The Year Two Thousand and Fourteen Anno Domini

Happy New Year's Eve!

2014 has been a year for the record books in my opinion and I thought I would muse about what I remember of this wonderfully strange year. 

Enero

Began this year in Trafalgar Square, London surrounded by what I could only assume was the entire European population. But it was an experience I will remember forever. 

I don't really remember much more, probably because it was literally a year ago. I probably worked on a Chem IA, cursed the name of AP US History and went to a bunch of wind ensemble rehearsals that I didn't want to go to, just counting down the days until spring break. 

Febrero

¡Mi cumpleaños! I circled the sun once again but nothing really changed except that I could see R-rated movies by myself. 

Another Valentine's I spent by myself (Oh well)

Probably more academia-related anguish (Any IBers out there, junior year is the pits)

Marzo (This is where I started to consult Instagram for help)

Concert Band ends with half excellents and half superiors, I believe, but it didn't really matter because our director was legally blind and the "show went on"

#sb2k14 College Road Trip (No, not the Raven-Symone/Martin Lawrence movie. Thought you had forgot about that hadn't you?) The fam traveled up the East Coast to UNC, Wake Forest, Duke, Elon, and UVa and I effectively eliminated half of my prospective college list. 

State Solo and Ensemble - Snuck behind enemy lines at Buchholz HS and Clarinet Choir got an Excellente and a shopping spree at the local mall because no one wanted to go back to school. Nease Band at their finest

Abril

Not much to report because April is arguable the most useless month in any year. 

Anti-Prom was swaggy and introduced  me to the comedy gold mine that is Cards Against Humanity. Woot

Probably cramming for the stupid amount of exams I had as well. And by that I mean cuddling my cat while watching Lie to Me or some other Netflix drama

Mayo

Examinaciones - APUSH, Calc, Lit, and (my least favorites to study for) IB Psych Paper 1 and 2 (Two days of testing? The IB's sadism strikes again)

Entrevistas de iglesia (Church interviews for ya'll monoglots)

So I was on a church committee to elect a new pastor at my church and the Skype interviews coincided perfectly with my exams schedule. So after hours of horrendous testing I had to act perky and positive and sell our youth pastor position. Not a whole lot of fun to say the least. 

Band Things (Oh yeah band is still a thing) Banquet was the bomb except for kind of getting kicked out off the house we were getting ready at. Three of my friends and I became 2014-15 Clarinet Section Leaders and I was so freakin pumped. Spring game before that was chill except I had to say goodbye to my senior babies and accept the reality that I too was becoming a senior baby. New Orleans before that was awesome and I got in on a lot of band gossip which is always fun. We had like 70 person Cards Aagainst Humanity going on too and that is never not fun. 

Junio

A lot of traveling and working and band officer planning. Nothing supremely specific or noteworthy. 

Julio 

ROOKIE CAMP 2K14 But really I was terrified (What if they don't like me, What if I flunk at my first ever leadershippy thing ever) But it was all good and I was embarrassing sore afterwards so I think I did it right. 

Literally the next day The Jellison ladies Take Texas. College Tour number two with momma and grandma. The three things I learned Rice is cool, Baylor is obnoxiously Baptist and I come from a long line of heinously loud snorers. Enough said. 

Agosto

BAND CAMP 2K14

College Apps

The Beginning of this dinky little blog

And you guys know the rest

As you can see this year was jam-packed with good and bad and as I coast (I mean working very diligently) I hope to enjoy all the moments I have left in this chapter of my life. I guess that's my New Year's Resolution - Enjoy what you have while you have it and end this chapter with a smile

Have a rockin' New Year,

Colleen

December Catch Up

Last Real Post of 2014 (There's a recap post coming soon)

So my Christmas present to myself was finishing all of my applications! *Insert party balloons and streamers emojis*

For real Christmas I got some clothes, some stuff from Lush which was awesome in theory but I think it's making me breakout and fell in love with my dad's Keurig coffee machine. Then I weirdly felt the need to play The Sims but I'm too poor and lazy to get the new one so I dug up the Sims 3 we had and have been wasting my life away living vicariously through my computer generated family. Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. 

