Seventeen

I turned seventeen on Saturday and, so far, it's 100% the same as being sixteen except I now have the added pressure of when I want to learn to drive to deal with. Fun. Being seventeen isn't that bad though, just as sixteen wasn't all that bad either.

College is going well thus far, there are less fun parts but I don't want to focus on them much (or at all, really), because I'm trying to be optimistic. It's strange, because there are certain people who always worried to me about the fact that they didn't want to lose friends at college - yet they're the people who never spend time with their school friends anymore - and then there are people like me, who got to the point where they didn't really care much anymore as long as college was OK to deal with. Despite this, I've found myself socialising with people who I was always friendly with, but never classed as my friends...and I really like that fact.

In school, I always found it very hard to socialise in large groups, yet somehow I find it reasonably easy to integrate myself into groups of at least ten people. I counted seventeen of us last week...now to me, that's pretty mad, but it's actually quite fun. We've found a place to 'claim as our own' and I think it's actually helped me to feel like I'm settling in - because it's somewhere that I can go to. It's our little 'base' and we like it...even though it's some floor space in the entrance to B block. But never mind...

College staff ramble on in every assembly about how college is such a social environment, and I never used to believe it...but I do now. It's fun getting to talk to people who I barely knew four weeks ago (or people that I didn't know at all...) - there are two people I know in my Psychology class, one girl who I went to prom with but never spoke to much and one who I've never really spoken to at all...ever... I sit with the girl who I went to prom with (Beth) and two girls who are from different schools (Kerry and Talor), and even though we've only been doing it for about four weeks, I love it. We all get along really well and we work incredibly well as a team even though we barely know eachother. Aspects like that make the day bearable, and Psychology is often one of the highlights (as is the bus journey, but I think that deserves its own post one day...)

Over the summer, I'd forgotten how much I actually do enjoy to learn new things, so college is quite interesting at the moment because all of my subjects except one are completely different to GCSE or anything learnt in school. Psychology is the subject that I'd secretly always thought I'd drop at the end of Y12, but it's now one I've actually considered for university. It's strange how much things have changed over the past four weeks. Admittedly, I'm struggling a little in Spanish at the moment because of how different it is to GCSE, so I'm probably going to have to talk to my teacher about it, which I'm kind of dreading. I know I'll feel worse about it if I don't though, so it'll probably be worth it.

Besos ♥
Rachel

PS: I saw a girl with an actual Tim Minchin canvas bag in the Pre-Drivers course this morning. I can't even express how much that made my morning. And yes, I'm still obsessed with him... I got two of his DVDs and two of his CDs for my birthday :D