Freshman Year Complete!

A week ago today I finished my first year of college! Yaaaaayyyyy!!! I meant to post something about it that day or the next, but the rest of that week was pretty busy. I'll talk about that in my next blog post.
Anyway, I can't believe how fast it went by. It got pretty slow near the end because I had to wait a week after I was done with the rest of my classes to take my history final. But now that's all out of the way! I'm officially completely done with history classes, basic English classes, and math classes! I never even had to take a math final! If you don't follow me on facebook, instagram, or twitter, you probably don't know that, yes, I did indeed ace out of my Pre-Calculus final. I ended the class with a 90.2 after my last chapter test. I ended English probably with an A or a high B. I ended astronomy with a C just because I don't care for sciences. And I don't know what my grade was in history at any point in time. Could be an A. Could be a D. Could be a B. I'm completely clueless because my teacher was 70 years old and didn't know how to work a computer.
Overall I had a pretty great semester. I had my math and English teachers for both semesters, so it'll be really weird to not see them every day anymore. I gave them both little flowers and I wrote my math teacher a nice thank-you note.
I checked Blackboard this morning and found my summer American Literature class is already up there. I looked at the syllabus and I'm super excited! I'll be missing a week for Tessa's dance competition but a week is really only two days of class, so that's no huge deal. We're even going to have an Edgar Allan Poe section which makes me even more excited because Poe is my fave. I'll also be taking a physical science class online which hopefully I'll be able to complete early. I don't have any information on that class yet but something should be posted soon. I'm being sneaky with my science classes and taking them all online so I don't have to actually spend an extra hour on campus for labs. Once I'm done with physical science, I'll have all my science credits!
I'm really glad that I decided to go to a community college and get my basic classes out of the way. It just makes me even more excited to transfer to UAH and start taking all the classes I'm interested in. And I'm only 3 semesters away! Wow. It's going really fast and I just hope these next 3 semesters are fast as well. I can't wait to go to a school where I actually have friends and where I'll actually learn things that apply to my major and minor. It feels like I'm just in college limbo and waiting until I can get to the good stuff, but it'll probably be worth the wait.
So yep! That's where I am school-wise. I'll make another post tomorrow or the next day about this awesome/long/exhausting/great weekend I just had.

Grammatical Pet Peeves

To be completely honest, these are not exactly "Pet Peeves," but things that people SHOULD know but don't. The simplest little mistakes that absolutely drive me crazy and make me want to go on rants.

You're/Your
This one should be a given.
You're = You Are.
Your = "Your hair is pretty." Belonging to "you."
Maybe it's just me, but these words even sound different in my head. If someone writes "Your cool," I'm forced to respond with, "My cool what?" What do I own that is cool? My dog? My hat collection?

They're/There/Their
This one should also be a given, but people still get confused.
They're = They Are.
There = "What's that over there?" Referring to a direction.
Their = "The kittens ate their dinner." Belonging to "them."
I don't see these get confused as often as "you're" and "your," but I thought I'd still point it out.

A Lot
Okay, this is actually the reason I'm writing this post to begin with. This morning I saw a post that was both hilarious and upsetting at the same time.

"You make me hate myself alot. -Six word story.

This is technically a seven word story, but they wanted so badly for it to be a six word story that they committed a horrible English crime and turned "a lot" into one word. I actually typed "alot" into google to see if it's just spelled that way in other places, and the first thing that popped up was this hilarious blog post by Hyperbole and a Half. I actually have her book and she is absolutely hilarious, so I highly recommend following her.

Those are just a few of my many Pet Peeves, but I don't think I'd be able to fit all of them into one blog post. Now I am off to catch up on Hyperbole and a Half and possibly write my English paper. I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend!

Wordy Wednedsay: A Life Worth Writing About

I've always loved writing. When I was little, I wrote short stories all the time. I have a couple binders full of them. I wanted to be a writer. My stories were imaginative and kind of silly, full of talking animals, magic trees, fairies and pegasuses and lots of wild adventures. 

When I got a little older, say 4th through 6th grade, I thought being a journalist for a newspaper or something was more reasonable. I was on the newspaper club at my school and wrote a lot of articles for it. I realized around that time that I didn't particularly enjoy writing about current events. I wanted adventures.

In middle school, I didn't think much about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was in art club, drew a lot, and loved all of my English classes. Freshman Composition was my favorite (9th graders were at the middle school at this time), partially because I love the teacher. I had her for two other English classes during my time in middle school.

High school is where everyone starts thinking about college and what they really want to do with their lives. My thought process went a little like this:

"Maybe I'll just be a teacher. I have to do something with my life. It wouldn't be that bad... Teaching?? Lydia, you hate kids of all ages! What are you thinking? Okay, maybe I'll be a graphic designer. I'm kinda good at art... I've lost all my artistic ability somehow, so maybe I'll just major in music and play piano all the time... No no no no, I don't even know how to read sheet music properly, I just play by ear 80% of the time. *joins drama* DRAMA???!!!?!? DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA THEATRE ACTING TECH TECH TECH TECH TECH I WANT TO DO THIS FOREVER I LOVE THIS GIVE ME ALL THE THEATRE FOREVER!!!!!! .....chill, Lydia. You can't major in theatre. That's not a very smart idea. BUT I LOVE IT!!! No, do something smart. You can do theatre on the side... I hate school. Maybe I'll just stop after high school and go be a professional model. Everyone says I'd be a good model anyway... You idiot, you know you hate the thought of being a model. Sure it'll get you a pretty nice paycheck, but have you seen how clumsy you are when you walk? And have you seen the crazy things they put models in? C'mon, you can handle 4 more years of school, you're smarter than you think... Okay, maybe I'll major in technical theatre. That's not as risky as acting. And I have so much fun being a techie... Hmm forensics class is fun. Maybe I'll do something with that... Nahh... Psych? Psychology seems cool. I have psychological issues and maybe in the future I can help people with theirs! *takes psych class* Nahh... *edits a paper for a friend* *edits a paper for a girl I babysit* *edits everything anyone ever says or writes or types* .....You know what? I should be an editor. It's always come naturally to me. And with a job like that, I could easily do theatre on the side every now and then. I could even write a book at some point! I've always wanted to be a writer! Yep! That's what I'm going to do. Wow I'm so happy I've finally figured it out!!!"

And I've been happy with that decision ever since. 

But in relation to the quote, I've always wanted to go on the adventures that my brain thinks up. I want to write about adventures, but I want to write about the adventures that I've experienced first-hand. Maybe there are some stories in my memory worth writing about, and maybe someday I will write them. But for now, I think my "What the heck am I going to do with my life?" story is worth writing about. And it's funny that I've come full circle. I think all the way back to my childhood days of writing, and now here I am, going to start college to major in English and edit and write. Little me would be so proud. In the next few years, I hope to create even more memories worth writing about, and maybe even make up some more mini adventures.