Listening to: "Look around--leaves are brown--and the sky--is a hazy shade of winter!!" I love 80's pop.
Two hour delay tomorrow. Awesome. Amazing how a little change in weather can totally throw an entire school district off. I got about 295830 fake emails and IMs saying that school was cancelled, school was still on, it was a half day, blah blah. I'm just like, at least I can sleep in :D
I wish I had more to say in this entry but honestly, nothing happened today except that everything was very snowy and pretty, and I had no school. So, yes. Ahem.
You know what I'm going to do? Taking the iniative from the girl whose diary I reviewed, I'm going to make a tentative timeline of my future as far ahead as I choose to see. Just for kicks. Here we go:
2002-03 - Soph year (that's now) This year I'm going to try out for Jazz Band piano. Just to be able to say I tried. And also, I think this is going to be my last year of dance. I want to focus on other things. I'm getting my permit this year, too. And, of course, I'm going to Spain.
2003-04 - Junior year. My biggest dream for this year would be playing piano in Jazz Band. But that's unlikely to happen, so yeah. I'll try out again, anyway. I'll be taking the SATs, like everyone else. I'm hoping to at least break the 1100s. Even though that's not a very high score, I don't want to expect too much of myself for fear of getting disappointed. I want to go to a good university. I haven't decided yet, but I have done a little investigating. I'm yet to find a college with a good enough education program that's far enough away from home. I'm a little worried but I'll continue my search. This year I'll get my semi-license. I still won't have a car. I want to take flute lessons this year, to replace dance. I also want to take an outside writing course, possibly at the local community college. I have to get a job too. I'll check out Sam Goody at the Echelon mall, because that's where my cousin Abbey's boyfriend works.
2004-05 - I graduate this year. I'm hoping I would have made it into Wind Ensemble by this year, even though if all goes as planned I'll only have been taking flute lessons for one year. Maybe I'll finally be in Jazz Band. I want to get a slightly more career-based job this year--maybe interning at the local newspaper or doing some kind of work with kids. Senior year is supposed to be your chill year, but I think I'm still going to take a science--Environmental Studies--and Spanish, too. I just really love the language and I don't intend to start something and not finish it. I want to take Psych too. And then there's Senior Prom. I want to go because it's supposed to be a big deal and everything, but will I really feel bad if I end up not going? Maybe my priorities will change by then. By this time I hope I've been accepted into the college I ultimately choose and, well, I hope I'm satisfied with my decision.
2005-08 - The College years. Right now I'm definitely not looking to see where the party's at. I don't see the point of partying in college. Sure, I want to have fun, but I have fun now and I'm not totally wasted all the time. I don't know, maybe I'll look back on this entry and be like, ahh, I was so naive! But this is how I feel now. As of right now I want to be a junior high or high school English teacher. So I want to get a bachelor's in secondary education (which, PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, covers grades 5-12) and I want to take some outside courses in writing and literature analysis so that I have some background to work with once I get started. During my last year I'll be a student teacher--most likely I'll be assistant teaching like, 9th grade or something. I'm hoping I can still come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but if I can't I hope I'll meet people who I don't mind spending such a family-oriented holiday with. All in all, I hope to come out of college a) prepared for life on my own, and b) with a whole bunch of new friends and experiences to talk about.
2008-10 - Get started with my brand new job. I want to live on my own at first without having to support anyone but myself. I want to move to Manhattan and teach at a private school. This part of my life seems very distant to me. I just want to get some experience under my belt so that when I move around, I'll have something to show of myself. I have a feeling I'm going to get attached to the kids I teach in my first couple of years, but part of being a teacher is convincing yourself that as much as you feel like you need to stay in the job you have, because teachers don't get paid a lot, you have to move on at one point. So I don't intend to stay longer than two years at my first job.
2010-11/12? I want to live on the West Coast. Preferably San Francisco. My biggest fear is that I'll love that city so much that I don't want to leave. Maybe I'll teach at a private school here, too. Only for a year though. I have to promise myself that it's only for a year.
Here is where my option split two ways. 2012-14 (Option 1) - Move to Canada, teach for a little there. I really want to try. Maybe if I enjoy it enough there, I'll move to Toronto and start a family, in Canada. But this is highly doubtful. Right now I am definitely veering towards...
2012-? (Option 2) - Move back to the East Coast, probably New Jersey, get a good job teaching English to 8th graders or 9th graders, and start a real life. This is when I want to settle down, look for a real relationship, and start a family. I want to experience new things, but I don't want to be wandering around my whole life. After my (tentative) 3 years of "new experiences," I have a feeling I'm going to want some stability. By this time I'll be 25 or 26, which I think is a good age to "settle." I have no problem with getting married at 28 or 29, because I only want 2 or three children and I want them to be born pretty close together. And I also think that finding my one true love is going to take a little while.
I've completely overlooked lots of things that are very important to me, like my friends and my family and music. But fear not, I have not forgotten you! I know it looks like I'm being anal and overly organized with planning out something that is totally unpredictable. But writing this all down helps me prioritize, and decide what kind of choices I want to make in the future. I realize that everything can be thrown off by one little incident--a job that I stay at too long because I think it's the best job ever; maybe a relationship that keeps me in one place too long. Maybe I'll meet the perfect man in college and get married straight away. I just don't know. There is also the chance that absolutely nothing will go as planned--that I'll hate education and change my major and spend another year in college, and then what do I do? But this is how I hope everything will turn out for me. If it doesn't, I won't be pissed or anything. My ultimate goal is to be happy, and if some other plan besides this one makes me happy, I won't sit around wondering "What would have happened if I had _____?" I like to take things day by day, but looking far forward like this puts everything into perspective. I'll never be sure of anything, but at least I can try, can't I?
