365 Day Project, Day 168

Exactly the way I last saw it.

Updating my blog.. and talking to.. myself?

I have a migraine. I wonderful and huge migraine. I asked my mom why people have migraines..

And she said that she didn't remember where she had heard this, but..

There was a lady in the Holy Prophet's (Peace Be Upon Him) time who had epilepsy & migraines. She asked the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H.) to ask God to end her condition. He asked her what she would prefer: go to Heaven directly and keep having migraines & seizures in this life, or be judged for her deeds and never have migraines or seizures again. What would you pick? If, of course, you had migraines or epilepsy and knew what it was like..

I'd take having migraines in his life.. But it still hurts my head and I can't prevent it.

Yes, I pray to God to help me bear them..

And yes, I went to see a doctor. Two, in fact. They didn't help. Period.
Medicine doesn't help either.. And I can't sleep when the migraines are in the back of the head.

Migraines, by the way, are severe headaches which affect any one side of the head.. the front, back, sides, everywhere, or more than one side at a time.. And light and noise makes them worse.
Oh, and medicine doesn't help. Did I say that?
This is what my face is like when I have a migraine and I was in the middle of doing something important:

Yeah, they suck.. but I'm not going to keep on ranting about migraines.

So I was in the middle of applying for scholarships and online jobs when I got the migraine that made me so.. depressed? upset?
Sigh.
Anyway.

If I had known fourteen months ago where I would be and why right now, I would have.. I don't know, started looking at scholarships earlier?

In April last year, I moved to America for immigration. Happy, happy, happy, right?
I had my O'level transcripts evaluated, and I found out that it was equal to graduating from high school in America. Yes, I was delighted that I could go to university a year ahead of all my friends in Pakistan.

And I went to community college there with scholarships. It made life easier for my parents.

Today, 29th May 2011, I'm done with my first year of community college (which is, by the way, the same as a four-year university, just cheaper and you have to transfer to a university in two years). Yay. Now, though, my scholarship at the community college has been halved (no, not because of my grades, I kept those high enough to apply to Harvard, remember?) because of budget cuts.

Since I had known that it was coming, I had applied to universities a year early as a transfer student. Harvard was my number one choice-if your parents made less than $60,000 per year, you didn't have to pay. And I didn't get in-1500 applicants and 12 spaces. I asked them why I didn't get in and where I could improve. Guess what they told me? There was nothing lacking in my application and there was no specific negative reason why I didn't get in.
I wasn't dumb enough to apply to Harvard only. I applied at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania too. They said no too.. And since they both had over a thousand applicants each, I didn't bother asking them where I could improve.

I applied to Cornell, SMU & Texas A&M too. Still waiting to hear back from them, though.

Then there was this university in California that a friend of mine told me that she was applying to.

I love my family first (always, always, always there for me) and then my friends.. Not that all my friends really care about me. I don't feel sorry for myself, my dad says that friends are only friends until the time that they need you. Which is so true. Like I said two years ago after my best friends stopped talking to me (and I didn't even do anything, they had moved to new schools): Nearly everyone is the same. You help them, then they stab you in the back, lie to you & leave you to rot.

If it wasn't for my family, I wouldn't even be around. And for the fact that suicide is not allowed in Islam. I'd have been gone in.. seventh grade :o

But getting back to the point, yeah, I love my family, and I'd do anything to keep them happy forever, even if it meant not getting what I want, like I want to go to university-it's not even selfish to want to go to university, now, is it?

As for the university my friend applied to.. She didn't get in. But I did.

So, you're probably thinking, yay, problem resolved, you can go to university, right? No.. I can't.. yet. I need to pay to go. And even though they've given me a 50% in need-based grants, I don't have enough-and neither do my parents after the costs of going to America, coming back, and having to buy back all the stuff we sold which is now twice as expensive-so I'm looking at scholarships and online jobs now.

Loans aren't possible.. Because no bank would give $25,000 for me to go to university.
Oh, and it was Santa Clara University which said yes and made my dream of becoming and engineer possible. Now, though.. It's all in God's hands, as it always has been and will be.

