I’m seriously liking living “on my own”. For the first time ever, I feel slightly independent. I rely on the public transit system to get to school each day, and it’s my responsibility to clean up after myself, cook, and get on the bus on time. I’m even doing my own laundry, with a little instruction from my landlord; but her washer/drier is completely different from mine at home!

I am going to hand my resume in to a local group home which is quite literally down the road from where I’m living. The money is apparently good, and even if it’s not the best it’s still a familiar place and it’s still money coming in. I can start saving!

Yep, I think living on my own agrees with me! I have a feeling college is going to be stressful, but I know that I’m going to thoroughly enjoy it. This weekend I’m staying here so I can hang out with a couple new friends that I have made and go to a PowWow the local native’s are having for everyone to get a glimpse of their culture. It should be a really rewarding, interesting experience.

Recently I switched from Community Development to Community Development with an Emphasis on Aboriginals. I had my first class yesterday and it was full of promise for the upcoming year. I like the sound of things we will be doing.

On a completely different note, my friend Mandy (who also has MHE) will get to meet JK Rowling in NYC this year. I’m so envious! If only I had entered the contest with her! Except I think it was only for people in the United States. Oh well. Have fun for me Mandy!

I am deeply sorry that I’ve failed to update my blog lately. It’s far from abandoned! I have just been super busy! The last week of August I was away at a residential camp with the recreational group for the developmentally handicapped that I worked at. The week was long and although it was fun, it drained my energy fast. It didn’t help that it rained almost every other day. The weather was damp. My bones ached the entire time. Luckily I was in a cabin with electricity and I was able to steal the electric heat blanket from the nurses cabin during cabin time.

It was my third time being at that particular camp with the members of the recreational group. Only this time, I had far more responsibility. I was the summer student and the cabin leader of my cabin. Not only did I have to run events and activities each day and ensure that everyone was having fun and doing their parts, but I also hosted most of the cabin troubles on my shoulders. On Monday, three of our volunteers left so it was just myself and one volunteer in a cabin with four members. We made out well enough; our members had fun and got the care they needed, but it was still stressful.

Although there were a lot of funny camp moments, when home time came I was relieved. It was such a long, stressful week for me and I couldn’t wait to drop my title of authority and relax. Of course it couldn’t be easy, the 7 hour bus ride was even more long what with all the things that just had to go wrong. For instance, bus #3 broke down 20 minutes after we left camp. We had to squish all of the people onto the other two buses, and it was a tight fit.

After I got home, I barely had time to relax. The next day I had to go into work one more time before leaving for school to do my evaluation on how I did this summer. It went pretty well, I think I have a job next summer – if I want it. I’m not too sure though, the truth is that this summer was really hard on me – physically and emotionally. I let the stress of the office problems get to me, and that didn’t help the physical stress my body was under. Camping 3 weekends in a row was hell on my bones; I don’t think I’ve recovered yet.

The very next day (the 1st) I went to the annual summer birthday party celebration (this year at my grandparents house). I visited with my family from out of town for a while, then decided to steal one more weekend at my boyfriend’s trailer, since I knew I wouldn’t get the chance to when school started. On the 2nd I moved the rest of my stuff into the apartment, and then on the 3rd at 9pm I officially moved in to the basement apartment that I’ve rented out for the school year.

The 4th was my “first” day of college, but not really considering it was just an orientation where they held a couple seminars like Essential Services, meeting your Student Adviser, and learning how to use the student email portal. Things weren’t really exciting until the 2nd day of actual classes, when I started to make friends.

I take the bus to the college everyday, and I walk around the school carrying a pretty heavy bag. My shoulders ache and my back aches, so does my legs from walking around so much. I don’t want to push around a trolley, considering there are so many stairs and it wouldn’t really help out at all. Those book bags with wheels only cause more problems when you aren’t wheeling them around because they weigh more. Needless to say, I’m not too sure what I can do. Lugging home 5 textbooks and my binders doesn’t help either, and it’s not like I can have 2 sets of textbooks like I did in high school, college text books cost a lot of money.

