Well, This Will Be Interesting

This blog has been at the back of my mind for several months now, and I just wanted to get something up and moving. 

(Also...There's a little voice inside of me that's really hung up on the fact that this is my First Blog Post, and that there is Lots of Pressure to Get It Right. But it'll take a little while for me to figure out this blogging thing...so, yeah...)

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Well, this will be interesting. 

As of June 6th, I am a highschool graduate. I've even got the diploma to prove it. 

It's strange to think that I've graduated from high school. For literally 99% of my life, the sort of people who were high school graduates were older than me. Now, I, somehow, have joined that group. One definition of my life has been irreversibly changed. Now I am no longer in high school. 

...When did that happen?
More importantly, HOW did that happen?

I'm not sure. But it has happened. I've graduated. No going back. Now, I just need to stride confidently forward into What Happens Next...which is a little complicated for me.

Let me explain. 

Most of my peers are going to spend the summer working before heading off to the "next chapter of their lives" (as so many of us are heard to say). They are going to college. 

I, too, will go to my dream school (which I never really thought would happen, because college was also always something that people older, more mature, more knowledgable than me did. I was never going to get to that point in my life when I was in college, cuz I just never reached that category of people. But it happened. Again, without my noticing.) But not yet. Not come August 2013. 

Come August 2014, yes, I'll go back to school. But not before. 

So what happens in between late summer of 2013 and late summer of 2014? I hear you cry. 

Oh, I thought you'd never ask. 

I'm taking a gap year.

Now before you get any strange ideas in your head let me clarify some things:

• No, I'm not taking a gap year because I didn't apply to/get into any schools. As I said already, I'm going to go to my dream school. I'm so unbelievably excited about it. It's just that I deferred for a year and will spend that year going on even more interesting and exciting adventures.
• I'm not planning to "find myself" while I'm gone. I'm just hoping to learn some stuff about the world and where I find myself in it. 
• And yes, there are days when I wonder why I didn't just do the easy thing and go straight to college. But I do know for a fact that this experience will be so enriching that it's worth all the nerves. 
• I am terrified (and excited, but right now, mostly just very nervous)

But don't worry, I'm not leaving you all behind completely. I plan to post blogs as often as I can manage---but I'm not going to put too much effort into them. Please ignore spelling/grammar/punctuation errors. There is also a plan to experiment with videos maybe once a week...but this is all new to me so if I find I don't enjoy these blogs/vlogs, I will feel no remorse in stopping them. Don't guilt trip me. 

Oh, and the title of this blog comes from the poem "Things I Didn't Know I Loved" by Nazim Hikmet. Read it--it's good.