Some family and other visitors came to ser us and the only questions apparently worth asking were, "Where have you applied? Where have you been accepted? What's your top choice school?" Boy, I can not wait to be past this. At least it's not "Why don't you have a boyfriend?" I feel like that's the next 20 questions category for my life. Hoorah

So there you go, my Blogmas post about  Lush, The Sims and The Single Life

Have a peaceful December 31st,

Colleen

Who am I kidding? Go party, Watch Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (I refuse to call it Primetime New Year's Eve or whatever they're calling it) and drink up that disgusting sparkling grape juice.

Happy 2015!

They Like Me, They Really Really Like Me!

So I got into Florida State today, whoop whoop!

And even though I don't really plan on going there, I am super pumped right now, which is weird. It's probably just the fact that I am a human and I fear rejection. I was also racked with guilt that I didn't write the optional essay and my entire future would collapse because I didn't want to write 400 words about how I exemplify leadership.
But Merry Christmas to me, I'm going to college. Unmerry Christmas to me, my next acceptance decision day is Valentine's Day a.k.a a LONG time away. And in the meantime,
5 application fees,
4 CommonApp schools,
3 short answer essays,
2 scholarships,
and a FAFSA in a pear tree. Yippee

Have a merry December 17th,
Colleen

The Symbiotic Relationship of Netflix and Illness

I am writing to you from the warmth and comfort of my bed of which I have been marooned for the past 12 or so hours because I have come down with the worst cold/cough/sneeze/general disgustingness that I have ever experienced. And because of all this "free" time I figured some blog posting would be therapeutic or maybe just make me feel like I maybe did something useful today other than wretch phlegm all over my laptop screen and watch Netflix.

Which brings me to my title point -- Netflix and Illness

As I lay here, helplessly watching Pirates of the Carribean and The Breakfast Club, I realized that all the memories of my worst illnesses are intertwined with the memories of the movies and TV I watched to pass the time.
My visit to the hospital with appendicitis - Dancing with the Stars before the surgery and Cash Cab during my recovery week
The days before I found out I had appendicitis and thought I had Swine Flu - HSM3 and Food Network
Anytime I had fever/flu - March of the Penguins (This thing worked better than Nyquil to put me to sleep)

Why are these the things I remember? Is it because I watch way too many movies that I binge watch them whether I am sick or not? Probably. But I like to think that the movies I watch are a "home remedy". A place to escape to so that you don't have to think of the work you're missing or how terribly you feel. Feel Bad -> Watch Movies -> Relax -> Feel Better A rather simple recipe I think.

So let us be thankful for Netflix and Blockbuster and HBO for being our nurses during our most miserable times.
Long live movie streaming services!

This was a strange blog post, but whatever.
Have a healthy December 10th,
Colleen

Coloring Outside the Lines (Colleen Rants Episode #1)

So for this post to make any sense whatsoever, you need some background into what happened last night. Then we can get to the part about coloring. Sound good? All right.

So last night was our last regional marching band competition. We hadn't competed against other bands for about a month and we were ready to kick butt. We had had two fantastic rehearsals and what seemed like a productive second wind that was gonna lead us to victory. The seniors especially were ready to give it their all at their very last outdoor show. So we performed in Prelims like we always did. Strong, energetic, with minor mistakes we knew we could fix before we got to perform next. You could feel it in the air that our Finals run was gonna shake the stadium. So we went to Prelims retreat, waiting with baited breath to see where we placed among the 5 extremely strong programs at the show. The Distinguished Superiors and Superiors were thrown left and right, with no strong indication of who got what. Then the score announcements, in 2A Santa Fe with an 83. In 3A, Gainesville with an 84. In 4A, Buchholz with a 88. We were sweating; we simply didn't know. 5A. 2nd place. Nease with an 86. Sighs, Fleming Island beat us again with an 89. Third overall. Best Colorguard. Not bad. We were high enough on the board that we could potentially fight for 2nd or maybe even 1st, but low enough to put the heat on us to do even better. We were dismissed. Straight to the food stand we ran, because we knew that this venue was notorious for running out of food by dinnertime. Standing in line we heard a muffled announcement on the loud speaker, probably just a band director late to critique. Seconds later, our band lieutenants tell us that the announcement was that Finals was cancelled due to inclement weather coming towards the stadium. That was it. We were going home. An unceremonious end. It just wasn't fair. I felt empty, like something was stolen from me.
We drove home on the bus, and I tried for 3 hours to take a nap. But it was only 7:30 and it didn't feel quite right, so I only slept for maybe 40 minutes. I drove my friend and her sister home. It was my friend's 18th birthday. She climbed into my passenger seat, sat down and spoke, defeatedly, "This has been the worst 18th birthday ever." Then on the way she told me how she had cried over and over again all night, inconsolable. Longing for that last run to finish off her birthday right. I wished I could have commiserated with her but I didn't cry at all that night. I never cry.

