“where’s my money?!?!”

I know how Pearl, of The Landlord fame, feels about this topic right now.  (If you haven’t seen this, get to YouTube stat)

I’m pretty much ready for college.  I still have some things left to pack, and I’m waiting on my laptop to be built/shipped, but other than that I’m ready.  All of the shopping is done.  I’ve been decorating my room in my head for the past five months.  I have a single next year, in a sixteen person suite, so I don’t have to confer with anyone on the look of my space. 

One thing that had been on my mind for a while was a scholarship that I had yet to receive.  This was for living in my township and deciding to go to a school in state. 

They really messed up on this one. 

Sponsored by the Board of Economic/Community Developement, this was supposed to be $25,000 dollars divided between 25 students.  This 25 soon turned into 47, and the sponsoring Senator got to have his name read 47 times at my school’s Senior Awards Night.  It became a running joke every time someone got up to get an award.  We’d each get a little over $500, which is still a really nice sized scholarship.  I was annoyed at first because of how we were lied to about the size of the scholarship (it was supposed to be a $1,000 dollar minimum), but I got over that, because the money I was getting would still cover my first semester of books by itself.  The paper we all received at the awards night said we’d get the money within three weeks. 

Three weeks later, I was a high school graduate.

Three weeks after that, it was well into July.

I wanted my money.  That money had a purpose, and I didn’t have it and I needed it.  Textbooks aren’t cheap, even if you go used.

My mom called the office of the Senator.  The people there were very nice, but confused as to why the money was not in my hands. 

“We sent it to the school last week, the students should have received it already.”

In calling the school, we talked to the guidance secretary with a personality only Dolores Umbridge would appreciate.  She was annoyed that we were asking about the money, saying I had four years to spend it.

That’s really not the right thing to say to my mother.  She called the Senator’s office back and found out that the school wasn’t supposed to release the scholarship information because they weren’t even sure if they had the backing.  Holy contradictions Batman.  There’s no money?  At this point, I was really pissed.  I earned that scholarship!  I didn’t sit around senior year, I was in Guidance weekly picking through the scholarship bin.  I wrote countless essays, applied for countless scholarships.  I tried really hard for everything.  I wanted to help out in paying for my college education as much as I could.  Going for scholarships were what my parents asked of me, so I did it. 

It’s not the point.  I know I have four years to spend that money, but over the next four years, I’ll have a job at school to help pay for that kind of stuff.  This year, I don’t have a steady job.  The money that’s in my bank account is money that my brain has earned, not my hands.  In case they didn’t get it, I’m going to make this very clear right now- I’M GOING TO BE A POOR COLLEGE STUDENT IN TWO WEEKS I NEED THAT MONEY SO I CAN BUY BOOKS AND SWEATPANTS AND HOT POCKETS.

When you say you’re going to do something, do it.  If you say you’re going to give out scholarships, actually give them out.  Don’t wait until someone complains or realizes that they’re missing a decent sized check. 

I finally got my check today.  The date in the corner says June 30th.  Today is August 3rd. 

I’m really glad that public schools know so much about responsibility.

‘when in doubt, go to the library.’

Where has the holy sanctuary known as the library gone?  The days of silence, only interrupted by the steady ticking of a clock and the sound of pages turning.  I am mortified and personally offended by the current state of the library, a place I love. 

In preparing for two days of upcoming absences, myself along with two other students were sent to the library to complete an essay test.  The test in itself is stressful enough, as forty-five minutes is not long enough to completely analyze the meaning of a given poem.  Completing the task would have been much easier had there been peace and quiet. 

Unfortunately for the three of us, the section of the library directly next to us was occupied by an underclassmen biology class and their very screechy teacher.  Had she and her class been in her room in the science wing, her volume control wouldn’t have been an issue and this wouldn’t have bothered me.   But as I soon found out, analyzing poetry is increasingly difficult when all you can hear is yelling about mutation and reproduction.  Her voice carried across the entire library, and she made no attempt to lower her volume.  It was nearly impossible to concentrate on the task at hand.  This woman obviously had no respect for the handful of other students on the surrounding computers or at tables.  When the bell rang, the three of us looked at each other and breathed a collective sigh of relief; perhaps now we could be able to finish our essays in peace and quiet.  But as we wrote, students trickled back into the library.  We exchanged looks of horror as the teacher proceeded to call role and then greet the class loudly, who then, like trained circus animals, returned the greeting.  In my head, I recalled a scene from a book I love dearly:

“Good afternoon class!”

“Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.”

As Umbridge gave her class instructions on how to do the assignment, we finished up and got out of there as quickly as possible.  My head was throbbing (from a probable combination of her parrot-like voice, this impossible poem, and slamming my head against the table upon the discovery of having to endure this insufferable woman for longer than expected), and I know I didn’t do as well as I could have on the essay.

Moral of the story?  If you’re in a library, shut up!  Respect the other students in there and keep it down.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a teacher or a student making the noise, it’s probably annoying somebody.

keep on keeping it real

I’m sitting here surrounded by what seems to be half of the Amazon rain forest. I’d like to apologize to my Enviro teacher for the amount of trees I’m killing. Between the twenty four page PHEEA form, my Chaucer essay, and one of several scholarship essays coming out of my printer in the next week, I feel personally responsible for global warming.

But I guess what’s settling on my mind right now is the amount of stress that’s going around. For once, I don’t feel like my head is about to explode (sans drumline, because that in itself is a disaster), and for once, I feel like the calm one. I’ve already decided where I’m going to school next fall, and I’m damn happy with my choice. It’s not what I thought it would have been this summer, but things change. And now, I can sit back a little bit and watch everybody else.

It seems to me that people are freaking out about things way sooner than they should be. Like college; I didn’t start seriously looking until June. My baby sophs are already planning trips to go visit, making charts and graphs, and seeing guidance. My musicals are all over the place; I’ve yet to see a day where someone isn’t in tears or close to it because of a practice, comment, or something silly like a wardrobe malfunction. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but it seems ridiculous. It’s already March, yet people are still worked up and tied up tighter than the corset on my prom dress. I can smell the spring in the air, but no one to smell it with because everyone’s running around like the proverbial beheaded chicken.

My friends are busy people, there’s no denying that I am as well. What I think I want to say is that everyone needs to relax. I rather dislike seeing purple circles under the eyes day after day. Relaxation is incredibly helpful for the mind and body; I think that’s the only reason I didn’t completely lose my mind in the fall. I didn’t pussy out and take the easy senior year because I’m not a fabulous musician or all star athlete-I needed to take a heavy load so that I could get into college and receive some serious cash. Now that I’ve accomplished that, I feel like I can spread my wisdom. So go forth, my children, and relax and enjoy the fact that spring is on its way.

Sorry if that made absolutely no sense. I think my thoughts on here will still be of the rambling, Montaigne variety, much like the blogspot that shares the same name, but slightly more organized (hey, sounds like what my lit paper should be!). Hopefully you enjoyed that, I enjoyed attempting to be insightful.