August 2011:

-finished summer semester

-found out about the critical language scholarship

September 2011:

-started fall semester, technically a “freshman”…again lol

October 2011:

-looking for other programs, study abroad

-found one in Japan, I contacted them and they actually sent a program to my house

Wahaha Japanese Language School in Fukuoka, Japan

November 2011:

-figuring out how many credits I needed to graduate, really I need 60

-I found out that I could graduate with my associate’s degree in May of 2012

December 2011:

-finished my first actual semester of college

-went to Fukuoka, Japan—> December 21 2011 to January 14, 2012

THE BEST PLACE TO VISIT, I SWEAR.

January 2012:

-came back from Japan, started last semester in community college seeing that I would graduate in May 2012

it’s kind of crazy. I can now tell my grandchildren, children and friends that my life changed when I turned seventeen and in that time progressing towards eighteen, I completed two years of college, in one. haha I know. your’e probably thinking I’m super smart or something like that. Actually, I’m not. I’m just a regular, my grades aren’t excellent, mostly A’s and B’s. I just figured out a way around the schooling system here in the United States. But, it took a lot of breaking down my pride. I used to go to a preparatory school where everybody was smart, and going on to a community college was looked down at. But, I understand now what a community college is like. Really, I feel that those people from my prep school can’t say anything about it, if they haven’t experienced it themselves. I regretfully say that I used to be one of those people. The community college I go to is great, the teachers are helpful and very experienced, nothing like the stereotypes I heard about when in high school.

But look at me now. Instead of graduating high school this June, I’m graduating community college, with an associate’s degree in English! I’m two years ahead of my peers, and caught up with the class of 2010 from my high school. I hope that one day I can promote what I did to others who are similar to me, high ambitions, a lot of persistence, and a willingness to work harder than ever.

Speaking of working hard, I don’t think that what I did was difficult. The only part that was difficult was scrambling to get my transcripts to go through the school system and making sure I could graduate on time.

Okay, I’m writing later.

only one post on tumblr besides this one. and wow i have changed a lot… i think im more decided in terms of what i want to pursue and im starting to narrow down my choices because i still have a lot of options.

graduating in may!!!!

Alright, 1st official day of blogging about my journey so far. Let’s play catch up first.

April 2011: imagining the unimaginable

-Dad proposes plan to skip senior year of high school and go straight into community college.

-I for one, thinks he’s crazy. 

-Everyone will think I’m a nutjob, and I don’t know what I’m doing.

May 2011: the idea starts to settle in

-My parents and I seriously deciding on whether I should withdraw from high school.

-I lean towards getting out of high school early because:

-I will give myself more opportunities to go about my career path

-(at my high school, I was stuck. my junior wasn’t as good as expected)

-The perks of getting out early? graduating 2 years earlier than my current class, at the least

-I have to take a GED. Isn’t that hard? Apparently not.

-I enrolled in community college, but only as an early credits high school student. hehe, they don’t know my whole plan. 

-I start my first college class: Art Appreciation

June 2011: full throttle

-I am fully committed to this plan of accelerating my high schools to be in college. 

-The day of prom was my last day of high school.

-I tell some of my friends, they cry, I don’t graduate with them.

-In the long run, what I’m doing will completely make graduating from high school, not matter.

July 2011: other options?

-Well, technically this really started in June, but my parents and I were talking about sending me to a foreign university. 

-We started scoping Asia, namely China and Japan

-We found in China: Nankai University, Tianjin University, UIBE

-We found in Japan: Ritsumeikan University, APU 

-scoping out chinese and japanese intensive language courses to start in august

-taking the GED next week: (7/19/2011, 7/21/2011)

-but then dad told me I had to take an ACCUPLACER test for community college. 

-but luckily my SAT score was high enough. 

-BUT he found the CLEP tests. so I could skip classes and finish my freshman year of college in 3 months?!

-soo…. that means I would finish freshman year before I would actually start the official first day of college on August 31, 2011? What the…

-but there’s more in store!

THE PROGRAMS: 

alright 2 programs 

to study in China: http://exchanges.state.gov/academicexchanges/sli2.html

to study for 7-10 weeks in China, I get a scholarship from the U.S. government?! oh what the…

to study in Japan: http://www.borenawards.org/boren_scholarship/basics.htmlapply for Boren scholarship: go to any study abroad foreign university for free, scholarship from U.S. government, FOR A YEAR

-APU HERE I COME!!!!!!!!! (dream school)

in return for: a year of work in the U.S. government. OH WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON. 

number 1: I’ll be 19 and I can say I work for some sector in the U.S. government?

I just opened myself up to a lot of jobs. 

Okay. That’s it for now. I’ll update later on in the day! :)