visiting prom.

When Bethany blogged about prom, it made me smile and feel old at the same time.

My mom and I were just having a conversation about how this is the first year in a very long, long time that we won't be having a Mann kid going to prom. Weird. 

I've never blogged about my high school experience (that I can recall anyways).  Mine was very, very different than most of you, except for my sisters and my old roommate, Hannah.   My mom made the decision before I was born that she was going to home school her kids.  So that's what she did, until I was getting ready to go into 9th grade.  I enrolled in a charter school that met twice a week for classes and then I was assigned homework for the other three days in the school week.  It was a great experience.  At the end of my 4 years, I got to walk in a graduation with all my friends and other kids from my charter school and it was a blast.  I did miss out on having sports teams to go cheer on or the other fun activities that a public school does, like homecoming for example, but I did get to go to prom for 4 years.  Yep, we got to go to prom as a freshmen.  Now, I'm not about to dig up those awkward pictures of brace-face, freshmen, 80-pound me, but I did find a couple pictures from my senior prom.

That's me in the hot pink.  That dress was the devil in fashion form.  I don't know what possessed me to buy it and wear it, but I have regretted it to this day.  It was so incredibly hot and heavy.  By the end of the night I had cuts in my shoulders from the tiny spaghetti straps holding up all that fabric (Anyone remember the spaghetti strap fad?).

My proms were not normal by public school standards, but they still were pretty fun and I always had a great time.

If you want to share your prom photos, link up here.

Aw yeah!

See all those green checks?

I've been waiting for them to appear since June 10th.

They finally did today, which means I passed my Poli Sci class (with a B) and am officially done with college!

I can breath easy now.

Except for when it comes to trying to start my career...yikes!

Hope everyone is have a wonderful day!

Didn't learn that in History

Borrowed

I've been watching the TV mini series "The Kennedys"
and to be honest I'm finding it pretty interesting.
I'm no historian so I don't really know what all about JFK's presidency was publicized back then and if this show is historically failing or is pretty right on, but just as a entertainment show, I'd say they got it right.
Several times during certain episodes, I've had to pause it and look up what or who they're talking about just because I actually am interested in knowing more.  For all you history buffs out there, I'd recommend this show in a heartbeat.

And I feel like she does...

Because I am officially Done with college!

I heard my last lecture, took my last test, and walked out of my very last class ever (hopefully!).

There are no words to describe the relief I felt walking to my car.

I can't stop smiling.

Hello Summer!

Thank You Letters

I graduated from California State University Long Beach!

 Hurray!



Dear CSULB,
Thank you for all you've taught me over the last two years. I'm sad to see our time together end.

Dear Journalism faculty,
Thank you for preparing me for the long road ahead.
I admire you more than you know and am so grateful that I got to sit underneath you for the last few years.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Dear Mass Media Law,
You are the most repeated/deleted class in our department...take that!

Dear Creative Writing instructors,
Before I started learning from you I couldn't write a poem to save my life...
now I'm a published poet.
I couldn't write a story for anything and now I've written three.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Dear Mom and Dad,
You two are the most amazing people I know.
Thank you for your love and support through the last five years of my life.
Today was just as much your day as it was mine.

Dear POSC 100,
You will be over on the 10th...I will pass you with an A.

Dear CSULB Friends,
Thank you for making long days at school and last minute cramming sessions so fun.

Dear Roommates (and Karen),
Thank you for coming today!
And for making our home so much fun.
I love living with you guys and I'm really going to miss you.

Dear Love of My Life,
Even though you couldn't be here today, thank you so much for your support and love.
There were times where you talked me out of giving up and I can't thank you enough for that.
I missed you more than you'll ever know today.

Dear Candace,
I will try and get that job.

Dear Rebecca,
You're next!

Dear Corinne Elizabeth,
Thank you for being down here these last two years!
Don't know what I would have done without you!

Dear Grandparents,
You are wonderful.
Thank you for coming down here to celebrate with me today.



Dear Friends and Other Family,
There are way too many of you to name and thank, so this blanket thank you will have to do.
I'm incredibly grateful for all your love and support over the years.
My life has been shaped and changed by so many of you and I'll never forget it.
Thank you so much for all that you've done!

Hard to care

I would not say that I'm a political person.

I can't stand political ads,

I'm not well versed on political measures,

I don't really know anything about the people that are in office

and,

at certain times over the last three years, I've felt super disappointed in the way people have responded to Obama's presidency, especially people who are Christ followers.