Santa Clara, is, by the way, awesome. At least in my own opinion.
I have to stay at a uni in America, too. Because of the immigration thing.

And if I can't transfer to university, then I'm going to try and get a teaching job here and take online classes-the very few that I can take with the amount of financial aid that i'll get at Richland.

I know that there are millions of people who would love to go to university and those who have worse problems than mine. Thing is, I'd happily swap with them. They'd do much better in my place and would be more thankful than I can ever be.

I sound like a thankless person, but I try to be thankful.. But I have to talk to someone to calm down at times like this. Even if I'm talking to myself.

Looks like I'll be teaching in August. That's something I love doing and I've done before, so.. lucky me. =)

April 7th, Thursday.

Left Richland really early...Stopped in Waco for lunch...
Reached Hyatt in Austin around 4 pm, still remember Sergio/Andrew telling us how the Capitol building was fifteen inches taller than the one in D.C. And the following hilarious conversation...

(Stopped in a traffic jam)
Chau: Jason, relax...stop frowning-you'll get wrinkles.
Jason: Okay...
(two minutes later)
Chau: Jason, relax
Jason: Chau, shut up or we'll turn around and go home

Found out that there was no free internet at the hotel...Annoying.
Dinner was awful-yes, I'm thankful that I could eat, but I expected better from Hyatt.
First official convention meeting was fun, funny speaker-and the Executive Board's entrance was awesome, remember the advisor making everyone laugh.

All the other regions had their cheers ready, we tried to get Region II to cheer, but everyone was too busy eating. :@

Region meeting was boring, played Chess on my laptop. Organized the cheers, though.
Slept early...12 is early.

April 8th, Friday.

Woke everyone else up...
Had an apple for breakfast and didn't even try Hyatt's menu since everyone else in my SGA was dissappointed with the service and the food quality. First place I found which can mess up making cereal. Seriously?

Tried to get the internet to work & went to the Awards Committee meeting...lots of work -.-

General Assembly was nice, food was okay. Yeah, I'll keep talking about food.
And Region II-my region, and the largest one-reminded everyone of how awesome we are once we get everything organized.
Region meeting was actually fun...
Ordered pizza after that, feeling hungry-and the pizza was late, I was so hungry...Awards committee meeting after that; Tricked Andrew & Chau while they were at a Thai restaurant, it was so funny!

Comedians were funny...here's one. If Optimus Prime had a gay son, what would his name be? Optimus Prius. Yeah, he made us laugh a lot...and then another guy came along and changed his voice and sang songs from Lady Gaga and Enrique to Creed and Backstreet boys...even did some decent 'magic' tricks.

Talent show was fun, still remember the Collin SGA dancing and those people who sang. And the guy who did 'stand up comedy' which was actually him reading off jokes from google. And I did our Region cheers in Sign Language, it was fun :)

Midnight volleyball after that was FUN. Slept at 2...

April 9th, Saturday.

General Assembly & breakfast...I'm not even going to comment on the breakfast. I had an apple instead. Thank you to everyone in the Richland SGA for giving me all the apples in their lunch bags, by the way. Couldn't have survived without those. Lunch on the boat was fun, Awards Committee meeting after that where we finalized everything. Bugged Wilfred & Chau at the pool after that, then went Awards Committee again, I couldn't wait to leave since we were done...

Went to buy ice cream and found out that four people in RCSGA can play piano awesomely...still remember the surprise.
Played volleyball after that-lost four straight games to a team that had better teamwork-even though we kept changing teams and bringing in fresh players. -.-

Walked to Whataburger at 3 am, Greg & Sergio kept singing...just joking.
Invited everyone for a party in my room and I crashed at 4 am while everyone else was still awake-can't believe I fell asleep even with music playing.

April 10th, Sunday.

Woke up early...Really wanted to sleep!
Woke everyone else up too...

Went to the House of Representatives and almost fell asleep, it was just so, so boring. Seven other people around the place fell asleep!
Played on my laptop, though...
Fell asleep on the way home-stopped at Dairy something for lunch.
Crashed when I got home...but haven't had so much fun with friends since two years!