Nostalgia mixed with tears and touching, true and fitting lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.

Time for a little personal story.


The summer before 10th grade, my best friend and I were at the mall by ourselves (it was cool, we were 14, without a car and there's nothing else to do where I live) just relishing in our last days of summer. We were doing a bit of window shopping for our homecoming dresses and both found the perfect ones on the first try. After we'd accomplished that mission, we were just kind of wandering in and out of stores, trying hats on and sampling perfumes... and then we saw the Build-A-Bear. Now keep in mind that we were only 14 and Build-A-Bear was still considered an acceptable activity. We made a bear together, named her after our high school mascot and stuck her in a purple prom dress that came with a matching sash. (Coincidentally, the color of the bear's dress is almost the exact color of my prom dress from this year.)

We paid for her together and made the agreement that when we went to college, we'd cut her sash up, each take half and then give the bear to our high school choir director (we're very close to her). As I was cleaning my pigsty (really) of a room, I found her, in a closet, still in the little 'house' boxes they send them home in, perfectly preserved. It texted my best friend to make sure she remembered, and she did. We're meeting next week to cut up the sash.

For me it feels like the end of an era. When we were making the bear, college was so far away. We had barely scratched the surface of high school and all it had to offer. It's funny to look back on that time and think of how carefree we were, not even thinking about the future that wasn't so far away. It brings me to tears to think about all the fantastic people and friendships I'm leaving, even though I know college is an entirely new adventure and I'll surely meet even more awesome people and make lasting friendships.

Actually right now as I'm thinking about it, tears are streaming down my cheeks. I'm not usually a crier, but it's all sort of hitting me right now that I'm leaving all this. I'm in the process of making a CD for a few of my closest friends that represents our time together. I just can't believe I'm leaving.

For Good, from the Broadway musical Wicked
Stephen Schwartz

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you...

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

(Elphaba):
It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend...

Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you

(Glinda):
Because I knew you

(Both):
I have been changed for good

(Elphaba):
And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for

(Glinda):
But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share

(Both):
And none of it seems to matter anymore

(Glinda):
Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood

(Elphaba):
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood

(Both):
Who can say if I've been
Changed for the better?
I do believe I have been
Changed for the better

(Glinda):
And because I knew you...

(Elphaba):
Because I knew you...

(Both):
Because I knew you...
I have been changed for good...

Laundry. If you don't know how to do it now, learn before you turn all your underwear and socks pink. Before, NOT after.

The whole packing for college thing is quite stressful, I must say. I've got just under 6 full days until I leave and 5 1/2 before all my crap has to be packed and loaded in the car. It is completely overwhelming. I still haven't bought any school supplies, toiletries, towels, or a bathrobe.

I'm in the midst of thousands of pounds of laundry (not really) and because I do not possess the ability to dress myself well more than 50% of the time (really), I have a stylist, or as she prefers, personal fashion guru. Really, it's one of my friends who'll be a senior in high school this year who tells me what to wear when I have an important event to go to or an important boy to impress. In order for her to remember the thousands of pieces (not really but it feels that way) I have in my wardrobe, I'm taking pictures of everything and using flickr to host them, so she can just flip through and tell me which scarf I should wear with which shirt. It means that after everything's come out of the dryer it must be sorted by category, photographed, uploaded into my computer, renamed and categorized, then posted to both my Closet iPhone app and Flickr. It's quite a process.

So far I've washed, dried, photographed and folded my purple/navy, pink/orange/yellow and teal/aqua/green/blue loads. My jeans are in the dryer and the blacks/dark greys are in the washer. That means the ONLY load left to begin the washing process is the whites/light greys. Exciting, no?

In case you were wondering why I separate my clothes into such distinct color groups, it's not because I'm Adrian Monk and must wash my clothes with their like colors only. I actually just have so many clothes that when I wash a large volume of them, I have to do that many loads anyway so I figure I might as well separate. If it's a small load, I just throw them all in together. It's an awful habit, I know and my best friend and I both do it. We're so bad but we've never actually ruined anything so we see no reason to change.

