I've never been so surreptitious

LTotW: Graduation Edition - Part 2: Everything else

- I gotta say, out of all the festivities of Graduation Week--the last day of school, the awards assembly, the brunch, practice, etc--actually graduating was probably my least favorite part. It was hot, the speeches were adequate but not overtly memorable, and I spent the hour or so it took to read all 900 names half staring with mind numbing blankness at the stage and half trying to keep myself from being irritated with my esteemed fellow graduates. Maybe it was the sight of the girl standing next to me catching the corner of a violently pitched cap in the eye that finally did it in for me.

- I officially and verifiability talk English good! In your face, Merriam and/or Webster!

- Good things about the graduation process: Special treatment, gifts, wearing laughable outfits, being on friendly terms with everyone (what's the point of being a jerk by now?), not having to pay for food for weeks thanks to parties.

- Bad things: Hours and hours of small talk, hearing the word "congratulations" so many times you don't know how to spell it anymore, and having your health ruined by subsisting entirely off of party food.

- People keep asking me if I'm excited for college, and I am, for all the normal reasons. I'm beginning to wonder what other answer they could possibly be anticipating.

- I also keep getting asked how I feel about graduating, and I think the answer is yes. Or no. Pick any emotion, and I'm probably feeling/not feeling it to some extent. The only thing I don't feel at all is unprepared, which is probably why no one emotion or set of emotions is dominating over the others.

- Overall, I'd deem my high school experience an overwhelmingly positive one. It might have just been karma apologizing to me for grades 1-8, but I get the feeling that if I had to do it over again, almost everything would remain exactly the same. Nice work, me.

I will always mention you

LTotW: Graduation Edition - Part 1: Me Mode

I'm going to completely disregard precedent and selfishly dedicate this entire entry to some of my favorite personal memories of the last four years in the most indifferently unrelatable fashion possible.

- Doughnut Day flour fight
- Halloween '02: Jason double, obscene pumpkins, and defending my honor
- Making the ladder
- Neopet marathons
- Rollerblading in a downpour
- After-the-fact journal revelations of winter break introductions
- Everything cookies
- The Tree
- VA '03
- The Ebay flute debacle
- Cheering for the walls
- The shortest and most awkward non-relationship ever
- After hours teching with guru Traut
- Lame followed by awesome prom invitation
- VA '04
- Being the klutziest member of Ragtime
- Domske
- Designing goal: complete!
- Glen Lake - possibly owning everything else
- Bi-weekly coffee outings
- Discovering my speaking abilities
- Halloween '05: freezing bonfires and being too cool for scavenger hunts
- Winter '05: Experiencing Thai food
- DM Sarah, John, and knowing everything about 70
- Wilderness Resort - most food ever put in one hotel room
- The ultimate badmintion/pickleball team
- Afterprom '06

Yay.

It's all for the best? Of course it is.

Everyone hears about (or witnesses) those married couples who fight about the dumbest things. Wife will glance in the kitchen and see that the dishwasher hasn't been emptied, and suddenly divorce papers are being filed following the Great China Massacre of 1999. As a bystander with only a limited glimpse into their world, you wonder how psycho Mrs. McCrazy has to be to get so worked up about some dirty plates. It's really easy to judge when you don't consider how little things build up in the mind until unfolded piles of laundry become symbolic of the lack of respect your partner has for you.

I usually don't even realize when I do it. It's the kind of thing that only becomes apparent when, for example, you say, "Man, that guy is irritating," but when questioned further, you're forced to think to yourself that every reason you have to back up your judgment would sound really stupid out loud (ex. "He does this really annoying clicking thing with his tongue." Good one.)

So, we have to write about our "life philosophy" for (surprise!) philosophy class this week. For all the fairly opinionated ranting I do, I'm finding it really hard to boil my thoughts, actions, and decisions down to a few generalizing sentences. Anything I can think of results in me adding so many qualifiers that what started out as a description of my "cross that bridge" attitude becomes a discussion about my thoughts on SUVs.

I think I'm going to try something slightly out of character for me in the next few weeks. And if it blows up in my face, well, I'm going to college soon, right?

I'm thinking I'd prefer not to be rescued

I've been trying to figure out why writing poetry is considered a stereotypically effeminate activity. Ignoring the fact that no one cared about what women had to say until 1850, almost all the famous dead poets I can think of are men (the exceptions being Elizabeth Browning and Emily Dickinson). A majority of the most popular singers and bands at the moment (which I would consider modern day poets, considering poetry has all but disappeared from the mainstream) have a monopoly on Y chromosomes. I know several guys who write poetry or song lyrics in their spare time, but not one girl.

Considering this evidence, I propose poetry stop being associated with tights and floral arrangements and start connoting images of lumberjacks and beef jerky.