Okay so tagged me for this in...August...and I'm finally getting around to it.

The Rules:
1. You must choose only ONE of your OCs. Do it again if you wanna use another OC.
2. Your OC must answer every question as truthfully as possible.
3. Title the journal as "OCs Quiz (your OCs name.Example:Kaiser's Quiz)".
4. When you're done, tag as many people as you want.
5. Have fun!!!


1. Hi! What's your real name and nickname?
Julia SUW-119. I used to have a last name, but the Summit took it from me. Call me Julia.

2. Interesting... what's your current age?
20.

3. Uh huh. What's your favorite food?
I'm honestly content with a big bowl of spaghetti.

4. And your favorite drink?
Lemonade, generally. I used to really like Sprite, before the Fall.

5. Confession time! Who's your crush/lover?
I don't know what you're talking about.

6. Aww! Have you two kissed yet?
*eyebrow raise*

7. Classic question! What's your favorite colour?
White.

8. Who's your favorite author?
Zoe, or George Orwell, perhaps.

9. Now what's your biggest fear?
Being caught by the Summit is definitely up there on the list. Never being able to find out what happened to my family during the Fall. My friends being killed...

10. *stifles a giggle* I'm not laughing *bursts out laughing*
It appears you are. *small smile*

11. Awesome. Who's your hero?
Helena. She has done so much for the movement at a great risk to herself. Plus, she looks out for me when I forget to.

12. Ok, who is your worst enemy?
The Summit as a whole, really. No one in particular, I suppose.

13. What would you do if your hero and your worst enemy got together?
I would probably be executed, unfortunately.

14. Interesting... what would you do if you met your creator?
We all meet our Creator sometime, don't we?

15. Okay, I'll contact them right now. Done! Now, what do you want to be when you grow up?
I'm in school to become a politician, a bureaucrat, a government type. But I'd really like to be a lawyer, if there were any such thing anymore. Maybe an actress, or I could keep up the special agent/spy deal, I suppose. Ask me in ten years, if I live that long.

16. What's your worst nightmare?
Accidentally betraying the Rebellion. Jason or Zoe dying. Even...finding out that Alex had been killed...

17. What's your lifelong dream?
To be part of a free society again. To see the Summit fall.

18. What would you do if your lifelong dream came true?
Gosh, I don't even know. I've worked so long on it, it would be amazing to have a real name again, a real life. I don't know if I'll ever see that day.

19. Ok, where's your favorite place to relax?
Helena's house with Zoe and Jason and a fire going. Just talking and laughing and living.

20. Last question! What do you spend most of your time doing?
Training, studying, going undercover, going to Zoe's dance recitals, fighting for freedom. You know. Special agent stuff.

21. We're done! Now tag whoever the hell you want.
Do Eric and I will be very pleased.


Sorry if she's a little flat tonight. I haven't worked with her in awhile and I do want to dust this story off in the near future! I was going for more of her serious, quiet side here. Working? Failing? Character feedback is loved and admired.

This week was the week from Hell. Probably the first of many this year for me, but here's the deal.

Monday was my birthday and that was a pretty good day in general. It feels like it was a month ago. I didn't sleep more than two hours Monday night trying to get everything I needed to do finished for Tuesday.

Tuesday was the night before my first Organic Chemistry test. I stayed up all night again and slept for about an hour during the day, and one in the early morning of Wednesday.

Wednesday morning was the test. I went in feeling pretty well prepared, and came out feeling eh...alright. Decent. Could've done better, could've done worse. I knew I'd done one wrong. As soon as I turned it in, the correct answer occurred to me, but I thought I'd be alright. I got an email from my professor that evening: "Your exams are graded. Email me if you want to know your score." Who wouldn't want to know? So I replied and promptly received a response. I opened it and...

"Your score was 59."

My mind whited out. That score isn't out of 60, or 70. That's my percentage score. 59 out of 100 points. An F. The last time I got an F on a test? 4th grade on my first multiplication test. At first, I didn't feel much of anything but slowly an ugly sense of dread filled my stomach. My boyfriend was on his way to my school to take me to Chipotle to celebrate his first day of school with me, and when he pulled up to my hall, I got in his car and started sobbing.

