The Zsigix Modicum

It’s only been a week.  The first week of my permanent removal from academic obligations (other than paying off loans).  And for about a day within that week, I was slotted to not graduate.

I checked my grades online to find that my Human-Computer Interaction grade was a D+.  For Computer Science classes, a C- is needed.  After seeing that grade, I was pretty pissed off at myself, letting the grade slip so low.  I sent my professor an email asking about how he graded things and asking for the specific numbers.  I told him that I was mad at myself for the grade, and also mad at myself because it was suppose to be my last semester.

Lo and behold, he replies back with the information I requested, and also said that he’d change the grade to a C-.  So now I’m back on track.

Related to the graduation, the combination party with my sister was fine.  I felt kind of bad though, as only a few of her friends showed up while most of who I invited came by.  Overall, the party was fun.  Cake and pizza, and getting a large pile of money dollars (A total of $595 for both graduation and Christmas).  Seeing Amanda graduate was great.  She graduated with a Theater degree, and already has work lined up for this upcoming year.  She has potential of getting somewhere far, so here’s hoping.

Seeing my family come down for this event was nice.  My grandparents from Arizona came in, so we chatted a bit.  Found out that me heading down in February probably wasn’t going to work all that well, as they’ll be out of the state when I planned to come down.  Thankfully, I didn’t buy any tickets of any kind yet.  Grandma Melinda came up from Florida, and it’s always great to see her.  Even if she is a little senile.

Seeing my mom, dad, and my other siblings was great too.  My oldest sister seems to be doing just fine.  She was chatting it up and laughing up a storm, so that’s good.  My youngest sister finished her 3rd semester a week before, and it liking the time to relax.  My younger brother came up from Arizona, and we had our usual conversations.

To see all that family in one area made me feel very…welcome.  I don’t know if “welcome” is the right word for it, but even so.  I’ve always felt a little outside the loop with some parts of my family.  Maybe it’s the fact that I’m involved with a much more complex career.  Or maybe, believe it or not, I’m socially awkward compared to them.  Looking back at when I first examined the insides of an Apple IIe desktop, I’m pretty sure that from there on, I was heading down a path far different from my other siblings.  In a family of athletes, wanting to play with a 14.4k baud rate modem instead of a baseball was already a little weird.  I’m just glad my parents viewed this as a part of my nature and didn’t force me into anything I didn’t want to do.

I need to stop reminiscing on the past, but it’s still really hard to believe that after 18 years of constant schooling, I don’t have to do it anymore.  I keep thinking back to the old days, and as far as I know, the old days were nothing but school.

Guess I need to create some new “old days” for myself.  Ones that don’t require me to write an essay about it that’s due next week.