Sometimes you don't realize what you've had until you face leaving it.

My best friend and I tie dyed and then watched four hours of DVR'ed Whatever, Martha.

These are the moments I'm going to miss.


You wanna know what else I learned today (besides the fact that my BFF and I could totes be Alexis and Jennifer)? That annoying Henry the 8th, I Am, I Am song? It's by a 70s group called Herman's Hermits. Legit. Wanna know how I learned that? The Facebook status of a guy I have a huge crush on. It's a long story. Don't ask.

You don't have to read this if you don't want to. Honestly, my day was fucking boring while I was doing it. I can't imagine reading about it.

You wanna know what I did today? Let's see.

Woke up at 2pm.
Watched the reruns of Less than Perfect my DVR recorded this morning and the reruns of Friends from last night.
Rented 17 Again from OnDemand. (What? It's a cute movie. And I'm waiting for Verizon to get I Love You, Man.)
Showered.
Got yelled at for not having thank you's done.
Got ready for work.
Served ice cream to annoying customers for four and a half hours.
Drove around for a little while to avoid going home. (Okay, yes. There was an ulterior motive besides not going home.)
Got home.
Got yelled at for not having thank you's done.
Scrounged up some food from the back of my refrigerator.
Watched The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Watched some more Friends reruns.
Watched the In Plain Sight from last week.


The entire contents of my day. I leave for college in 10 days and all I did today was watch TV, go to work and semi-stalk someone. You know what I'm doing tomorrow? Tie dye with two of my best friends.

Wow my life is exciting.

Yes, this is a particularly controversial topic. If you have a problem with my opinions, take it up with the comment box.

As this is a blog about college, religion is something I wouldn't normally post about here. However, the topic recently came to my attention while talking to a couple friends of mine.

We were talking about the availability of health and sex-related services on our respective campuses. All of us in this conversation are still virgins so for us, it's more about the hypothetical necessity and less of a practical need, but for many incoming freshmen, the access to STD screenings, gynecological services and more importantly, birth control, is crucial. One of my friends is going to Boston College which, as you may known, is a Jesuit-affiliated school. (Jesuits are a division of Catholics.) It shocked me that they do not have any form of birth control offered on campus.

Now before you get all up in arms about the whole thing, I was raised Catholic. I am familiar with the church's disapproval of pre-marital sex, but I also have a very liberal mother who always taught me that while the church may frown upon it, she lives in this century and realizes that it will happen. She always told me that when I felt I was ready to have sex, she would take me to the doctors and get me the pill. She stressed that it shouldn't be a decision entered into lightly and that I should put a lot of care and consideration into making it.

That being said, BC is not a Catholic exclusive school. There are non-Catholics that attend. According to their website, they do offer STI, HIV and prenancy testing and will provide "non-judgemental counseling". They will not, however, "provide materials for the purpose of preventing conception or counsel that would encourage abortion." Though Catholic University of America does not clearly state their birth control policy as BC does, they do say, "Medical care provided and advice given is consistent with teachings of the Catholic Church."

It seems to me that both these schools are not serving their student body as they should be. They are imposing the Catholic beliefs on all that attend, whether or not they subscribe to the religion. Sex is something that will happen on all college campuses; it's just not preventable. Most students I know are going there for the quality education the school provides and not necessarily because they agree with the traditions of the Catholic church.

I'm sorry, but I think these schools are doing a severe disservice to their students who are paying $50,000 a year and are subscribing to their health plan by not providing them a means of contraception. Teenagers and young adults WILL HAVE SEX. It's a fact of life. Making contraception harder to access won't deter them from doing it, it'll just make them more likely to have unprotected sex.

Although I suppose that by going to these schools and others like them, you agree to accept their policies and simply have to deal with the lack of contraception. It's not for me, though. If I decide to have sex while in college, there is no way in hell I'm getting pregnant or getting an STD. Condoms and the pill for me, thanks. I'll take my sex without the life-lasting consequences.

