My very best friends: Madison and Jenna
Walking with Maddie
Co-salutatorians! "Yay for mediocrity!" - Kelsey P.
So I graduated! I found myself going back to school less than a week later just to say hello. It was a strange feeling. For a while, I looked forward to graduation and to college, believing that it would be easy to say goodbye and move upwards and onwards. Even as recent as a few months ago I said that to a friend of mine who agreed, then, like me, was surprised at the difficulty and the uneasiness that the end of the year brought. I couldn't say "goodbye" but always "see you soon/later" etc. It's still hard getting used to the fact that I don't see my friends or people in general every day. I have to actually make the effort to hang out with people I care about (which is also hard due to crazy summer schedules). During graduation week, all these things never hit me, and I haven't had a meltdown (yay!). Weird. Now, I'm the opposite of what I expected. For the most part, I'm scared about going to college, meeting new people, moving on and forgetting/letting go of the relationships I spent years forming in high school. More so, I'm worried that my friends won't have the same determination to stay close. I really shouldn't say I'm scared about college and all that it entails. I'm actually really really realllllly excited. This weekend I went up to Seattle with my mom for New Student Advising (NSA) on Friday. I spend the day at the school registering for classes and learning about life at SPU. There wasn't a specific time slot for introducing yourself to other students, but in the inbetween time I met a smattering of fellow freshman. Some I connected to more than others, but with 720+ people in my class, I'm sure I'll meet some amazing people. During the day, we broke into groups based on our intended major so faculty members could help us choose what classes to take for Fall Quarter. For those of you who don't know, I'm planning on becoming an elementary teacher, which means I'll major in integrated studies. My schedule for Fall Quarter is....
- University Seminar: From Page to Stage -- All freshman have to take a USEM as kind of an welcome-to-college course and the one I chose is with an amazing prof, plus we "take advantage of Seattle's live theater opportunites." Can't wait.
- French (1st quarter 2nd year) -- Scariest thing ever. Because I hadn't taken a placement test for language, I had an on the spot interview in French with the head of Foreign Languages. I didn't know what was going on, then she started asking me all these questions in French, and I had to respond in the same manner. I guess I did okay, I get to skip 3 classes :)
- Intro to Physical Science -- Haven't taken this subject since freshman year, a little scared, but it's a required course for my major.
- Childrens Literature -- Another required course, but I'm super excited with this one! Lots of reading, but the class is only once a week, and it should be a bunch of fun. One of my favorite books, Number the Stars, is on the reading list.
After the day was done, I met back up with my mom and she told me that it was weird for her to think that I'm going to leave and be a college student in the fall. I told her it was weird for me to think that I was going to be at school with all the people I spent the day with. It seems so far away and still isn't quite a reality, but it'll be great. Everything just seemed to fit when I was on campus, it felt like it could be home.
I think the hardest part about the whole transition is that I've never done this before, I don't know what to do or to expect. My first time graduating, my last summer at home, moving out, going to college, not being around people I've known since I was 6 etc. It's crazy, but it's great!
PS, sorry if this post seems like a lot of random rabble. I wrote it sporadically and when I was extremely tired, but I don't care enough to go back a fix it. It is summer after all...
