"What we play is life."

Let me start first by saying this...

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!

I have had the most fantastic day ever. Seriously. If this day got any better, the world would probably collapse in on itself.

So my piano class was cancelled for today. I think our teacher was sick, or something like that. This was good, because I hadn't really practiced much for the playing quiz. My buddies and I meandered down to the basement to practice instead, but we stopped at the first floor, which is where Robblee's office is. I saw from afar that the wind symphony roster was up, dashed forward, found the flute section, and yes you guessed it I'M IN WIND SYMPHONY THIS SEMESTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I jumped up and down a little bit, squealed, and repeatedly "I'm in wind symphony!" unbelievingly to myself for a few minutes. Gilbert, who also plays flute in wind symphony, happened to walk out of Robblee's office and showed me where to find my folder. Not only am I in wind symphony, I'm actually playing a higher part than someone who was in there last semester! (As background.... there's Elizabeth Wollstein, who is a senior and exceptionally good... she's playing first flute... then there's Marjorie, who is also a senior and very good, who is playing second first flute, if that makes sense... then Gilbert, who's actually playing the piccolo, then me as a first second flute and then someone else as a second second flute.) This is so incredibly amazing. I could die of happiness!

So after big band, I got to tell Turnbull "hey I'm in wind symphony now!" and he said "good job" and I said "should I come to class today" and he said "nah", so I didn't even have to go to symphonic band today. Score!

I got back to Gannon and checked my mailbox, hoping that the boxes Caitlin sent me were there. Instead, there was a letter from the office of scholarship services. I was very apprehensive about opening this--my roommate is on probation for her scholarship because she had less than a 3.0; I was worried that with my measly little 3.5 I wouldn't be eligible for the Regents scholarship anymore. So I opened it with baited breath, and guess what? It said "Congratulations! You have been selected for the blah blah blah blah blah scholarship worth $800 for the spring semester!"

If I could triple capitalize the word YES I would do it.

I can't believe it! In wind symphony and with a new scholarship! Even with my not-so-great grades, they still gave me a whole new scholarship! What does that mean for next year, huh, when I'll be taking classes I actually like and getting all "A"s? Will they give me even more money?

You realize what this means, right? They love me. WSU loves me. Not enough to give me a full ride. Not enough to hire me as an RA. But damn! Enough to give me an extra $3,800 in just one year!

And this semester's jury will determine how much money the music department gives me. When I was a sad little music minor freshman with no private lessons, they still gave me that $200. Now that I'm a reasonably good music major sophomore-to-be with a year of private lessons and an instructor who absolutely loves me? I am so freaking excited!

Whew.

Tonight is the first bone dinner, too. As far as I know, at least four of us trombones from the marching band are going. Hopefully more will show up too, but hey! Four of us have.

I'm going to have a permanent grin, all night! I am so thankful for everything. Sometimes I feel like the world is against me (as per yesterday, when Crimson and Gray didn't have the book I need to have read by Wednesday), but I really do appreciate everything I have. Thanks to Ann Yasinitsky for teaching me and so highly recommending me to Professor Robblee, thanks to Robblee for accepting me into wind symphony, thanks to whoever gave the money to make this scholarship possible, and thanks to whoever sat in a room and decided that I should be the one to receive it!

Okay. Now that I have that out of my system.....

I decided against doing the AmeriCorps volunteering thing. If I didn't have to pay for my own college, I would have loved to do it. If I had more time during the week, I would have loved to do it. As it is, that's time that I should be working. I calculated all of my finances, and assuming I work all the frickin' time and save everything, I can actually squeeze my way through all four years of undergraduate school and two sessions of summer school without taking out a single loan. Badass. As it is, I'll probably have to take out a year of tuition in a loan to get me through, but if $6,000 is all I owe after this much time and effort, and such an awesome degree? Well, small price to pay!

Plus, I happened to glance at the wall in the psych department as I walked in to do my advising, and guess what? If you're in the Graduate Program of Psychology at Princeton University, they give you a full fellowship for your first year there! For the following years, there's a lot of stipends and stuff available too. Badass! Plus the FAFSA will give you almost everything once you've finished undergraduate school. That reminds me, time to go research Princeton and see what it's like. I wanted to go to an Ivy League school for graduate school, didn't I? So what if it's Princeton and not Harvard? Maybe I'll even like Princeton better. :D