College Is a Lot of Things

        I am feeling quite a bit better than I was with my last blog post.  No fear, control of emotions is here!
        As per usual, I've been thinking about college a lot recently even though I told myself that I would wait until summer comes to do so.  It's a huge stress to think about, but somehow I am feeling more stressed that I haven't decided yet and I need to have decided in about seven months. 
        Insert a "dun dun duuuuun!" face here.
        So anyways, yesterday I went to the Westminster Experience, or the Westminster open house, and I liked it even more than I thought I would.  I liked hearing about undergrad research, internships, study abroad, free transportation, free tutors, the writing center, and the eco-friendly-ness of the school.  I didn't even know some of those things could be things schools do. The campus is also gorgeous.  The science center is beautiful.  And I wish every place everywhere took gardening advice from Westminster.  The only thing I didn't like was... the price.  Westminster, for those of you who for some reason don't know, is the most expensive college in Utah, at about $27,000 (and I'm not even positive if this is per year or semester).
        I feel like a fool every time I look at colleges east of here.  $40,000, at least??  Umm... no.  My parents would absolutely never go for that.  So Westminster is still really out there for my family.  One of the teachers I talked to suggested going to SLCC for about a year and then transferring.  And even then, I'd need a lot of scholarships.  It looks like I could get an academic scholarship of about $15,000, but then I need to figure out some other scholarships.  If $9,000 for the University of Utah is semi-unreasonable, then $12,000 is still out there.  So there's some "gah, why you be so expensive, higher education??" stuff.
         As far as good things, I got some free lunch, and I got Westminster's literary magazine for free!  I got to sit in on a mock psychology class, which was really interesting -- I learned all about my brain on puberty!  Which really is interesting stuff, and I liked it more than I did the whole semester of my high school psychology class.  Also, the chairs -- so much improvement from high school "why you be attached to the desk?" chairs!  Roll-y and squishy and nice!
        I've mostly decided that I want to stay in state, even though there are some out of state colleges/universities that I really like.  I don't feel like I want to be away from my family, thus considering U of U, SLCC, or Westminster.  Or if I have to be, I want to be within reasonable travel distance, thus USU , Weber (they have a color guard!) or SUU.  BYU if I get desperate. 

        In non-college related-ness, school is almost over!  Yea and nay!  I hate doing absolutely nothing in class, which means it sucks beyond belief, but it also rocks because that means the end of pointless classwork and the beginning of a very point-ridden marching band season.  Woot woot! 
        Oh, marching band and color guard, I love you as much as I love paper snowflakes and purring cats.
    
        And just in case you're wondering, I've started reading a lot more!  Right now I'm reading Wildwood Dancing and rereading Dear Dumb Diary: My Pants Are Haunted.
        DFTBA.