For the past 3 days I've been doing not much else but college applications. Now, its normally pretty rough on seniors, as we have to be doing them, while keeping grades up, but as an Art Student, its particularly hard. Not only do you have to submit the supplementary application, the application, and all the other stuff that goes along with that, but you have to submit a portfolio - usually slides of what you've done in terms of art over the past two or three years. It sounds a hell of a lot easier than it really is.
skynet ss UnlockerOne of the colleges I'm applying to, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), asks that you draw 3 drawings in pencil - One representing a bike, an optional subject, and one of the interior or exterior of something or somewhere. 16 inches by 20 inches in pencil. On top of that, you have to fold it up, send it off, and never see it again. Today I finished the last of the drawings, my idea was the exterior of a skull, from many different angles via mirrors. On top of that, I had to select 20 slides for my portfolio, take them apart, define the borders of the piece with silver tape, put them back together, and label them. I had to do this 3 times, labelling each set of 20 differently. Then I had to write an essay for another college that I only recently found out about, type up reference sheets for each set of the slides, write cover-letters for each, pack it all together, and send it off. For the past 3 days I've been working on my final piece for RISD for the last 5 days, and during the times when the lighting is not right (night-time) I've been doing the portfolio work.
Its horribly tedious and time consuming. For the 3 weeks of vacation time, I've only been able to go to a freinds house once, for new-years, that was reasonably fun. I probably wouldn't have to do all this shit If I weren't going to private school on top of it all. Because I live in a dorm, I am thus not able to go home very much, which is a problem, as my parents insist on keeping all of the college stuff at home. So, over the last couple months, I've only been able to fill out the applications over the weekends, when I get to go home. From September to now, I've only stayed at the school twice. All other times I was taking college visits, or filling out forms for an hour at home, and staying the rest of the time at home.
Its my fucking senior year. This is the year in high school that counds the most, the year when everything kicks ass, you're on top, better yet, you don't have to do much work. Junior year, they tell us, was the hardest of all. BULLSHIT. Junior year was a breeze compared with this shit. I have hardly any time to do the things I like, or hang out with freinds, art college applications are so god damn demanding that I don't have any social life! Half of the year is almost gone, and I still hardly know the underclassmen, or even half of my class. (I came to private school as a junior)
But thats all behind me. Tonight I finished the last of my applications, only thing left to do is send them off. And I don't feel relieved, or ecstatic. Because the last day of my vacation, the 'vacation' that I wasted on college applications, is tomorrow, and theres nothing to do. Better yet, my freinds are all away or have prior arrangements, so I'm stuck at my house, with this 28k modem, PBS, CBS and nothing else, 10 miles from anywhere, 40° outside, the new snow melting quickly, and no car. God I hate my house. I wish I were at school, in my dorm room with my roommate, someone I can talk to as a freind, not as a brother or mom or dad. Someone I can hang out with and swear with. NOPE!
Fuck colleges, they've ruined my senior year, stunted my social life, worn down my brain, and taken me away from things I've loved. It BETTER fucking pay off, because up untill senior year I have not truly understood how awesome high school has been, and its almost over.
I could kill someone right about now.
I went to see Lord of the rings recently. The movie kicked ass, but everything up till that point was complete bullshit. Lets break my experience down:
Arriving there was fine, not much to worry about but parking and what side of the damn theatre to park on so that I won't have to walk a long way. On that note, what is really annoying is when they have several showings of the same movie, but they put them scattered around the theatre, so their's no true, determined side. Its pure luck, and more time I have to deal with stupid people who don't know how to walk fast and in tighter groups.
Getting the ticket was OK ... if you bought it like I did online.
One of the worst parts of the whole expirience was actually waiting in line for the theatre to be cleaned for our arrival. In our neat little lines, penned in by those weird seatbelt/post gettogethers, we stood around, nothing to do but nervously talk about 'safe' discussions. Or, if you were alone like I felt, nothing to do but try and lose yourself in some music from your ipod or cd player, or try and stare down the freaky little rugrat that stared up at you, half its left hand stuffed into its drooling little mouth. Or worse yet, managing to get into a conversation with a complete stranger who's obviously had one-too-many drinks for the night and manage to make bodily contact. Time couldn't have moved slower, and worse yet, if you weren't there early, you'd never get any good seats, so you HAD to wait around in the pen-like situation, scowling away people's urgent desire to make light conversation. I hated it with so much passion I think it radiated off me.