school

School. I've been composing this post in my head for a while, and I haven't mentioned this to you guys earlier just because the blogger world was my break from all the stressful stuff that came with the change.
Yes, I am going to school this year. Real school. But the school I'm going to is a bit different from other regular public schools.

Let me explain:

those of you who have been reading my blog for quite some time might remember this post. That was really when it all started. When i got bitten by the bug. The school bug. I was curious and frankly, ready for a change. I went for a shadow day at the private school, didn't mind it, and sort of forgot about it. It wasn't until October or so last year when I started thinking again, and I really wanted to look into going to school.
So my mom and I started talking, and we looked at our options.

Option #1: The private school that I shadowed at.

This wasn't an option we looked into too much. The school is only K-8 and I would only be spending one year there, plus, the tuition isn't what I would call "cheap".

Option #2: The local public school

Yikes! Okay, our public school is really not a good one. I mean, it's not totally awful but........ yeah, its pretty awful.

I could definitely put up with it but my mom and I agreed that I shouldn't have to "put up with" school, I should be able to enjoy it.

Option #3: Wait another year and apply for a scholarship at a Catholic private high school

Again, we didn't look into this very much. Some of our closest family friends have gone/still go too the school and weren't/aren't very inspired or anything by it.

Option #4: This amazing performing arts public charters school

Aah, this sounded good. This school was just like any other public school, but in the mornings they did academics and in the afternoons they did gym, the regular art class and then you "discipline", which means your special art class. You could apply for dance, theater, musical theater, music, literary arts or media arts. This school seemed like everything I could have ever wanted except for one thing:

The commute.

If I wanted to go to the school I would have to sit on a bus for an hour and a half just one way.
Ouch.

Once we heard that we dropped the subject. Sort of.
Driving in the car one afternoon with my mom out of the blue she asked, "Are you still thinking about (school's name)?"
"Yeah, I really never forgot about it." I said. So my mom said, "Why don't you apply? If you don't get in, fine, that's that, but if you do get in, you can still decide whether you want to go or not."
I applied for the media arts department, mainly for drawing/painting and photography.

A few weeks later we went to one of the events at the school where the literary and media departments team up and make a little show, with the writing students reading their work and the media students displaying their paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and other beautiful works of art.
After seeing the show and actually being there at the place we were really impressed. And excited. And even more curious.

So we talked to the eighth grade teacher and she was super nice, and said that most students with long commutes sleep in the morning and do homework in the afternoon. This place was getting better every time we found out more about it.

On May 5th, 2011, I got a letter saying that I was accepted, and I decided that I wanted to enroll. So that's that!
One of the best things about the school is how positive everything is there, it seems like the kids and the teachers like being there. I recently had to go too an orientation where I met several other eighth graders, found out about lockers, lunch, classes, and other things that I won't worry about until the first day, which is less than two weeks away.

I'm super excited about this school and am sooo looking forward to being there and excelling in  my art. And I don't really care anymore about the bus ride, because what I hear from other students who have a two hour commute one way, its totally worth it.
Has anyone else had a change like this in their life? Going from homeschooling to regular school? Do tell, I'd love to hear your story!

-hannah
p.s. can you count how many times I said "school" in this post?