College Smollege :P

Well, whaddy'a know. I was halfway through this (was) lengthy post, and suddenly I hit the wrong button in my clumsy stupor, and the whole post is GONE. I wasn't connected to the internet when I was typing it either, so the undo didn't work. Just my luck ;P.

In any case I think I'll be a little lazier now and just kind of highlight some things, because it's getting late and I'm not feeling up to remember what all I said before. I think I rambled on too much in the first attempt anyways.

Every time I step out of my small town bubble I'm slapped with the realization that it's a whole lot more competitive out in the "real world", if that's what you'd like to call it. Even in the high school stages. Where I am now, I feel like I'm in good shape. I score well in just about everything, take up my extracirriculars, and I have a basic idea of what I want to make of my life. But outside of Smalltown, New York, other kids my age, including many of you are well on their way down the college path already. Am I in any AP courses? No, our school doesn't offer them, and I never thought to seek out the community college in the summer, which I regret. Am I in good standings with my SATs and ACTs? Nope, I haven't even studied for them on my own time. I went to a few afterschool sessions, but it didn't do much because I couldn't make it every one. Now it's crunch time. I need those scorings to begin the whole application process. I also need to check into scholarship opportunities/financial aid. It's just so much.. And I feel like I kind of have to do it alone. My mom supports me, and would love to see me go off to a great college, but she never went, and doesn't know much about the whole process. She's a great help, taking me to visit the schools, but I know she'd rather not have to meddle with the pesky details. I don't blame her. So this week I visited both SUNY Geneseo and University of Rochester. Both of them had their own sets of advantages and bummers, I'll attempt to organize them as best I can.

Geneseo.

* The campus was beautiful, really nice architecture.

* The tourguide really seemed to love her school. She was energetic and loved her study abroad trip to Italy through Geneseo. She was the most talented person I've ever witnessed at walking backwards. Especially for an hour and a half long tour session.

* It had alot of resources. Rental electronics from ipods and cameras to laptops, free of charge. Library personel who are there to proofread/give opinions on your papers. Computer program that tells you which washers/dryers are free so you don't go down there to find them unavailable when you do your laundry. Buses that come along every 20 minutes to run you around town. Weekend bus to Rochester. Student tutors that are available til 10 in the evening.

* You're allowed to bring your car to campus no matter what year you are. But it costs money.

* Sense of security/trust. Faculty allow students to use equipment and resources pretty freely, whatever you need you can usually get your hands on. No real issues of safety.

*It received an award for campus dining, which is kind of rare.

* Opportunity to apply for the Writer's Hall, which a suite with fellow students with the same interests, where they can really focus on their passions.

* REQUIRED COURSES. That was a major "D:" for me. When I imagine college, I think of the freedom of choosing all of your courses of interest. I mean, it's probably fairly flexible, like for art you can opt for something like photography. But I don't know about math or sciences. Or what all they require anyways. But I don't like the idea of having to fill up my schedule with particular classes that don't necessarily prime me for my future career.

* Maybe it's a little too convenient. I mean, in theory all of those resources sound great. But I feel like I should be gaining independence at college, not expecting others to assist me all along the way. Feedback from professors is always wonderful, but I don't feel like I should have someone else read through my papers and help "make it better", I should be able to make it the best I can on my own. Plus some of those things would make it pretty easy for me to become lazy.

*There isn't much to well.. do. To be fair I never saw "downtown", but from where I was two miles off campus at my hotel, it wasn't too exciting. There was a Walmart, Subway,Wegmans, Sears, and a movie theater basically. It's definitely better than my town, but not quite the excitement I was hoping for after highschool.

University of Rochester.

* The whole reason I explored this University was because of a generous scholarship opportunity I received for the Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony award, which if I'm accepted, will take care of roughly $30,000 tuition. That's a nice sized portion.

* The area is teeming with life and vibrance. It's a great art and indie music scene, I'd love being close to that. Especially with all of the great musicians that come there.

*Both of the tour guides were teriffic. Funny guys, who offered what I felt to be honest insight of the college. They told us places to get free food, the cool places to study, and the places to head to when you want solitude and quiet when you're readings. Professors are helpful, and there are opportunities to get involved in projects, including published books. When students assist in the making of the research/text, they're given written credit in the book. The two guys seemed really "at home" when showing us around, they weren't "selling" us on the school like past students have, they were just chill and honest. You could tell they enjoyed it there though.

* The buildings here are great too, everyting is pretty visually appealing. Students really play a prominent role in the place, like one group chose how to renovate the social studying area, and it's wicked cool in there. Students also voice their opinions in The Campus Times, which one of the guides went through the trouble of scrounging up a personal copy for me :).

*Rochester is a brutally cold and snowy area, but all of the campus buildings are connected by tunnels, so you don't even have to trudge through the snow with all of your materials. I'm just not sure if the dorms are a part of this network, but regardless it's still cool.