So this morning I woke up bright and early to go to my job at my church's nursery. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that I was significantly better rested than usual. I had my Starbucks red cup full of Peppermint Mocha and a Chocolate Croissant. All seemed well.
At about halfway through my shift, one of my co-workers, who doesn't speak English very well, was sitting with a little girl helping her color a Thanksgiving coloring book page. I was watching another kid but from across the room I heard, "No. No. Don't color outside the lines, that's not how you're supposed to do it. Go slowly and color inside the lines so your picture doesn't look bad."
That made me really angry inside for some reason. I wanted to say something to her but I knew it wasn't a big deal and she might not have meant exactly what she said. But in my head I thought, "Never ever tell a kid they're not supposed to color outside the lines. Let them color what and where they want to color, it's more fun that way. Some of the best art in the world is not what was 'inside the lines'."And the rest of my day I kept thinking, how many times have I been told in my life to color inside the lines? To not read ahead? To do it this way, not this other way, because that is the right way to do it? I get where they're coming from from a logical standpoint but really why does it matter to you if I color inside the lines? Let me be me. Let me learn to make things for myself that don't necessarily follow the guidelines.

These thoughts are probably the product of too many college essays about how minute things can carry supreme meaning and things that I observe in the world that should be changed or maybe just the emotional residue from last night. I just don't know. All I know is that I will most likely never tell anyone to color inside the lines for as long as I live.

So I ask you guys, do you think you should color inside the lines?

Have a thoughtful November 9th, (and probably the rest of November because my blogging consistency is not stellar)
Colleen

Constant Motion (The Month in Review)

Hello Internet! I have returned!

So it's been about a month since I last posted because so much has happened that I am either going somewhere, doing something, or finishing said thing and recovering from it in the form of excessive sleeping or Netflix binging, just to wake up and do it all over again the next day and the next and the next. Therefore, I have a lot to report.

October Reviewed

Band
Band has been insanely busy. October is make or break time for any marching band, and for the most part, I think we've done our best to make it. On October 4th we competed for the very first time this season and placed first in Prelims and in Finals, winning every category except one. Not a bad way to start, but it also gave us a little bit of a superiority complex, which has never served us well in the past. At a competition the next week, we went up against some "stiffer" competition in the form or long-time rival Fleming Island and a band from Georgia three times our size. We placed third overall in Prelims, even with an extremely biased judging panel. Needless to say we were angry and hungry to prove ourselves in Finals. The Finals show was in a word. Epic. The crowd was on their feet and the staff was bouncing up and down with joy and pride. The judges wanted a show, we gave 'em a show. Still placed 3rd in Finals but we were still ecstatic after that run. Then began, what I can see now retrospectively, the slump. Practices were lame and unfocused, final runs after rehearsal were unsatisfactory and we seemed to be losing the smile that band is supposed to put on our faces. It was now that Side 2, my unofficial officerial territory since only a handful of upperclassmen and one lucky officer were located within a 40 foot radius. So I took a little more responsibility over them, running sectionals (although only one successfully up to this point) and guiding them during practices. And they're improving, slowly but steadily and emphasis on slowly. Our competition was the next Saturday and I got to band guide my little brother's band. It was so wonderful because I got to watch my baby bro at his and his band's first competition in history and have the cushy competition job that does basically nothing for the whole day. They got absolutely terrible scores and as my brother put it, "two trophies for showing up". We had a pretty kickin' show for working 12 hours beforehand so the night was pretty chill overall. The next week was FBA. One run. No scores. No places. Just ratings. Our district is pretty lax when it comes to marching bands so we were the superstars of the show. That show was rockin' as well and we were greeted on the field by St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra High Schools shouting us a verbal Good Luck, just like we had to them 5 hours earlier and at the end the crowd gave us a standing ovation. Crazy and awesome. Afterwards we walked to our trailers and nearby Bartram Trail was chanting our name as we walked by. Then the infamous Senior Circle, where we prayed to Based God and sang songs and laughed and reveled in the wonderful moment. Our director came back with the plaque symbolizing our Straight Superior Ratings. It was the crowning gem on the extremely awesome night. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to get that feeling back recently. More bad rehearsals and time spent auditioning for Indoor Winter programs and less time nurturing our show to its full potential. We need a kick in the butt and we need it now.
Wow, that was just band. Yeesh.

