As I have mentioned many times before, and – if that hasn’t been enough of a hint, I know that it has probably been evident from the topic of my last few blogs – I am totally and completely college-focused.

It is what I dream about. It is what I yearn for. Back in October my college fever was more like a college delusion, induced by application overdose. Now that all of my applications have been sent out and I am sitting, waiting, wishing, it’s really more like, well, a love-sickness. Oh, how I long for those acceptance letters.   

But soft! What acceptance letter through yonder mail box breaks?
It is the east. And my Mystery College is the Sun!

But whenever I find myself feeling a little woozy from college fever, I always have good ol’ High School Land to pull me back down from the clouds.

And nothing reminds you that there are still five months left in your senior year better than a post-Christmas exam week.

After three and a half years, I have become somewhat immune to midterm exams. But it wasn’t always that way.

My freshman year was the first year that I took exams. (I say this only because some middle school curricula have been altered to include mid-year and final exam periods in order to prepare students for these exams at the high school level.) 

Of course, I found the thought of having to spew everything I had learned over the course of the past five months absolutely terrifying.  I was a little – scratch that, very – worried about whether I knew the content. And so, of course, I over-studied for all of my exams.

But as worried as I was about the content, I was even more worried – as silly as it sounds – about whether my teachers would be able to read what I wrote on my exams.

Handwriting always causes problems for me on exams.

I have awful hand writing. My teachers, my mother, and anyone to whom I have ever written a "Thank you" note can certainly attest to this. Especially my teachers, and especially around exam time. I tend to write too much, so as I’m trying to get all of my ideas down on paper, the structure of my words gets lost.

This has been the cause of significant stress while I’ve taken regular tests during my normal class periods. You can imagine the stress that it causes after I’ve taken a comprehensive hour-and-a-half long exam and can’t read half of what I’ve written. I can admit, though, that my teachers are the real victims here. Or maybe martyrs. I’m fairly certain that "Reading Rebecca’s test writing" can help get you ordained as a saint.

My mother jokingly blames my poor writing on my elementary school teachers. I don’t know who my teachers blame it on. I would say that I prefer to blame the people who make Ticonderoga pencils, but, honestly, who can really hate on a Ticonderoga? It probably has something to do with the fact that I’ve been a rabid computer user since the age of 3. (What can I say, I was a Putt Putt and Freddie Fish junkie.) So I guess I’ll blame Bill Gates.

But enough of that. In a little over a week, I will be taking my last high school exams. Ever. (Seniors are not generally required to take final exams at Wheeler unless the teacher requests that they do or unless a student would like to raise their final grade in a class.)

I have a feeling that this last bout of exams isn’t going to be one of those senior-year lasts that I wrote about a little while ago that I’ll look back on with any sort of fondness/nostalgia/longing. Especially since my hand writing hasn’t improved much over the course of three and a half years.

But, hey, I might be surprised. One of my friends told me that the emotion of realizing that her high school career was ending caught up with her during a fire drill on her last day of school. Maybe it will happen to me in the middle of my calculus exam. (I’m going to venture a guess and say that, if that were to happen, I wouldn’t be the first person to cry during a calculus exam. Or at least feel like crying, for that matter.)

There’s also a good chance that I might exit my exam rooms jumping for joy. My bet’s on that one.

Sigh. O College, College! Wherefore art thou, College?