What to do...

I got an email today from Cornell saying that they have processed my application and they sent me a link to their engineering blogs. I was reading the blog of a girl who has a major similar to my intended one (biomedical engineering) and she said something that makes me kind of nervous. She wrote: "Cornell will probably send you some kind of nudge telling you they like you, and then you will get an official acceptance letter." I don't really like that they do this. And even worse, now that I know about it, I'll worry about it even more! I feel like it just makes the situation a lot more stressful than it needs to be.
I want to see an anxiety counselor. I was having a lot of random anxiety attacks last month and I think that they're building up again because of this upcoming trip to Israel/my fear of flying. My parents are very resistant to this idea. I think they just don't want to have to face the fact that there may be something wrong with me, but I'm really scared of what may happen if I don't get at least some expert opinion. When I fly, every muscle in my body constricts and I just replay all the things that can go wrong in my head. I feel as though there's pressure all over my body, and I'm afraid that I may actually do some damage if my body stays like that for 14 hours. I want to just get over this stupid fear!
I got an 85 on my evolution test in Bio...I'm not too disappointed considering it was a very fair test and I didn't study until the day before. So I deserved it. So glad evolution's over. I just have to get through this unit on plants and then we reach the systems of the body, my favorite!
Organic was really fun today, we're doing IR and NMR spectroscopy which are essentially graphs that act as puzzle pieces so that you can figure out what the compound looks like. I'm really good at them and they're super fun :D
I reeeally want to stay home from Friday so I can extend my break...we'll see if that happens or not.

SciOly 2009 and The Beginning of the 2nd Semeste

Hmm so I haven't written here in a while. I kind of feel like there isn't any point in writing if no one is going to read it. And I don't really know if I want to go around telling people to read. Oh well...Interesting things that have happened lately:
-Science Olympiad was yesterday. We didn't win anything but it was still lots of fun. A lot of seniors went this year! I hope people are still involved once we leave.
-So far I've gotten into two schools, NYU Poly (with 22k) and Fordham (with 10k). I was deferred from MIT and I'm waiting for my final decision in March. I'm not really in any rush.
-We are leaving for Israel in a little over a month! I'm competing in a physics tournament in Rehevot at the Weizmann Institute. I'm really excited but also really nervous for the plane ride. It's my first international flight and I'm scared of flying. I've been having lots of dreams about airplanes lately...I guess my mind is trying to prepare itself for my flight!
-I have a bio test on evolution tomorrow and I'm doing this instead of studying. That's what 2nd semester is for!
-I'm really happy that its second semester. High School is finally coming to an end! This is supposed to be the funnest semester of all high school...lets see if that ends up being true.
-I'm very happy :)
-I had a Cornell interview last weekend and it went REALLY well. I learned a lot about Cornell and I'm really seriously considering going there. I like it as much as MIT! Now all I have to do is worry about getting in. I find out in April.
-Google Earth is addicting.
-We may be visiting the Hanging Gardens of Babylon while in Israel. I'm really excited for this!
-Only 5 more days of school until mid-winter recess :]

That's all I can think of for now...[hopefully] more later!

Seniors

Last week was spirit week at my school, and for the first time in the 4 years I have been at my school, almost everyone was involved. It was the best spirit week/halloween that my school has ever seen, according to come teachers. I hardly dressed up for halloween last year, and this year I did by wearing all the punky clothes I used to wear in 9th grade (my friend and I were our 9th grade selves). Anyways, every Halloween I always end up wishing that I dressed up more, or had a more outrageous costume. The sad thing, is that me classmates and I will never have another Halloween together. We can't collaborate on costume ideas and dress up together any more. And it's really sad! Over the past week I've been realizing how we only have till June to be with these people, and I'm really going to miss a lot of them. I almost cried the other day in AP Calc, when I realized my teacher won't be there next year to help me. The same goes for all my friends. So really all we can do it try to make the most of the months we have left, and be there for each other when our college apps don't make the deadline or when we receive rejection letters. Because really, we don't have enough time to be inconsiderate. I want to have really good memories of High School, as I'm sure other people do too.

Forgive the Lateness

I submitted my MIT app last Tuesday.
It's gone.
I'm so happy!

This weekend has been very uneventful.
Friday night was our NHS Haunted House, and only 4 kids showed up do to lack of advertising, and yesterday was our AP Bio study party. We studied for about 30 minutes playing jeopardy-style with our Bio flashcards, and then moved on to playing 3 round of clue (I won the first two times!). Before I knew it the day was over and I stayed at home, sheltered from the rain watching the House marathon on USA.

