• 9Jun 12

  Achievement Unlocked: Graduated High School

  As of last night, 6/8/2012, at around 9:00 PM, I am now a high school graduate. It's finally over, and I couldn't be happier about it.
  
  Last night was also one of the most interesting and incredible experiences of my life. After feeling something almost like magic during the ceremony, I was whisked off to travel about with my fellow graduating classmates on a fun-filled night called "Project Graduation." I got home at 5:30 this morning, hardly even tired, thinking of one of the funnest nights I've ever had.
  
  Looking back, high school was quite the journey. It had its ups and downs, but my senior year was very much an uphill ride, with very few issues. I've officially graduated from Spaulding High School in Rochester, NH. I ranked in the top 30 (I believe I was around 26 about half way through the year) of a class of 280 people (we had 500+ people at the beginning of our Freshman year but.. They sure got weeded out as we went along). I was given an award called "The President's Award," which only 6 people (including me) were eligible for, four of them ranking within the top 10 of the class. For Project Graduation we started inside the school's auditorium. The 135 graduates that were going were restless and excited at first, and most of us were bored by the thought of watching a hypnotist perform. It ended up being the funniest thing I have ever seen. One of my friends got so heavily hypnotized that he fell out of his seat, and later was convinced to think that laughing was against the law. It was a lot of fun to watch. After that, we moved into the school's chorus/band room for a dance of sorts, while we waited for the buses to show up. We then rode up to Maine, where we watched a movie at Smitty's, a unique movie theater where you sit in rolling chairs and get served food at a table. My group watched Snow White and the Huntsmen. It was a decent movie, but I didn't love it.
  
  The night ended at a building usually dedicated to sports, where we found a few different bounce houses set up. Everyone played around for a while, and then once 4 AM rolled around we loaded back up to head home. The entire night was a blast, and I am happy that I was able to share it with my girlfriend.
  
  Today was quite busy as well, because Olivia (my girlfriend) had her graduation party. We woke up after sleeping for a few hours and headed over. At the party, I had my first real conversation with her father (I had met him the night of graduation). It was hard to act like I didn't despise him, because I was so biased against him before even meeting him. Hearing about how he left his family and made Olivia miserable as a child really pissed me off, and I wanted nothing to do with him. He seemed like a nice enough person, though, and I think his years away from his children made him realize the mistakes he made. At any rate, he and Olivia seem to get along well, so I don't have much room to complain anymore.
  
  I've been overwhelmed by the generosity of my family over the past couple of days. I've never been the type to expect much from them, because I don't like costing them a lot of money or being much a burden: I've been doing a lot of self-support since I started working at Kmart last August. I was surprised when my parents said that as a graduation gift, they were going to buy me a laptop. I had been planning on only having them help me pay for it, and I had been saving up money from work in order to pay for it. It was officially ordered yesterday before graduation. I customized an HP Envy 15 after weighing the options, and the 33% off coupon that got me a $1600 laptop for a little over $1000 helped my decision quite a bit. It should ship on the 19th, so I'll have it by the end of the month. I'm excited to finally have my own laptop.
  
  What really touched me, though, was what my grandparents did for me. It's not only that they gave me quite a bit of money; money isn't that important to me beyond the obvious reason that I need it in order to buy things. It's that they saved a letter I sent to them years ago. The card they gave me was fairly generic for a graduation card: "Congrats *insert relationship here*, you graduated!" It was what was inside that got to me. Years ago, I had sent them a letter telling them what I wanted for Christmas. I gave them my little list and then signed my name. In the PS, I told them where they could find the items, and then I said something like, "But it's okay if you can't find them, because Christmas is about being with your family." I couldn't have been older than 8 when I wrote that letter to them, and they saved it to this day, 10 or more years later. Now that I've graduated, I've opened my availability at work a bit more, so that I might get a few more hours in a week. I still told them I wasn't available before noon on weekdays, because I know I'll want to stay up late and sleep in just as I always like to do during the summer. I'm hoping on being able to find a balance between work, personal time, time with Olivia, and time gaming with my friends. I have a scary backlog of games I would like to finish, with more coming out soon. It'll also be easier to keep up with anime that's airing, because I'll be able to watch it later at night without having to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn for school.
  
