It's Been a While

Wow, it has been so long since my last post. I was inspired to write this blog by the wonderful snow that was falling this afternoon. Right now I am incredibly restless, because everyone around me is finding out about college... and I have to wait another month or so.
After taking a test today, I knew I needed something to make me smile. When I looked out of the window... there it was SNOW! It wasn't a heavy snow fall, but just enough to plant a smile right on my face. It was great!

This means a whole new time of year is starting. That time when everyone is pink in the face, and laughing all the time. I love it.

I think that this is all for now. This is a really short post. I'm hoping to have more to talk about soon!! Have fun getting ready to play in the snow!
-Rachel

A Little Bit of Everything

I am not going to lie.. but I have writer's block. It doesn't help to see that I haven't posted in a while. So this is my attempt to get rid of writer's block.
While writing this I am sitting by the warm fire, watching Max, my puppy, enjoy the warmth coming from the fire place. I was told that he is too close, and needs to be moved away from the fire. After moving him a few feet, I sat back down to continue writing. Max, being the little trouble maker that he is, decided to sit even closer to the fire. And I am still stuck with writer's block. I was thinking about doing an after Halloween post, but to be honest my costume was not good enough to be blogged about.
Right now it is about 4:30 pm and it is so dark out that I thought it was the middle of the night. This can only mean one thing, winter is coming! I can't wait for the nights when you can't sleep because there is a storm brewing outside, and a snow plow is trying to uncover the ground. Those are the best nights, especially when you are a little kid, knowing school will be canceled the next day, which obviously means a huge snowball fight with your entire neighborhood will take place in the morning.
I have one question that I need to ask. How come we are supposed to choose what we want to do with our lives, when we are only 17 or 18 years old. If you think about it, it is really weird that we choose the path of our lives when all we have done so far is go to school.
One thing that has been on my mind lately is..... college, which i assume is true for most seniors right now. This weekend was a no fun no play weekend, it was basically a weekend where I was on college app lock down. All of this applying and thinking about the future has gotten me kind of nervous. I hope I'm not the only one who is very nervous for what next year will bring. If there is anyone reading this right now that is not nervous at all, please enlighten me.

And on a more uplifting note, the holidays are coming up soon!
Good luck to everyone who is going through any of this college stuff.

-Rachel

Some More Ramblings

So I realize that I haven't posted recently. There isn't too much going on to talk about. Right not college apps and school work are taking up the majority of my, and every other senior's, time. I recently filled out everything on the common app website. It was very scary. I can't wait for everything to be done and figured out. Right now I feel like we are all starting a marathon, not that I would know what that is like, and we are all rushing towards the finish line, college.

One important thing that I have to say...

Everyone right now is dealing with a lot of stress. The one thing that we all need to remember is how to relax. We are all at our breaking point, with the mention of college, most of us flinch or burst into a fit of tears. The only way to cure this is by taking a deep breath and remembering that everyone is going through it together. Well, not the freshman...

One thing that makes me smile after a long week, or more, of filling out form after form, and writing essay after essay, is looking outside at the trees. I dare you to look outside and see the trees changing. I love the reds and the oranges, to me the trees are a reminder that there are still good things going on. Such as after taking a break from your work there is probably a big bag of Cape Cod potato chips in your cabinet, or a little puppy to play with. Anything that can help take away the stress is one of those good things.

Can't wait to talk about things other than applications and essays. Good luck to everyone!!!

-Rachel

Blogging and College... again

I never knew how much work it was to write a blog. Everyday when I turn on my computer I see my blog page saved under my bookmarks. All I can do is think about how I have not written a post in a long time. I feel kind of guilty about that, because it was my goal for this year to write a blog.
The first month of school is almost over, which is a good thing. Everyone has told me that senior year is the easiest year in school. Well, so far, it has been the hardest. Mostly because of the idea of college applications looming over my head. At first the talk of college excited me, now it brings up a lot of stress. Today I checked all of the deadlines for the colleges that I am applying to, and I realized something, I need to make a schedule. That is not something that they teach us in school, how to schedule. That should be a class on its own.
This year it seems as if there are days when I don't have any work at all, and then the next few days all I am doing is cramming to get things done. Today is one of the more relaxed days, which is nice.
One thing that I noticed today was that people don't ever take the time to just look at things. In art class today we started drawing oranges. At first I pictured my final drawing as a circle, but eventually I realized that there is more to an orange than just a circle. I think that's really interesting.
Another thing that I find funny is writing "I" instead of "One" in my notes, or even this blog. That is because of english class this year. We are not allowed to use first or second person.