Umm, culturalification is totally a word. It's in the Dictionary of Made-up Words. Duh.

My best friend and I decided long before we graduated that this summer we'd make an effort to be more cultured, to do things we wouldn't normally do and see things we wouldn't normally see. Unfortunately since we're poor college students, we have to do these things on the cheap. Finding culturally enriching activities near us that are inexpensive has been a difficult task, but I think we've managed.

The Pre-College Culturalification Process

1. Plan a trip to Philadelphia. Itinerary items include: the world's largest clothespin, world's largest LCD screen, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and a free performance of a modernized version of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Abington Art Center, located 30 minutes outside the city.

2. Convince my father that we wouldn't get raped, pillaged or maimed while in the city.

3. Convince my father that the car wouldn't get stolen.

4. Convince my father that we wouldn't get kidnapped.

5. Convince and demonstrate to my father that I know how to change a tire, use flares and dial 911.

6. Go to Philly, have an amazing time and only spend $15 per person, including parking, food and gas. All our activities were free. Also, return with all our limbs intact.

7. Attend a performance of Les Miserables put on by our local Teen Professional Theatre, starring a couple friends from a state-wide choral group we were in together and also in the hope that a guy we both adore will show up because he is also friends with them. Cost: $10 per person.

8. Attend a performance of a completely student-run production of Little Women the Musical because it featured the aforementioned guy. Coincidentally sit behind who we now know are his girlfriend's parents. (She was in the stage crew and somehow whenever she was moving props and set pieces around, the word, "whore" came out of our mouths. It's a very weird affliction.) Cost: $10 per person, plus the added benefits of hearing our guy sing (He's amazing. Truly. And also going to school to get a BFA in musical theatre so the world will probably know his awesomeness soon.) and the knowledge that the proceeds would be donated to Broadway Cares.

9. Go to the County Fair. See a couple of girls hit on a semi-attractive carnie and make us wait 10 minutes to ride this awesome new ride. Have a serious conversation about Madison and college while on the Ferris wheel. Make awesome slushies at the slushie bar and top off a quintessential summer night with the windows down and We the Kings' Stay Young blasting from my car speakers. Cost: $5 for admission, $10 for ride tickets, $3 for slushie. Total: $18 per person.

That's all we've got so far, but there's still 11 days until school starts. Tie dye's planned for Wednesday but I'm sure there will be more events to come.

I'm not really sure what to use hydrogen peroxide for but my father says I need it so...

So you know how I said before that I'm not a big enough dork to want to play Muggle Quidditch in public? Well apparently, I'm a big enough dork to paint my first-aid kit box to match my bedspread. I saw the idea of a personalized first-aid kit on another blog and because I am that nerdy, I decided I'd make one myself. But instead of putting clever song lyrics on it like this blogger did, I went totally art-nouveau and channel my inner artist. Please note that 'artist' should be pronounced ar-TI-st, not AR-tist.

It was quite a process and I'm not even sure I'm finished yet because much like a professional, I am never satisfied with my work. Anyway. I decided to paint the inside of the box to prevent the paint from scraping off from normal wear and tear. The benefit of this decision was that it made the entire process much cleanlier and seeing as how I was doing this little project within 6inches of my baby (new MacBookPro) cleanliness was important.

I drew the design on in dry erase marker based off the swatch of my bedspread on PBTeen.com.
(I ordered it online and haven't gotten it yet.) I
decided to invert some of the colors, because the actual design has lavender centers with white dots in the middle of those centers but I'd much rather have more lavender than white. I think it looks better, although it actually has more white right now. I'm not sure if I should paint the entire background purple. Anyway.

