About a month from now, I’ll be sitting in a classroom. I’ll be sitting at my laptop, cracking open a book, cracking a joke (perhaps at my teacher’s expense). Ninth grade is the beginning of the end. On 2 September, everything counts. I trigger a countdown clock to leaving home and going to college.

In a lot of ways, this is exciting. In others, it’s depressing. If I keep looking forward to what’s next, I will be a step ahead, but I won’t be focused on what’s happening now.

In preparation for the years ahead, I am moving myself forward. I will no longer continuosly look over my shoulder for the Internet would-be-predator who has haunted me for the past few months. I’m past the point of caring about him. I have neither the time nor the motivation to pursue act against him on behalf of me and others. It’s just no worth it. I’m cleaning my room, too. You never know, I might even become a Buddhist or something.

The next few years will be interesting. If I look at just the past year, I realize how much has changed. I’m looking forward to the next 70 or so years.

I started my first job on Monday and it struck me that I never wrote a post about it. I’m getting old and things are just slipping my mind.

To make a long story short, the day job is going quite well. Admittedly, there is a lot of filing and other not-so-interesting tasks, but I get a kick out of answering phones. People call to ask the most amusing questions like “What’s the weather?” My private answer is “Look out the window,” but courtesy prevails so I dutifully find the exact temperature.

I’ve been working eight hour days, and it can get tiring towards the end of a shift, but the satisfaction of getting paid is quite nice. ($9 an hour for a 14-year-old in a first job is not bad).