Future Nonsense

As a high school junior this year, a lot of important goings-on about my life are happening in quick succession. Namely class rank, GPA, and Advance Placement (AP) tests. I've already taken the SAT, but plan to take it again. However, many things have already happened that I can't exactly do-over.
Firstly is my GPA. While I can change that, and plan too, I can't do much. Which apparently some people don't understand. Just because I work really hard this year isn't going to make my GPA jump up to stellar. It's an AVERAGE people. I slacked off freshman year when everything seemed far away and comfortably blurry, and now I'm stuck with that.
Secondly, I get to contend with my class rank. Compared to my peers. All of my crazy-driven, stellar, super-smart friends and enemies. I know, I know. Every kid thinks their school is hard, I'm just some whiny slacker right? WRONG. Google LASA High School. What comes up? Well, let me count the things. Our robotics team BEAT NASA. One of us got the SIEMENS scholarship. My school is full of geniuses, and I'm what seems like the only normal kid. This means that my SAT scores have to be phenomenal to get into colleges I want.
That's another thing, college. I understand that places like Princeton, Stanford, Brown, Washington & Mary, Yale, Harvard, and Cal Tech are all great schools, and they NEED to be selective, or else they would be taking in about half the nation, but does it really mean failure if you don't get in? No. I'm perfectly fine going to an in-state college and living in an apartment. If I can live a comfortable (not perfect) life doing a job that I love, that's success enough for me. I don't need to be an engineer and make $80,000 a year to feel like I accomplished something.
I want to be a waitress, a bartender, major in communication design (advertising) and work a mid-level job and live in an apartment. I'm not going to set my sights on something that unobtainable before I'm 50. I want to work for now, tomorrow, and next week. Not ten years, my children, and my retirement plan. Is that so bad?

Why Texans freak out over frozen water

This morning when I woke up, it was sleeting. My brother (who was going to stay home sick) promptly got very excited and started yelling out the window "SNOW! SNOW!". He did not look sick anymore. The ride to school was similar to being dive-bombed with powdered sugar (or at least that's what I think it would be like). Needless to say, when the snow started accumulating over first period, the school freaked out. Kids were running around the halls, yelling and laughing. Multiple snowball fights were going on in the courtyard. Our principle came outside to tell us to stop, got hit with a snowball, and then scurried inside to avoid another pegging. Later in computer science, I was IMing my cousin who lives in Chicago. While my overly excited mood may be shared by my classmates, my cousin didn't see the novelty. I understand that this view is held by many across the USA.
The thing is, we don't get snow in Texas. Rarely we get ice, but ice isn't that impressive. You can get ice from your freezer. Snow, however, is magical. To someone who lives where 100+ degree days are not only normal but expected during the summer, something even close to resembling Narnia is amazing. While many people across the nation may think we're crazy for liking frozen water that blocks streets and makes getting up in the morning a pain, at least the Texans I've met never really outgrow the fascination.
The only downer to this day was the fact that we didn't get out early. Something about our budget...
But all in all, this has been a pretty fantastic day...until I have to walk home at least.