After having arrived in Atlanta from Pittsburgh last Saturday night but still tied down with two to-be-completed projects, I emailed out the last write-up five minutes ago and am now OFFICIALLY on summer vacation.

…for the next 10 days, at which point I fly to Raleigh, NC for my internship with IBM ExtremeBlue.  Though at this point, I’m still considering that summer vacation, because each passing day I grow more excited about it.

But!  For the time being, I am now going to go celebrate my newfound freedom by stepping away from the laptop and enjoying the cloudy, tumultuous, humid outdoors.

“Cool”… what is it exactly? I don’t think that this one can be pinned down easily, but a lot of the time people tend to think of it as having a bunch of friends. I honestly don’t think that’s true… I have plenty of friends and I probably am not considered part of the “cool” crowd, not that I honestly care that much. Cool, to me, is a combination of following the herd and pretending not to give a shit about anything, which is why I don’t really care much about my social status.

1. You don’t have FACEBOOK?! - I don’t have a Facebook. Unfortunately for me, that immediately puts me at the bottom of the “cool” ladder. If I had a Facebook, I’d have so little time to run, work out, debate, or blog, which is why I don’t have one. How does a simple social-networking site determine your social status?
2. A 4.0? You’re such a NERD! – Quite unlike the majority of my peers, I actually care about school and my future. Somehow, not wanting to end up flipping burgers at Burger King is viewed as “uncool.” My perfect 4.0 means I’m branded as a nerd, geek, or whatever people like to call me. But hey, I guess being cool means being dumb.
3. You don’t listen to FALL OUT BOY?!?! – No, I don’t listen to Fall Out Boy or any other mainstream alternative rock bands for that matter. I think I just have a problem called “appreciating good music.” I’ll listen to classic rock, Pink Floyd, and classical music, but I can’t stand mainstream rock or metal nowadays. I think I just like music.
4. Chaminade Concertino? What?!?! – I play the flute. Need I explain this one more?
5. A blog??? Nobody has one of those - Yeah, I have a blog. Unfortunately, only one other person I know has one.  You can find his blog here. But even he started very recently, and I don’t know a single person from school who has been keeping a blog for at least a month or so.

I really don’t care all that much about being cool, because to me, the only thing that matters is that I do well in high school and have fun. If that means I’m not considered cool, then so be it. Am I bitter about it? Nah, I have friends. Maybe if I didn’t have any friends at all I’d be bitter about it.

Social status: does it really matter that much?

I dunno how people get these sorta photos…