| turpinol @ 2004-06-22 15:04:00 |
| Current mood: |  tired |
| Current music: | Nada Pipe - Psychic Cauldron Cake |
Word to your mother.
Today has been mercifully N.E.W.T. and O.W.L. free, which has meant that everyone spent the day either lying around and doing nothing or running amok and doing everything. I wish that the seventh years would stop using dungbombs and magic fireworks in the corridors. It's still a rule, and Filch has had it out with me several times today because I wasn't able to be in nine places at once to stop it. There are bent up rolls of parchment everywhere and books ripped apart. I suppose people are happy that they do not need them anymore, but wouldn't you like to do a little extra revision for your exams?
On Friday evening I went to see Headmaster Dumbledore about a fifth year who tried to walk to Hogsmeade so that they could go home and avoid O.W.L.s, but a very unhappy house-elf was already there waiting for him and told me that he was out with the Head Boy. That tears it. I am really very irritated with the Head Boy. I found this under my Transfiguration text this morning. On the one hand he is politely sending me good luck and wished me a happy Hanukkah, but on the other, I have no idea who this is.
I never did get to see the headmaster, because I had so many other things to do and now Hop Sheffler is convinced that he doesn't have to take his O.W.L.s because I could never tell him that the headmaster said otherwise. Apparently, he isn't willing to take my word alone, and I'm just hoping that someone besides me will notice.
I have been putting too much stress on myself to decide what I want to do with my life, I think. I'm seventeen years old. I shouldn't expect myself to know what I want to do for the next two hundred years. So, I've decided to go to Muggle university after Hogwarts. I'm far too late to register for the autumn term, so I will likely wait until autumn of 1999. This is either the best or worst idea that I've ever had. I have no idea where I am going to tell them I've been going to school for the past seven years. It seems that being a prefect and Head Girl would be something I ought to include, but how can I say Ravenclaw? Perhaps I can take all of my sister's information. I am sure they will not notice that I was not actually head of Stella Postel house or in the first eight rowing team. Perhaps when they ask, I can say, 'Well, my first name is Jayna but I'm now called Lisa. I don't know why. It's my younger sister's name. Yes, I stole it. You are smothering my creativity with your questions.' That should work nicely.
I suppose I will have to talk with my parents. I'd actually like to get Professor McGonagall's advice, but that will have to wait. I am not sure what I will do for the entire year before I can do this. Maybe I can follow Acciohead and Weezerd and Broomhandle Confessional and Nada Pipe from venue to venue for the entire year, prostrating myself at the feet of Thim Polke and Lakes Russo and Erik Boardman until I run out of gold. It wouldn't accomplish much, but I think it would be a good thing to do just to have done it. Maybe I can take up smoking for the summer and live in France crankily. Only I'd probably get annoyed, because I don't speak any French. The only language I know is Welsh, so maybe I can go be homeless in Wales.
We have more written exams tomorrow, and then the practical portions of N.E.W.T.s finally start on Thursday. I'm looking forward to them, although I'm very nervous at the same time. I don't get nervous when I'm actually taking exams, luckily, but I am very much so beforehand.
Comments:
| legit_regit @ 2004-06-22 09:17 pm UTC |
Lisa, you can't be serious. Following bands around is no way to spend your life!
What did you get on your journal, by the way?
| turpinol @ 2004-06-22 09:20 pm UTC |
Oh, but I am. It would make me happy, which I think is a high priority in life.
I got an A, likely due to that mess last year. And yourself?
| legit_regit @ 2004-06-22 09:27 pm UTC |
But you could be working at the Ministry or aiming to be a professor at Hogwarts. You're really clever and it seems like you would be wasting it this way. I don't know anything about Muggle schools, but why can't you go this autumn? It's only June, so I don't see how you've missed autumn.
Oh, I couldn't tell you! It's embarrassing!
| turpinol @ 2004-06-22 11:48 pm UTC |
You know, the more I discuss this, the better the idea sounds.
