Yeah, my last entry sounded kind of like a conclusion already. I didn't get a chance to sum up some stuff, though. It was a suprisingly short year. Maybe I'm just getting old and losing my memory, but it seemed like I barely had to do any work this year. I guess in comparison to my junior and senior year of high school, college was like a nice rest.

As a commuting student, I find that I had very little to adjust to in my daily life. The main differences in my life were that it took me eight times as long to drive to school and that I didn't know any of the other students at school. Even though I was trying not to make new friends this year, I ended up becoming friends with a girl in my history class. Well, I'll say "friends," since I still have no idea what her name is. She seemed to be stalking me to get my history notes. Anyway, since there wasn't a huge separation between my high school and college lives, I seem to keep forgetting that I don't attend Dulles anymore. Whenever someone mentions Dulles, I'll say, "Oh, I go there!" And when I talk to my sister about the clubs I was in, I speak as if I'm still part of them: "Yeah, we got the usual deluge of bad submissions this year!" It's weird that I can't seem to break away. Of course, I still miss the DHS lasagna. I can't get anyone to get some for me! It's so frustrating.

I'm going to discuss the "freshman fifteen" now. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's the theory that students gain fifteen pounds their first year in college (away from home). I hadn't heard about this until about January. I did end up noticing that some of my fellow classmates were looking a bit chubbier in the cheeks than they did in August, but there were no definite claims to any weight gain. Since I live at home, I don't think my experience would count for anything. I actually lost fifteen pounds.

I'm still annoyed about the expense of textbooks. True, we get to sell them back for a certain amount of money, but it's barely anything compared to how much they cost! Also, if the professor is no longer using that book next year (new editions of college textbooks are published every couple of years), then you can't sell them back at all. It pretty much sucks. I've decided that I may not buy some of the books I need next semester, due to the fact that I don't actually read them. That'll save me money, won't it?

As it seems, I won't be transferring next year. I still don't like UH, but my grades are nowhere near decent, so I doubt that I could get admitted anywhere. I think I'll try one more year, to see if I can bring my grades up. There just isn't any place good around Houston that I can attend. But as I've mentioned before, moving out is highly inconvenient for me. My life is too highly integrated to this particular locale. I think if I ever move out, it will be for good. Thanks for reading, folks. Toodles! *snicker*

I need someone to straighten me out.

Helen