essentials like a new computer and food, they'll also give me the opportunity to get some fun things like an ipod and new clothes. i might be going into debt, but at the very least, i'm going to enjoy it.
with my previous plans gone, i really don't have much i have to do this summer. other than getting all the college things taken care of, making a new layout is the only thing i can really think of. a secret benefactor bought me some paid time a while ago, so i feel obliged to make a style before it runs out. i've tried some before, but i seem to be in a designer's block. i have to hurry if i want to get it done though; it expires in a little more than two weeks.
well, if i don't get anything else done, at the very least i've written this entry. it's sad to think that even with this one, i have less than ten entries to remember my senior year by. lets hope that i do better in college.
if you actually read that all, good for you! as a reward i'll give you the link to this cool site that i heard about on g4. it's kind of childish, but i thought it was funny. i heard it doesn't work for everyone, but hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones : ).