In my last post (yup, the one from April 18) I promised that I would update more frequently. Hehe I hope you didn’t actually believe me! Sorry guys, just A LOT has been going on. I’m positive I’ll post more over the summer; nevertheless, considering it’s 3:30 AM and I have nothing better to do, I figured a quick update was in order.

          First and foremost, I am officially a high school graduate! I remember my previous post being about how quickly time can go by, and, although I tried to hold onto those final two weeks of high school (my last day of classes was April 30), they went by quicker than ever. A rush of elation and sorrow hit me that final day; joy that I would never have to sit through another high school class, and sorrow that I would never again be able to enjoy those very same classes. Although the classes were sometimes boring, amazing teachers like Mr. Higgins, Senora VerHoven, Doc, Mr. Fili, Mr. Santanello, Mr. Speidel, Mr. Matson, etc. truly make the CBA experience. Of course, we ended our final day in style. Members of the CBA Math Team (for the most part, at least. *cough* Milazzo *cough* haha) celebrated and rejoiced with pizza and soda in Room 12. Pizza and soda wasn’t enough, of course. We culminated our CBA experience by writing various mathematical heresies and sayings (i.e. “But what was u???”, “0! = 0″, “1/infinity=0″, “1/n converges”, “infinity – infinity = 0″, “lim theta–>0 of sin(theta) oscillates between -1 and 1″, “let the logs do the work”, “2pi that guy”, etc etc.) on the board while playing our Varsity Math Team theme song, Everytime We Touch by Cascada. If you were a member of the Varsity Math Team with me and you’re reading this right now, always remember one thing: Know Your Limits. Needless to say, it was truly the perfect way to end my last day of classes. No guys, I’m not joking. Prom—which was definitely a blast—was May 1, and after that, 5 AP exams were all that stood in the way between me and graduation. After having a blast with statistical inference on AP Statistics, Taylor Series’ing it up with AP Calculus BC, writing about the wind on AP English Literature & Composition, conserving momentum on AP Physics C: Mechanics, and deriving electric fields using Gauss’s Law on AP Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism, it was time to graduate. Graduation day was May 13, and it was pretty intense. I went in knowing that it would truly be my last time seeing many of my former classmates; it’s impossible for that not to be an unnerving realization. So to all of my CBA brothers one last time, thank you for the last four years of my life. I don’t think I could ever thank you guys enough. Although I knew I would come to love CBA, I had no idea that I would come to love it this much, something I owe it all to you; you guys make CBA the school that it is. May God bless you all for the rest of your lives, and I wish you all the best.

          My birthday was May 20, so I’m also officially 18. Although birthday’s rarely feel different to me, this one did; it’s hard to explain, but there’s just something about being 18 that gives you a renewed sense of purpose. This year, I received the greatest birthday present I will probably ever receive. On May 22, Jay, one of my best friends, was over my house shooting hoops out front with me, something I’ve been doing ever day since summer has started. We were sitting around on my porch planning bowling with a few friends, and I’ll never forget what transpired next. My mom quickly came outside—phone in hand—and told me that it was someone from Notre Dame. I picked up, and he casually told me that Notre Dame was considering about 50 additional kids from its waitlist. He then informed me that I was one of them and that I was officially a member of The University of Notre Dame’s incoming Class of 2013. It was, simply put, the happiest moment of my life—something I’m sure Jay could attest to. (Quick sidenote: Jay was also with me when I received my CBA acceptance letter, so Jay, if you’re reading this, you better be around when I apply for graduate school, mkay?) Anyway, I’ve been on an emotional high ever since that moment, and I’ll never be able to explain how happy that phone call made me. My dream came true and I’ll be attending Notre Dame this fall. I owe a lot of thanks to everyone who motivated me to continue trying to get in, especially Victoria, Alex, and Milazzo. I was considering not even staying on the waitlist, but you three provided me with the moral support to keep going and make this dream of mine a reality. Victoria: You were right, as always. You gave me the inspiration to keep pursuing it even during my darkest hour, and you taught me that nothing should keep me from my dream, no matter how hopeless it seemed.  Thanks for being there for me, and know that I’ll always be there for you. Alex: Same goes for you, buddy. Your hour-long conversations with me concerning this whole Notre Dame waitlist situation propelled me to keep shooting for it. Thanks a lot for enduring my ranting, and if you ever have any problems, don’t hesitate to talk to me; I’ll certainly listen and do my best to help you as much as you’ve helped me. Milazzo: You were in the same exact position I was in, and I can’t tell you how valuable your guidance was. From our searches for letters of recommendation to our conversations concerning whether or not I should email Notre Dame, you always offered your input. I very much look forward to spending the next four years of my life with you. I owe a lot to you three, so thanks again. I truly, truly appreciate all that you’ve done for me.

          Well, I guess that’s it for now. It’s almost 5 AM, summer’s in full-swing now, and although a lot has happened over the past month or so, it’s finally time to just kick back and relax. If you’re still reading, thank you for hearing out my thoughts. I’ll try to update more frequently, but I don’t exactly have the best track-record behind me. At least it wasn’t four months this time, right? Anyway, it’s now bed time. Goodnight!

