Last Day of August

It is 4:27 PM on this fine, cool summer day.  I just looked at the calendar and noticed that today was the last day of August!  Tomorrow, September starts and gradually the Fall season will begin to pour in from the skies.  I am not so excited that school is about to start on Tuesday, it has not been on my mind for the past few days.  Am I looking forward to school starting?  Maybe not.  I was excited earlier this summer, but that excitement washed away.  I want to return to the days when I was learning Chinese at the Dalton school along with other like- minded students.  It was fun being immersed in a totally different language.

September is going to be a busy month.  I am booked for each weekend this month.  I have my PowerScore SAT Prep to do and work with the African Film Festival right after.  Because of my booked weekends, I cannot meet a friend who is out on Long Island.  I was really looking forward to meeting him quite soon, but now, I guess I will have to put the date off for October.  By October the weather will have changed from hot to cool, and the trees will probably have started to change colors.  I think October is a better month than September. I would rather meet him then when I am sure I can travel to Long Island and while I am enjoying the weather.  I cannot wait R!

Now that September is here I have to compile a writing portfolio!  I plan on entering the Scholastic Art & Writing Contest and other writing contests that I have discovered through FastWeb.com.  I hope that I am able to win some money and be accepted into a college that I want to attend.  I am not so hopeful... I feel that things may actually turn out exactly the opposite than how I want them to be.  Anyway, I am off to read more of Lee Siegel's shockingly overtly critical, hilarious, and honest essay's.  I will be back.

Managing It All Out

As August comes to a close along with my summer, the Junebug finds himself trailing a road towards overworkdom. By next week, I will be applying for the October SAT test and possibly the November SAT test. If I take the test in November it would mark the third time with me battling the SAT. I am taking it three times with the hopes that my scores will rise each time and that by the end, the highest scores of all three tests will be added together to create a totally new higher score to increase my chances of being accepted into a school like Brown.




I have so many fantasies about Brown and I have not even visited the school. Right now, Brown to me is equal to heaven. At Brown, I believe I will find what I desire and get started on the life path that I’d like to trudge on. Other benefits about Brown is that it is Ivy League and if accepted the complacency of my parents and peers will be even greater. I of course, will be very happy for myself if accepted into Brown as probably any high school senior would. I am not sure where my obsession for Brown was born… I think it was back in ninth grade when my beloved botany teacher told me about it. She is my role model and always will be and I desired to go to the same school she went to. On the day she told me about it, I went home, did further research and saw that Brown might be the place for me. Since then I’ve been hooked on it. I won’t just be applying to Brown this fall. Here is a list of other colleges I will be applying to:

Wesleyan University
University of Vermont
Carleton College
Oberlin College
Reed College
Bowdoin College
Connecticut College
Bates College
Dickinson College
Coe College
St. Olaf College (maybe)
Columbia University (might have to since I am HEOP)

When I meet with my college counselor I will have to talk to her about my safety schools because I really do not know which are they. I imagine that my safety schools will be schools I will not want to attend. By the way, I also hope I can get into Wesleyan, U. of Vermont, Carleton, Oberlin, and Reed since those are also dream schools. Columbia, not really since I do not want to stay in New York City.

So, I am already starting to feel this college stress and pressure to study as much as possible for the SAT. Studying takes considerable time and I feel that it’s time I don’t have. Currently, I am enrolled in an SAT prep course that meets every Saturday and Wednesday. The class provides a lot of homework that takes time to complete. Then, I am going to start doing a project at my internship, the African Film Festival soon and that will take up some hours. School starts next Tuesday and it’s going to consume many hours that I could have used to study. Coming from school to my home takes about an hour and once I am home I feel tired. I have to eat, get myself together, and study, but by that time it’s already night and I have to get to bed in order to wake up rested the next morning. I also have to read! And write in my journal! To me, those two things are imperative or else I will lose my mind. Ah! I also have to prepare a writing portfolio and I do not have much creative writing around- I have not yet even written a full -length story! Can you believe that? And I want to be a writer?

SAT Prep Class
Work with AFF
School
School work
Studying
Reading
Writing
I feel like I won’t be able to pull it off. Just writing about it makes me feel scared. I won’t even have time to go online and chat with friends. The computer is my door to the outside world, it makes me feel connected. Without it I am going to feel awfully lonely.

I guess I need to get my priorities straight. I need to definitely study and write. I need to do those two things. I cannot do anything about work. I will just study when I return from work and after I do homework or whatever for school I will study. I can read right before I go to bed and read on my train rides to and from school. And I can write anytime. Writing in my journal is something that I do everyday and is something that is very hard not to do. I just hope it all works out, I’m terribly worried as other seniors are at this moment. If you have any ideas or advice, do let me know about it.

Well, it’s time for me to study. I have some practice essay’s to write for homework and some optional math questions to do. I have class tomorrow from 6 PM to 9 PM so I have to get those things done and take as much out of it.

I’ll be back!

Summer 2008

In June, I braced myself for what I thought was going to be a miserable, lonely summer. After realizing there are only two weeks left, I took some time to look back on what I did for these past weeks and discovered that I should not have been worrying at the beginning. Summer 2008 was the best summer I have had in a long time.

In May I was scrambling all over the internet to try and find some impressive activity to do over the summer. I remembered that I wanted to learn Chinese, but knew that it was too late. I had called the program coordinator weeks before and received no call back. It was during Math class in sixth period when my cell phone rang loudly with the "1000 Miles" melody by Vanessa Carlton. Laughs erupted throughout the room.
"It gotta be Anthony" a student said.
Another student giggled and said "That's Anthony"
I received a few more of those seconds later. Amy, my math teacher looked at me and smiled while I emitted a quick "sorry." I raised my hand and asked to use the restroom which was right across the hall. Amy gave me permission and I rushed to the restroom, curiosity flowing furiously through my veins. When I received the call, I looked at the caller ID and saw a number had not recognized.
"Who could it be" I wondered as I walked to the bathroom. I enclosed myself in a stall, opened up my Samsung cell phone, and entered the digits of my voicemail password.

A young male voice started speaking and he explained that he had received my message and apologized for not returning my call. He was from the China Institute! He continued speaking and said there was one spot remaining in the program and if I was interested in applying, I could do so right away. I eventually did and was accepted two weeks later. I was gratified.

And today, my PowerScore SAT Prep Course started in Manhattan. Today’s class was just a practice test. I was miserable as I was reading and trying to answer the math questions that I could not grasp. I didn’t really eat in the morning and I was in dire need of sleep and medication. Anyway, it’s all over and now I am home. My mother is lying on the couch watching the final Olympic games. As I write this I wonder what I am going to do next. Should I read? Attempt to write a story? Study? Nah, I think I will let my brain rest. I have class tomorrow. Maybe I will write and develop something I have been wanting to write for the longest time. Yeah, I’ll go do that.

The Junebug

I have been trying to blog for the past three years and all my attempts at regulerly updating one failed. My original idea for my blog was to write about the different books I read. It was going well at first but, then it became sort of tedious for me. I got something out of that though, as much as I love literature, I hate doing book reviews.

This blog is going to be the place where I will inform the world of my thoughts and little adventures. Let's see how that works out...