So, with the year 2008 in the books, there's nothing left to do but look forward to the year 2009. Several people make a big deal about how this is a new year and how things are going to be different this year compared to last year. To cope with change, most people make resolutions that they usually never keep past the first couple of days of the new year. I think that everybody tends to make the new year to much of a big deal. What's the difference, it's the same fake people that I have to put up with every year.

Well, anyway, instead of looking forward to another year, I think I'll look back on the year 2008.

Things I learned in 2008:

Everybody says that high school graduation is supposed to be one of the greatest moments of your life. Honestly, all I remember was eating Outback Steakhouse, my favorite restaurant, with my parents and grandparents, and throwing my hat in to the hair during the Alma Mater. To me it was just another day, and although the graduation was supposed to signify the end of era, it certainly didn't feel like it, and I still feel like I'm in the same era as I was during most of my high school tenure.

Prom is overrated! I don't understand how some students can afford to have a limo pick them up and drop them off at the location of prom and how some of them can afford to go to lake-houses right afterwards and party some more. Honestly, after I was rejected by a girl because she was already going out with someone else, I found out she was indeed telling the truth at the dance because I saw her with that other guy, I just felt pretty blah. The DJ played generic crappy songs like "Soulja Boy" and Mariah Carey songs. The event was alright as I did dance a little, but overall I enjoyed my homecoming dance a lot more. The Senior Night after Prom though was a bit better. Mostly because I won a laptop as a door-prize and saved my family $600. Maybe if I would have had a girl, gone with a group in a limo, and went to a lake-house afterward, I might have enjoyed it. But overall, I was disappointed, especially because I spent $60 on a prom ticket, and $20 on the Senior Night After Prom.

The college experience is not all it's cracked up to be. Maybe it was because I was working a job, maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was taking ridiculously extreme calculus c_lasses on my first semester of college. Maybe it was the fact that my GPR is in the tubes right now. Overall, I just didn't really enjoy college as much as peope told me I was going to. There were former alumni that told me that college was pretty much wild party after wild party. Well now I see why these former alumni are fast food employees, because with my heavy-loaded schedule that is required of an engineer and my low-paying minimum wage job, I don't have time to party. Well all that studying was all for not as my GPR is a low 2.7 and if I dip any lower than that, I'm on academic probation.

The government doesn't care about the middle c_lass I'll be honest, I don't exactly have money, but we're not poor either. However, we as the middle c_lass are the people that contribute to society the most. The rich are either pampered celebrities that do nothing for society as a whole except entertain us really, and the poor do not contribute ANYTHING! I'm not calling anyone of these groups out, your economic level is your economic level, but the middle c_lass are the hardest workers. Yet when the government looks down upon us, charges us outrageous taxes and then claims that my family's expected contribution for college is $37,000, well that just pisses me off because my family can barely pay $2,000 for a semester's tuition. I don't know where the financial aid office is pulling that number from, but they forget to take in to account that because we generally have more money than the poor, we pay more money in bills and taxes to enhance the city's economy yet we get diddly-squat in return! There really is no money left over to pay for college, and with the economy being in a rut, it makes taking out a loan even worse to help pay for the over-mounting fees. In total, by the time I get out of college, we'll have an estimated $30 thousand debt to pay if the government continues to ignore the middle c_lass and not cut us a break. I certainly hope this changes with the new president, because the way things are going, we're all going to be poor.

Sorry for the rant. So what has the year 2008 taught you? Any exciting experiences? Anything that pissed you off? Talk to me!

Hurrapop: 2009 better be better than 2008! I'm just sayin'!