MILES to GO || before I sleep

OMG.
YAY.
SQUEE!
WAHOO!
YIPPEE!
YOWZA!
HAHAHAHAH!

But somehow, none of them quite do the situation justice. I just got accepted into the Washington Internship Institute. This is different from just being invited to the ISLP Delegation on Journalism, different from being told "how great a candidate" I am for the Target Executive Intern program (and not hearing from them in several weeks), and so on and so forth.

As a bit of reference, I was running around getting the application all filled out and finished this whole week-- reference letters, transcripts, the works. I sent it out by Priority Mail yesterday so it would make it to Washington, DC by the deadline of today. They got it by noon EST, which means around 9 a.m. here. I had a phone call to make by 10:30, so I was up by 10 a.m., and sometime around 10:30, I got that email saying "Welcome to WII!"

I was so shocked at first, I really didn't believe it. Less than an hour and a half after they receive my application and I'm in!? Damn, I'm good (and I know there could be other possibilities, but let me stroke my ego for a few minutes here, okay?).

So now I've got a new Intern Profile form to fill out, which includes two essays. That along with a $350 deposit is due within 10 days... I just got paid, so buh-bye, paycheck! I hope I get a scholarship from this and, since I'll be taking other seminars while there (according to their brochure, anyway) that I hope can count for other academic credit (not sure what department or anything, though). I can also take other online courses-- the one that I already planned to take, plus a few others, depending on their pre-reqs and GE fulfillments.

I emailed Scott yesterday, and he mentioned he thought I would graduate sooner, but the Spring 2009 date has looked like my date for a while now. This might mess that up, but then again, how's it any different from my plans for taking Winter session being dashed by the fact that they're not offering anything I need? Why pay for classes that don't mean anything to my degree? Of course, like Scott said, we're "students of life," so a few other classes hardly matter. I'll be graduating with over 120 units either way.

It's funny how now, in my junior and senior years, I'm finding so much that I want to do, even though it might not necessarily apply to my academic degree (major or minor) in any way. And of course, there are things that do pertain, but they're expensive-- this WII isn't free, but I'm hoping tuition can cover it as a sort of "study abroad" and that I can get scholarships from the Institute while I'm at it. There are scholarships for those in honor societies, and I'm in two eligible ones: NSCS and Golden Key, so yay to that.

So if all this works out, I'll be spending spring 2008 in Washington, DC and... *pray pray pray* 2 weeks of summer in Australia. THAT would be a dream come true. And now... to fundraise, pester, and find funding!

Oh, and write those essays.