One must appreciate good days when they happen. Today is July 29.

I’m starting to get used to waking up early. It’s a nice feeling to have time to eat breakfast and lounge around without running late for anything. My new morning routine is watching an episode of ER in the kitchen while eating breakfast. I’m going to miss lazy mornings when I have 8 a.m. classes, but free time in the afternoon will be a nice tradeoff.

While my mom was bringing groceries up to my grandpa and my dad was still sleeping, I worked on my scholarship essay for an hour or two. I made a few more changes, added some details and reduced redundant word choice. When my dad woke up, I asked him to do another round of edits on it, and he agreed. Together we went through the essay with a fine tooth comb looking for any flaws. By the time we were done, I was proud of how it looked.

Around 1 p.m. my mom’s friend came over, and the two of them sat outside on our deck talking for several hours. They almost got caught in the rain but made it under our porch awning in time. The thunder was so loud, and I felt like our house was shaking. I stood outside for a few minutes watching the rain come down in sheets. It looked beautiful, but I was glad to be dry and inside instead of walking or driving in the storm.

I spent much of my afternoon working on my scholarship application. In addition to the essay, which I left alone for a couple hours to give my brain a break, I also had to write a statement of financial need and describe two activities (one school based and the other community based) I’d participated in during high school. The financial need statement was easy to write, especially because of Missouri’s recent cut to Bright Flight from $3,000 to $1,800. For the activity descriptions I talked about journalism (The Rock and Bearing News) and volunteering at Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center. I am passionate about both topics, so writing a short description of each was straightforward.

The scholarship application also includes a required activities list, which I’ll need to format tomorrow, and a short answer question section about civics. The application is in PDF form, so I’ll need to find a way to edit the document directly or just print it off and write in my answers by hand. After I finished those parts of the application, I called a family friend who is a lawyer to ask if he’d be willing to read my essay and give me some feedback from a legal perspective. I had a little trouble sharing the document with him and ended up emailing the text directly. Within a few hours he got back to me with a handful of suggestions. I’m going to make my final round of changes tonight and tomorrow morning before submitting my application tomorrow afternoon. I know that’s cutting it a little close to the July 31 deadline, but I think handing it in 24 hours in advance will be fine.

Once I’d finished working on my scholarship application, I took (or at least tried to take) a nap. I don’t know if I ever actually got to sleep, but listening to music and the sound of rain was nice enough. When I got up I responded to a friend’s email then watched another episode or two of ER and heated up some leftovers for dinner. I also wrote a letter I plan to give RBHS Principal Jacob Sirna at graduation thanking him for all he’s done this year. I’d hoped to play Spades again tonight, but my brother made other plans after work and didn’t get home until late. While I was checking for RSVPs for my graduation party, I switched accounts to look at my University of Missouri ― Columbia (MU). 

I was happy I did because I saw two messages about the Chancellor’s Leadership Class. The first told me I had gotten off the waitlist for the Wednesday evening section and was placed in that class. I didn’t expect to get off the waitlist and had planned to be in the Tuesday section, so this made me feel elated. On top of that good news, I received an email telling me I’d been selected to receive a scholarship to help offset the cost of the course. I’d applied a while back but assumed another student had gotten the financial aid because I hadn’t heard anything since. To make matters even better, Dr. Noel Aloysius, an assistant professor at MU, had emailed me letting me know my official hiring date will be Aug. 1, which will be the start of my first real job. These three pieces of information resulted in me racing downstairs to tell my parents the good news then jumping around and smiling for a while. 

I sent a couple of response emails then headed downstairs to watch Chuck with my parents. My mom edited photos while the show was on, and our cat cuddled up next to me to take a nap. All in all, today was an extremely good day. I’m not sure how many people will actually attend my graduation party Sunday, but I am looking forward to seeing everyone who shows up. Between now and then I have to finish and submit my scholarship application, attend my official graduation and set up and prepare for the whole party. It’s a lot to do, but I’m ready to tackle the challenge. I hope tomorrow is as good as today, but at the very least I have my fingers crossed everything works out with submitting my scholarship application.

“It’s time for women to stop being politely angry.” ― Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

How did you spend your 134th day of social distancing? Let us know in the comments below.