In case anyone is wondering, I ended up just wandering the internet reading blogs after I posted that yesterday. I clicked on the PDF file, looked at the neverending display of text, and said, "No." Ha, I just wasn't in the mood for more of that last night. Blogs are so much more entertaining--I love BEDA people!!!
I did get through reading some more academic journal PDFs, and found 2 that were pretty interesting. But I didn't get through much because...I had to go to check-in for school today. *sigh* For one thing, it was in the morning this year, and I swear every other year it's been in the afternoon for me. I mean, I don't sleep in, so it's not like I was freaking out about having to get up early, but I use my mornings especially to relax and read, but NO. I had to leave my house at 8:45 and walk down to that dreaded school. Seriously, I stepped inside and let out a big sigh. Ten weeks away from that place is not enough.
Don't get me wrong. I love school. Well, I love learning--last year, IB Euro was my favorite class, even though it probably gave me the most homework and a level of stress only second to math since I tested in that last year. I genuinely like talking to most of my teachers and listening to them, absorbing their wisdom. And I like that school gives me a chance to talk to my friends, since as you can see, that doesn't exactly happen during the summer. BUT, I'm not a huge fan of MY school. It's dirty, it's crowded, and so many people are just plain rude. This past year I was the girl who sat in the corner muttering about how rude classmates were and telling them to shut up. Which my friends who sat near me seemed to enjoy....Granted, I'm not saying I hate them or even dislike them, because I don't. The people in my classes are relatively intelligent, friendly, nice, and we're all IB nerds together. But when I'm stressed out enough about school, I can get very fed up with some of my classmates and the fact that they don't apply themselves a lot of the time. Weirdly, though, I'm still looking forward in a small way to going back to class and getting to talk to these people...
I'm also not looking forward to the homework, but that probably goes without saying.
OKAY. Stop complaining now. Back to check-in.
Honestly, not a very exciting time. I paid for my yearbook, got my school picture/ID, and received all of my books. After I'd picked them all up from the little textbook room,* I had to go sign them out with the library people. All SEVEN of them. After the student had scanned all of them and handed them back to me, he said, "Wow. Seven. That's a new record."** That made me feel just wonderful as I was attempting to pick them all back up again, so I responded with, "Gee. Thanks. I feel so special." (imagine some sarcasm there) Luckily, I expected this since the same thing happened last year, and immediately went off in search of my locker.*** I dropped off 4 of the books, stopped to talk with a couple different friends, and then went home again with the 3 books that I didn't leave there.
Actually, I was just looking at them, and I'm trying to figure out why the cover of my AP Calculus book is two bike riders high fiving....WEIRD.
I feel like I've spent this blog complaining, so I'm going to move on now.
Today was actually a pretty good day, despite the above ranting. It was really nice to get to see a few friends. And at home I just did some research and read some. Wow, I'm going to miss reading for fun once school starts. I know I already said this, but time goes by too fast. And as much as I'm complaining about school right now, I know I'll be the person crying on my last day of high school in May.
In his video on Friday, John said, "Youth is counted sweetest by those who are no longer young." Even though I am young, I think I understand this. I know that we take for granted the fact that we are young and alive and not yet working or tied up by obligations. We don't realize the beauty of being in high school or college, until it's over. My English teacher said sophomore year that we were too young to understand nostalgia at that point. But I don't think I agree with him. I'm very much nostalgic for my childhood. I long for the days of running around outside all day and pleading with my parents to let me stay up "just 5 more minutes." I miss getting excited, really genuinely excited for the first day of school. I miss sitting in my bed reading for HOURS because I didn't have to do homework. I think that even as kids we take for granted the fact that we are kids. We long to grow up and be like the high schoolers we see from afar at bus stops or at the mall, free and happy and laughing. And as teenagers, we long to be in college. Etc, etc.
I think we often are simultaneously nostalgic for 2 things: the past and the future, neither of which is truly real. The past we long for is a past of our own creation--one that seems completely happy, while we ignore the pains and tears. We only long for the happy parts. The same is true for the future--we imagine a perfect future, one that won't hold any of the bad memories of our past or present. But nothing's perfect, so what we're really longing for, whether it's the past or future, is a utopia that does not and cannot ever exist.
But that doesn't stop us from longing for a different time. It's part of what makes us human.
Someday, though, in the future, we're going to be wishing we had this time again. And I'm sure at one point in the past we were longing for right now, because it seemed so grown-up. Every moment is special to us, just it's rarely special actually IN THE MOMENT. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be longing for high school check-in...Okay, I doubt it, but I'm SURE I'll be longing for high school. Even if I can't see the beauty now, I will in the future. Yep.
Shark week is over, so it's the end of the shark facts. Sad day. But, as I leave to go search for all of the stuff I'm going to need for school next Tuesday (binders, books, pencils, pens****), I will leave you with this rather amusing comic:
Cheers!!!!
Days left of summer: 7
Inspirational quote/photo of the day: "The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." ~Eric Hoffer
*It's called Textbook Central, but "little textbook room" sounds so much cooler. Especially when you consider it's just a never used racquetball court in our school. :D
**I imagine it must be boring to scan books for students all day, so I applaud them for making up a game. But I'm still not thrilled to be the person who checks out (AND has to carry) the most books.
***Which I will probably never use after today, since I don't know who my locker partner is and am hoping to just stash my coat and the occasional book in the locker of a friend who has one in a much more convenient hall based on my class locations
****I have no clue how things manage to get so spread out over the summer. But now I have to go find everything. Mostly pens, though. I know where my binders are.
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