I'll be getting my AA at the end of next quarter. I'm signed up for the last two requirements, some music and a fun classes: "Sociology of Gender" (heaven help me!) "Geology" (Oh no, science!) "Music Theory VI" (Now it's going to get REALLY hard, right?) "Voice Lessons" (Cause I sing better when I'm stressed) and "Intermediate Ceramics" (As a consolation prize for having to take the other classes.) No Violin. I'm sad to have to give it up again after only a year, but I've found that I only practice to avoid learning my vocal music. Bad sign. Hopefully next year I'll be able to pick it up again.
I tutored on-line this quarter. Never again. I never thought I'd say this but; I actually prefer to be with people, rather than just typing at them. It's much easier to figure out what a student is trying to write about when she is sitting next to you. I'll be glad to return to my little room in the library next quarter.
What else needs updating... Still no love life, *grin* except the Man on the Tree, of course.
My intended major has shifted a bit. Last year it felt like I kept adding things I wanted to major in. My voice teacher told me at the beginning of this year that my interest would settle out and order themselves. I hate it when she's right!
I'll be majoring in English with a writing emphasis of some kind. Hopefully I'll double major and also do art. Music ends up as a minor. Probably liturgical music, specifically. Crazy. (I don't think my voice teacher could have predicted that. So there!) My college goals also include learning to like school. (You know, despite the part of school that isn't learning amazing things: The useless homework which demands several pages of rubbish. The group projects with classmates who have lots of suggestions for how you should do the assignment all by yourself. And the class time spent listening to your teacher's political convictions. I need to be able to walk all that off and just enjoy the learning part.) And the usual aspirations stand:
- get enough sleep at night,
- don't go crazy with stress,
- turn in your homework on time.
I'm officially accepted into all four of the schools I applied to.
This was probably why I am up at 11:30 writing this: I have to actually admit that I've made a decisions. It feels crazy and illogical still. Again, I come up against that terrible leap of faith that I have to face after I've done all I can with reason.
I'm going to Aquinas College.
I feel like I have to make some kind of explanation. Old habit, I guess: I've had to explain and defend my educational choices (and those that my parents made for me) to people all my life. AQ is the one place I haven't visited, the farthest away, the most expensive, and the one that offers none of the specific programs I carefully chose for myself last year.
I fail at making plans... again.They offered me a very nice financial aid package. I feel confident that I can pull the rest together without going into debt. The biggest factor remains the Catholic affiliation. For some reason, I thought that the social aspect of this decision was not going to be an important one. It was going to be about the academics, and not the student body. But, since I'm determined to get out of my home town and my parents' house, I've come to realize that the social aspect is going to be really important. I want to go to a school that other Catholic kids like me want to go to. I want to go to a school with a Crucifix in every classroom and a chapel on campus.
Maybe God knew I would drive myself crazy choosing between several Catholic schools, so He let me do all this research into these other schools to distract me. Meanwhile, I grow and change my mind about what I want, and then He drops the school in my lap. No time to deliberate.
GO!
The other financial aid letters have not come in yet. If something amazing happens with those, I may have to rethink my life... again. No more defenses and excuses. I'm so tired of being under confident and indecisive.
Time for bed
2 comments:
I think you'll find that the academic climate at a four-year school, especially one like Aquinas, will be SO different from what you're used to that you will have no trouble liking school. Honest. Congrats on making a decision. It's coming up on that point for me too, and it would be nice if God would drop something in my lap... Ah well.
I'm glad that you will be at a Catholic school. When I was in high school, I thought for a couple of months that it wouldn't be terribly important whether or not I went to a Catholic college. After visiting two schools that weren't Catholic, I realized that yes, it actually did matter.
I felt very alone in that respect when I first came to USC. I missed my Catholic friends terribly, even though I was making new friends who shared other interests with me. Fortunately, with Gavin here to make me more gregarious, I've changed parishes and made friends with about a dozen Catholics in their 20s and 30s. But I wouldn't have had time to cultivate those relationships when I was taking a full undergrad course load, so having the framework of a Catholic college made making Catholic friends much, much easier. I hope you find the same experience!
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