Wow, this thing has gone unloved. I’ve been busy. Well, not really, but I’d like to use that as an excuse.
My Junior year of hell just ended. Talk about stress. The only thing that made my year worse was the pressure added on by my parents, but what can I do? I just have to deal. It’s my fault for making my parents expect so much from me anyway. I took three AP exams, my SAT and ACT once, and Math II and US History Subject tests. I did pretty decent. I’ll be taking my SAT and ACT over again within the next month. I need higher scores to get out of this hellhole, but what I’ve heard is that i can go to UNO for free with the scores I have. Great….
Since summer’s on it’s way, I’ve been going to a couple parties to unwind from this uptight year, not necessarily grad parties since I don’t particularly mingle with people from my school, but I did go to one yesterday. She doesn’t go to my school, and everyone there doesn’t either. So all my friends who were there asked me when my grad party was, and I replied, “Next year.” I always get these amazed stares after that.
“What?! How old are you then?”
“…Sixteen? I’ve told you this before. Jailbait…ring any bells?”
“OMG. You’re such a youngin’.”
“Yahh….”
Then we get into conversations about where I want to go to college. Not to be rude or anything, but I’m alot smarter than most of my friends. At least, the ones I hung out with yesterday. I was on meds the day of my ACT, and I scored higher than all of them. Alot of them don’t know that I’m pretty smart though. They always start the conversation with “Where are you going to college? UNO?”
“Uhm, no. I plan on going out-of-state.”
“Really? Where?”
“East coast. NYU, UPenn. You know.”
I get mixed reactions after this. Yesterday, someone actually said, “I call bullshit! You’re going to UNO.” That was a little harsh, especially since I’m already worried about college enough as it is. Alot of my vietnamese friends ask me if my parents are really cool about it, and I just tell them they’re all up for it. It’s not necessarily my dreams they’re rooting on; it’s the bragging rights. Now all I have to do is get up my scores, and I’m set.
But, I have a dilemma. I really want to go to UPenn, but knowing my transcript isn’t valedictorian and that my school isn’t prestigious for its curriculum, I’m afraid that I won’t stand a chance. Even so, I’m considering doing applying early decision for UPenn since it gives me higher chances. Since it’s my dream school, I don’t need to second guess. But at the same time, I wonder if it’s all a waste anyway, and I’m just going to get rejected. So here lies NYU on the other side of the spectrum, my second choice college. I already know my scores are good enough to get into NYU, and I’ll probably be accepted, but NYU is notorious for waitlisting people. If I applied early decision, this problem would be eliminated. I know that if I apply early decision for NYU, I’ll be accepted, but then I’d have that “never tried, never failed” concept on my conscience with UPenn. But I worry about getting rejected by UPenn, and then waitlisted by NYU and then really end up going to UNO for my four years of undergrad. That’s my worst nightmare.
On a happier note, I have one thing less to worry about. My dad, after fighting for a year and 3 months, finally restored his reputation and won his job back. This was my first experience with being so overwhelmed with happiness that I cried. My dad is going back to work tomorrow, and I’m damn proud that he didn’t just concede and take the lower position. Instead, he fought for what deserved and appealed several upon several times until he took it to court, and it was only uphill from there. I was watching a movie the other day, and it extremely resembled my father’s position. It’s not the most exciting movie, but I loved it. Maybe it’s because I could relate, but I’ll recommend it to anyone.
If you don’t understand Japanese, you can find english-subbed videos at MySoju.