I cried for somewhere close to half an hour. I wanted to jump out my 4th story window, run to the registrar and change my major, get away from that number. I wrote off all my dreams of becoming a doctor and told myself I'd fail the course, this most important course for the MCAT, the most important undergraduate class I'll take. I spiraled back down into my not-good-enough pit of what can only be called despair. I started making excuses. "I didn't sleep that night." "It was test stress." "I knew what I was doing, I just messed up." You know the type.

Slowly, thanks to my boyfriend's patience, a big fat burrito bowl, and cake batter ice cream, I started to wrap my mind around the score. I stayed up late again that night, chain-smoking Diet Coke and coffee to stay aware. Thankfully, a headache on Thursday night sent me to bed at a reasonable hour and I woke up calm and collected, drank some delicious apple spice tea and went to take my Physics test. Next up. OChem.


My professor passed back the tests and told us that the class average had been 65. Ouch. Below average. He then told us what he had done wrong on the exam -- it had been a little too long for our 55-minute testing session. Then he told us what WE had done wrong.

I don't know if you've ever had a teacher tell you what you did for the sole purpose of honestly wanting you to get better. It sucks. He told us that he was sure we had worked hard. But we hadn't worked hard enough. We'd done our best, but our best wasn't good enough. We knew the material, but we didn't know it well enough.

That throws up some serious barriers in my mind. I'm an intelligent young woman. I take my intelligence to be a defining personality trait. Of course I worked hard! How dare you? A classmate asked about a curve.

"Don't say that word," the prof said. "Don't think that I'll just add 15 or 20 points, and then everyone will be happy, and our sins will all be wiped away. You don't LEARN that way."

Damn it. He's right.

He told that these bad grades are good for us. "Fix it," he said. Or nothing will change. "I don't believe you can say you know something and mess it up on the test. You don't know it then. You can't know it just as well and just take longer to do it. You don't know it just as well, then."

Damn it. He's right again.

I've spent all this time making excuses for myself and my "stupid mistakes." I let my academic, intellectual arrogance drop me into a rut of just getting by. For me, "just getting by" is a B. I have the capability to be an A student. I AM an A student. But I've never thought I had to work for it. I've this smug sense of superiority. I'm smart and I work hard. So it's not my fault, right? I can blame something else, someone else, can't I? No, this time I didn't work hard enough.

Maybe this grade will make some people in my class drop or panic or shut down and not try. But, brace yourself, I'm glad I got a 59 on this test. It's given me a nice dose of humility and a definite reality check. I said I wanted an A at the beginning of the semester and I thought I was working for it. But now I know that I want it for real and I'm going to do the right work to get it.

My hard work wasn't hard enough, and my best wasn't good enough. And the only person I can blame for my grade is me.

By the way, I don't think this professor is a jerk. He's one of the best teachers I've had, and I think he's a great guy. The only person who got my score and made my mistakes was me. He didn't fail me. I failed me. In every sense of the word.

So, students. Don't blame your circumstances or your teacher or your test. Blame yourself and earn your grades. Take a little academic humility.

This week sounded like it sucked, but from right here on Friday evening, I'm happy with it.

EDIT: I just noticed that I hit 2,000 pageviews! Yay! What a nice early birthday present. Thanks!!




So, it's late. I haven't updated or submitted in a long time. Please read my new submission and help me polish it up a bit. School has gotten into full swing after the invasion of Swiney and my workload is steadily increasing. I will be on for snatches of time to submit (hopefully) and reply. Please pray for me, if you think of it.

Also, I just wanted to take a moment to say that I love my friends, next door or on the other side of the country. From my mom, to my best friend from high school I see less than I'd like, to my boyfriend who is fast becoming my dearest friend, to my second "little sister" across the nation whom I've never met. I love you all, and thank God for you.

Hi guys.

My school is the latest to fall victim to the swine flu. So far, I'm healthy, but several of my friends are in isolation and restraints are starting to be placed on activities and such. Masks might be required in class soon.

So, if you could, please pray for us!

Thanks!

I'm so outrageously excited and completely honored because my best friend, asked me to be the best man at his wedding!!

I am not, in fact, a man, but goshdarnit I will make it work!

I'm like bouncing off the walls, it's great! I was so happy to witness the proposal and now I get to be in the wedding party and do important stuff and make sure my best friend doesn't get to terribly nervous. And remembers his shoes.



*end overly happyhappyhappy journal entry*