Oddly (un)familiar

So, as of June 19, 1:35 PM I have officially been on Summer Vacation. I never thought I'd ever have one again, but after 8 years here I am. I don't have to go to bed early Sunday through Wednesday or get up early Monday through Thursday. I don't have to, but for the most part I still am.

Even more than the sleep schedule however, I've been affected by not having any homework to do. I can't tell you how many times I started to freak out at work on Sunday, only to come to the realization that there were no reading assignments or papers to write for Monday. I am incredibly hard to convince to get started on homework. Trust me when I say it's infuriating when you either can't or won't listen to yourself or do what needs to be done. Hell, even doing what you want to do!

I should have more motivation come next school year though. I got my financial aid award letter last week. I'm getting $7,640 to go to school next year. Well, $4,640 is a more accurate amount. It still costs around $1,000 per quarter, and that gets taken out of the $2,564 I get per quarter, so I get a check for the remainder, which is roughly $1,564. That money is mine to do with whatever I need to. Pretty freakin' sweet if you ask me.

Yet with the sleep schedule gone, the temporary lack of scholastic responsibilities, forcing myself to write a paper the night before it's due over, and getting paid to go to school, I've been affected in an unexpected way.

I'm happy.

It's odd. I guess content would be a more accurate description of how I'm feeling, but happiness is something of a novelty to me, so I'll take it.

I'm going to do all sorts of Kelly stuff on my break that I miss doing: playing video games, writing stories, lyrics and even poetry, watching long stretches of anime and what I believe will be the highlight of my summer; visiting KaTrina.

I'll be flying for the first time ever, going to an amusement park, and traveling farther from home than I've ever been. It's going to be very exciting, and fun, and most importantly it'll be new.

As if all this wasn't enough, I got my grades for the Spring Quarter. Remember how I said that 4.0 in English Composition I wasn't going to be my last? Yeah, I totally called it.

English Composition II: 4.0
American Literature WWI to the Present: 4.0
American History: Civil War to the Present: 3.7

I'm surprised at both History and English though. I thought for sure I'd get a 3.7 for English and a 4.0 for History. Mainly because I had a hell of a time writing my two main assignments for English and I wasn't too pleased with the results. I had no such problem in History though, and I did really well on my mid-term. I can only assume I didn't do as well on the final as I thought.

American Literature was never a question for me though. I knew that there was no way I could get anything less than a 3.8, and I was fully expecting a 4.0. So, to get 4.0's in both English courses I've taken, and in American Literature has certainly helped to confirm what I've believed for so long:

Writing is my calling.

This is where I shamelessly plug the other blog I've got going on where I plan to put up samples of my work for open critique or just reading if you're bored. Seriously, go and read it and leave comments. It would help me to get off my creative butt and work! Believe me, as hard as it was to get myself to do my homework, it's even harder to get myself to write the stories I want to tell.

I'm well aware of how ludicrously counterintuitive that is.

It's going to be an awesome summer vacation regardless, either in spite of or because of how different it is from the others.