Happy Birthday!

My birthday was so much fun!! Here are some pictures:

My darling roommate, Meg, made me a brownie/ chocolate and vanilla frozen yogurt/ Lucky Charms/ "happy birthday" stick-figure man dessert. I did not eat it all...I had help. It was good!
I woke up, on my birthday morning, to find these Sticky Notes on my bed from Darling Meg.

(The last one says "Enjoy today! Love, Meg.")

I found this little beauty one my door. Kind of a funny inside joke--there is an IT guy whose name is Gaston. I was joking with my friend asking if he was dashing and cute. She said "A little ", so we looked him up on FaceBook. He's a body builder. Now you get it?


My amazing RA, Rhianna, left these notes for me on the mirrors:

(2C is my section in my dorm, FYI)
Mikela made me delicious brownies! And I found about 15 different notes left on my desk.My parents sent me some balloons!
Dr. Lee didn't even know it was my birthday, but class outside on the grass was a birthday present in my opinion. And, for the record, this picture was taken during our five minute break.

My amazing neighbors, Anna and Heather, threw a surprise tea party for me! Compete with scones, chai tea, Mad Gab, tons of friends, and laughter.The amazing hosts:
So. Stinkin'. Fun!

The following night, a group of about ten of us went to go see "The Help". If you haven't seen it, go see it!! I've seen it twice and I LOVE it. So good.

Plus, 112 people wrote on my FaceBook wall and I got 23 "Happy birthday!!" texts and one "17 Things I Love About Margie" text. I thought I might add.

Overall, I had a pretty darn great day!

20 Things to Do Before I Am 20

Happy birthday to me!

As a birthday present to myself (and to you really), I wrote a list of 20 things to do before I'm 20--idea credited to Allison Hibbard. You can read her blog here.

These are my goals:

1. Visit Africa at least 2 times.

2. Lose 25 pounds.

3. Run a half marathon.

4. Read over 150 books.

5. Go to 6 different countries.

6. Read the entire Bible.

7. Get a tattoo (You can read about it here)

8. Pierce my nose--yep! I want a tattoo and a pierced nose. Aren't I a rebel?

9. Learn to play an instrument of the orchestra (excludes piano and guitar).

10. Learn to sight-sing written music.

11. Compete in a Polo match (the Prince William kind).

12. Buy my own car.

13. Preform in at least 2 musicals.

14. Make and eat an entirely homegrown salad.

15. Record an album (over 10 songs) even it's never released.

16. Become scuba certified.

17. Sponsor 4 children. One in Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Uganda.

18. Defeat my mother in a game of "Words with Friends". (This may sounds stupid, but believe me....she kicks butt.)

19. Memorize 10 Bible verses.

20. Collect all 50 state quarters from scratch. My parents did this like 3 years ago. My turn!

I am 16 Going on 17

Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be 17.

In addition to a new age, something else will be new this year--how I celebrate my birthday.

Before: I'd wake up with a family member bouncing on my bed, whether that be my dog or a human family member, I don't know. It changes.

Now: My alarm on my iPhone screams "WAKE UP!! Time for your 8:00 class! Get moving!".

Before: I'd sit down to a delicious breakfast prepared by one of my parents. I could even request something.

Now: The Dining Commons. Good old cereal.

Before: We'd go do something fun for the whole day--Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, San Diego Zoo, the Getty, etc.

Now: Classes until late afternoon and my Disneyland pass expired.

Before: Family dinner complete with birthday cake, ice cream of my choice, presents, and singing.

Now: The DC. Good ol' meatloaf.

Before: Bedtime at a reasonable hour after dessert.

Now: Bedtime whenever I want after I watch an R rated movie, of course. 'Cause I can.

Before: I'd pretty much be queen for the day.

Now: Professors always reign supreme.

Before: I could do almost anything I wanted.

Now: I could do the same, but my grades would suffer badly.

Before: I was under my parents' wings.

Now: I'm flying (close to--not paying for very much) solo.

Will I do something fun? I hope so! But studying for those exams on Friday comes first.

In case you are wondering, I will blow out candles. Imaginary ones--no candles allowed on campus. My wish will probably be this: Good grades and that people will stop "YOU'RE HOW OLD!?"ing when someone tells them my age (I stopped this about the first hour at Westmont. The first time it's SO much fun to get that reaction, but by the 100th time, I'm done.)

I'm not complaining, it's just a new and foreign phase of my life. The phase in which one transfers into the life of a grown adult. But that's for next year--the adultness. And I definitely have already planned my 18th birthday.

Are You My Mother?

During orientation, Westmont had a meeting solely for the Page Hall girls (my dorm, FYI). In this meeting, our RD, Shannon, confronted the issue of husband hunting--something all of us girls have been tempted to do--that includes me.

