End Of First Year Thoughts Well I know for a fact that I will never be an accountant. One full school year of bending, folding and otherwise cruelly torturing innocent and helpless little numbers into spaces of ledgers they were never meant to be has tought me that. I have also learned that binders from 'Staples' office supply stores are not all they are cracked up to be. I mean really~~ busting and falling apart after only two biffs into the wall? Really~~ what kind of quality is that I ask you? To my overwhelming disbelief, I actually passed accounting with a really nice grade. I have to believe that my instructor was being exceptionally good hearted with the mark she gave me, otherwise I would have had to take the course over and we both know there would be no surviving it a second go-round. The poor soul had to drag me kicking and screaming through it as it was. She handed me back the final test and the rest of the assignments she had graded, and had my finishing mark written on the front page, and all I could do was just stand there with my mouth open in disbelief. She kept pushing the pile of papers at me, wanting me to take them and all I could think was "That can't be mine, I had better not touch.", so I kept backing away from them. Finally, with the threat of being 'bapped' (you know, what you do to a pup with a rolled up newspaper) with them, I finally accepted them and walked around in joyous disbelief for the rest of the day. That is only one of many life lessons I have learned this year, along with numerous other things I never would have pictured myself learning a year ago. For example. Annuities. Did you know there are simple annuities, general annuities and annuities due? Did you also know they can either be future or present? Neither did I until I started math this semester. Math which I never thought I would ever see again once I graduated high school, but lo and behold, there it was in all its radient glory, there for me to wade through and hopefully make sense of. And that was just one chapter!! There were half a dozen more, each with their own tricks and treats. I made it through tho, and I am proud to say I did very well on the math, which I came to find out later was actually called 'quantitative math', which made me feel even smarter. 'quantitative'...sounds so much ritzier than just maaaaaaaaaaaaaath. And for anyone who reads this, if you are still in high school, for crap sake do NOT argue with your math teacher that you will never use that stuff once you graduate. That WILL come back to bite you in the ass, I am living proof of it. I learned that I am easily incensed by politics. I never knew that about myself before. We learned a lot about politics through economics, and I have to say that there are things going on in the world that truly piss me off, and that really rattle my cave. I have to say that is a good thing tho, I believe I have been to insulated and needed to see what has been happening beyond my doorstep. I haven't liked a lot of it, and I have to tell you that when I am made Prime Minister a lot of that poo will be coming to a screeching halt, but for now, I will have to be content with graduating from my course. THEN, dammit, you just watch my smoke. I am a computer nerd. I never thought I would ever say that. I have found spread sheets and data bases to be my friends, and took immense pleasure in doing Microsoft turorials and case studies while other normal people would actually go outside and participate in things like LIFE. Who would ever have thought it?? I guess everyone is good at something, I am good at that; and wiggling my ears. I have learned that for the most part, we were all there as much for the food as for the learning, maybe even more for the food, now that I think of it. Our class had four pot lucks. Damn they were good. I cannot say how fortunate I consider myself to be to be in a class of people who are such good cooks and also love to eat as much as I do. Gawd blessum!! The sad part of it was, even tho we knew we had class after our potlucks, and knew we were supposed to actually DO work, we were so turkey coma-ed from eating that most of us would just sit in the seats and stare vacantly with glassy eyes as the instructor tried her hardest to keep us on track. Every one of us would nod our heads and try very hard to follow the conversation so that we could make intellectual comments as befitted a class of future business professionals, but in actula fact the best we all could manage was a burp or two that we would try to stifle but usually never quite managed. Speaking of food, I am at a loss as to who is going to feed me now that I have the summer to myself. The two women that ran the cafeteria made the best food I have ever eaten. I spoke previously about one of the cooks, Donna, who was like our 'School Mom', by the end of the first week she knew everyone, their family, their favorite foods and how they were doing in school. She and Shirley, who worked there too, were like cafeteria ninjas, they rarely ever moved in a rush, but if you blinked, and then blinked again, there would be mountains of food where there was none a second ago. I do not know if I can articulate the words that would adequately express the joy I would have on the days I would go to the cafeteria in the morning and Donna was just taking home-made chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. They were like eating the absolute best chocolate chip cookies in the history of all chocolate chip cookies; ever; to infinity;.....riding a unicorn. You see where I am going with this now? I also learned that my age didn't automatically resign me to 'mutant' status. I was so scared that I would be like some ancient old hag that came down off the mountainside to see what the villagers were up to, but it wasn't like that at all. Nothing like that mattered to anyone in the school; not the instructors or the others in my class. It felt so good to actually blend in. I came to realize that the school I am attending, is more like a really big family. Everyone knows everyone. I personally think we came together as a really good bunch, we have had a bazillion laughs together, we have all helped with the tears, the troubles and the times when it seemed like there was no way to go foreward, we all helped with all of that because we came together as class mates and ended up as friends, and these friends are people I will never forget as long as I live. It is already the end of the first year of school, and I have to say, I am thoroughly pissed off about this. HALF of my two years is already over. It has gone way too fast. This is one of the best things I have ever done and I don't want to see it fly by in a heartbeat. There are way too many good things happening to see it end. I know eventually it will be over, we will all finish here and go on to do great things, but not so soon. Please, not so soon. Some of the people I have come to know will not be returning in the fall. They have finished their courses and are graduating. It will be hard to think of returning without them, they have come to mean a great deal to me, and to go back knowing they won't be there is breaking my heart a little. Just thinking about it now makes my heart hurt some, so I can only imagine that when it comes time for us to graduate I will be not much more than an emotional wreck having a meltdown in the corner somewhere. Until then I will just have to forget about that, concentrate on being all nerdy and computer literate, and just have the best time I possibly can, so that when the time comes to step out of this good place for the last time and into the sunshine,I will have a heart-load of memories to treasure. Have a good summer everyone, keep on the sunny side and see you in September. ♥Sue