This Friday I'll be -thismuch- (imagine your thumb and index finger a hairs breadth apart) closer to graduating, or as I like to call it, being TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY OVER-EDUCATED.

Which is funny, since all of those very important things that I've learned? I remember about .02% of them. So really, I've just paid upwards of (more than) a couple thousand for bragging rights.

I figure I might as well get my money's worth.

On paper, chances are that I am ridiculously smarter than you. More intelligent. Brighter, and...uh...over-educated. Oh, I said that already? Hm...I'm out.Oh well. It's not like I was an English major or anything.

So yes, Friday. The summer semester ends Friday, an event that I am very eagerly awaiting. To say that this semester has been painful is like saying that Lohan? I hear she likes to party.

It's not just the fact that it's summer, a normally laid-back time when sane people do not voluntarily go to school, that made this semester more unbearable than all of the previous fall and spring semesters (14 total! Holy crap.) that came before it.

Rather, this semester was particularly painful thanks in part to the fact that something in me inexpliciably shifted, and instead of dealing with things (like, say, the breakup of my first serious relationship, for example) by holing up at home, drinking a lot of earl grey, and reading novel after novel I have instead been spending much more time coping by getting drunk with my friends. Which frequently involves evening plans and yes, drinking delicious things. And also frequently involves getting home around 4am.

These late nights, coupled with working full time made it increasingly difficult, even maddening, to find the time to do all of the assigned reading, research, and homework that I was given this summer. Since "staying in more" wasn't an option (I'm dealing with things, people) I instead opted to cut down on sleeping and breathing.

It's been working out ok.

It came to be that the only time I wasn't out this summer was when I was working on an assignment, generally on the day it was due. I've always been a procrastinator extraordinaire, but I reached new highs (lows?) this summer. Tonight, for example, I have a test on some chapters that I should have been reading over the past two months.

Should have.

(Fear not. I reviewed the chapters for the last test about an hour before I took it, and I got an A+. I figure this was not a lucky break, but rather the result of the material being "fresh" in my mind. And therefore a tactic that should be employed again.)

And that's how this ENTIRE SUMMER has been: a flurry of shows, skimming textbooks, friends, cramming sessions, bars, last-minute papers, alcohol, work, drugs, morning meetings, house parties, sleeping pills, and taking notes.

The stress of trying to do it all - maintain my straight-A average that I love more than my closest friends, regularly show up to work (and maybe even do stuff) so that I can buy wonderful works of art (also known as "shoes") and sometimes food, and go out every night possible and have an uproariously good time in fierce defiance of the fact that yes, I do sometimes miss someone and I'd like to ignore, drown, or medicate that feeling - the stress of this all, it has gotten to me.

After Friday I have a whole week and a half break to enjoy summer properly before the fall semester begins. One more year of this torture, one more year of this juggling act, one more year of this financial burden that tries its best to keep me from going out every single night, and then I'm done.

It seems terribly far away, but right now, I'm just looking forward to Friday.

And towards making some changes.

(It would be just super to have time to make my bed.)