Plan Number Six

My appointment with my new eye doctor was Thursday. The news was kind of frustrating. Apparently my prescription has changed only marginally, but I should have been wearing my glasses all day instead of only for long-distance seeing, like driving or looking at white boards in class, which is what a different doctor told me two years ago. He was a complete moron, it seems. How aggravating.

Speaking of glasses, I need to remind my mother to call our insurance people and make sure they cover both glasses and contacts. She's convinced that there is no reason they wouldn't cover both, but the people at the doctor's office told me I could only get one or the other this year. I'm not making an appointment for contact fittings until I know I can get a different pair of glasses, because I've loathed this pair since the day I got them. If I have to go without contacts to get glasses that don't look completely ridiculous, I definitely will. Besides, I'm too lazy to wear contacts every day.

My mom and I drove to a very cool nursery over in Maple Valley today and bought a bunch of drought-tolerant plants to cover up our sandy hillside. Tomorrow is planting day, and I'm actually kind of excited. Everything we got is beautiful!

My brother proposed to his girlfriend today. Yeesh, what is it with my family and getting married quickly? The earliest I can imagine getting engaged would be around graduation in three years. Slow it down, people! He has his reasons, though, and, granted, my siblings are at completely different stages of their lives than I am right now. Anyway, they are going to get married within the month in Missouri, where her family lives, and have a big reception here for all of his friends. In other words, we've got a LOT of planning to do.

Oh, Missouri. How odd it will be to see you! I suppose I'm looking forward to it.

I read an article in the New York Times today about age differences in kindergarten and how they affect performance after the fact. At one point, the author quoted Fred Morrison, a developmental psychologist at the University of Michigan, who said:

You couldn’t find a kid who skips a grade these days. We used to revere individual accomplishment. Now we revere self-esteem, and the reverence has snowballed in unconscious ways — into parents always wanting their children to feel good, wanting everything to be pleasant.

Well!

I fully believe that skipping the fourth grade was one of the best things I ever did, and my only regret about that situation is that I didn't take the opportunity to skip the fifth at the same time. I've never had problems making friends with people who are a year or two older than me; in fact, when I skipped, I already had a solid group of friends in fifth grade and experienced very little social discomfort. The only times in my life when I had problems with making friends all came after switching schools, when it is perfectly normal for children to experience such difficulties. I remained in higher-level courses throughout elementary, middle/junior and high school, and remained in good standing in those courses. My achievements were enough to persuade a private fund to award me $12k/yr to go to school at Willamette University, where I pay a grand total of $3,000 per year for the same education most pay $35,000 per year for.

I really cannot see how being younger than my classmates has had any detrimental effects on me, personally or scholastically. All of my current annoying personality traits (such as being prone to frequent ranting and often delivering cutting remarks, as well as being aggravatingly persistent at times) can be traced back to long before the epic Skipping of the Fourth Grade (the first grade-skipping in Camelot history, zomg!!!!1). One such personality trait, my elitism, was actually tempered by it—the transition from always being the best in the class to just being one of the best was a difficult one, but somehow I made it through. Amazing, I know.

I don't see anything wrong with having some children start kindergarten a year later. This practice can be entirely logical. However, I don't quite understand why the article puts such a negative light on letting younger children move ahead when it can be so beneficial. Before skipping that grade, I never felt normal. I never felt like my friends were as smart as I was, and I was always forced to hold the positions of peace-keeper and advice-giver in my circles of friends. I kept those positions through high school because they became comfortable, but after fourth grade, being closer to my peers academically allowed me to feel better about myself and my place in the world. I was never entirely comfortable with myself before fifth grade, but moving up changed that for me.

The article talks about how we currently revere self-esteem over individual accomplishment, but my choice to skip a grade encompassed both—it was an individual accomplishment that improved my self-esteem, as well as my ability to relate to people around me. I don't understand why people are so against the practice of skipping grades now when my life improved so drastically because of it.

