ucla orientation with magnolia coincidences

on a serious note (sorry), starting ucla soon has caused me to recall the past. specifically, i remembered being the typical industrious, overachiever in grade school. i would aim to turn in all assignments first, and i enjoyed memorizing pointless trivia. i felt like an outlier and wondered why everyone else was so slack. in high school, this faded; i became somewhat apathetic towards obtaining great marks, and having fun w/ my friends took higher precedence. in college, i returned to my original roots and re-founded my fascination with learning. throughout this time, i've been fortunate enough to have some amazing internships that surrounded me w/ crazy, smart (and sometimes dynamic) ppl. yet, my undergrad college was still a repeat of the past in that i was surrounded w/ tons of slackers, and that the coursework wasn't renowned. well, after 18 yrs of starting formal education (man, kindergarten was really that long ago), i'm finally entering a rigorous academic environment for which i've longed. watch it be too hard for me, and i start whinning. ha.


anyway, as orientation started, only about 100 of the 1,400 registered new grad students had filed in yet. i immediately spotted a fellow Florida Tech student! what is she doing way out here? we talked, and she started to mention 2 other Florida Tech'ers who got accepted! as she said this, they walked in through the doors. so, oddly, 4 of us out of the ~100 people were from a random, small florida school w/ 2,000 undergrads.

oh, at ucla, parking's a [bleep]. so, i'll be taking the free bus to school each day. i'll occasionally eat a school lunch and probably carry a bland-colored tray. it's like i've regressed to grade school all over again. lol. in fact, i assert that grad school is actually just grade school minus the e.