I firmly believe in Romans 13:1, which says:

Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. (NLT)

That does not mean I believe that this guy is doing a good job at running our country or that I believe in what he says or does, I just think that instead of trying to nail this guy as a fake or trying to hang him and his politics, we should be trusting in a much higher figure and know that He's got this in His hands and one day we'll all have to account for what we've done...including the President of the United States.

That being said, for the next three weeks and 9 sessions of my intersession class, 

I'm going to have to care about politics and politicians.

My first exam is tomorrow...kill me now.

My first assignment is due Thursday...kill me now.

Summer is so close I can taste it.

I better be a lot more knowledgeable when this is all said and done.

Now what??

I am done, done, done...with Spring 2011 semester anyways!

I will be walking in my college graduation ceremony on Thursday

and finishing my last class/taking my last final ever on June 10th.

What the heck comes next?

I've been in school my whole life.

I've honestly never known a life without learning and being in a classroom several times a week.

Another thing I've been thinking about is how this blog is going to change too.

I started it when I moved away to go to Long Beach and now that it's over, it's kind of like it's an end of an era for this too.

There's probably gonna be a lot of, "What am I doing with my life?" posts in the next year,

be patient with me while I figure it out.

Two down...three to go

Finals attire!

Today I knocked out two finals and have just three more to go before Spring 2011 ends.

I still don't feel all that excited, even though I do get to walk on the 26th and I'm pretty sure I was able to declare my creative writing minor so late in the game today.

I finish school and then have a weekend of work before I'm right back in the class room Monday thru Friday, 9 am to 1 pm for three weeks.
This hype about being done can't get to me or those three weeks are going to be hell.

Now I'm off to study for Law. 

Happy Tuesday!

One month.

Graduation is right around the corner.

It's May 10th right now (for one more hour anyways),

and on June 10th, I will take my last final and be done.

Can you say excited? Relieved? Scared?

Holy Stress Batman

^^^^^

This is me tonight.

I keep crying randomly on and off today and I'm stressed out beyond words.

There's so many things that need to be done before Thursday and so little time to do them in.

For example; 

write, record, and edit a 15 minute podcast...

finish compiling my last few pieces, write three responses, organize, find graphics, and bind a 30 piece poetry anthology...

Rewrite one of my two short novels...

Rewrite/type up notes to turn in...

Finish writing a random acts of interpretation paper...

Compile, type up, and present a Mass Media legal brief....

I'm pretty sure that's it.  If I think of something else it might make me cry again. This whole semester has been a breeze work wise and now teachers decided to lay it on thick the week before finals.  Thanks a lot!

Well lovelies, I have to open the gym tomorrow so I need to head off to bed.

Wish me luck and pray for me if you think about it, cause I sure need it.

Night!

You're gonna miss this.

True story.

Today I'm sitting in my English 406 class, advanced poetry, and we're getting to that point as a class where we're getting comfortable with each other and everyone's starting to open up and make critiques, instead of just our professor (a nice change).

So we're laughing and having a good time and all of a sudden this fleeting thought skipped across my mind.

"You're gonna miss this (school) when you're done."

What?? I've never thought that I would miss school once I graduated.  Learning in school has been great and I've had a lot of fun, but I'm ready to move on with my life.

Am I really going to miss it?

Dear Shuttle Driver...

Dear CSULB Shuttle Driver,

Thank you for blaring country music today in your bus.  This music makes me very happy and after the last week/weekend I've had, it really cheered me up.  It also made me smile when I could see you singing right along with the songs...and me.

Sincerely,

A fellow country music listener

Just when I thought things were coming to a close.

Photos provided by www.pinterest.com

Graduating?

 

Tomorrow is my official appointment to fight this "3 Units Short" nonsense.

My thoughts are definitely getting to me.

I don't even feel like saying I'm graduating anymore because it literally feels like all the excitement has been robbed from me.

If it's not a mistake and I really do need to take this last class, walking on the 26th is going to feel fake.  I'll still be in school for at the very least another two weeks or at the most a month or two.

Then today I started playing the "what-if" game and my thoughts came up with this...

What if this is happening because finding out now that I'm not graduating right away, is a lot easier than finding out when grades are posted and I fail my Media Law class!!

I know...I'm overreacting.

Tonight I'll be telling myself, "Do not let the thoughts in your head get to you."

3 Units

I'm struggling.

Yesterday was just a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day".

A few days ago I got an email from my school saying that they see I petitioned to graduate, but "there are things missing from your degree progress report."  What??? I immediately made an appointment with my adviser for Thursday morning.  So yesterday rolls around and after a half an hour of trying to figure out what's going on, the results were in.  