*YOU CREATE YOUR CIRRICULUM. Such a relief to hear after Geneseo. Whatever you want to learn, you have the opportunity to. It doesn't even have to apply to your major, really. Like I of course want to be involved in Creative Writing and Journalism, but they told me it would be easy for me to also sign up for Political Science, Philosophy, Languages, whatever I wanted. I like the sound of that.

*Studying abroad is covered in your tuition costs. There really isn't any excuse not to go :). Plus they offer a wide range of places to see.

*Research is a large part of the school, students have access to many tools. Some of these include very old original documents, like those from Frederick Douglass. Students can actually view these with proper care. Mostly everyone receives work related experience through Rochester before they graduate.

* It's slightly easier to get into Rochester than it is Geneseo. It's still competitive, but not at the same frightening level. Also, it's a bit closer to home, although not by much, hahah.

*I was able to meet with an Admissions Counselor and have an interview, so the school could get to know me better as an individual. I found that to be unique.

* I was not able to see the dormitories. However, I assume they're just as unimpressive as every other one I've seen, haha. A dorm's a dorm.

* The area isn't as "safe" as smaller towns like Geneseo. It's a city, so crime exists. I'm not used to it, but I'm sure it's something that I'd be capable of getting accustomed to. You just need to be more aware of your surroundings.

Whichever I choose, including other schools, the distance is a little scary. I feel like all of my friends are going to stay in this town, and when I leave, I might lose a little bit of them.. Things might not ever be the same, I'm scared they'll all have wonderful times together after I leave, and once I return, I might not fit in with them quite the way I did before.. Sigh. :/.

I feel like I need a change of scenery though. I've lived here my entire life, I'm sick of these same roads, same stores. I've explored nearly every corner of the place. I'm not saying it's bad, but I would definitely like being somewhere new, digging the places and the people. Especially when it's an exciting city-esque setting. I don't really care to forefeit that.
The path ahead is a bit unclear, but I'll trudge my way through it one way or another.

Straight out of the

jar :)

"Awesome."

Hmm. What exactly am I doing, aside from looking rather awkward? I'll tell you the lovely story of how I ended up immobile on the shoulder of an Interstate Highway in the rain. Thus leading to the closest facial expression I can make to a frown, and having a picture candidly taken of me by Amanda.
Sunday morning we got ourselves around and I drove 45 minutes to get Amanda, Julie, and myself to the mall and surrounding places to shop. We wanted to check out back to school deals, and we made off quite well. I'll post pictures below. Everything was going well, nobody left empty handed. I found a new belt, and shoes :). Along with other "necessities", haha. We also ventured to Target, Petsmart, and Kohl's. Heading home was the issue. Everything was going fine until after I passed two exits on the highway, I noticed the car felt a little funny. Something was off with the steering wheel, it was pulling towards the left, which is not supposed to happen. I wasn't sure if I was going to fast, or being overly concerned, or what. But then a few moments later the whole car began to get shaky, this was undeniably strange. I said to my friends that this was not right, something was wrong with the car. They said it would be fine, most likely trying to make sure I kept calm and in control. But as I kept going I felt very uncomfortable and decided to switch to the closest lane, and signal over to get on the shoulder. Once at a stop I could see smoke raditating from the road, from my car, and I got out to see a flat front tire with a gaping hole. I got back inside of the vehicle, put on the flashers, and called the parents. Neither of them were too happy, especially since it happened on such a dangerous, busy road. Nevertheless they sent a friend of theirs who was already out in town to give me a hand. So after sitting in the car for 40 minutes or so, he came along and I helped him change my tire. That's when Amanda snapped the shot of me, hahah. So in the end all was well, I got us home safely and we hung out for the rest of the evening. I'm just glad the tire was the only thing that was damaged. I couldn't imagine getting into an accident if I had lost control or something.

I went to the tire shop this morning and discovered that a nail had been the devil's advocate, causing my leaky tire. Then I forked over $50 to cover half of the cost for a replacement one. My funds are quickly diminishing. I need a job, hahah. Golden Goal has been good to me, but there's only one week left of that, and that's after this 10 day gap of no activity at the park. Looking at my paychecks, I've determined there isn't a high likilhood that I will have broken $1000 in earnings this summer. Atleast it's been enjoyable, I like the people there.

Rockin' the leather vests in Target ;). No, we didn't actually buy them.

Some of my scores. Zebra tee - Zumiez, Dark wash super skinny jeans - PacSun, White camisole- Aeropostale, Lumberjack cardigan - Target, Purple + raspberry tees - Kohl's, Funky socks - Finish Line.