  Around the beginning of August, I'll be traveling down to Maryland to move into college. I'll be attending Hood College full time as a new student, with my major being Computer Science. I'm considering putting a lot of focus on writing as well, as I enjoy writing and wish to give myself the opportunity to improve myself to the point where I might be able to make money for it in the future. Olivia is going to the same college as either a Political Science or History major. It's going to be a long way from home: 10 hours by car, to be exact. I'm going to miss my family, but I think I need some time away from the nest. I've never been good with trips away from home because I spent almost my entire childhood close to home. I need to put myself out of my comfort zone for a while so I can adjust to it. Hood looks like a great college, and I enjoyed my visit there at the end of March. It's a small, pretty place with around 1000 students living on campus at a time, so it'll be a tightly knit community. They've got a big gaming room in one of the buildings, with tons of TVs and comfortable chairs, and almost all of the new games that release. I'm looking forward to finding my place in that room, and making new friends.
  
  I'm going to try to become more active here again. I know I've said that a lot, but I've found myself gravitating back towards the site again lately as my interests in video games and anime have been rekindled. So you might see more of me around, if I am able to manage my time well enough.
  
  Well, that's all for now. One journey has ended, and another is just beginning.
  Thanks for reading.
  ~Sora
  • Posted Jun 9, 2012 8:11 pm GMT
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• 15Feb 12

  Life update and blah blah blah

  It's certainly been a while since I last posted a blog to let everyone know what's up (and at this point I'd be surprised if anyone would actually check to read this), so I figured I'd pop in and tell you all what's going on.
  
  First and foremost, I got accepted to my college of choice: Hood. It's in Maryland, about nine and a half hours away from my current home. On top of my acceptance, I received a scholarship valued at $18,000 a year for four years ($72,000 for those of you who struggle with math for my "excellence in high school". I'm pretty excited about getting to go there, and to make it even better my girlfriend got accepted as well (and I don't want to make this blog about her but in a couple of months we will have been dating for a year). I'll be majoring in Computer Science come August.
  
  Due to the transition to college, I'm actually expecting to visit here more often. I'll have some off time between classes most of the time, and since I'll usually be stuck on campus, I'll have time to actually post again. I'll probably limit my posting to a bit on System Wars and the Toonami Union, since I've recently rekindled my interest in anime and manga.
  
  So yeah, my senior year is going good and all, straight A's so far and all of that good stuff. Still working at Kmart. Nothing too drastic has gone on in the past few months besides getting accepted into college.
  
  Well, the Nyquil is starting to make me feel a bit drowsy, and I don't want to bore you, so I'll end this update here. Take this as a chance to possibly start seeing more of me from here on out.
  
  See you around.
  
  Oh, and PS: I probably won't read your PM if you sent me one. i've got a ton of them.
  • Posted Feb 15, 2012 6:42 pm GMT
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• 5Sep 11

  Well, I'm not sure exactly how to go about this..

  As many of you probably have already noticed, I haven't been around much at all lately. The combination of school starting, getting a job, and spending time away from the computer has really REALLY decreased the amount of time I spend on the internet. I don't like saying this, but it seems to me like Gamespot has taken a back seat in my life; I've drifted away from it quite a bit. I know I have responsibilities in unions and I know I have a lot of great friends on here, but I just don't know if I have time for it anymore.
  
  So consider this an announcement of sorts.. Sora isn't going to be around much anymore. I'm a senior in high school, I work a part time job at Kmart, I'm in a serious relationship, and I can't be here much anymore. The times I will probably be seen around here will be weekend nights when I'm not busy; other than that, I won't be here much if at all.
  
  I've enjoyed the past 3 and a half-ish years here, and I don't plan on this being the end. But this isn't the best time for me to spend hours browsing forums and making posts. This isn't the best time to argue about video games or share my artwork. I have to balance my time out, and sadly, Gamespot has to get pretty much bumped out of the picture.
  
  Thanks for all of the fun times up to this point, everyone. I'll hopefully be around sometime. Don't miss me too much!
  
  Farewell for now,
  Sora
  • Posted Sep 5, 2011 5:29 pm GMT
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