This is it.

10:30. An hour and a half before midnight. Before April 10. Before I officially turn a year older.

Sixteen. Imagine. I'm not sure if that's great or terrible but what I am sure about is that it's coming. I am now savoring the last minutes of being fifteen (I love being fifteen!).

These days are the most eventful and craziest so far in my short life. For one, I'd already celebrated my birthday last Thursday: three days earlier (first with my friends then with my family). Then my mom and I flew to Manila. Okay. Let me explain. I have this summer seminar to attend (Ateneo Junior Summer Seminar or AJSS. I have no idea how the hell I got in because you know, the exams were so hard and all, and in an ordered universe I would never have been able to join This. Sadly, a second big bang must have occurred and the universe was reorganized). So my two months of vacation were all gone, replaced by five weeks of classes that are supposed to give us a taste of college life. Now is that cool or scary? You decide.

I think it's scary. First day is the scariest part. I mean, it's like being in a whole new school again, surrounded by strangers and not a familiar face in sight and you're just alone and friendless and homesick. I'm all nerves now. I'm going to hyperventilate. Hopefully I would get past all that.

So these past couple of days, my mom and I had been in the mall for hours on end, shopping and window-shopping, cherishing the last days of freedom and nearly dropping dead from exhaustion. Because tomorrow, as I turn sixteen, I also have to go to the dorm. Already. I have been dreading that moment for weeks!

Scared. Terrified. Jittery. On the verge of breaking down. Needing serious medical attention now.

And excited too. Exhilarated. After all, it will be a whole new experience. A whole new adventure.

Not a bad way to spend your summer. Not really.