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