2008 in Review

With 8¼ hours or so left in the year, I’ve gotten to thinking about the past year in general. So I’m giving the year a review, broken up by season.

Winter: C+
Started off with the funeral for my grandmother, with whom I had never had a particularly strong connection. I didn’t dislike her so much as was chronically indifferent toward her, given her propensity to swing between (reportedly) boasting to her friends/family about my “accomplishments” and accusing me of cheating at Scrabble. Schoolwork was quite hectic and my strive to salvage certain social matters unresolved from sophomore year yielded minimal progress to the point where I just stopped caring about the situation itself. (Sierra folk may know what I’m talking about.) Began thinking seriously about college, which was still shrouded in a cloud of uncertainty, albeit mixed with excitement.

Spring: B-
Began with having to renew my permit, due to parental inactivity toward getting my license, which was rather annoying. Other than that, the AP Crunch for school rolled around and passed, leaving me refreshed upon its completion. Junior year was winding down, leaving me with a great bout of sentimentality about graduating in what was then a year, although it was of a positive, reflective variety. I was waitlisted for Cluster 2 of COSMOS, which was extremely irksome and to this day, I still think I should have been in that cluster. Found out toward the end of the season I was instead accepted into Cluster 5, which I accepted. However, when I called the place where I work over the summer upon knowing this to tell them my final schedule, I had found they were already booked and I could not work, which was extremely annoying, almost leading me to regret accepting my admittance to COSMOS. This regret would soon evaporate…

Summer: A+
COSMOS was fucking awesome. There’s no other way to say it, really. (Heheheheh, maybe they could put that “testimonial” in their newsletter…) This was by far the favorite summer of my life. Period. I had the opportunity to associate with numerous people with similar interests and capacities to my own for an extended period of time, which was great. That last sentence sells the experience way short, though. I met a whole bunch of awesome people and was introduced to the exalted game and lifestyle of Mao. On another level, the summer changed a good portion of my self-perception, in a way. I felt a sense of immediate belonging and amicability that hadn’t been characteristic of the prior three years or so, effectively throwing me out of the social funk I had been cloistered in since Sophomore Year. It was the first significant bout of unadulterated positive energy and happiness in general in a significant portion of time… not to say I hadn’t been happy before then, but, until that point, it had been primarily “pleasure spiked with pain”, to quote Anthony Kiedis (and sometimes the inverse.) It even directly led to my eventual decision, despite the resistance for years, to get a Facebook to ease my continued contact with everybody. I found that I could still work at the summer camp, albeit not for as long as I would have liked. However, I worked as a substitute and was essentially a Head Counselor for the respective groups for which I filled in, which was cool. I found I had gotten into the English class I had wanted (the Satire class).

Autumn/Early Winter: B+
Senior year started and, for the first time, I was in all classes in which I was actually interested, which was a welcome change. The same situation as discussed in the “Winter” section began to rectify itself and has risen to a level that was better than I had settled for nine months prior. My Mock Trial Team moved into the playoffs for the first time in 7 years. Barack Obama was elected president. Certain propositions passed that I am dismayed to have seen make it, leading to some disappointment. I did get deferred at both Caltech and MIT, but was informed by my college counselor that the Head Dean of Admissions at Caltech liked me a lot when he talked to me and that I was a perfect fit for Caltech, with his only reason for deferral being slight concern with a few B+’s in Sophomore/Junior years. Apparently, if I get all A’s this semester, I’ve got a really good shot. My grades are currently at their highest point in all of High School and I have had the most relaxing Winter Break in as long as I can remember, complete with my partaking in the awesomeness that is online Mao. My ‘List of Things That Piss Me Off’ had a Rennaisance after my having not done much with it since Freshman year and I am quite pleased with the direction that it has taken. I have continued to keep in contact with everybody from COSMOS, which is great, and Facebook has served me very well in this endeavor. Driver's test on the 31st was bullshit, because apparently turning my head 430° is "insufficient scanning", but whatever.

Year in General: B+
All things considered, a very solid year.

Here’s hoping for 2009 to bring high marks!