I am in a hurry right now. I have a retreat to go to in 20 minutes, which is at the end of this writing. I feel very rushed and very sweaty. Personally, I don't like long term assignments. I usually end up doing things at the last minute (like now) usually do to forgetfulness on my part. That's one of those college things that I have to adjust to. Other things I have to adjust to are the food, independency, new friends, new people, different people, persecution, etc. , etc. However, I really like this place because of the above reasons. For a majority of my life, I've been mostly independent, living in a singleparent family with one younger sibling. My mom took care of me and my brother, but she would always work. I didn't have much of a father figure growing up either. My parents got divorced, and my dad moved to Taiwan and got remarried. I stayed with my brother and my mom in Dallas. During those times, I grew and learned a lot about life, by myself. That was the catch. Everyone learns about life, the right things, the wrong things, in some way or form, usually from their parents. However, since my mom always worked, and I didn't have a father figure, I learned about life by myself. I made mistakes, I made several wrong decisions, and I did things that I regret. However, I also learned a wealth of knowledge that I feel others my age do not possess. I was ahead of the peers around me, in life and in experiences. My independency started at an early age, one could say. I learned to take care of my brother, as well as other everyday tasks. Do you know how many people on this campus don't know how to do their laundry?! It's insanely too many. For many students, their parents have pampered them and done their laundry for them for their whole lives. And then they come to a university where they have to do it by themselves and have no clue what detergent to use, how much, how to separate clothes, or even what fabric softener is. In the past 3 weeks, I've done my laundry twice now in the dorms. I live in San Jacinto, and since their is construction going on, our laundry hours are from 6pm to 5am. These hours suck because from 6 to about midnight, there are people crowding the place. Also, I'm usually out during those times, at the gym, arcade, eating, whatnot. So, the last two times I've done laundry, it's been at 3am in the morning. The washing cycles takes 30 min while the drying takes 45 min, totaling to about an hour and half, given loading and transferring time. The first time I did it, my roommate was with me. We stuck our clothes in at 3am, and came back at 4 to stick it in the dryer. But at 5:15am, we realized that our laundry was still down there. However, we were still in our room playing video games. We ran down there and found that the door was locked. Our clothes were stuck in the laundry room for the rest of the day. We wouldn't be allowed in until 6pm that day. This was especially bad for me because I had practically run out of pants. However, I seemed to have made it through. So, the second time I did laundry, I did it myself. Again, it was at 3:30 in the morning when I stuck it in. This time, however, I made sure that I wouldn't get locked out. So during washing and drying, I slept on the ground by the laundry room door. My drying actually didn't finish until about 5:20am. To my dismay, they did not lock the door this time at 5. I was very frustrated and tired; but glad I had clean clothes. Anyway, I miss my family. I really don't want to live with them again. I just want to see them and talk to them more than I already do. My mom calls me everyday. I think it's annoying, but I'm sad because I think it's annoying. My younger brother is getting involved with some bad friends and school, and our mutual friends tell me about it, but I can't do anything. I'm also sad because of that. There are more reasons I'm sad. The drawing for tickets for the Texas vs. OU game went on yesterday(Thursday). Each student had to get a wristband with a certain number on it (mine was 45987). It was given out at random. They started the drawing on Thursday with number 43001. By 43800, tickets were already sold out. Guess I won't be going to the game. That really stinks. It's ok though it would've cost me $35. I'd rather go to free games anyway. I think my 20 minutes are about up now. Again, I am still in a hurry to leave, since my ride for the retreat will be leaving soon. Goodnight. sort of good afternoon.