One great thing about today was the warm greeting I got from my puppy, Max, today. When I walked in the door, he almost jumped out of his fur because he was so excited to see me. It was very cute.

I think that is all for now. I think I might start my two projects that are due in a few days. Wish me luck!
-Rachel

College?

So currently I am sitting in the car on my way to New York for my new cousins baby naming. I really wanted to edit my college essays and make the changes that my college counselor made. If I’m going to write a blog I have to be as honest as possible. I could pretend that I am so ready to edit these three essays… but that wouldn’t be true. I’m really nervous. I think all of us are a little scared to be seniors, because we know what that means for next year. I remember in 8th grade we would all sing songs from when we were little, because we didn’t want to grow up and move on to high school. I wonder what we’re going to do this year. Act like we’re six years old again? Probably not. I think we’re all a little nervous to being the next stage in our lives. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a step back and realize we have an entire year, senior year specifically, to enjoy.
I’ve been saying how excited I am for college, and how I’m ready to move on and see what when I’m on my own. To be honest, I’m terrified and really nervous. I know it will be ok though, millions of people have already gone through it, and will go through it. The one thing that I find really comforting is that when we all walk onto campus for the first time, as freshman, there will be thousands of people who feel exactly the same. It won’t be like being the new kid in school, not that I know what that is like…
This day trip has been interesting. I drove through one of the colleges that I am thinking about. When we pulled up onto the campus a huge smile spread across my face. All my fears went away and I felt like I was home. I was looking around being able to point things out to my dad who hasn’t seen the campus yet. All I wanted to do was get out and just sit on the steps of my favorite building there, and just watch people. I have already found three places that I love most there. One of them is a little path that reminds me of the Redwood forest in California. The other one is a little pond that overlooks the fields for sports. The best one by far is at the admissions office, it overlooks a huge field with green trees everywhere. I was beaming the whole drive through the school. This was my second visit there and I did not want to leave at all. I feel so proud to finally say that I have a school that I love, and I want to show it off to everyone. I can’t wait to apply as soon as I understand how to do that.
Speaking of applying to college… good luck to everyone who’s starting or thinking about it now. That’s all for now. This post was pretty long! Yay!!!
-Rachel

First Essay of the Year

Finally I can officially say that I am done writing my first essay of senior year! I could go through all the details of the day and how I finally managed to get out a whole essay... but that would only bring back the horrible memories of writing it. I will say that it is hard to write an essay for a new teacher at the beginning of the year. Last year I knew what my teacher wanted in my essays, and how they should be written. This year it's a whole new set of expectations and guidelines. The roughest transition in essay writing was probably in middle school. I remember the first time I hear about a Five Paragraph Essay. I was frightened and ready to run. Now I look back and laugh, if only I could write such short essays now.
I am proud to say that I didn't wait until the very last minute, meaning midnight tonight, but instead I started early this morning, and I'm done before 4 p.m. That is change right there.

I think that the first of anything is always the worst. For example the first day of school last year, I thought I would pass out in the hallway because I had heard how awful junior year was. I got through it though, just like I did with my essay!

I hope this post looks longer than it does as I'm typing it.
-Rachel

First Day of School

So today was my last first day of high school. It was a little sad. I think that as you get older and older it is very comforting to think about the past. For example for the past few days I have been talking about when I was in elementary school and all of the memories from then. It's nice to dwell on how fun running on the playground was... and then reality hit me like a ton of bricks. I have to wake myself up and stop thinking about how I loved watching the gerbils run around in their cage in third or fourth grade, and start thinking about now. More importantly the boat load of homework I have already.
While I could only talk about how much work I have... I think it's more important to see the good in things. The best part of the day I think, was probably the feeling of being on top of the world. That is the only way to describe it. In my drawing and painting class the teacher asked everyone to say their name and grade. All the other kids went and said they were freshman. I wanted to stand up proudly and say "I AM RACHEL. THE SENIOR." I decided against it though.