The nature of my process required me to do the painting in layers. First the lavender center centers, then the white centers, then finally the black petals, leaves and vines. It doesn't really look like it, but it took over four hours. I had to wait for each layer to dry completely before I could do the next coat to ensure opaqueness, and then had to wait for that to dry before I went on to the next color. I'm very proud of it. It's probably the best looking art I've attempted in my entire life.

Image via PBteen.com

My process:

The finished product (maybe):


And the inside:

You can still see where I haven't wiped off the remaining dry erase marker. I'm still not sure if I should just leave it at this or paint the background as well.

The contents of my kit:

• Ankle brace
• Ace bandage
• Tweezers
• Bandaids
• Advil
• NyQuill
• DayQuill
• Tylenol Cold and Sinus
• Anti-diuretics
• Zantac
• Gauze
• Neosporin
• Thermometer
• Alcohol wipes
• Scissors
• Instant cold pack
• First aid tape
• Small package of tissues
• Qtips
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Safety pins

Anything I forgot?

Sorry, but I can't let my dork flag fly THAT high.

Okay. Muggle Quidditch. Ever heard of it? It's become a big thing on college campuses with a competitive league and everything. A friend of mine going to Elon in North Carolina mentioned it to me because apparently, they have a team. Now normally, I'm all for public displays of geekitude, but this seems to be at a level that is way higher than I'm willing to participate in.

The way I understand it, the rules are basically the same and has the normal Quidditch positions as described in the series, plus the addition of a Snitch. The Snitch is generally a member of the track team who's dressed in all yellow. Once the game starts, they have free reign over the entire campus while the two Seekers try to catch them. The Quaffle is a basketball or volleyball and the Bludgers are softer balls, like nerf balls. Sometimes the Beaters use tennis rackets to hit the Bludgers, and sometimes Beaters are just allowed to tackle other players.

One of the girls in my class started a new topic on our group's discussion board concerning this very idea. We don't have a team already, so she wants to start one. A couple of my classmates have already expressed interest in playing.

I'm sorry. I love Harry Potter and will happily stand in line at 10pm for a midnight showing wearing tshirts with puffy paint with my best friends, but I outright refuse to play a game that involves pretending that broomsticks have actual flying powers. I won't do it. Sorry, soon-t0-be-formed Hearst College Muggle Quidditch team, I will not be joining your ranks.

If you expect money to show up under your pillow like it did when you were five and lost a tooth, you're kidding yourself.

This is a little difficult for me to discuss, but it's an issue that bears mentioning.

Let me start off by saying the following anyone who's just now looking into colleges, deciding between two or three choices, or trying to find the money to pay for college:

College is fucking expensive.

I know we all know this, but it seems that one of my friends didn't realize just how true that statement is. Actually, she'll probably need a name for the sake of this post, so we'll call her Madison. Madison's had a hard life family-wise and money-wise. Her mom doesn't have a job, and her dad's not in the picture. They basically live off welfare and Madison's waitress job. Anyway, her money issues have not changed for a long time; she hasn't come under recent struggles because of the economy. She's known about and been in this situation practically her whole life. This had made her very independent and taken away a lot of her childhood, but she's gone into her college experience very naively.

When she first started her college search, she had her heart set on a very expensive private liberal arts institution with a huge name value. She didn't get in, so she started looking into the places she was accepted to. They include two large public universities, one in-state and one out-of-state. Because her home situation is so bad, she opted for the one out-of-state. She fell in love with the school but when the bill came, it was a higher number than she'd realized. Long story short, she's now having a huge problem coming up with about $6,000 a semester.

My friends and I feel bad for her, of course. But we feel like Madison went into her whole decision with blinders on. She knew how much FAFSA was giving her and she knew how much the school cost. If she'd gone to the in-state school, FAFSA would've paid for her entire education. Tuition, room and board, books, spending money, everything. Now, she's facing the difficult situation of not being 18 and thus, not being able to get a private loan without a cosigner, which she doesn't have, and the choice of either staying at home and doing online courses or transferring to a different campus but not getting housing.