In other news, I really want this:

Electron Transport Chains and Admissions

Today's 7th period AP Bio class was possible one of the best period of this year so far. We're starting cellular respiration, which is quite annoying (in my opinion), so the class provided lots of comic relief. I have an amazing bio teacher (I had her in 9th grade as well) with tons of experience and the most exuberant personality of anyone I have ever met. She is absolutely great, and makes everything more fun. She randomly bursts into songs during class, and goes off on silly tangents. Today, while learning about the ETC (electron transport chain) she started singing "Love Train" spurring a majority of my class into a discussion about other songs that the ETC reminds them of. At another point, my teacher pointed out the fact that there so few boys in our class, and also, our grade (my school is about 2/3 girls). Then she goes, "Oh, girl's, you're going to have so much fun in college! There are lots of cute guys! And all the older guys like to go for the freshman girls...just don't have too much fun!"
Heh. I love her. And then my friend goes, "Well, now I REALLY want to go to college!" and it just sent me over the edge.

Since I have the trip to Vassar tomorrow rather than my usual classes, I've set aside half of my homework for tomorrow night, and spent tonight reading old admissions blogs on the MIT website. And all of it has made me SO EXCITED. It's unnerving, but also really thrilling, to know that within the next 17 days I will no longer have any power over my MIT application. I'm scared to be thrown into the huge pool of applicants because even though I feel that I am a strong candidate, I know that MIT simply can't accept everyone. And there are LOTS of great people who apply. Even if I am one of those people, there is no guarantee. And it's frustrating, because there is only so much I can do about it. Hopefully all my efforts so far will pay off, but I won't know for sure until December. Along with all the excitement about admissions, I'm also really looking forward to the next few months. Here are the highlights of the upcoming months:
OCTOBER
-Parent Teacher Conferences (next week)
-NHS Haunted House (A really fun day where NHS members are stuck in the school for 14 hours straight, transforming throughout the day into terrifying creatures and ghouls, left to roam the hall ways in search of any random elementary school kid who crosses our paths...)
-Halloween! (I still don't know what I'm going to be...)
NOVEMBER
-AP Bio field trip to Memorial Sloan Kettering (where I used to voluteer!)
-Begin working on Science Olympiad
-Thanksgiving (yummm)
DECEMBER
-DECISIONS
-Christmas
and finally,
NEW YEAR'S EVE!
In addition, I'm also welcoming all winter weather, and can't wait till I can throw on my Uggs and cashmere sweater!

Ooops.

So I haven't updated, in like, a while, and I'm kind of feeling guilty about it. Anyway, maybe I'll be able to start this up again. Okay, so recent and upcoming happenings:
SUPER HARD AP CALC TEST - Last Friday. Everyone from my Calc class was in a terrible mood afterwards. Apparently, we all still did fairly well (I got a 92) but I've been told I made some stupid mistakes. Eh, so it goes.
HOUSESITTING - All last week. Basically, my neighbors pay me 10 dollars a day to live at their house. Oh, and take care of their four cats. This entails feeding them, loving them, cleaning their litter boxes, etc. And really, it's too much for me to handle. Along with trying to get all my work done, I found myself running out of time almost every night. I'm happier now that I'm back at home.

Tomorrow, since the sophomores and junior are taking the PSAT (yuck!) the seniors get to go on fancy college trips. So tomorrow morning I'll be on a bus heading up to Poughkeepsie to visit Vassar. I've actually been to visit there before, and the campus is really nice, but there's just something that fails to grab my attention about it. Still, it'll be interesting to go on an actual tour and info session, since those are thinks I missed out on while I was there.

Also, I have a big scary Orgo test on Thursday. Oh! I guess I never updated since the summer, but I AM taking both Organic Chem and AP Bio :D

More later.

I love New York!

The weather wasn't bad at all sunday morning, when we left. But still...both plan rides were terrible. I went back into anxiety mode, all after I thought I had gotten through with my fear of flying! But I was so relieved to finally land back in LaGuardia. The first thing we did after getting home to Long Island City was to ride into Manhattan and so to the 5th Ave. apple store to get my computer looked at (my charger was working intermittently all throughout the trip). But of course when we got there it worked fine. And it's working fine now, so I guess there's no problem.

Alabama made me realize how much I really love New York. In Alabama we spent the whole day indoors, hiding from the heat. Whenever we wanted to go anywhere, we just hopped into the car. I don't think I could live like that. I NEED public transportation, I need to walk. I missed my dirty subways and hot city streets. And now we're back and I can go back to my pedestrian lifestyle!

I'm about to go make a visit to my job and tell them I'm going to have to quit. I kind of feel bad about doing it, but I'm going to be so busy during September once school starts that I won't have time to work. I am going to see if they need me to work at all this week though, and then it'll be my last.