School
First of all, damn, IB is hard. The month of October has been filled with EE deadlines and meetings (EE check-in - Topic is How were the usages of ancient Greek and Chinese horoscopes similar in their respective cultures? Total of 1000 out of 4000 words written. Due mid-December. Terrified), Internal Assessment outlines and drafts in at least 3 different classes and a general lack of caring about any of them. Never have I been so inclined to do anything other than my homework. I just doesn't seem worth it anymore. Calculus BC has simply become a place to recreate how they did calculator calculations when there were no such things. My argument is, I have a calculator, why can't I just use that? Notes don't seem worth it either because at this point I either know the material or I don't. I talked about having Senioritis at the beginning of the school year but I think I've gotten worse. It's progressed to Senior-bola or something like that. It's bad.
And then there's what happens after this year. College apps a plenty over at Casa Colleen. So far I have officially applied to UF and FSU and Rice, UVa, UNC Chapel Hill and spur-of-the-moment, last minute addition UC Berkeley are in the works. I swear, if I see another text box saying what words exemplify my character or what my life aspirations are, I'm going to go mad. I'll let you know how that pans out in Oh say, 3 or 4 months. Ughh.

Other Life Things
Haha, psych! I don't have a life outside of band or school, that would be just silly. But really, my job has been good. I finally got all my paperwork turned in so I actually got paid this month and a baby fell asleep in my arms and it was about the cutest thing ever. I skipped my last Homecoming dance to watch Halloweentown and eat food with a few of my besties, so really who were the real winners in that situation?

That's essentially October in a nutshell. A blog post to make up for all of the ones I didn't write this month. November will have interesting things to come so hopefully more frequent posts. Catch ya'll later, I have an IA draft to write :P

Have a hopefully stress-free November 9th,
Colleen

Blurred

So you know those cliqué movie scenes where the main character is standing still in the middle of a rushing crowd, and everyone and everything passing by is just a momentary blur? Well, my life feels a little bit like that.

For so long I have denied myself the ability to be invested in the things that I am doing. I am constantly thinking about the things I should and could be doing instead of what is happening at the moment. When I'm at band, I'm thinking about how I can weave my experiences into an enthralling 400 to 500 word essay to show colleges that I am, indeed, an interesting person. When I'm doing one of my seven million IB assignments, I'm thinking about how I could be practicing and perfecting my show music so I can be the best section leader I can be. When I'm trying to get to sleep after a hard day's work, I can't because all of the unfinished things I have to do tomorrow or next week or next month. When I'm filling out my name, birthdate, and address for the twelfth time, I'm thinking about how if I don't get it done soon, I'm not going to finish the homework that could also determine whether I get to go where I want next year. And that's assuming I actually have a concrete thought about what I actually want for myself next year. Which I haven't yet because I'm too preoccupied thinking about everything else. Even when I'm procrastinating doing these things, I can't enjoy my Netflix movies or naps because I feel guilty for not doing any of the things on my endless to do list.