According to CSULB, I'm 3 units short to graduate.  They're claiming that I need a Political Science class.

I was in a pile.  I was devastated. I was so angry.

I've been to a counselor at Long Beach three times and no one caught this.  The Degree Progress Report is hard to decipher and there's no way I could have caught this on my own.  I felt cheated.

However, this morning I woke up and felt a little better and decided to get to the bottom of this.

I think they made a mistake.  Unless Long Beach has a specific Political Science requirement, I fulfilled that part of my GE Breadth by taking two U.S. History classes, an Intro to Sociology, and a Journ. class back at Gavilan.

So now I'm going to another advisement appointment on Monday and I'm gonna go in swinging until they tell me what the heck is going on.  I hope that this is just one big mistake and I'll be able to graduate in May.  I don't want to walk and "pretend" I graduated in May when I have to go back to school for May Intersession or Summer school.

That's just an update on my life.  I'm trying to be calm and understanding of the situation but it's hard.  I thought that the quote above was super relevant to everything right now.  I love "Dear John".  

Have a good weekend loves! 

Blogging in Class

I'm blogging in my Journ. 340 class while we're learning about blogging.

This class is great and I love it, but right now I'm honestly tuning out.

I have no idea where this picture is from because I found it on the desktop of my school computer, but I really like it.  It makes me want to go back East for some reason.  Speaking about going back East, right now I can't wait for Spring Break and for Summer Vacation.

Spring break is in just a few short weeks even though I haven't really made set plans.  A close friend wants me to go to Vegas but I don't know if that'll happen because I'm poor.

I really just want to go home.

This summer is my family's NC summer! Hurray!

I've been there twice now without them and honestly it's still a little strange.

I guess I should go pay attention now, even though we're currently learning about how to create a post on Blogger.

A+ for the day!

Day 20

Day 20- write a letter to someone

I can't believe that 30 days have almost gone by!

 Photo provided by flickr.com

Dear Mass Media Law or Journ 430,

I'm sorry that I failed your quiz today by getting a 1/4.  I promise that I read my chapters, but I've never been one for doing good on tests, let alone pop quizzes.  There's just something about you that confuses me and makes me feel....well...dumb.  You have a ton of different words, mostly in Latin, and way too many different cases and names to keep straight.  Unfortunately, you're the biggest class that's standing in the way of me and my graduation.  I promise to start studying harder, if you start making a little more sense to me.  

Love your diligent super senior,

Amanda

You can read a few other little letters that I've written here and here.

Day 8

Day 8- short term goals for this month and why

Hi lovelies!  I'm really enjoying this thirty days of blogging and I think I convinced my best friend to join as well! 

My first short term goal for this month is not to stress out.

This is an important one because there's many things that I could stress about in February.

So my other goals are as follow:

1. Write two kick @$$ poems which are due on the 8th.

2. Get a good, solid rough draft of my poem paper which is also due the 8th.

3. Come up with the idea for and write my 10-15+ page short novel that's due the 15th.

4.  Get my mass media law book and catch up on the 100 pages that I'm already behind on by no later than next week.

5.  Get a lot of clear ups at work.




There's another short term goal I have for this month that I'm praying will happen, but I want to go to NC. It's kinda crazy considering how much work I just listened above, but I really want it to happen.  We'll see.


Tomorrow's Friday! Are ya'll excited, cause I know I am!

I had an awesome blog all planned out for the 20th, but the sisters were down visiting and time just got away from me.  On the 20th this year, the weather in Long Beach was absolutely beautiful.  Actually this whole week the weather has been awesome.  LAST year however, this was not the case!!!  Just a fun, blast from the bast for you guys.  My weekend was great.  I got to go to Disneyland and California Adventure for the first time in a couple years.  We also had a fun day in Santa Monica. 

Today was my last, first day of college.  I don't really know why but I was so excited to start school today! My first class was great. I think I'm really gonna like it.  Tomorrow probably will suck. I'm at school from 11 a.m. to 8:15 p.m....yuck.  The only thing that's keeping me positive is that I'm almost done! Yay!

And now today's question from my little awesome diary...

January 24, 2010: If you were to start your own company, what would it be?

If I was going to start my own company, I would probably start my own publishing company and publish kids books!

It's That Time Again!

I won't be blogging for awhile...because it's finals week.  I will most likely be looking like this by the time Thursday the 16th rolls around...

 Photo Provided by: ste5ens.wordpress.com

Hopefully this won't happen to me when I actually sit down to take them...

Photo provided by: violentpillow.wordpress.com

Wish me luck! I'll be back in the blogging business in eight days!