This is Not a Diary

Okay, so just to put everyone at ease, I got my transcript process thing in-gear this morning. Went to the college website, ordered an official transcript and had them mail it to the Admissions office at UW. So hopefully, if all goes well, that should be about all they need to realize how awesome--er--that is, to realize that I completed all the requirements. Yeah.

Moving on, I also started looking at housing options today. Fun stuff. As I said, I want to avoid dorms if I can but I've already been looking into a few things/places and have found a few promising leads but... I'm not actually going to post about them until any are actually concrete enough to write about. Sorry.

Mostly, I just wanted to let everyone know about the transcript but really, there's not a whole lot more I can do before I get the Orientation package thingy or whatever in the mail (which I'm supposed to be getting "within two weeks" according to the letter from the admissions office). But, I promised I'd keep y'all posted, so there you go.

And don't worry, you won't be seeing one of these random Here's What I Did every day. That would be boring. This isn't a diary (thank God!). --Remember when you'd write those when you were little, writing down every single detail of every day?
"And today I got up and had breakfast. It was toast with peanut butter. And some cereal. Then I watched a movie but had to pause in the middle to go to the bathroom. After that I played video games and then had dinner later and went to bed."
Come on, I know I'm not the only one who wrote like that, right? ....Right? ..............right?  

Okay, I didn't actually write like that either. Maybe in 2nd grade. That was fun. 

Anyways, I'm rambling--until next time, friends! 

The Letter

So, I was actually at work when I got the call. Closing, as usual. Ever since I got promoted last December that's been my default--closing. It's worked well for me so far and I enjoy the chill winding down of the day.
So, that's where I was, at my store, just me and another Barista, working on Supervisory things when I got a call from my Mom who said that she had something really important to tell me but since I was busy at the moment I had to call her back.
After we finished helping the customers and the store was slow enough for me to comfortably step away, I let my Barista know that I was going in back and gave her a call.
So, she told me she had received two letters from UW, one labeled "The BIG envelope" (obviously good news with a title like that) and one from the Admissions office. I'm not gonna lie, when I heard that news, I was definitely doing that super-bubbly, excited 5-year-old, Christmas morning, jumping up and down number.
True story.
Probably had the biggest, dopiest grin on my face coming back on the floor afterwards. Related the news to my Barista (one of my bestest buddies) and told her and another friend I'd let them know when I actually opened the letter and found out for real if I was accepted. Which I was. Freakin' awesome.

I mean, I knew I'd applied and I knew I'd made a little deal with Jesus that if getting into UW was what He wanted me to do then I trusted Him to get me in but still--it was so surreal actually holding that letter in my hands and reading those first two sentences:

"Congratulations! With great pleasure I offer you admission to the Seattle campus of the University of Washington for the 2012 Fall quarter"

Oh, heck yes. Freakin' amazing, best feeling ever. If you've ever gotten an acceptance letter, you know what I'm talking about. Christmas morning, right? Yeah.

The best/hardest part now is going to be what comes next.
First off, I've gotta move. I live an exceptional distance from Seattle and currently do not own a car and even if I did, would definitely not want to be making that commute to Seattle for school and then back to work. Yeah, no thanks.

So, I need to move. I've never moved before so that's an adventure itself. My family has talked of moving before and came close a few times but it never happened and so this will all be new.
I'm thinking I want to stay away from dorms because people say, "Dorm life is great!" the way they say, "McDonalds is a great first job!" --which means it isn't and that's just a nice way of saying, "It freakin' sucks!"

So, no dorms. The only way I would consider it is if I could get a single dorm because I don't do roommates. Which is odd you might think, since I've grown up with 8 siblings but here's the truth: I'm somewhat of a distrusting person and maybe a little conceited because I basically don't trust that people are as motivated as I am--motivated enough to do what it takes (which includes avoiding doing what it doesn't, if you know what I mean) to get where I need to go and do what I need to do to absolutely succeed 110%. Maybe a little snobbish but I kind of don't care. I graduated after 2 years from a community college with a 3.87 GPA and I'm going to fight to keep that grade up.

Before I move though, I've gotta get a few things into UW Admissions to make sure I get into UW for sure. Like my new official transcript, since all they've got currently is my transcript up through the outset of Winter Quarter. Then I've got to go to the Orientation thingy that I've never been to before (I'll let you guys know all about it when that happens) and figure out what's going to happen from there.

So, lots of stuff coming up, super-excited, kind of awesome. I can't really start a lot of things in motion until tomorrow since today is Sunday and I wouldn't be able to get ahold of the college to send off my transcript anyways. So, I'll let you all know how that goes!

Until then, friends!

Intro

Well, let's start off with some basic info, shall we?

I'm a Christian first and foremost. Jesus is the most important person in my life and I can vividly see His hand in my life guiding me to the right places, meeting the right people, putting me in the right circumstances to succeed in the plan that He set up for me. It's truly been an adventure and I continue to thank Him for it, so if you don't want to hear a bunch of mushy Yay Jesus talk then you'd best find a different blog to subscribe to because with me it's all about Jesus.

As far as my life until this point goes, I've lived in the same little city in the same little neighborhood in the same (not that little) house the entire 21 years of my life thus far. I've lived with 8 geeky siblings (yes, eight), though about half of them have gone off to live other places now. Only five of us are still at home--my two oldest brothers, younger sister and my adorable little 6-year-old sister. And my parents, of course.

I'm currently employed at Starbucks as a Shift Supervisor and I love my job. Who wouldn't love working at a coffee shop where you get free drinks while working, 30% discount when not, free 1 lb of coffee per week (or tea or VIA or even boxed chai...). Kind of amazing. Oh yes, and helping customers is great, too. No, really--I'm honestly so proud of what Starbucks does for their communities and how they reach out to people and communities in need--actually using their Corporate power to help people. Another reason I love my job.

Moving on, June 11th of this year I had my big 21st birthday and can now legally drink and all that fun stuff (whatever--no big deal). 3 days later, I graduated from community college with my AA in Japanese and a plan to keep moving onward (kind of a bigger deal).

I applied for the University of Washington (Seattle campus) in February and on the 22nd of June received my letter of acceptance and--let me tell you--definitely in the top greatest moments of my life.
True story.

Honestly, I'm planning to eventually turn this blog into a vlog--mostly because I talk too much. No, really, you couldn't tell already? Check out the length of this post and I haven't even started yet! I can get so much more out when I'm directly talking to people (maybe because I talk too fast?) and also because, although I can type pretty fast, it takes me WAY too long to type up every single blog post I would ever want to write--time that could be spent doing so many other things--like making more blog/vlog posts!

However, until I can actually get a decent camera (all I have now is my 3DS camera which... works... kinda... but not nearly well enough for the quality I would need for the real deal vlog I've envisioned), I've decided that I really need to document important things and processes that will eventually lead up to my vlog at UW.

Starting with The Letter.