College Planning

Well, if I hadn't been deployed to Iraq, I would be starting classes at PSU in about a week. Now that my original plans have been crushed under the oppressive heel of the United States Army, I have begun to reconsider where I will go to school and what my area of study will be.
A year ago I was set on going to Penn State and majoring in computer or electrical engineering. Since then, my parents moved out of PA to WY and I found out that tuition at state schools in CA is free for residents. It would be a simple matter for me to change my residency to California and take advantage of the free tuition. I have been looking into UC Berkeley, which is a state school with a great acedemic program and engineering department. I have also been looking into Carnegie Mellon University, a school that I was considering before I joined the Army, but I was, and I still am, skeptical of my chances of acceptance. I would really like to go there, so I am still going to apply. I would still like to major in a subject dealing with computers, because I enjoy working with them and I am pretty good at it. There are a lot more subjects that deal with computers than only the ones in which they are the primary focus; nuclear engineering and aeronautical engineering, just to name a couple.
The only problem is that I need to take the SAT II: Subject Tests in three subjects to apply to Carnegie Mellon and to Berkeley. I am hoping to get some leave in the beginning of October so that I can make it to the test that will be given on October 9th.

Nostalgia

I called my parents and eldest sister yesterday. They were at the cottage in Canada enjoying the summer. Obviously, I was, and am still, disappointed that I am not there instead of here. There was more to what I felt, though. I felt a great sense of nostalgia for things in the past, not just going to "Canada" as my family always refers to going to the lake. I started thinking of all the people, places, and activities that I miss. Trips to Desert Lake are at, or very close to, the top of the list, as that is probably where my fondest childhood memories are. Also, that's where my earliest memory took place - the time I fell off a cliff when I was 2 years old (I still blame you for that one, Jacquie). I went there every year for the first 18 years after I was born, and once before (my mother went there in July/August and I was born in November). It has changed over the course of time, as all things do, but it was more the people that changed than the place.
Reflecting back on my life brings up a great number of joyful memories and a fair share of not-so-joyful ones. It's strange how the mind remembers events. Bad memories are turned to good by laughing at them and that it's the happy memories that seem to hurt.

Rambling

Well, it's been over a month since the day I was supposed to get out of the Army and I think that I have recovered for the most part. It's still hard to wake up every morning and know that I am in the Army, stuck in a desert, supporting a "war" that I don't agree with. Oops, did I say "war?" I can't really even call it that anymore; it's mostly a political thing now. We say "Anti-Iraqi Forces" instead of "Anti-Coalition Forces." I think that this is supposed to make the Iraqis feel like they own the place and to attempt to send the message that any insurgents are acting against the Iraqi people, not the Americans. It's all political symantic garbage if you ask me, although nobody here ever does. I digress. Let me return to my original topic. I am dealing with my situation, even if I am having a bit of trouble in doing so. I think that later on in life, no matter how bad my situation is, I will be able to reflect on my time spent in Iraq and know that it could be worse, and it was for a time. Well, I suppose I could end up penniless and living on the street, which might be worse than being here, but I'm still not sure because I'd at least have my freedom, which I don't have here. I guess in saying this I am whining about my situation, which is what I'm tryin to say I shouldn't do. I think that I've done a fairly poor job of getting that point across, which is why I said it outright. Sort of.