pipistrellafelix | So much...

I have a lot to say but I'm tired so I'll keep it short for my own sake.

I went to the Pacific Crest graduation this evening...Annie was graduating and Claire C as well, and Roxie. It was a nice ceremony--reminded me of how awkward we all were in eighth grade and how cool we thought we were. And we were. In an awkward sort of way. I thought, geez, I'll be doing this on Tuesday. And it was weird....
(I had some thoughts I wanted to write, when I was wandering about my old middle school. Now I can't remember them. But they were there...)

Our senior trip was this week...I am exhausted and nearly heat-stroked and sunburnt to a crisp and I have a spider bite on my calf and mosquito bites on my back and my butt. (Why? Argh.) But it was fun...so lovely. We sat around and signed yearbooks and talked and walked along the beach and found shells, and seastars, and beach glass. We climbed the bluff and watched the ocean, we climbed spider mountain and got chewed out by an angry squirrel; I communicated with a deer (I think...), we drove in the bus to get ice cream blasting Michael Jackson, in honor of Nathan.
The last night we gathered and Glen said a few wonderful words (in essence, we are effing cool and will be a hard act to follow) and then we sat around for another two and a half hours while people said things about how amazing and cool we all were. There were some lovely words...Monica's strings of silk and Maria's capacity to change the world, and Ian's water-and-rocks metaphor, and Jason's words at the end, and, oh, lord, everyone's. Even though I got cold and sometimes I really can't stand these sort of things, I enjoyed it. It felt casual and final and good.

I'm graduating on Tuesday. I'm ready to move on. I love my school, I love my class--we say it so much, but I honestly do, everyone, this class is amazing--I will miss it. I know at graduation I will be crying, since I am a terrible sucker for that. But I am also terribly excited to go to college, to be innundated with classics for two years. Also for maybe the first time in my life I am excited to be thrust into a group of people that I do not know at all. Maybe that's because for the first time in my life I feel brilliantly and amazingly confident in my abilty to be myself and find people who are my friends. I don't think I've felt confident in that area--at least not to this extent--for a long time if ever. Make that ever. And you know, feeling that is kind of nice. Gets me on an independence kick. :)

Although I am wanting many parties and get-togethers with various people throughout the summer...oh glory. So many beautiful people, I love them all.

And now I will go to bed and sleep and hope that tomorrow my sunburn and spider bite will be better. In closing, I have only three words:

RUN, SMARTY, RUN!