I mean, it is very likely I will meet my Prince Charming (or my Michael Hosea for all you Redeeming Love fans) here despite the terrible 2:1 ratio of girls to guys. My parents met here. My friend's parents met here. It's very likely! So likely, in fact, that it has been hard for me to not look at any random guy and think to myself "Are you my husband?" despite the fact that I'm so not boy-crazy or terribly interested in a boyfriend currently. I kinda feel like the baby bird in the book Are You My Mother?.

Shannon made an excellent point during that meeting, "Girls, you may not meet your husbands here, but you will meet some of your bridesmaids."

Great. Now every time I look at my suite-mates, I think "Are you my bridesmaid?".

Freshman, Pay Attention

The other day, I was reading this brilliant book called "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" (by Marisha Pessl) and discovered this brilliant quote.

As a little back story, the main character, Blue van Meer (LOVE that name!!), is entering into her first day of school and is talking to herself about how to act. As she walks into the hall, she sees a person pretending to be busy and is staring at a blank notebook and thinks:

"I'm obliged to reveal an old trick: implacable self-possession can be attained by all, not by pretending to look absorbed in what's clearly a blank spiral notebook; not by trying to convince yourself you're an undiscovered rock star, movie star, top model, tycoon, Bond, Bond Girl, Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Bennett or Eliza Doolittle at the Ambassador's Ball; not by imagining you're a long-lot member of the Vanderbilt family, nor by tilting up your chin fifteen to forty-five degrees and pretending to be Grace Kelly in her prime. These methods work in theory, but in practice they slip away, so one is left hideously naked with nothing but the stained sheet of self-confidence around one's feet.

Instead, stately dignity can be possessed by all, in two ways:

1. Diverting the mind with a book or play

2. Reciting Keats"

So good. I haven't finished it yet, but I definitely recommend it!

Here Goes Nothin'

I love summer.

A lot.

(I just don't really like the heat; I'd far rather it be cold enough that I could only wear jeans and jackets or sweatshirts and my trusty Toms--maybe I should move to England for a semester...)

Summer is a time for me that I can work hard at earning money, hang out with my friends that disappeared under a stack of school books and homework assignments, practice my instruments, exercise, "spring clean" my room (spring is way to close to midterms, so my cleaning generally happens during the summer), get my hair done, go to camp, and ride horses. What part of that is not amazing?!

Well, now summer has come to a close.

As I sit here, writing this, I am in Santa Barbara at my college, Westmont, with most of my belongings unpacked, my three fish in baggies at my parents' hotel (traumatized from the drive up) waiting to be relocated to their tanks on my desk, my two froggies hiding under their log in their terrarium (traumatized from the drive up), and my new MacBook Air (which I still have absolutely no idea how to work) set up on my desk.

Class starts on Monday.

Am I nervous?

Incredibly.

Am I excited?

Extremely.

Am I ready?

Probably not, but here we go.

DONE!!!!

It is official,

I. AM. DONE!!!

Goodbye, school. Goodbye, Biola STAR. Goodbye, senior year. And (best of all) goodbye, high school!!

Hello, summer. Hello, Westmont college!!
Hello, FREEDOM!!!!

It, quite frankly, feels unreal. I am fully ready to wake up, realize it was a dream, and go back to sleep. Or have someone tell me "Oh, by the way, you have to re-do ten classes this summer". Or maybe this is like Christmas break in that I have one week to cram for finals, do projects and homework, and have only one day to celebrate.

But, NO!! It is not a dream! It is reality!!! I am done with high school FOREVER!!! I am on to the next part of my life: college, AA degrees, and bachelor degrees. I am excited.

My sweet Papa left notes all over for me yesterday. The first one I found was in my purse. It was written in purple sharpie "Last Day of High School! Yahoo!!". Then the purple one in my Torrey notebook "Hey. Who's the gorgeous creature with the cute bangs over there? Her? Oh, yep, that's the new high school graduate!". What about the one in my chemistry book "Excuse me, but are you in high school? Uh, NO. I used to be."? Or the two in my note book "Did I hear correctly: that you are a 16-year old High School graduate? Yes you did!" and (in purple and green) I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but aren't you...? Yes, I am, a 4.0 High School graduate!". And the purple one in my book "Who's proud? Papa's Proud. Who's proud? Papa's proud. How proud? REAL proud!". And the two other in my paper stack (in gray marker) "I am so proud of you!".

My personal favorite is a picture of two stick figures--one with a straight line for a mouth, two downwards pointing lines for eyes, a straight line for a nose, no hair, and a soul patch (my dad) and the other with a smiley face, scoopy eyes so they look closed, long hair with bangs, and a guitar in her hands (me)--with an arrow saying "Proud" towards my dad and one saying "Graduate" towards me.

World's best dad goes to....my dad!

Happy day. :)