Rain, Rain, Go Away

The time was 8:03 PM. The place was Sea Isle City, New Jersey.

I staggered down the front steps of my house, bound for the local CVS, after approximately seven hours of torturous, tiring, terrible...cabin fever.

 It all started out sunny. In fact, I'd taken a lovely walk with my dad in the morning under fluffy white clouds. But in the time it took for me to change into a bathing suit and slather some zinc oxide on my sunburned nose, the blue sky was blotted out by angry black thunderclouds. Not five minutes later, the heavens opened up and the torrential rain, well, attacked. For seven hours.

Fast-forward to the present: Finally, I was free to seek amusement outside my home. I had read all that I could read, I had checked Facebook more times than I thought humanly possible, and I had watched the History Channel for at least three hours. I needed to get out. I was in pursuit of something - anything - to cure my boredom. Nail polish, a coloring book, a crossword puzzle, anything.

You may think it never rains in the paradise known as the Jersey shore - and most of the time, you would be right. But the operative words are "most of the time" - once in a blue  moon, it does rain on cloud nine. And when it rains here, there is absolutely nothing to do.

The amusement parks shut down.
The beach evacuates faster than a speeding bullet.
And worst of all, the streets flood.

The detritus of ages - sand, clumps of dune grass, wayward children - float by at alarming speeds. I spotted two intrepid young gentlemen kayaking by my house. Anything to make the time go faster, I guess.

The adventurous kayakers

So what's a bored shoobie to do? Blog, I suppose.

God, Country, Notre Dame

Well, here I am, in the computer cluster at LaFortune Student Center at the University of Notre Dame. I'm really here.

There aren't enough letters in the alphabet or words in the dictionary to describe what an experience I've had so far at the Summer Scholars program. It has been nothing short of amazing, stupendous, and fantastic.

I've met so many incredible, nice, funny, smart people. I've done things I never imagined I would - for instance, discussing the contrasts between Hollywood action movies and Hong Kong action movies, watching a Jackie Chan movie entirely in Cantonese, and then learning how to swordfight (and that was just yesterday). I've stayed up really late and woken up really early, and I don't regret a second of that missed snooze time. I got up in front of a crowd and sang and danced my heart out. It was exhilarating and wonderful and fun. I've enjoyed every second here.

I leave Notre Dame in two and a half days, and I'm dreading it. This is a holy place. This is an intellectual place. This is a place where I've made friends, and this is a place that has become my friend. Though I hate to leave, I'm not going to forget what happened here in these two weeks. And I can't wait to come back.

"In the summer, the song sings itself." - William Carlos Williams

Today, my junior year of high school ended.
Today, I became a senior.
Today, I finished three-fourths of my high school career; I am done three-fourths of that mythical time of proms and phys ed and mandatory foreign language education and awkwardness and Shakespeare and football games.
And, you know, that's sad. I only have one year left of that which I so dearly love. 

Tomorrow is an end, but it's also a beginning: the beginning of the Epic Summer. To be quite honest, I can't feel down for too long when I remember what I have ahead of me. Besides, I'll have plenty of time to feel down when Senioritis strikes.

Beginning this Sunday, I will be spending two weeks at the University of Notre Dame's Summer Scholars Program, studying film. Two weeks of new friends, blazing heat, field trips, making and watching movies, community service, talent shows, swimming in lakes, and beautiful South Bend, Indiana. I'm so excited that I started packing three weeks ago.

When I get back, it's off to the shore for my summer job. A girl's gotta earn cash somehow, you know. And besides Disney World, I can't think of a place I'd want to work more.

I have all kinds of other crazy stuff planned: a road trip to Hersheypark with my friends, Phillies games galore, attending the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (thankfully not in 3D), AP summer work, reading good books, being outside, riding my bike, and sleeping.

Summer. It starts today. And it's going to be great.

Your Regularly Scheduled Blogging Will Begin Shortly

I feel that it's my duty to explain (and sincerely apologize for) my month-long absence.

It so happens that mid-April seems to have been a rather poor time for me to start a blog, as I  was in the middle of a six-week whirlwind that included but was not limited to: my junior prom and the decorating and preparing thereof, five incredible performances of Cardinal O'Hara High School's production of The Phantom of the Opera, Easter, a six-day (and sanity-preserving) jaunt to Disney World, SATs, and several important school projects, including a research paper of epic proportions.

Now I know that this is really no excuse to avoid blogging for a month - surely I must have had a spare twenty minutes or so to pound out a missive for this blog. That's true - I did have a little (and by that I mean very little) spare time,  but this time was generally used for important tasks like catching up on much-needed sleep, eating, and cleaning my room, which looked like a post-hurricane wreck for several weeks.

I am really, really sorry that it's been so long. But fear not, dear reader! This weekend is the first time  in about six weeks that I've had considerable downtime, and I made sure to pencil out a few minutes of my scheduled sleeping in, reading, napping, cleaning, and snoozing time to blog. And don't expect another arid month of blog-lessness, because I have plenty of blog-worthy thoughts stored neatly in my noodle.

I have a secret.

I have a secret.

I love high school. I mean, I love it. I love a lot of things: reading, musical theater, things that are purple, watermelon. The list could go on and on. But I absolutely adore high school.

High school is neither as repressive or generally horrendous as John Hughes movies would have you think, nor is it nearly as glamorous and shiny as High School Musical. Ask anyone, and they'll either tell you that high school was the zenith of their existence so far, or the bane of it. But I love it.

As nerdy as it sounds, I love what I learn. I love that I can translate full Spanish paragraphs without a hitch. I love that I can factor a quadratic equation like nobody's beeswax. I love that I can discuss the major themes of Julius Caesar and Macbeth. I love the challenge of school.

I love that I've met so many incredible, diverse, funny, smart, and caring people in high school. So many of my classmates are doing noble, wonderful things. They make me proud to be a member of the Facebook Generation. I love my teachers. They are passionate and smart and they genuinely care not only about what they teach, but who they teach.

I love that I have enough responsibility to drive a car and do well in school, but I'm not yet so responsible that I don't rely on my mom to press my shirts and pack my lunch.

People have told me to blog about what I love. And what do I love? That's right - high school. So here goes, a blog of all the happy, sad, funny, inspiring, and wonderful experiences of high school. Wish me luck.