A First for Everything.

This is the first time in my time at college that I've gotten straight A's. Yes. I know other people are doing that in their sleep. I, however, am not that diligent. I always make a stupid mistake here or there. Its a marathon just to get through one term without screwing something up. Not doing and extra credit here. Missing a crucial class here. Forgetting.. uh, to take a midterm. Yeah. I'm forgetful. That means I have to rely on other ways and advantages to get an A. And i'm not talking about cheating. Things such as...begging the teacher for mercy. Annoyingly visiting the teacher's office at all times of the day and leaving notes. Promising to take the TA on a double date if she would just let me retake the midterm. Ok. That last one wasn't exactly the way it went. BUT, I am going with her on a double date once I come back in the Fall. And. She did let me retake the midterm. Yeah I missed that midterm. Yeah I retook it. Yeah I got an A- in the class. Boo-yah, in your face. Figure that one out. thank you so much Chinese TA. :)*

But like I said. I did not realize how smart everyone at BYU was until just this past term. How did I get here? Consider the following conversation.

Rachel: I CANNOT get an A- in this class. I came here from Community College on a 4.0 GPA!

Me: WOW. A 4.0 GPA? You are super smart!

Rachel: What? Its not that hard. You've never gotten straight A's before?

Me thinking: Oh crap. I can NOT let her know how stupid I am. uh...quick, think of something witty. No. She won't fall for that. Hmm... got it.

Me: Well ya know. I would get A-'s and stuff.

Rachel: Oh yeah, well that makes sense.

Me: Whew, dodged a bullet on that one.

Notice how I did not lie per se (even though I consider any form of deception a lie). I just merely answered another question. I didn't say I had never gotten straight A's. I just said I had gotten A-'s. Haha. Oh, I'm so clever. I hope she doesn't get a hold of this blog. I already think she hates me.

But you see. That's just how it is at BYU. You rarely see anyone below a 3.0 GPA. luckily, I don't fall under that category. I've also been on probation for a semester before and threatened to be kicked out of a second. Someone should award me for that. Its a hard act to achieve. "The Award for Student that's been on Probation yet has a Cumulative GPA Above 3.0". :D How many students can claim that? That's right. A handful.

And one last thing to illustrate my point.

I was telling Shalise's brother the other day that I would only redo one thing about freshman year, and that would be grades. It stank. Thus the point in the previous paragraph. In which case, Shalise enthusiastically agreed. I was so relieved to hear that from a fellow straggler that Iwas going to tell her my freshman year story as a bonding experience.

So I began, "Yeah, my freshman year grades sucked!"

To which Shalise said, "Yeah I know. They were so bad. I got a B+!"

"Yeah I know, I got a ... ... wait. what?"

"A B+"

"0_0 followed by *FACEPALM*"

Well. I could have kept quiet about my own grades, but this time, I decided to be truthful.

"I...got...an F."

"What? In what?"

"In math".

"What were you doing?"

"Um...writing stories in class."

"That's so funny."

You hear that Mike Glazier? I blame you for writing such awesomely funny stories that distracted me in class. Of course, that was a slight lie, because I wrote stories with Mike the SECOND time I took that class. And yes, I proceeded to bomb that semester too and hence, the probation. Everything's coming together now.

You see the pressure of performing at BYU? Yeah. Crazy. Its like being a 9th grader in a college class except I'm not a child prodigy. Its like chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one.

I feel like this post has turned into a confession about all the times that I've lied. haha. But fear not, I eventually told the truth to my dear friends. Good thing too, because Shalise told me that she figured out that I've been fluent in Chinese this whole time and that I should stop tricking people. I proceeded to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but. :)

*big thanks though to my TA and my chinese teacher for being so merciful to me. God knows I would not survive without them.