It's obviously an impossible situation, but one that could have been very easily avoided. If she'd gone to the in-state school and done her core requirements there, she could have transferred to the out-of-state school and started her major's courses where they have the better program. She could've saved loads of money and would have been able to work to save money while having her entire education paid in full.

One of the worst parts of the entire situation is how she's let her troubles permeate her entire life. We're all excited to go to school and talk about about it all. the. time. If we talk about around her, she gets pissed and yells at us for not being considerate about her feelings. If it were just one or two times, it wouldn't be so infuriating. But it's every single time we see her. Even if we're not talking about college, she is constantly depressed.

Now none of us are rolling around in the coin ala Scrooge McDuck so we try to do things that are inexpensive or free. When we do things that cost money, she either gets upset that we didn't invite her even though she's said many times that she can't afford it, or expects one of us to pay for her. We'd be happy to if it evened out in some way, but we know it never will. We all have to go to college and are saving for our own spending money, and we just don't want to pay for her, especially if she's going to spend the entire evening moping.

Moral of the story: be realistic about what you can afford. Most public in-state schools are less expensive than their out-of-state counterparts, and much less than private schools. In this economy, full rides are almost unheard of for out-of-state students and especially from private schools. Look into private and federally-funded loans before the bill comes. Check the school's endowment and see what percentage of students receive aid, and how much of their demonstrated need is met. But most importantly, have a plan to pay for everything way ahead of time. Don't be surprised by the bill. Money doesn't grow on trees and it won't magically appear just because you want it to.

I don't have a quippy, metaphoric title for this one because these stupid kids crapped all over my creative mood.

I belong to the Hearst Class of 2013 Facebook group just as almost every other college freshman belongs to their respective school's group, and we have a topic involving partying on campus. We're all underage, and while our campus isn't Yale and doesn't ignore underage drinking, it's not a dry campus either. If you're over 21, it's perfectly acceptable to have alcohol but the school's made recent efforts to crack down on underage drinking. I understand that as brand new college students, the party scene and accessibility to alcohol is something most of us think about. (Not me, more on that later.)

Hearst tries to be very connected with their students and one of the ways they do that is to check our Facebook group to get a feel for the incoming class. I commend them for it because there really is no better way. These kids don't think anyone's watching so they don't censor themselves, and that's what the college is looking for. An uncensored look at this year's incoming freshmen class.

That being said, one of our preceptors went on the partying topic a couple days ago and politely informed my classmates, who were in the middle of a discussion about which type of liquor was best for dodge, that their professors, admissions officers, deans etc. can view the forum even though they may not be a part of the group, and seeing as they're all underage, are broadcasting an image of the class they might not want to be. She did it in a very polite way and was just trying to look out for these students. I myself, didn't realize the deans looked on the forum, and was very glad at that moment that I hadn't posted anything of that nature. I figured they'd delete the topic. Oh, was I wrong. They started attacking her, calling her a 'party pooper'. Another current student went on there to defend the preceptor, and they attacked her too.

This is something I do not understand. These are older students who are aware of exactly what the drinking policy on campus is and know that these kids are potentially projecting a bad image and creating a bad reputation for themselves before they've even stepped on campus. They're just trying to help them out, offering them some friendly advice. I think it's incredibly rude for these students to do that. What kind of spoiled, pretentious brats do they think they are that the federal drinking age doesn't apply to them?

My personal decision is to refrain from alcohol. It's not a religious decision, it's not a social one, and it's certainly not because I'm a 'party pooper'. I have my own personal reasons for doing so that I'm not going to broadcast on the internet. I don't look down or think lower of people who do drink when they're underage. It's a huge problem in this country and something needs to be done about it. But no matter how you feel about that particular issue, the fact of the matter is that the drinking age is still 21 in this country. If you are under that age, it is illegal for you to purchase or consume alcohol. I feel like these students should have some sort of respect for that and at least pretend that they're following the law instead of broadcasting and bragging about how they don't plan on doing so.