I think I've talked enough about senior year, and it's only been a day. This is going to be a great year I can feel it. Can't wait to see what will happen tomorrow!
-Rachel

Last Few Days of Summer

As the summer comes to a close I feel as if I need to move at lightning speed to finish a whole list of things. The most important is my spanish homework. It is a 112 page play in spanish and about 40 questions to go along with it. I can proudly say that I am more than halfway done.
I still have several things other than school work to get done before school starts. For example I still have to go to the zoo and take a trip to Water Country. I'm hoping in the next two days I'll do both of those.
I'm hoping that when school starts I will have much more to talk about in my posts. I admire people who are able to write long posts everyday. That amazes me. I think that's all for now.
-Rachel

What Should I Title This Post?

Today I decided that if I am going to play golf my clubs all need to fit me the right way. So I got my clubs shortened, and I am officially ready to go onto the course and play for a few holes. I think I'll start with nine holes instead of the full 18.
I have decided to help my mom out with her Sterling Silver Jewelery business. Today my job is separating earing backs into sets of three and placing them in a tiny plastic bag. This should be interesting. Every day I am more and more amazed at how hard she works. She plans out her own schedule and follows it and has time to take Max out for many walks. I think it is the little things that help her business move so smoothly. That is why I am happy to do silly tasks like peeling labels or stamping fifty catalogs.
I'm having a bit of writer's block... the reason for this is probably because all I want to talk about at this time of year is Halloween. I find that this could be a bit boring to read about every day. That is really ok with me.
This year for costumes I think I want to do something completely new to me. If I can figure out how to make a survey I'll do that. For now I'll just take suggestions by comments. As a refresher I have been a clown and a witch for a few years in a row, a Furby, a devil, a computer, and a goblin. I like the idea of a theme for a group. Seeing as I can't find enough people who agree with me that I am not too old that is not really possible. I think my next outing will be a trip to the Halloween store. I hope I'm not coming across as someone who is obsessed with Halloween. Maybe a little, but not completely obsessed. I like the idea of dressing up as someone else and being a completely different person for a night. When I was little I loved getting candy and sitting in the living room floor with my brother trading all of our loot. I always traded my Twizzlers for anything chocolatey or crunchy. This Halloween might be different because it will be the first one that I am allergic to peanuts. Every candy that I like has peanuts in them... so I might have to pass on that part of Halloween this year. :(
I think that's all for now. I promised a longer post didn't I? I think this one beats the previous ones in length!
-Rachel

Hi Again

Hello again. So as my least favorite time of year rolls around I can only start thinking of my favorite holiday... HALLOWEEN. Every year around June I begin thinking about costumes. Last June I was too busy with junior year stuff to even have Halloween cross my mind. So now it's almost September and I haven't really started my Halloween process yet. So I have to start thinking extra hard about the perfect costume. In past years I've been a Furby, a computer (along with my brother), a devil with one friend and angel and the other friend half devil half angel, a witch, a goblin, and my most recent a clown. This year as a senior I have to really step it up and be something incredible. The thing is, everyone that I talk to seems to think that I'm way too old to go trick-or-treating. Thank you everyone for ruining my favorite holiday. What if I told someone that they were to old for Christmas, that would turn into a huge scandal. So I'm going trick-or-treating.
I wanted to take a poll and ask people if I was too old, to be honest it doesn't matter if I am or not. I'm going, end of story.
This post was kind of very short... so I'm making a promise as of now my posts will be much longer than this.
The end. Have a fun time Halloween shopping!
-Rachel

First Post

Hello everyone. I decided that if I want to be a writer when I grow up I must start a blog now. I've read quite a few blogs and I've decided that mine is going to be nothing like anyone else's. I'm sure people say this all the time. But this time it will actually be different. My blog is going to be a little silly and goofy, like me.
I'm Rachel. I have a puppy named Max and a hamster named Teddy Bear, or Teddy for short. They love each other. Max loves to sniff Teddy. It is really cute. I have an older brother who I'm not really sure what I should say about him, except I wish that he wasn't so old, and that he should move back home instead of being in college. My parents are typical parents. I get in trouble quite often, because I like to be silly and goofy.
Every year since I quit playing soccer when I was ten or so I always hated telling people that I play no sports at all. I always dreaded the question, "So what sports do you play" and my response has always been, "none, at all." This year I want to change that answer. The problem is I hate running and being on a team. So I decided to take up golf. I got my own set of clubs and have gone to the golfing range a few times. I'm not the greatest golfer out there. Sometimes I've hit the ceiling or hit the ball so it goes behind me, causing the multiple families to laugh for a few minutes. I can't say that I get embarrassed because I love making people laugh.
I think that's enough for the first post. I'll try to write as often as I can.
-Rachel