William and Mary+Financial Aid Worries+Oklahoma!

Hello Everyone! I know this is kind of late, but I wanted to say that I hope that you all had a wonderful thanksgiving :). I'll be posting about mine tomorrow. On the evening of the 19th, my mom, sister, and I left for VA to visit William and Mary. We were on the road all night, and I drank way too much water, then we were on a hellish hunt for a bathroom which resulted in us being on backwoods roads followed by a bunch of guys piled in a truck (they followed us-we turned around three different times and so did they), then almost getting killed by about 20 deer, and STILL not finding a bathroom until we got back on the main road and were on it for about 13 minutes. I thought I was going to die. Eventually, we made it to our hotel, which didn't have the fridge and microwave we were expecting, but passed out anyway. Saturday morning was the tour, it was frigidyfrackenfreezing, I wore denim leggings under skinny jeans and two shirts and a coat and scarf and gloves, then on the way there my cup of coffee spilled all over me in the car. How awesome is that? I managed to clean up okay, then eventually showed up at the information session, which made me desperately want to go there. The college is amazing, and fairly competitive, and the way that the professors invest their time in their students and truly love their jobs is awesome. After the information session, we got a campus tour, and then after that I got to meet a financial aid person. My first question was what merit based scholarships they had, and was told that they did not have many merit based scholarships but that they had many opportunities for need based financial aid. When told that, I wanted to cry. Need based financial aid is based on the need that the FAFSA determines based on how much your parents are expected to contribute, based on how much they make. My father makes enough to pay for my education in full. He will not be contributing a single dime. Which means that the majority of financial aid opportunities, which are need-based, are out of my reach. It was just a very frustrating moment, after having spent the day at such a beautiful campus and getting really excited, only to be told just how microscopic my chances are by someone who doesn't understand my somewhat complicated situation. So yeah, that wasn't fun, but afterward we went to the Campus Bookstore/Barnes & Noble, and I got an awesome W&M hoodie :D. Then we went to a tavern in Colonial Williamsburg (which you can walk to) and ate a heckuva lot, and my sister got fried chicken and dipped it in butter. LOL, not kidding. After we ate we were lazy blobs who didn't want to walk anywhere, so we sat down and watched a reenactment, until it moved in the opposite direction of the car and we chose not to follow. After we went back to the room, we watched The Last Airbender (I'll do a review soon) and passed out. On Sunday, we went to see Oklahoma! I have to say, the entire cast did an AMAZING job!!! The performance was perfect-each actor was completely believable. The guy who played Judd Frye had me wanting to boo instead of applaud he did such an amazing job of playing a creeper. After the play, the cast got a massive and lengthy standing ovation-everyone was on their feet cheering and clapping. It was loud, and my hands KILLED afterwards, but it felt so... I don't even know how to describe it. Everyone in that audience was impressed, and we were all showing it together, and it just felt like a powerful moment everyone shared ^_^. No pictures or recordings were permitted, so sorry for the lack of them! The next day I kept singing 'Judd Frye is Dead' in my head.... and randomly screaming 'OKLAHOMA, OKAY-L-A-H-O-M-A!'. Plus 'People Will Say We're In Love' :D. After the play, which was kind of long, we went to whole foods and got our dinner-salads and wings and spinach artichoke dip and these delightful garlic butter French roll cracker things. Then, we feasted, and then I used the hotel's computer for HOURS catching up on blog posts and waiting for Henry to get online :D. I was chillin' in the lobby for a very long time, and wound up chatting while half dead, but I didn't want to say goodbye... then S (which will stand for sister from here on out) told me we had to go back to the room, so we did. On Monday morning, when I was in the shower washing my hair, I just turned my head and suddenly wanted to cuss like a sailor and started crying because something in my neck tightened and hurt like hedoublehockeysticks. I called my mom to ask what to do, and I couldn't move my head at all, and she tried to get me to stretch it and I screamed in pain. For the record, I'm really not a drama queen when it comes to physical pain. I've burned myself at work and not mentioned it, because it doesn't really make a difference and I don't want to be a wimp. But my neck... oh man. We packed up to leave as planned, and then drove over to Williamsburg to shop. I got told by own mother that I looked like a monster, and when near my sister went 'brraaaiiinnssss.....' and walked at her like a zombie XD lol. I actually just sat outside several stores fighting tears, said I wanted fresh air, because I didn't want them not to shop just cause I was in pain. Yeah, me the trooper :-P. My mom gave me some pain medicine which made me slightly out of it, and didn't seem to help as much as I was expecting. I did go in a couple stores, though, and found something awesome to give someone special for Christmas, which I'm excited about :D. Eventually, we left lovely VA, me curled up in the front seat flinching at every bump in the road. Overall though, I have to say, the trip was pretty great. It was fun to just be with my Mom and Sister, who both rock, just walking around and making fun of eachother and goofing off :D. The area is beautiful, and it really is an amazing school, so I'll still apply even if my chances of getting to go aren't that great. First, though, I have to finish the Presidential Scholarship application for a great college I'm going to call GU (Great Univeristy ;) ). and an application to Wake Forest University (I'm applying all over the place, aren't I?!?! lol). Those both need to be done by Dec 1... so please, those of you who pray, pray for me! I'm kind of freaking out. Also, thanks to Raisa Karim(Hunger Games Lover) for following! If any of you are Hunger Games fans, check out her site-she finds up to date info on the making of the movie. Thanks for reading everyone! -- "But you see, it's not me, it's not my family. In your head, in your head they are fighting, With their tanks and their bombs, And their bombs and their guns. In your head, in your head, they are crying..." ´¨) ¸.·´¸.·*´¨)*´¨) (¸.·´¸.·*´¨) * (¸.· Elizabeth *´¨) ¸.·´ ¸.·*´¨) * (¸.·´*