Jovers

I’ve been in a bit of a foul made lately, and the main reason for that is probably because of school. I can’t wait to get out. I cannot wait to graduate and just get the heck out of there.

I never really understood the whole reason why towards the end of their year, seniors always get so antsy to graduate or why they get “senioritis.” But now that I’m a senior, oh my goodness can I relate.

A lot of the reason is just my school itself. We have all of these dumb rules and regulations that don’t do or prevent anything. For example, no one is allowed to wear a backpack unless it is clear, nor are they allowed to wear a large purse – large defined as being able to fit a notebook into it. This rule was instituted last year when a student brought a gun to school. No one was injured, but to prevent this from happening again, this rule was drawn up and applied.

Now, I do commend them for trying to do something so that that situation would not arise again, but I don’t exactly commend them for doing something just so it looks like they’re doing something, if that makes sense. This rule prevents nothing. If a student is determined enough to bring a gun to school, then they would fit it in their pocket or jacket or, if it were a female (unless some males like to wear their “satchels”) they could easily fit it in their smaller purse.

So anyways, a frustrating rule because I have to go to my locker twenty kajillion times a day because I don’t have a backpack and because I like to take challenging classes which require a kajillion textbooks. And I happen to like cross-the-body bags which I can no longer wear. So I had to go find a new purse that would fit the rule and spend $30 on something I didn’t really need. Argh.

And then the classes themselves. I feel like I’m only learning anything in about three of the seven – my Calculus, AP World History, and French class. The rest are really just a joke.

In my English class, we are currently doing an art project. Why teachers feel that they need to incorporate art into some of their classes kind of baffles me. Sure, in elementary and middle school, but in high school? There is a reason why there are classes entirely devoted to art. Basically I have to create a diorama of a scene from my novel. Why I can’t just quickly draw a picture on a piece of paper, or even better, imagine it in my head, I don’t know. :-?

And the people, oh my goodness. I can’t tell you how just completely stupid people are. I think that I am generally a nice person and I’m pretty patient with people. But when people ask why our teacher who has a doctorate in bio-chem isn’t working in a hospital, my patience runs a little short. Or when people like, oh my gawd, talk really like loud, and say like over and over and like, over again. And won’t stop talking about themselves. And how cool they are. Like, oh my gosh. :angry: I’ve been around the same people for the past twelve years of my life, and while I’ve made some amazing friends, I’ve also met a lot of people I don’t ever want to see again. I am so glad that I’m going to a college three and a half hours away from here.

All of these things just make me so apathetic towards school. I hate going and I feel like I’m just wasting my time at the moment. I am thankful for the public education that I have received and am still receiving, but at the moment, I’m not seeing a lot of benefits.

Sorry for such a cranky post, but I’m a bit cranky. And don’t want to do this dumb art project. I wish I was born with a bit more artistic skills at times like these so I would enjoy these projects.

In other news, my dad’s doing great. Thank you all for your lovely comments and concerns on my last post. :love: He starts chemo and radiation treatment on Thursday, and honestly, you can’t tell that anything at all is wrong with him. He’s just as happy as ever and I think the rest of us are all over the initial shock. So, things are pretty good.

Wednesday after school, I walked into the house and the first thing that my mom said to me was, “Sit down, I have something to tell you.” When someone says those words to you, you can only think the worst. Who had died? What horrible accident had happened. Who has cancer?

She then said to me, “Dad has a tumor.”

I immediately asked where and she told me that it was a couple inches above his rectum and it was pushing through the tissue wall and into his muscle. My dad had had a routine colonoscopy and, from that, they had found a tumor in between his rectum and his sigmoid colon; or generally speaking, in his large intestine. I had to do a bit of research, so for those a little medically stupid like me, a picture:

http://www.medicinenet.com/colon_cancer/article.htm#2whatis

He’s had to go back to the hospital multiple times since then to get other tests done. At first they weren’t sure if it was cancerous or not, but the next day the surgeon said he would be really surprised if it was not. To treat it, he’ll have to undergo five weeks of radiation and chemo to shrink it, and then have his first surgery, where they will remove the tumor. He’ll have a colostomy for 5-7 weeks, and after everything has healed, will go in for another surgery to rebuild his bowels.

We still don’t know a lot of details, but that’s the general idea of what’s going to happen. They said the tumor is about the size of a golf ball and they were really surprised that he wasn’t having any symptoms from it, like rectal bleeding, weight loss, or cramps. My dad kind of laughed and said, “What! I’ve gained weight!”

I’m glad my dad can laugh about it. Though as he said, “There’s not much else you can do.” He’s been making all sorts of “butt” jokes since then. ;P He’s so weird.

It was a bit of a blessing that my dad went in to get his colonoscopy when he did. He was originally supposed to go in a couple of years ago, but the doctors said that if he had done that, they probably wouldn’t have found the tumor.

I think my mom is taking it the hardest of us all. While colon cancer is definitely very serious, it’s not usually deathly or have awful side affects that will affect anyone for the rest of their life. It’s just one of those things that really shake you. It was so sudden to. You just never know when things are going to change…

We don’t know when he’ll have to start radiation and chemo, but probably some time next week. They want to start pretty soon, which would be best. It seems like a silly question in retrospect, but I wanted to know if he’ll lose his hair.

It’s been kind of a long, sucky week…

I Love Public Education as Much as I Hate It

My Dad has Colon Cancer