Back to School Essentials

Monday was the first day of school.

*breaks down sobbing over the death of my good friend, summer*

I know most of you share in my grief.

I'm back to dual enrollment, and after my first day, I think I can expect another interesting semester. 

Admittedly I was slightly terrified to go to my first class despite this being my third semester, namely because I watched God's Not Dead a week ago and I was heading into a philosophy class in a decidedly non-Christian environment.

Fortunately, the scariest thing that happened was that I had to get to know a stranger and then get up in front of the class and introduce him. 

College is great, guys.

Perhaps some of you are feeling overwhelmed by the coming work and stress of the school year.

Well, I have a blog, so obviously I know what I'm talking about. Here are my essential tips to make getting back to school as pain-free as possible.

1. Do something exhausting the week before you start back to school (just make sure you have time to recover before school starts). I flew across the country and then gallivanted all around California and then flew back across the country less than a week before I headed back to school, and I didn't even have time to get nervous or stressed about school starting.

2. Wear a fantastic outfit on the first day. Especially if you're going to be walking into a classroom. Your outfit and the confidence you have in it will be the first impression your classmates get of you.

If you don't feel like this,

Keep trying.

You'll get it. Thumbs up everybody!

3. Have your phone handy in case you're early to class. Unless you're unfortunate enough to be in a school that doesn't allow cell phones to be visible period when you're in the classroom, this simple device can prevent a whole lot of pre-class awkwardness.

As a general rule, I don't like to talk to people, especially random people I meet at school. So whenever my classmates get uncomfortably chatty, I pull out my phone and *BOOM* I have an instant excuse to be my wonderful taciturn self. If your neighbor doesn't get the hint, execute evasive maneuvers.

4. DO NOT forget your wallet in the classroom on the first day only to realize it's missing halfway to your next class which you only had fifteen minutes to get to, causing you to have to hustle back to your first classroom and, upon not finding your wallet, to frantically search for your professor's office, making you late (and sweaty) getting to your second class.

^^^this is definitely a purely hypothetical situation^^^

5. Based off of number four, I feel like I can accurately say that it's a good idea to have a backpack to keep your stuff in rather than leaving your things loose to stealthily slip under your chair and get lost.

6. Don't blog the night before class instead of doing your homework.

Wait...

I did an adventure...

Those of you who know me pretty well know that I can be a little tentative to try things that I've never experienced before and don't know anything about.

But I kind of did just that a couple weeks ago.

The fair was in town.

And I went, my friends, oh yes, I did.

Now I'll admit, I was a little nervous. The closest thing I'd ever done to going on funky rides and stuff was something like this:

Yeah...I think that's a little more my speed.

Nonetheless, I sucked it up (after all, my friends were there and I have a reputation to uphold, yo) and after popping some Dramamine, I hopped on the first ride, which was pretty much a glorified swingset.

And I loved it.

I could say some sappy stuff about how it felt like I was flying (cuz I kind of was) or how the wind felt delightful in my hair (it was making a mess of it, actually), but honestly, I don't want to. It was just super cool.

I also got to do bumper cars. It was actually my first time operating any sort of motor vehicle other than a bicycle, and I was so tickled that I laughed hysterically the entire time. (Also awesome)

So from then on I pretty much rode every ride I could get on. I also got to watch a gorgimous sunset from about a hundred feet up on this thing.....

It was quite a memorable experience. 

I rode one ride that was supposed to be huge and scary but, uh... wasn't, and also a ride that was supposed to be sort of relaxing but made me fear for my life and scream and cry. (Yes, I screamed and cried and cursed the progeny of some of the ride operators in my terror)

Honestly though, the scariest thing I did at the fair wasn't a ride. It was when I took a visit to the public restrooms.

Now that was frightening and psychologically scarring.

I rode a lot of awesome rides, ate some yummy food, saw some funny looking animals, and mostly just enjoyed spending time with good friends.

So let's just say that the fair was a good adventure, and I think I'd rather like to go again next year.

Pros and cons of fall

I like fall. I'm pretty sure I already said this in a previous post, but fall is my favorite season.
So, here are my goods and bads of fall. :)


BAD
Chapped lips
Colds
Flyaway hair (although in my case, this happens year-round)
Getting antsy for the holidays
Having to do school in the beautiful weather
Leaves all over
Losing the flip-flops
Not being able to go anywhere without a coat
Things turning brown

GOOD
Cooler weather
Changing colors
Fuzzy socks
Hot chocolate
Listening to Handel's "Messiah"
Long sleeves
Mashed potatoes with butter dripping down the side (no drooling on the keyboard, now)
Pie
Sitting wrapped in a blanket with your friends
Sweaters
Thanksgiving

Now, while these lists are actually pretty equal, I think the good outweighs the bad...especially if you do it on a point system. (scale of 1 to 10)



BAD - 30
Chapped lips - 3
Colds - 3
Flyaway hair (although in my case, this happens year-round) - 4
Getting antsy for the holidays - 5
Having to do school in the beautiful weather - 2
Leaves all over - 2
Losing the flip-flops - 3
Not being able to go anywhere without a coat - 5
Things turning brown - 3

GOOD - 58
Cooler weather - 6
Changing colors - 3
Fuzzy socks - 3
Hot chocolate - 3
Listening to Handel's "Messiah" - 4
Long sleeves - 4
Mashed potatoes with butter dripping down the side (no drooling on the keyboard, now) - 7
Pie - 5
Sitting wrapped in a blanket with your friends - 8
Sweaters - 5
Thanksgiving - 10

Fall rocks.

I went in a cornfield on Saturday...

I did not meet Akbar...unfortunately. However, it was still quite enjoyable. (To find out who Akbar is, click here)
I think that I should tell you just in case you don't know/haven't observed this, but I absolutely LOVE fall. It seems like we trade out the green of the plants in the summer for the intense blues of the sky (Has anybody else noticed that the color intensifies here in the fall?) and the beautiful reds and yellows of the few changing trees. Although sometimes it seems that everything just goes straight to brown.
I'm getting off topic.
ANYWAY...
We went to a corn maze in Milton, FL with our amazing homeschool group on Saturday. Even if the maze had been lame, just the fact that my friends were there made it automatically okay; however, that was not the case.
Although the corn in the maze was a little bit thin (we could see the really tall guys' heads over the stalks), and we might have accidentally cheated a little bit, we did eventually make it out! I can't really say that I enjoyed it, but I think that's just cuz I really wanted to play Frisbee/chat with my friends/do anything but run around like crazy people in a maze. Sometime I'll have to try again when I'm not impatient to get out.
Anywho, the irony of the situation is that the corn maze wasn't my favorite part of the corn maze field trip...it would be hard to pick just one thing as my favorite. But I would have to say that I really liked the hayride. It was shorter than most hayrides I've been on before, but I believe in quality, not quantity. (Twist that statement around till it makes sense here.)
And since it was short, I rode twice, once with my friends, and once with a little boy bouncing on my knee as we sang,

The wheels on the tractor go up and down,

Up and down, up and down

The wheels on the tractor go up and down,

All through the cornfield!

You get the idea. The stars were showing their brilliance too, and all these things combined with the chilly air and the pleasant company formed a perfect fall fantasy.

Only it was real.