Erm, Eight?

Dang, I kind of failed...

Okay, maybe not kinda. I really failed. Epically is the best way to put it. But what can I say? I had a job. I made about $500 this summer, which is very good, if I do say so myself.

Happy September First, by the way. School starts tomorrow. Yes, I'm nervous. I'm not going to lie. But, I did all of my summer work with a few days to spare, so I don't feel like a slacker. It actually amazes me how my friends can sit there and be okay with not doing any of their summer work.

I like to be prepared for school;

Binders, Folders? Check.
Pencils, Pens, Hilighters? Check.
Post-its? Check.
Paper? Check.
Calculator, Books, Summer work? Check.

Yep, I think I'm ready. Anyway, here's my class schedule:

Period 1: (Semester 1) Creative Writing
Period 1: (Semester 2) Web Design Business
Period 2: American Studies
Period 3: American Studies
Period 4: Madrigals
Period 5: Honors Pre-Calc
Period 6: (Semester 1) Speech Arts
Period 6: (Semester 2) Multi-Cultural Issues
Period 7: Acting
Period 8: AP Psyc.

I'm excited about it. It's a pretty solid schedule. Sure, that AP class is going to be hell, and I'm pretty sure that Pre-Calc isn't going to be a walk in the park either... But, what am I supposed to do? It's going to be my junior year in high school. This is the year that decides what college I go to. If I play my cards right, meaning honor roll all four quarters, I'll not only have an insurance discount for driving, I'll also have quite a few college doors open for me. Which always helps.

So I had to read four books this summer. They were good. I had to read:

The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brian
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Hot, Flat, & Crowded - Thomas Friedman
Blink! - Malcolm Gladwell

I enjoyed The Things They Carried, to an extent. It's not my favorite genre of book, but I enjoyed it for what it is. I really liked The Namesake. I liked the authors style of writing, and I loved the message of the book. Really well written, and I'd actually go so far as to recommend it to people. Hot, Flat, & Crowded was Long, Dumb and Boring. Seriously, I couldn't have cared less about the book. Sure, I know it's important to know about our economy, and to know how we landed in the desperate recession that we're in right now. But it could have been more exciting. The author used big words that I'm pretty sure he made up, and it just was unnecessarily boring. I loved Blink! It was amazing. If this is what that AP Psyc class is like, sign me up! The talk of all of the experiments about subconscious decisions was amazing. All of the tests within the book, everything. I even went so far as to go online and take one of the tests that the book mentioned.

But of course, I haven't said what I've been doing all summer;

Richter was a major part of this season, as always. I participated with all three shows. For the first, Guys and Dolls, I acted as the assistant stage manager. It was a good job, involved a lot of set moving among other things. The second show was 42nd Street, and I was the Stage Manager. That was a huge job, and the one that I got payed to do. I called people and let them know when there were rehearsals, when, what time, what dance shoes they would need. I delegated spiking the stage and set movements during shows based on who was on what side of the stage during which scene who wasn't getting changed. It was a lot of work, but I did it, and I did it damn well. The third show was Carousel. Not the most happy of shows, but I was part of the cast for it, and I had a pretty good time.

Other than that, my life consisted of reading, playing video games, and watching episodes of Supernatural, Dr. Who and American Chopper (Fantastic shows by the way). Don't get me wrong, I did plenty of writing too. I started a new story, and just today I went through and found all of the stories that I've been working on, decided on one to work on until I finish.

But then there's always Nation Novel Writing Month coming up. And of course, the rules for that require that you start a new story. Ugh. Rules can be rules. But I'll probably ignore the rules and just work on whatever story I'm working on. Which happens to be a story called Severance, which is kind of cool. I'm excited to see how it works out. It plays up the old cliche of the daughter finding out that her parents are part of some secret organization, that she was raised and destined to save the world, whatever. You know, the usual.

So it's the start of another school year. Hard to believe I've been through Thirteen of these, including pre-school. Of course, there isn't just school to worry about. I'm the vice president of Tri-M. I'm going to be joining NAHS, and then there's the play to worry about. At least I'm not doing swim team this year, it's always important to balance yourself. And between school and after-school activities, I'm sure I'll be busy enough to need to balance myself with some writing, or a book, or a nice long conversation with my sister, or even the occasional episode of Dr. Who.

It'll be a good year, but like any new year (even a school year) I have to make a resolution.

My resolution for this year is to do every homework assignment. Every single one. Rehearsal and after-school won't be excuses, because I have to do every single one.

I'm excited to see where this resolution takes me, and to see what doors it opens up for my future. This is a life changing year, let's see how I change.

-Siobhan