It's a vicious cycle and it has smudged my life into a big blur of uncertainty and dissatisfaction.
And I don't want that for myself.

I want to love every last minute I have with my band family.
I want to write meaningfully about myself and how I want to live life not just sales pitches that skim the surface of who I am but are "creative and clever" to catch the eye of some faceless admissions officer.
I want to care about the education I've been given and let myself study things that are interesting to me and explore the wondrous world I was born to explore.

I want to see life in its multitude of beautiful colors rather than the shades of black and white that I have been.

And the only one in the way of what I want is me. So don't be like me. Live life like you want to not like you're expected to.

Have a beautiful September 28th,
Colleen

p.s. You're welcome for this absolute bundle of happiness :P

Radioactive

Hello Internet!

It's been awhile since I wrote but there's a thing I've been thinking a lot lately and even though it's not really my normal school/teenage life post, I thought I could share it with ya'll. And if you or I do not have "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons stuck in our heads by the end of this, I believe I will have failed at my ultimate mission to get catchy songs stuck in everyone's heads all the time and it will be a grave day in the blogosphere.

But I've been thinking about radioactivity from a different angle since my mother had a radioactive iodine treatment as the final stage of her thyroidectemy (Is that the right term for it? Probably not, Google put that unfriendly red line underneath it. Oh well.) and I've thought more about radioactivity recently than I have even studying for any radioactive decay chemistry test. Here are the things that have been swirling round in my mind for a few days.

Radioactivity. Sounds scary, right? Good, because it should be.

Radioactive chemicals can and will kill you. (Cheerful, I know. I try) If Fukishima, Chernobyl, and Marie Curie have taught us anything it's that radioactivity messes up things. The Fukishima reactor fiasco is starting to be blamed for poorer health conditions in Japan and potentially deadly microorganisms in the ocean that may have mutated due to the radioactive leak. Chernobyl has been vacant for 30+? years (I didn't fact check, whatever) and probably will still be unsuitable for humans for 30 more years. One day it's a thriving factory with hundreds, maybe thousands of workers and the next it it a ghost town. Marie Curie's journals are still kept in a vault underneath France's Bibliotheque National (fact checked that because I knew I would get it wrong :D) with 2 foot thick metal walls and anyone who views them must don a full body hazmat suit. Curie died in 1934 so those papers are at least 80 years old and are still too dangerous to be stored and viewed normally. Dang.

But then again, radioactivity can give us strength we could have never dreamed of, at least in the comic books. (Sorry, I just had to. I'm in Arrow withdrawals. Why Netflix did you delay Season 2's release date?!? But I digress) Spider-Man was bit by a radioactive spider, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Yes, they totally qualify as superheroes) were exposed to radioactive chemicals. The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Daredevil and many other heroes began as normal people exposed to radiation. And they became great, using their differences to help others and learn about themselves.

Yes, I know this is sort of a ludicrous argument but I'd like to think that the curious and intelligent can find meaning in even the most ludicrous of arguments.

So what I got from these strange musings about deadly toxins was yes, things in this world can hurt us, and that hurt can be slow and linger for years and years. And it is so easy to just stay away from things that hurt us and be okay. But if we do that, we miss out on the opportunity to create or to discover something new. Sure, sometimes we can make mistakes, get hurt, change because of the things we encounter but they make us stronger and teach us about what we can do to make it right or make it better.

So maybe radioactive isn't as bad as we think. Maybe we all just need to explore a little more. And if you mess it up, hey, you might just get super powers.

This post is either super insightful or absolutely ridiculous. I can't tell yet. You be the judge.

Have an excellent hour and a half left of September 15th,
Colleen

Apparently I've Never Learned Anything (The Week in Review)

So I haven't posted in awhile because school started, whoop-de-doo. We haven't really done anything yet but there seems to be a common theme to most of my classes this year, all linked to the class that will probably be the reasoning for my unavoidable existential crisis, IB Theory of Knowledge, which is basically a class where you revert to your 6 year old self asking "Why this?" "Why that?" "Why is this that?" "Why can't that be this?" I have never been a quizzical person. Ever. I like listening and thinking. Questions have never been moy forte but now they kind of have to be. But between TOK, IB History and IB English, there seems to be a common them for my courses this year.

