The Complacent Need To Be Shocked

Here I sit, listening to Regina Spektor, thinking of all there is to come.

My AS Level results came in. They were as follows:

• A - Philosophy
• B - Psychology
• C - Spanish
• C - English Literature

The only shock was Spanish -- I (and nearly everybody that knows me) expected to do better than that, but we're not going to bother querying it. I'm just going to take it on the chin and try to do better at A2. It's sort of good that I did get a slight shock, though. Throughout my life, I've been academically successful and so I have sort of taken for granted that I'll pass all my exams and get into the uni I want to, but this might not be the case if I get any Cs in my final year. I need AAA-BBB to get into my first choice of university, so this means I have to 1) maintain my philosophy grade, 2) try harder in Psychology to push my final grade up to an A, and 3) re-take Spanish to try to get a higher grade at AS level, while working ferociously at A2 to hopefully get an A. So, I'm aiming for AAA, which is a bit optimistic of me, but I figure, I'm capable, if I really tried, I might be able to do it.

My friends and I went to a karaoke bar the day after our results to celebrate -- the guys who organised it promised we'd be able to get alcohol, but this was a lie just to get people to come. It was slightly annoying, because karaoke wasn't too fun without it, aha, but we all went out afterwards for a meal at La Tasca, a nice Spanish restaurant, in which we played a game of 'Truth' (you know, the game where you tell the truth) and it was enjoyable in the end. Friends are a good thing.

I've ordered my new bag. I can't wait for it to arrive. I think it may just have arrived today while I was sleeping, unless my mom had ordered something else. But anyway, there is something waiting at the Post Office for us to pick up. I'm really hoping it's my bag. I've, perhaps affectedly, attached quite an importance to this new bag. It's a cool canvas backpack, and in my mind it symbolises potential and ambition. The bag of Jack Kerouac as he travelled across America and Mexico -- a bag of explorers, adventurers, the passionate. I'll use it for everything and wear it whenever I go out. It will become as much a symbol of me to people who know me as my hat is. I'll travel with it, accompanied by friends or alone. If alone, my bag will be my trusty companion, carrying everything I need -- books, stationary, maybe some form of notepad, a camera. Oh, I do hope it was my bag that arrived today.

That's all I have to say for today. I'm glad about the Spanish shock. The complacent need to be buzzed into action every now and again. It's the purpose of travel; to remove you from your comfort-zone, to allow you to grow and hopefully flourish. Getting a C was the equivalent of academically travelling to strange lands. Now I'll trek back to my usual estate of As and Bs and appreciate them more after my journey, and do all to cling onto them with fervour.  

Pictures of the Karaoke Bar