howdy

Hey guys, my name is Aislinn. I'm actually more ambitious than I originally planned for, evidenced in the five AP classes I'm taking this year. My goal there is to somehow maintain a 4.0 GPA without losing my sanity (I'm legitimately concerned about that at times). I suppose that also could be considered a personal goal. Other personal goals include... Well to be quite frank, another personal goal is coming up with some personal goals.
Ah! Here's one: learning to function as an only child. My brother just left for college and it's been weird to say the least. Suddenly, after a year of pretty much being ignored while all the focus was on Mr. Applying To Colleges, my parents are showering my in attention. It's really not okay. My shorts are too short, they say? Funny how they just now mention this, as I've been wearing these exact shorts for over a year. So learning to deal with that is a priority.
 I had my first job this summer; I was a camp counselor at a Girl Scout Camp out near Morehead. I've been a camper there since I was a little kid, so actually being paid to be there all summer was amazing. The most meaningful moment was definitely on the very last night of camp, after all the campers were long gone and the staff was shutting things down for the year. We had a big campfire and all sat around it in the dark and talked and laughed and cried for hours. That camp is a second home to me, and my time there means everything to me.
 "If you could have any super power, what would it be?"
If I had a dime for every time I discussed this question with campers over the summer, I'd have been making more than minimum wage. I actually worked an entire week in a superheroes unit (the best superpower by far was poison elbows). I've thought long and hard about the question and the busybody side of my brain decided on the power that would be most beneficial to my current lifestyle: time manipulation. Not the ability to travel in time, just the ability to make more of it. Think of it as a personal play/pause button; I can pause time whenever I wish and everything just sort of stops. Then I might actually have enough time for productivity and sleep and studying.
 What geeks me out? Oh my, now there's a dangerous question.
We'll keep it simple and stick with Les Miserables. The book, specifically. The musical and all of those movies from the 50s and 80s and great and all, but they're adaptations that, in many ways, fall hopelessly short. That said, an adaptation that didn't fall hopelessly short would be perhaps six hours at the least. The book is more than 1200 pages long, affectionately referred to by fans as "the brick."
So yes, Les Mis, I'm extremely attached to it. I have two copies, one of which I'm annotating.

Fun story behind this picture. I was hiking at some point, and had been reading my pretty (and more competently translated) copy of "the brick" in the car, but I must have put it into my day pack and forgotten about it, because I sort of hiked up a mountain with it. Of course, I didn't realize this until we reached the top, although I had been complaining that my pack felt too heavy for about an hour. When I realized it was there, I naturally had to do a little photo shoot. It's not often that nature and literature, two of my favorite things, come together so beautifully.

And lastly, a link. an 18 second video that I connect to on a deep and emotional level