You’d think that receiving the coveted package in the mail on December 15 (for which my mom hunted down the mail truck like a lion chases a gazelle) officially kicks off high school senioritis. Yes and no; while getting into my dream school early decision helped alleviate my college process-related stress, I didn’t consider myself a victim of full-blown senioritis until Tuesday at 1:05 p.m., when the last midterm exam of my high school career ended.

And I have to say, this is one disease that I know I’m going to love.

All throughout high school, I was your typical gunner/overachiever type, pushing myself to get A’s and throwing a fit when I received anything lower. There were unfortunate times, usually around exams, when I sacrificed my social life in order to study. Looking back, I realize that my obsession with grades was unhealthy and I am not proud of it, but since I achieved my goal of getting into my number one college, I choose not to have any regrets about high school. What’s done is done; now is the time for moving forward.

In that very spirit, from here on out I plan on letting my hair down and doing all the things I never had time to do. My first order of business, of course, is sleep. I’ve also got a lengthy list of books to read, some TV shows to catch up with, a guitar to jam on, and – most importantly – some witty writing to crank out on Microsoft Word. Read More »

Life…for every one of us, it’s a puzzle made up of different pieces, different moments. As that famed song in Rent says, there are “five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes” in every year that we live, so basically, that’s a whole lotta moments. For the most part it’s small, mundane moments; brushing our teeth, taking out the trash, traveling to and from work, school and other obligatory destinations. But, there are those few moments in our lives, both good and bad, that are truly life-defining and create us into the unique individuals we are.

A few of the good; getting accepted into and graduating from college, meeting our future spouse/partner, our wedding day and the birth of our children. And then the bad; our first heartbreak, parents’ divorces, our first experience of rejection from a college or job. There is, however, one inevitable part of life that we all must deal with at some point, and which I’ll venture out to say is the suckiest part of life; death. There is nothing quite like losing someone you love. It hits you at your very core, turns your world upside down, and makes life suddenly seem so REAL. For me, this jarring, life-changing moment happened just over a year ago when my dear grandmother lost her battle with ovarian cancer. Read More »