Well, there we have it folks. The first day of the last year of high school. Some classes seemed good, some classes seems frightening or very challenging. All the teachers were nice and the only time I got worried that I didn't know where I was going was getting on the bus after school. Altogether, not a bad day. Tiring (more emotionally than any other kind), but not bad at all.

I had the funkiest dream last night (probably antihistamine induced). All I remember is that it involved Gandalf, some glowing white orb, some really kewl story in some sort of library? and a song by the Newsboys. This is what I get for reading the Silmarillion.

Yes, I'm reading the Silmarillion, and no, it's not boring. I finished reading the Hobbit the other day, as well. If you've never read Tolkein, GET TO IT! :)

I've got a new word! Facinorous. Very useful for insults. Look it up.

I've got a whole new perspective on this year. I'm sick of feeling left out because I was too scared to try new things. My best explanation is a poem I wrote this summer. It's supposed to represent Joy, but another meaning is "no pain, no gain."

The hedge-bird is singing,
The hedge-bird is singing,
My heart’s on the wing
And the hedge-bird is singing.
He calls to my soul
And he laughs at my fears,
For over the hedge,
The horizon appears.
Beyond the high hedge 
Is the mountain’s blue face;
Up the hills flies the wind,
And it calls me to trace
Its path ever onward
To the sun in the west;
Those who follow the wind
Are eternally blest.
The hedge-bird is singing,
The hedge-bird is singing,
My heart’s on the wing 
And the hedge-bird is singing!
He has ridden the wind
O’er the widening plains,
He has sung at his fears 
And abandoned his pains.
He knows how it is
To look far up the hill
And long for beyond,
Long to see past the rill,
But finds when he climbs
Up the currents of air
That the world still eludes him—
More horizons are there!
He knows how it feels
To be homesick with joy
For a land you’ve not seen
And a peace that can’t cloy.
He knows what I feel
And he laughs at my fears;
He flies toward the hill
Where the future appears.
The hedge-bird is singing,
The hedge-bird is singing,
I run through the gate,
For the hedge-bird is singing!