If anybody has any suggestions for me, feel free to say them. It’s only week 2 of college and I’m exhausted already; we’ve barely started our work load! The current work load is good, all I really have to do is read chapters of the text books so I actually know what’s going on in the lectures.

I also have switched to Aboriginal Emphasis, so my schedule is going to change around ever so slightly. I’m pretty excited about it actually, Aboriginal culture has always interested me. Next weekend a local reserve is having this huge Pow Wow and inviting anyone interested in going to it, the theme is Healing Through Laughter. I’m going with a couple of people from my program.

And that is what’s new in the life of me. I’m still trying to settle into college life and draw a line between school work and play time (because everyone knows you need play time in college or you’ll snap). I so far love my program and the people I’ve met are all cool and interesting in their own ways. My physical pain isn’t holding me back too much at the moment (knock on wood) but we’ll see as time goes on. I should probably start intervening anyway and making changes to the things I’m doing wrong (such as carrying around such a heavy bag load and walking around too much) but thus far I’ve been unable to solve my own problems (since I need everything I’m carrying around and I can’t have them move classes just for my convince).

But I’m liking it, and that’s the important thing!

So my high school graduation ceremony was last night. I have to say it went beautifully. It was really nerve racking coming outside to see several bleachers full of friends, family and teachers. I almost died. I was fully able to picture myself falling flat on my face. Luckily, I didn’t.

I was deeply embarrassed halfway through the award part of the ceremony because I realized I wasn’t going to get an award. The few that I thought I would get ended up going to other people. So I stopped listening to the awards, and then guess what? I was called up to accept the Heather Rebeka Lodge Award that is awarded to a graduate student who worked hard and will be attending college in the fall despite obstacles. The obstacles they were talking about was the two surgeries I had last year that put me behind my classmates. Had I not taken co-op, I would be short two credits and I would not have graduated. Thanks to co-op, I was able to earn 2 extra credits and graduate with my classmates. I was award $200 which I put in the bank today.

Unfortunately thanks to co-oping all day, I missed out on having a social life. Most of my classmates enjoyed their last year of high school by attending several parties, going to school functions and just enjoying the high school life. I missed out on that. I was busy working. I missed out on one of the classmates finding a mouse in their pants, I missed out on several awesome get-togethers. I didn’t go prom camping, and I didn’t go to any of the Blue Jays games the popular kids put together because I wasn’t sure if I would feel weird or not.

The class valedictorian made me think about all the stuff I missed out on by giving her beautiful speech. I now feel guilty for assuming I would have a horrible year way back in September, because I could have made it better. Instead of making time for my old friends, I accepted the fact that they had changed. Ya, maybe a couple of them changed for the worst but I still could have joined in on the antics every once in a while. I could have made the new people to my old circle of friends feel included, I should have made my own friendships with them instead of assuming I had been replaced in that circle of friends. I should have skipped more classes, laughed more, attended more parties, gone to more school dances, and enjoyed it while I still could.

I sat through the Graduating Class Slideshow a bunch of people put together and almost started to cry. I missed out on knowing a lot of people. I was only in the slideshow twice myself, and I could have been in there more. Had I given myself the chance to fit in. I suppose you could say that I decided I was above silly high school antics, and in believing so I missed out on what could have been a really fun time of my life.

But that chapter of my life is over now, I have accepted my diploma from high school and in the fall I will be attending college. I’ve got everything set up; the cheques in the mail to secure my spot in the Social Service Worker Program and my first and last months rent has been paid for my apartment. I’ll be attending a Welcome Day in late July, and I’ll bring in all the stuff I need to get set up with Disability Services.

The tuition payment was supposed to be due today, but yesterday my dad and I drove up the college to explain our situation. The money had not come in yet; we were still waiting for the government to release it. They understood, and have given me until Friday of next week. Luckily, the money came in yesterday evening and the college will definietly have it by next Friday. My mom is planning on running it up Tuesday (since Monday is a holiday).

So everyone, I am no longer a high school student.