sweetmelissa21

Didn't realize I actually used to write in this journal much at all... I guess that was before Livejournal which was before Xanga... for those of you interested (I'm flattering myself and pretending that those people exist), my user name there is "melthesouthernbelle."

Just wanted to write something up here so that the last thing (and first displayed) wasn't the sad news of one of my best friends in the world moving away. So much has happened, but basically, now I'm at Rice University in Houston, Texas. This is my third year (and I will only be staying for four, can't afford more!), and I'm a Psychology and Policy Studies double-major at Baker College (for those of you familiar with Rice's Oxford/Hogwarts style college system). And I love most of my time here, though there are a lot of hard moments, struggles, uphill battles, but I chose that and I chose to fight those more or less on my own when I chose to come out to Texas, where I knew nothing and no one and my family stayed back in Georgia. But it was definitely one of the best decisions of my life, and definitely my first truly substantial decision that I made for myself and that dramatically affected my life. And I did a pretty good job, considering I'm still here three years later and enjoying it, all things considered. If only everyone else could find something that works out so well, particularly considering the hell I went through to get here - only the last little bit of which is chronicled here!

So, I guess taking a risk paid off for me in the college decision making...

School is finally out and I am officially a Lakeside alumnus. Weird. Felt like forever when I was there, but looking back, it feels like I just started school there.

I'm going to Rice University in Houston, Texas this fall. And now that I'm leaving I have finally hit my stride. My sister and I are getting along really well...which of course means that the time of my departure must be getting close. Isn't that always the way it goes? The irony of it all...

Cathryn left and moved to Miami. She's coming back Saturday to finish stuff up so it still doesn't feel like she really moved yet. I guess I'm telling myself that she hasn't moved yet so that I don't have to deal with the emotion that accompanies this separation...this (seemingly) permanent separation. It's hard to deal with her leaving so soon...we should at least get the summer before we go to college. I just don't feel ready to deal with it all, and I thought that was what summer was for....
~Melis

Of course now that I posted saying that I was actually almost definitely going to the University of Georgia, I got the call from an admissions officer at Rice University in Houston, Texas, telling me that I am in! I'm thrilled to death that I'm in now, but I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to school.

I was on "priority waitlist" at Rice because there was this whole ugly mess up with my transcript (the same counselor who sent off all seven of my teacher recommendations without names or addresses and thought that they would get there.....this is the same woman who actually graduated from Vanderbilt....GRADUATED!!! not flunked out! And she really did because there's no way that she could have printed out the diploma on her computer...ugh..public school).

I have until this Friday to decide whether I am going to Rice or the University of Georgia. That's the day before graduation. Baccalaureate was today. I'm really growing up, this is really it, I'm really going to go to college soon. I'm really supposed to be an adult now. Scary and exciting.
~Melis

I'm going to UGA almost definitely, which is exciting and scary at the same time. I've talked about it to death, so I'm not really going to expand on it, but I just wanted to put that here so that people know and because I know I haven't updated in a while and I kinda started the college decision-making process as a storyline in my journals and I didn't want to leave a big cliffhanger...oooo...scary, I know. Lol.

I am so freaking tired right now because I've been working non-stop basically all year...come to think of it, all eighteen years, but particularly right now. It's the final push of the school year, of high school really. Only one more AP Exam and that's just Ap Microeconomics and that's a big fucking joke so no more worries. I'm really pretty much done in all my classes, which is really, really, really nice and now I can sleep in and enjoy the final week and a half of senior-dom. Senior lunch on Friday. Excitement abounds. The last issue of the school paper comes out on Thursday. I wish I had written the other articles I wanted to write for this paper, but I just did not have time. Whatever, just more material for the college newspaper! : )
~Melis

I'm really tired...probably mostly because the pollen count here is about four billion and so I've been so sick all week...my eyes are burning, my throat is raw, and my nose is running. But, I don't even freaking care because this is my first even remotely semi-real spring break! Freshmen and sophomore years I went on the tour of grandparents (dad's parents in rural Georgia and mom's parents in south Florida - no swimming without a hairnet, trust me, I learned that one the hard way). Last year I visited a lot of different colleges all over and I got to interview on campus. Since colleges don't like interviewing juniors, I got all the shitty times no one else would take - all seven in the morning! It sucked really, really, really badly. This year, while not doing anything too outrageous, I am going with my parents and sister to the Bahamas! I'm excited...I finally made mom and dad realize how ridiculous they were the first three years and that they owed me...not enough to allow me to go with friends anywhere...but enough to do this. I'll finally come back with a tan! Wohoo!

I'm kinda frustrated right now though. My parents are making me go visit Vanderbilt, Rice, and Vassar all in the next two weeks and it's just really crazy and I don't have time to do that and I just want to hang out with people and I don't have time to do that. And today was the first day of spring break (we leave for the Bahamas bright and early on Monday) and mom woke me up at 2 in the afternoon, admittedly fairly late, but she threw shoes from the hall closet that I needed to clean up and give away on my bed because she was tired of me waiting to wake up. Following that I had to figure out how to make my schedule and my dad's, along with the colleges we are visiting work with flights that were fairly inexpensive..oh, and I had to find all the schedules and flights and prices. It sucked. I yelled at mom that it was the first day of spring break, she told me she didn't care. It sucked. Then she started bitching about having to see all these places and I wanted to announce she's making me, but that woulda caused more shit to hit the fan. Ugh. I really freakign hate my mom sometimes. If I ever have kids I hope I'm not that obnoxious to them.
~Melis