          Now I said I wouldn’t make any promises as to how often this blog would be updated, and I’m glad I didn’t. Four months without a new post? Disappointing. Pathetic, even. So I think a quick recap on how things have been going may be in order. My life has certainly had its ups-and-downs during those last four months. We seniors hit second semester around January, which was relieving. February and March flew by, and before we knew it we were hearing back from colleges. Personally, I hate the college process. Although I have seen a lot of great friends grow elated upon receiving word that they were accepted into their top choices, I have also seen just as many great friends get heartbroken upon hearing bad news from their dream schools. I couldn’t be happier for those who did make their top choices, but I also feel an immeasurable amount of remorse for those who didn’t. I’m in that latter category, as I was waitlisted at Notre Dame, my dream school. I’ll try to do whatever possible to get off that waitlist, but it’s honestly looking like Lehigh ‘13 at this point; I’m positive I’ll be happy there, but my heart still lies in Notre Dame. Anywho, I digress.

          I vaguely remembered starting up this blog about four months ago, and with school winding down, I figured, “Why not? Maybe I’ll actually be able to focus on it this time around!” That’s actually what I want to talk about this post—school winding down.  I’m on spring break right now, and I couldn’t love it more. It’s been refreshing and a nice break from all of the stress that may come with schoolwork. The two weeks flew by; it’s already Saturday, and I go back to school this Monday. My next two days will naturally be filled with last-minute assignments and a 450 page novel—Catch-22, a funny read thus far—but, for the first time in my life, I’m not dreading my return to school. I have, as many seniors in my school could probably tell you, nine days remaining of high school. Nine. Nueve. Nove. Naoi. Single-digits. Basically we come back to school for one week, have one final weekend, and then complete four more days to end what have probably been the greatest four years of my life. As you can imagine, there’s a lot going through my head. 9 days. 72 periods. 54 hours. 3,240 minutes. 194,400 seconds. Okay, I guess when you label it as “194,400 seconds” it makes 9 days seem like a lot of time, but imagine how quickly a second goes by when you’re not thinking about it. I can’t say much for you because I don’t know who is exactly reading this (sorry!), but I can say that the 17 years of my life that I have lived went by pretty quickly. That’s about 6205 days,  or 536,122,000 seconds, of my life that have passed (excluding leap years and the fact that I’m actually almost 18). When you look at things that way, 9 days seem a lot shorter, right? I wanted to throw the word juxtaposition into this post at some point, so there it is. I’ve learned life there will always be a different way to examine things. Things could seem very short, like a mere 9 days of high school remaining, or very long, like 194,400 seconds seem at heart.

          Here’s another harsh juxtaposition: I really don’t want to leave high school, but I also can’t wait to fully immerse myself in the “college experience”.  I want to stay, but I want to leave. Interesting, huh? I’m sure college will be amazing, but Christian Brothers Academy has been too. I’ve made a lot of great friends whom I do not want to leave behind, and CBA truly is my second home. As I’ve said earlier, the last four years have been the greatest four years of my life, hands-down. I’ll never forget the feeling I received my first day freshman year when, as we pulled into CBA, a sophomore jokingly said, “Gentlemen, this is your home now.” My eyes widened as I saw that stunning campus that was previously a horse farm. My heart opened as I walked in and read the big sign with the words “Be it known to all who enter here that Jesus Christ is the reason for this school; the unseen but ever-present teacher in its classrooms; the model of its faculty and the inspiration of its students”—something I’ve stopped to read every day since that first encounter freshman year. Basically, CBA is a lot more than a school to me, which can probably be said for a lot of students. I don’t want to comment on this topic too much, since I feel the need to devote an entire post to it at some point. I’ll really miss it, and I’ll just leave it at that for now.

          As I was typing out the conclusion of that second paragraph, I couldn’t help being reminded of a quote from Catch-22. It occurs when the narrator comments on how Dunbar, a war-companion of the protagonist, loves shooting skeet because he hates it. Because Dunbar hates shooting skeet so much, time seems to drag on whenever he does it. Dunbar later explains himself to his friends:

‘Do you know how long a year takes when it’s going away?’ Dunbar repeated to Clevinger. ‘This long.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘A second ago you were stepping into college with your lungs full of fresh air. Today you’re an old man… You’re inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age? A half minute before that you were stepping into high school, and an unhooked brassiere was as close as you ever hoped to get to Paradise. Only a fifth of a second before that you were a small kid with a ten-week summer vacation that lasted a hundred thousand years and still ended too soon. Zip! They go rocketing by so fast. How the hell else are you ever going to slow time down?’

Dunbar’s right, as scary as that assertion may be. Time really does go by too quickly, and this is only the beginning. Before I know it I’ll be leaving college, or maybe married with children, or possibly even on my death-bed. Yet, contrarily, every day has the opportunity to feel like 86,400 seconds if treated the right way. Years can go by extremely slowly, but once the year has ended and that New Year’s Eve ball is dropping down, you’re always left wondering, “Where did the time go?” When you’re in anticipation, seconds can feel like years. When you’re having fun, four years can go by in a matter of seconds. Juxtaposition. Weird, scary stuff.

          Anyway, I’m glad that I decided to continue this blog again. I’m sure I’ll post more frequently for whomever does decide to read it, and I’m glad that I could get all of this off of my mind. It’s now 3:45 AM, so naturally I’m off to read some more of Catch-22. You didn’t expect me to say I’m off to bed, right?

Here we go.  My name’s Sean if anyone cares. I figured it would be nice to start up one of these blog sites; ya know, just as a place to speak my mind whenever necessary. So here I am. I really can’t say how long I’ll have this running or how active I’ll be, because I’m a high school senior (all I should really have to say there). School and the work that accompanies it essentially take up all of my free time, so as much as I’d like to write my thoughts, I can’t make any promises to you (if anyone is actually reading this) or to myself. I don’t really have much to say right now either; that’s right, give it time. It’s also 1:25 AM, so my bed is calling.