on achieving.

my academic schedule for the past 19.75 years (i went to "moms and tots" when i was two, for crying out loud) has been grueling. even in pre-school, my teacher was my mom's best friend so i was already the favorite. my mom dropped me at kindergarten on her way to work (across the parking lot at the pre-school), so i was 30 minutes early every day. (i remember sitting on the floor with my teacher, playing with the cash register -- the coveted toy that i got all to myself -- learning how to count money... ironic that i now work for an accounting firm?) since day 1 of elementary school, my mom put me in gifted classes where i carved mayan heiroglyphs and invented a new spoon to eat spaghetti (it had a little bag in the bottom... it was ridiculous) while the other kids read books, one chapter at a time, and did word searches. in middle school, i took advanced art (i still have my collage in my bedroom at home) and a music composition class. in high school, i suffered through all honors/AP classes and one year even took two math classes at once because moving put me behind. it was insane. i was insane (i still might be). needless to say, the past 7 semesters here have been jam-packed with 16-19 credits, summer internships, volunteer positions, and enough leadership roles to fill an entire page on a resume.

this post wasn't meant to brag. i want to shout my joy and celebrate my new take on "achieving." i don't consider myself "underachieving" because that implies doing less than is necessary to just succeed. i define "overachieving" is doing way more than necessary for the task at hand. for college, the goal is graduating and getting a job. to graduate, you need 1 major, to do fairly well in that 1 major, and to have a bit of experience (an internship and a leadership role). i feel that i've gone beyond the minimum for quite some time (1 major, 2 minors, 3 internships... you get it), and now, because of all of that hard work, i can finally just "achieve."

i need 1 law class, 1 political science class, and 2 science classes to graduate (and to keep my job). this semester, i am taking 1 law class, 2 science classes, and dropped my 400-level political science class down to an intro-level course. hey, i just need 3 credits, there was no level requirement here.

being an achiever feels really good. i'm going to make some soup. =)