( In other news, I am bored out of my mind! )

My phone is finally talking to computers again! As a result of this wonderful happening, my phone now uses the glorious 24 ring tone for almost any caller. My mother is, of course, the exception. For her, it's a remix of the iPhone ringer. This is incredibly exciting for me; it's basically the best thing I've ever done with my phone. Now I just have to wait for someone to call.

I have finally recovered enough to start doing things. I'm more excited over this than the ringers, obviously. I've done little to nothing for the past week, and I'm fed up with being sick and tired. No more dizzy spells for Victoria! No more coughing, sneezing, or wheezing. I'm done. Tomorrow I'm actually going to exercise and pamper myself and go looking for a job. By this time early Thursday morning, my room will be spotless, and I will be completely heathy. You wanna know why I'll be back to 100% by then? Because I say so!

In other news, my dad told me that if I get a job this summer, I can use whatever money I earn to go towards a MacBook Pro. My immediate reaction: "A MacBook Pro? I thought you wanted me to get a MacBook?" Stupid Victoria! Why did you forget your cardinal rule? "Don't question, just accept"—especially when accepting allows you to more easily fulfill rule number one, "Take care of Number One!" It turned out okay, I suppose. He said he'd rather I got a MacBook, but that he knew I wanted a Pro, so he wasn't too unhappy with the idea as long as I was open to getting one that's been refurbished, which I obviously am not. I kind of want one of the new ones that's rumored to come out at the WWDC in June, though, with the whole LCD screen bit, but I'll take what I can get.

Do you realize that I've actually been promised a new computer now, for the first time in seven years? By the end of August, I will have a shiny new computer of my own that actually works all the time. No more of this iMac G3 nonsense; I'm moving up in the world! My problems finally matter again! My problems haven't mattered since I skipped fourth grade, really, but for some reason they've finally noticed me again, and you won't catch me complaining.

Starting my paper wasn't so difficult this time. That's not to say I haven't been putting it off, because I have, but this time I didn't wait until the very last moment I could possibly start. I half wish I had, though, because I really don't enjoy working on short papers in more than one sitting. As it happened, I started it last night around ten and got about a third of the way through it before I needed to go to sleep. Right now I've got about a fourth left, but I've been working like a madwoman for the past hour, so I'm taking a well-deserved break.

I left my car's headlights on after going out to lunch with the girls the other day, so when I went out last night to try to go to Target, my car wouldn't start. Emily's going to jump it for me sometime this afternoon. It definitely needs to be after I finish my paper, because I have to drive around for half an hour or so before I can turn it off again, and I can't let something as stupid as that make me turn my paper in late. I think I'll drive around the Keizer area; I don't know it very well yet.

Last night with Michael was incredibly comfortable. We fell asleep for an hour or so while watching a movie. I love when that happens.

I suppose I should get back to my paper. I'm glad it's only five pages.

I like how any time I reach any sort of landmark while paper-writing I have to take a break and celebrate in my lj. I am oficially one-fourth of the way through, and being the smart girl I am, I started with the hardest part! If I just keep on keeping on, I should be done with this thing by at least three. Holler!

If I had a B+ three days before the final and my final class grade is an A-, then I sure as hell got an A on that exam.

Success!

I forgot to mention getting my IB Diploma yesterday. Just a minor detail, you know, nothing special. Probably not worth writing about, but, you know, can't resist a reason to spam my own journal and all.

When my mom picked me up from Camp Francais on Saturday, she handed me a large envelope. I pulled this out of it, and words cannot express how excited I was and am.

I am happy to report that I can function quite well on one and a half hours of sleep; just as well, in fact, as I can on five or six hours. Possibly even better, as I have a bad relationship with five hours of sleep--one that causes me to almost fall asleep during history and at work.

I am also happy to report that functioning quite well includes 29/30 on my history final and the praise of one of my best critics on my english oral. Hot dog!