Muggle universities are for further education after secondary school. You pick a subject that you'd like to focus on--your course--and you choose your modules around that. However, you have to apply and give them information about your previous schooling, and I don't know that I could just lie and say I've been to a public school all this time. I don't think a couple of months are going to give me enough time. I could apply at Clearance, and maybe I will, but for now I'd rather wait until next autumn.
Does that mean you got a D? Don't be embarrassed about it. Lots of people got a D. I know that Daphne Greengrass did and Dean Thomas and Harry Potter said they did as well.
| legit_regit @ 2004-06-22 11:49 pm UTC |
I am confused. What will you do with a Muggle education? Are you intending to get a job in the wizarding world after this? Is it another full seven years? I'd love to have seven more years of school!
Yes, I did. I have always kept a journal in a book and I wrote in that so often that there was little left to say here. I wish I'd known that we were going to be graded!
| turpinol @ 2004-06-22 11:52 pm UTC |
I don't know what I'll do afterwards. I could do something as a Muggle or a witch, which I feel makes being a halfblood pretty convenient.
It's generally three years, but sometimes it's less and sometimes it's more, if you choose certain courses. If I went to school to be a doctor I'd probably be there for eight or twelve years or something, but I don't want to be a doctor. A doctor is a Healer.
| legit_regit @ 2004-06-22 11:54 pm UTC |
Eight or twelve years?? But Healers don't require that much schooling!
(parent)| turpinol @ 2004-06-22 11:55 pm UTC |
Well, doctors don't use magic, so I would expect that's quite a hindrance.
(parent)| perfectprefect @ 2004-06-22 10:38 pm UTC |
There are certainly a great deal of complications involved when wizards and witches choose to further their education in Muggle facilities, but you are not the first to face them. I suggest that you write to the Department of Education at the Ministry. They are equipped to handle this sort of situation. Similarly, you may try contacting Penelope Weasley. She is Muggle-born and her mother is a professor at a Muggle university, so I imagine that she would have some advice regarding this issue.
| turpinol @ 2004-06-22 10:49 pm UTC |
Thank you, Percy. I will write to the Ministry during the summer. And I will ask Penelope, if I see her around on the journals.
I don't exactly know you, but congratulations on getting married!
| seamus_f @ 2004-06-23 12:08 am UTC |
Percy is right; there must be a way to do it. Surely you are not the first one.
Following bands around sounds like a brilliant way to spend your gap year, too. That's what a Muggle friend of my sister did but I can't remember who she was running around with. Something that sounded like food.
See, that nervousness beforehand is why Friday was my last day of revision. Any more than that, so close to exams, just gets me confused and even more nervous. By now, I know what I know.
| turpinol @ 2004-06-23 12:17 am UTC |
I suppose that's true, although I do find myself reaching for my books a bit reflexively. Although, if you're the one who's been leaving bits of books all over the corridors, we can no longer speak.
I can't decide if I should follow one band or just go see every band that comes around, regardless of if I've heard of them or not. It would be an interesting way to find new music.
| seamus_f @ 2004-06-23 04:50 am UTC |
I would never commit acts of violence toward books. Please.
I reckon if you follow a lot of new bands, you'll find one worth of your devotion.
| wheresmytoad @ 2004-06-23 02:09 am UTC |
I was going to chime in, too, to say surely you're not the first student to have faced this problem, but I see that Seamus and Percey Weasley beat me to it.
Are you thinking of any Muggle university in particular? Might you be in London? I might be, if I take the St. Mungo's job (and assuming I don't flame out on my N.E.W.T.s, of course). Haven't decided yet, though. It is scary, isn't it, trying to decide about the future? I try to tell myself that any decision I make isn't necessarily set in stone; I can always change direction if the first thing I try doesn't suit me.
Hmm. Following bands around for awhile. Scarily enough, that has a certain appeal, too. Clearly, studying is fermenting my brain. (Except for Nada Pipe. Their music I don't like.)
| turpinol @ 2004-06-24 12:44 am UTC |
I haven't anything particular in mind, but part of me would like to go to Oxford. It's a very good school but it's difficult to get accepted. You're right, though, and I think that's what I've come to decide--if I spend five years doing something and hate it, I can just do something else.
Nada Pipe is brilliant. I like the idea that their music is just for me.