New belt, check. Zack has the same one haha. I always have this girly, "cutesy" style, sometimes I just need to add a little edge to it. Studs will do the trick. And yes, another pair of pseudo-converse ;). $17 at Rue21. I might need to jazz them up though.

Another thing, I ventured around with Shayla and Jenna Saturday night. Sadly, no pictures were taken. I don't know what we were thinking :P. But we ate and conversed at Panera's, then walked around the lake village until her uncle was out of his gig. I left Shayla with him and drove Jenna and myself back home. This store, The Silvermine, had really neat afghan blankets. Shayla bought herself and a friend one for her birthday. I'm contemplating going back and getting one for myself, haha.

Well, tomorrow morning I am off to visit colleges with my mom, Amanda, and Julie. We'll be staying at a hotel overnight, and I might get a chance to post. If not, I'll catch everyone all up to date later. I hope my poor car makes it just fine for this journey, haha. We were going to take my mom's car, but coincidentally the air conditioning/defrosting unit quit working, so now mine is the only good option. Wish us luck ;).

Straight from thejar :)

Night Owl

Going to sleep at a decent hour is pretty much impossible for me lately. I just stay awake so late, not even feeling tired, haha. I guess that's a normal characteristic of summer, but it sure did kick in late. I kind of prefer going to bed earlier, and waking up earlier. Next week I'll make a point to wake up bright and early :).

It's pretty scenic around here, sometimes. Lately I've been helping Tom work on our farm, delivering bags of oats from the field, way back to the shed. It has to be over a mile each way. The first time we had to load the bags up onto the fourwheeler and make multiple trips. Today was a bit easier though, my dad let Tom use our farm truck to haul the bags because there was so many of them. He had a bit of trouble figuring out how to drive standard :P, but nevertheless we survived. I liked just sitting in there with him, feet up on the dash, lost in the scenery.

Something I really value about our friendship is that I just speak when I'm with him, like I completely spill out my mind. I'm surprised he doesn't have my cranium juice stained on his sleeves, hahah. I just gush everything, say how pretty it is outside, talk about human nature, about what I want out of life. Never does it occur to me, "Nah, don't say that, you'll sound stupid." I just ramble on and on.

I've had this ongoing thing "Nerdfest 09", we've called it, where my friends Zack and Derek have been opening my eyes to the wonders of Lord Of The Rings. Epic, epic, epic. We watched the first two in Derek's mom's basement, the ultimate "nerd dwelling", while devouring pizza pockets and orange soda. Also, I went with them to see Harry Potter yet again :). That was over the last couple of weeks, but yesterday evening since Zack's at boyscout camp, Derek came over to Tom's to show us the final movie. I thoroughly enjoyed them all. Now I must read the books, and Harry Potter. Once that was finished at 1:00am, we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves, so Derek offered to take us to Walmart so he could stock up on soda, hahah. So off we went, in the wee hours of the morning to a nearly deserted supercenter. I believe there were more employees than customers lurking about. Anyways, that was fun. Nerdfest isn't even close to over, so I'll keep you all updated with the activities that occur.

I went shopping today. Only to the Pacsun outlet, but I made off with two pairs of jeans, including the pair pictured, and the jacket. I was dissatisfied with the prices.. but oh well. The jeans were kind of a steal, $20 a piece, but I splurged on the jacket. $60 >:/, what was I thinking?! However, I do love teal, I just couldn't resist it.
Amanda and I plan to do more back to school shopping in the near future. Probably nothing major thanks to my income and the ridiculous prices of things. But I know I need new shoes, a new belt, and definitely a few nice shirts. I'm hoping to hit up Forever 21 for some deals, and I hope I can find a cool belt at Zumiez. My favorite one ever is no longer sold, which saddens me :(. The one I had broke because I wore it so much, hahah. Ughh.

Oh, and I now loathe Verizon. Apparently, even though I have to fork over $60/month for my internet access, I am halfway through my data useage allowance. It was my understanding when I purchased this junk, that so long as I wasn't constantly connected, or some hardcore gamer, I needn't worry about going over. I've had this laptop for what, a little over two weeks? I have a little over one week left until my next billing period. What I don't understand is how I can be charged such an outrageous price for such LIMITED access. People who have regular broadband through their cable providers don't have to worry about disconnecting every time they aren't touching their computer. And that only costs roughly $20 a month. I do use this fairly often, especially since I let my friends online when I'm over, since their internet is gone. But even so, for the cost, the service really does not match up. When I offhandedly mentioned to the associate today that it was a small allowance for the high price, he disagreed with me, hahah! "No, not really. If you learn to disconnect more often it's really more than enough." Well thank you, I'm glad you know your stuff. So now I need to make sure I'm not using my internet too often, and keep track of my useage. Honestly, I think this is garbage. Okay, /end rant.

Well folks,
I hope everyone's had a good week :). Enjoy the weekend.
♥ Olive