There is no such thing as historical fact.
The value of truth differs depending on where you see the world from.
Basically, everything I know is wrong or will be proven wrong.
Delightful, isn't it?

So when everyone else in the world is happily sitting in class "learning" about how the world works, IB kids are sitting in class thinking that we've spent 17 years of our lives "learning" things that may or may not actually be correct. My friend told me the other day that you've never actually touched anything in your life because there is always a space between particles of matter. How messed up would your head be if someone just casually told you that even the thought that you have ever made physical contact with anything is a lie? Knowledge we are taught is simply what we deem most correct for our worldview and place in history. But in 50 years, it could all be proven false. If that doesn't make you feel useless as an educated person, I don't know what will.

So on top of that I've got band 3 days a week, and we've "learned" all of the opener and ballad sets but my side of the field needs a little work because by some strike of unluckiness, I am the only officer within a 30 yard radius. I think that warrants another whoop-de-doo. I'm letting that out on my 3 views per post blog because I really need to stay positive and encouraging but it's been wearing on my nerves lately.

On top of that is a bunch of eminent IB assignments; the most daunting being my EE due by mid-December. That seems like a long time but it's not, and right now it looks like a long, grueling road to the final draft. Present topic - "A comparison of the origins and usages of Chinese, Greek and Mayan astrology" Let's check back in 4 weeks and see if that is still the case. I got some recent research done at the UNF library (and a delicious dinner of Starbucks Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucchino and Chik-fil-a) so I'm pretty happy with it for right now.

So lots of stuff in a short amount of time. Colleen está cansada. I hope I've sufficiently befuddled your views of reality.

Have an excellent August 26th,
Colleen

Diagnosis: Senioritis

I think I've know for awhile now, but it's official. I have a severe case of Senioritis. And my senior year hasn't even started yet. Help.
Don't know what Senioritis is? Well, I am here to raise awareness for this horrific affliction.
Senioritis (n.) The feeling or phenomenon when students procrastinate often and hold little conviction for finishing schoolwork or attending class. So named because it tends to affect seniors because they are being accepted into college and no longer see the point.
Symptoms:
Netflix binging
Excessive sleeping
Fatigue
Procrastination
Chronic unenthusiasm

I have several theories about Senioritis. First of all, it will affect 100% of seniors at some point in their life. Some may have aggressive cases like me or some may be fortunate enough to have the mental immunity to bring this heinous disease down to something akin to to the common procrastination cold. But everyone will get it. Everyone will think for at least a month or two that the new episode of Game of Thrones or The Voice is vastly more important than the assignment due tomorrow or the exam coming up. Everyone will think at least once about the pointlessness or uselessness of a certain assignment or assignments. It's inevitable. Nothing is certain except death and procrastination.
My second theory is that International Baccalaureate is the leading cause of premature Senioritis. I've seen Senioritis symptoms in my classmates as early as sophomore year, and I assume that is because we take senior level courses during our sophomore year.

Why am I just now being diagnosed? Because I had one job to do this weekend. Do SOME kind of summer work so I don't have to do it after a full day of band camp this week or cram it all into next weekend. But did I do that? No. I watched the kick off of Shark Week and went to Chik-Fil-A. Did I have plenty of time to do it? Yes. Did I make excuses so I could put it off further? Yes. The only real work I did was play some of my marching show music but that only happened because our woodwind technician messaged me about having my music all memorized. Usually I can get at least one thing done in a 48 period of nothingness. But not this time. This was my final warning sign. I am living with Senioritis. This should make things a little bit difficult. Great.

Have an excellent August 10th (for the next hour or so),
Colleen

Summer Days, Drifting Away

First of all, I am extremely tired right now because I "preached" at my church for our Youth Sunday at the 8:30 am, 11 am, and 5:45 pm services, with a clarinet section leader meeting on the other side of town in between, so I've been at home a grand total of 55 minutes today, so if this post has a bunch of spelling mistakes and strange phrases, that is why.

