Simply Serendipitous: here's to the future

I had a blog entry drafted about how my semester didn't really turn out exactly as I'd hoped for it to, but in the spirit of new beginnings, I've scrapped it. The short version: my grades were lower than I'd have liked, and after much reflection, I think it's because of taking on a lot of new responsibilities and counting on a curve that didn't happen. Anyway, with the new year and new decade on the horizon, I thought it was entirely appropriate to look ahead with a new perspective.

2010 is going to bring a lot my way, assuming everything goes according to plan. I'll take the LSAT, have an internship in Washington, take classes at the School of Public Health, apply for real-life jobs and law school and then graduate from college. Yeah. In one year's time, my life will be entirely different.

And if you're reading this as a prospective (or just-admitted!) student, so will yours. I'm sure you're already thinking about that, and will be on New Year's Eve. It's hard to even imagine how your life is going to change--everything I thought mine would be turned out completely different, and I couldn't be happier.

In the interest of not scaring myself too much more, I'll focus on the more immediate future: January. Intersession is one of the greatest things about Hopkins, hands down. You can take a class or two, work, hang out with friends, or do nothing at all. It's really just fantastic. This time around, I'll be taking a class called International Development and Policy, in which we'll have speakers come in from different organizations and talk to us about what they do. Then, after two weeks of that, we take a three-day trip to New York City to visit more organizations and spend time in the city. I'm super-excited, especially because I've never been to New York.

January will also bring my 21st birthday, which falls on the first day of the spring semester. More on that later on, as it's likely to be a month-long planning process.

As for the spring semester, I have all kinds of big plans and lofty goals, but those will surely unfold more as we get closer to it. However, I'm unwilling to miss out on anything, and I've got my priorities set…which likely means the sacrificed item will be a bit of sleep. I've been meaning to become a morning person, anyway.

With that, I'm saying farewell to 2009, a difficult year and a particularly difficult semester. More importantly, I'm excited about what's to come, as I'm getting wiser in my old age (ha!) and have learned a thing or two about this whole college thing. Stay tuned for what promises to be a better semester, a better year, and an exciting new decade for us all.