My College

Friday was amazing. Friday marked my official orientation into college life. Friday provided me with the ambition to not want to go to my last few days of high school next week. Friday was fantastic.

At orientation on Friday, my biggest surprise was the fact that I tested out of foreign language. 351 points were needed on the placement test, and I ended up with 355. Quite comforting knowing I don't need a foreign language in college. I might still take some Spanish, but I have four years to decide that.

Remember my post titled "My Jam Session"? Well, I was talking to a guy at orientation who was very into music. We got on the topic of bands we liked, and I mentioned Falling Up. He then asked if I had ever been to Club 3 Degrees because he went to see Falling Up there recently. Turns out we were at the same show (Falling Up, This Beautiful Republic, Spoken, Family Force 5) and opposite sides of the room. It's a small, small world.

I also settled my schedule for next year. Figure this out: Mariah ended up with 16.25 credits as a nursing student, and I have 17.5 for first semester. Lame. I will admit she has earlier classes/labs and they probably take up more time for less credits.  I'm pretty excited that my only class on Thursday during the first term is TPE and it doesn't start until 3:30 pm. And so, my schedule:

Term	Course	Days	Start	End
Full	Princ. of Financial Accounting	M-W-F	8:55 am	9:55 am
Full	Intro to Biblical Studies	M-W-F	11:50 am	12:50 pm
Full	Calc. for Mgmnt	M-W-F	1:10 pm	2:00 pm
Full	Theater Production Ensemble	-T-R-	3:30 pm	5:00 pm
1	Concepts of Phys. Fitness	M-W-F	10:40 am	11:40 am
1	Intro to Spreadsheets	-T---	9:25 am	10:55 am
2	Advanced Spreadsheets	-T---	9:25 am	10:55 am
2	Public Speaking	-T-R-	12:05 pm	1:35 pm

My Excitementworryexcitementstressexcitementconfusionexcitement

I got three pieces of mail today, all from Northwestern. The first was a postcard saying they would be at my school this Friday and would like to talk to me. I emailed the girl in admissions to let her know I wouldn't be around. The other two pieces of mail were both letters. Somehow I opened them in the correct order, but how is beyond me (I think it was because the first one didn't have my middle name and the second one did).

One of them was another theater scholarship application. Now, I'm very interested in being a part of the theater program down there, but I don't think I'll apply for the scholarship. On the other hand, I am thinking about attending the theater preview days. If I don't go down for those, I may still go down to see "Terror Texts," which sounds very interesting. (Check it out here and if you would be interested in going [probably the 16th] let me know.)

The second letter is the reason for the title of this blog. It started like this:

Dear Aaron:

Congratulations! You have been selected as a Norman Vincent
Peale Scholarship semi-finalist.

I'm thrilled, and somewhat shocked. There was all that confusion and stress with my one recommendation that I almost wanted to tell them not to worry about my application. Now, on February 26, I will be having an interview and a writing competition on campus. Although they say the writing will involve a wide enough range of topics to complete the single task from my own experiences, I'm defintely already freaking out about it. Even worse will be the interview. I'm horrible with interviews because I still haven't gotten rid of all my shyness. Still, as Mariah reminded me, it's all in His plan and it'll all be fine, but don't be surprised if my blog asks for a prayer or two when the time comes closer.

And on that note, I'll be doing my homework now. I slept for a while already, so I'm refreshed and ready to read some Hassler.

Random Fact of the Day: The longest distance record of projectile vomiting is 27 feet. Outstanding.

My Schedule, Stress, Stupidity, and Surprise

I picked up my work schedule today after school, and next week looks horrible for me. Thursday, tomorrow, the last day of this work week, marks the start of a long week. I work 3:15-9 tomorrow, 3:15-10 Friday, 7-4 (truck shift) Sunday, 1-10 Monday, and 9-4 Wednesday. I requested off New Years Eve and New Years Day, so I better not get stuck trying to find someone who can work so I can make it to the NYE party.

Thank you, Northwestern College, for causing the most stressful twenty minutes of my recent life. Trust me, this wasn't an easy feat, but you succeeded quite well. How? Well, the notice that you hadn't yet received one of my recommendations for the Peale Scholarship was a good start (no worries, Janet, it was the other one). Of course, the nice guy filling in in the admissions office who just so happened to steal my name was very generous in letting me sort it out with my teacher so that the recommendation would be faxed to them this morning. Still, all you'll be getting is the written portion with a little notice that says the form was sent to you and it's the post office's fault you never received it. So take that, NWC!

On that note, more stress. I have two big research papers due Friday, and I'm just about halfway done with one of them (the less important one). This stress ties in with my stupidity, meaning I fell into some hardcore procrastination yet again recently. Thankfully, I have a nifty little stress poker chip from the lovely Kelly Castle that always helps relieve some stress (it's also lucky in poker tournaments).

Then, the surprise. I don't think I've ever mentioned in my blog how amazing Mariah is, and I probably should more often. She had asked me a while back if I wanted to go with her family to a Wild game this Saturday. We would've been in a gameday suite, which would've been tighter than a noose in The Crucible. Something came about where that wasn't going to happen, so she told me she had a surprise for me. Now, she and I will be going to the game on January 3, hanging out behind the penalty box. Have I mentioned lately how amazing my girlfriend is? I never have the resources to come up with any good gifts or surprises for her, so I'll have to think of something very clever to return the favor.