So today is kind of sort of my last day of summer, which is kind of tragic and makes me wonder if time travel is actually real because I could have sworn it was July 4th like a week ago. It's my kind of last day of summer because now until school starts I have Band Camp, Monday through Friday, 9-5. I know, insane, and in the heat of the Florida summer to top it off. I'm excited but I'm also nervous, because a) I'm a new section leader and I don't know what to do half the time, b) My summer has been exhausting and this is gonna be tough, c) I'm dreading the eventual start of school and all of the summer homework that has to go along with that. Procrastination is always the best way to avoid stress, right? Ah, no. But my brain still hasn't completely comprehended that yet. Today was also as I mentioned, Youth Sunday at my church, which is usually the marker for the end of the summer because we reflect on all the trips we've done over the summer and this Sunday is our summer youth intern's last Sunday so if we don't have a summer intern, I guess that technically means summer's over.

So today was a great day in some aspects, lots of people complimented me on my sermon-ish thing at church, and we finished all of the bandanas for our massive army of 29 clarinet players. But in the largest way, it was a sad day. Those lazy summer afternoons and fun summer nights are pretty much over, and it's pretty much built into our DNA to mourn the end of summer, and even this big, tough, mature senior is really wishing it didn't have to end.

Well, wish me luck tomorrow! And yes, by the way, I did quote Grease for the title of this entry and I am not ashamed.

Have an excellent August 3rd,
Colleen

The Beginning

So I started this blog today for a number of reasons:
1. I've been thinking about it all summer but have procrastinated until now
2. First days of the month are usually pretty good times to start things
3. I've got time to kill today
4. I wanted to start it up before band camp, which is Monday (I really wanted to put a nervous/excited emoji thing here, but I either don't know how to put one in or they don't allow me to. *shrug*)

But what really put me over the edge was that the Common Application opens today! Which, in my opinion, is the prospective college student's real first day of senior year, because from today on, I can apply to colleges. Scar-y! At least for me because I hate making decisions, take this blog for example, I've been thinking about it since May and now it's August.
For those of you who don't know about CommonApp, consider this your learning lesson for today because if you are applying to college, you really need to know about this site. It's basically a mega-application site used by almost all private universities and a considerable amount of public universities as well. You create an account and through the site you send in your essays, see testing requirements and a whole bunch of other essential stuff for your application. And despite the 12 separate emails from colleges telling me to sign up and apply today, I haven't signed up yet because I'm trying to avoid it as much as possible because I'm apparently a scaredy cat, but getting started this early is super helpful in keeping the stress down later in the year because of homework and extracurriculars and part-time jobs and everything else us seniors have to deal with between now and graduation.

So point being, today is a day for beginnings. Beginning my blog, beginning the official college application process and really beginning thinking about my future. omygoodness. Let's see where this goes.

Have an excellent August 1st,
Colleen

First post about stuff

First post, well, here goes:

So basically, I created this blog to chronicle the ever exciting and confusing time known as senior year of high school. I hope that blogging about all the things that happen to me this year will 1. Help me mange my sanity 2. Give me something to look back on when it's all said and done and 3. Potentially help out future stressed out seniors and hopefully help guide them down the weird path that is the end of high school.

Disclaimer:
I am probably not the average, ordinary high school senior. First of all, I'm in the International Baccalaureate program, which is an internationally recognized advanced curriculum program, so the things I have to do for that are probably different than most other students, so when I start using a bunch of strange acronyms and abbreviations, just know it's because I'm in this program. Second, I am in the marching band at my school. This may sound like not a big deal but believe me, we take it very seriously and a lot of my posts from now until at least December will include or be centered around that. So in addition to weird IB acronyms, there will be lots of music terminology that many may not be able to relate to.

But if you still want to read, despite the weird stuff that I'll probably be talking about, get ready because here we go.

Have an excellent August 1st,
Colleen