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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Jul 5, 2012 9:59:28 GMT -5
Matthew considered the question Caitlyn posed to him, whether the commute was bad. Matthew knew going in that he would have to commute if he hadn't wanted to go to college at the Academy, no matter where he stayed. If he had decided to go to a college back home, his parents would have made him stay at home and find a college that was close enough so he could just drive back and forth, which wasn't a very attractive option because there weren't any colleges that snagged his interest, but then again, maybe they didn't pique his interest because they were so close to him. Being on his proverbial own for four years of high school was enough to give Matthew the notion that he actually thrived much better when he was by himself and not under his parents' rule. They weren't that strict, but at least he never had to hear the usual nagging from his mom. Being on his own was too tempting now. And as for staying in Maple Hollow but commuting for school, it was really a given once he had come to the decision to see this art journey of his through. A half hour drive each way wasn't that much of a nuisance when he considered that the school he went to would speak for itself on his resume. "It's just half an hour each way. I mean, I guess that could be construed as 'far' but I don't mind. Plus, the drive is a good distance to mentally prepare myself in the morning and to unwind at night." And Matthew loved his car. There was that, too.
"Yeah, I'm an illustration major."
[/color] Matt was actually kind of proud of that for some reason, but he figured that everyone who was doing something they loved for college would be happy about it. "What about you? All I remember about you was you were always running around for orchestra practice."[/color] This was mostly true. No one had really told Matt much about Caitlyn when they were in school, but he had seen her run around with an instrument alongside her a couple times that he assumed she was a musician of some sort. Or, well, just someone's instrument caddy, but she didn't seem like the type to be relegated to that, so. He was sticking with his assumption. "It's kind of intense. It would have been nice to know what I was getting myself into. It's completely different than high school."[/color] Matt shrugged. Sure, it would have been nice, but it also would have been moot -- there was probably very little that could have been done to prepare Matt for it, save for experiencing it for himself.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Jul 9, 2012 21:31:36 GMT -5
Half an hour wasn't that bad, all things considered. It was further than the Academy, that much was for sure, but it wasn't an impossible drive or anything. It was probably a bit further if anyone had to take the bus or anything, but Cait was fortunate enough to have a car, and it sounded like Matthew was too. She smiled a little. "And if you like what you're doing in college, right?" The fact that he was actually studying art was definitely something she could hold much respect for. Sometimes she wished that she'd had the... confidence maybe, to pursue music. At the end of the day, however, she liked what she was doing. Forensic science was cool, and she had a knack for it... Plus, it was kind of more practical. There was that too. Practicality was always a bonus.
"Hey, that's awesome!" she said rather than retelling her entire life story, which would probably just bore him to tears. Caitlyn tried not to do that to people... Luckily she didn't have to try that hard, but it was something. "Well, concert band, not orchestra," she corrected lightly, but she smiled. It was a pretty common mistake. "But yeah! I mean, I'm still doing that, kind of, just on the side. I'm studying forensic science, actually." She liked it, too. Find your passion, her parents had always told her. Maybe she was lucky to like a whole multitude of things. "Isn't it totally different?" Though she hadn't really left her high school, at least not the actual building and the people, this past year had been a far cry from earlier. "You should see some of these elemental classes they have in college..." It was all pretty stressful. She could almost envy Matthew for not having to deal with it anymore, but then again, it would be a strange idea, like she was giving it up far earlier than she had to. In the real world, as an adult (or at least, more of an adult than she was now, considering she was technically living on her own and paying taxes and all that jazz), there would be no more use for their powers.
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Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Aug 1, 2012 10:14:49 GMT -5
Matthew wasn't really surprised to find out that Caitlyn wasn't doing music anymore. Not like that was a bad thing, far from it -- it was definitely the smarter decision and a path that he had once considered -- not forensic science, exactly, but something along the lines of medicine, and it probably still is the better idea, but he knew that wasn't what he wanted. And well, a major difference between that and Caitlyn was probably the fact that Caitlyn seemed to genuinely like forensic science. Sometimes, Matt wonders if he really was better off going with his dream rather than something more practical -- medicine was always needed, after all, and art was always painted to be something frivolous and not very necessary, evident in how it was almost always the first thing to be cut from school budgets. But he hadn't really cared. Well, he was sure he would start caring if he got out of college with an art degree and a whole lot of nothing for job opportunities, but Matt knew he wasn't the type of person to just let things be decided for him. It was still early to think about all of this, anyway. "That's pretty cool! So like, what, you're going to be one of those people on CSI or something?" All right, Matthew was pretty positive that what he saw on TV, with all the technology and gadgets and everything, was definitely not what real life forensic work was like. Maybe sometime in the future, but most definitely not now.
"Man, it's totally different. I think it took me a week or something just to make it to all my classes without getting lost, and then another week on top of that to get used to the workload."
[/color] The first lesson that Matthew really learned once he started college was that most of the time, professors really didn't give a rat's ass just how much homework you had added up together -- their class was always most important and therefore, you had the most to do in their class. It would have been fine if only one of his teachers his first year were that sort of entitled, but every teacher he had was like that, and when you add all of that together it made for one hell of a hectic academic year. If the professors at the Academy were the same, he couldn't even imagine just how he would have handled that along with his elemental courses. Even though a part of him still felt sort of guilty for giving his gift up, he knew that practically, it was the right choice -- he knew there was very little real world use of the powers they had, and between his gift and his dream, it was fairly easy to figure out what would win in the end. "Honestly, I think I'm okay with being on this side of that fence,"[/color] Matthew said, and would have continued if it weren't for Dubstep Guy starting up again, except this time it was country music. Matthew glared at the wall now vibrating with strains of slashing an ex-boyfriend's tires. What kind of freak lived next door to him?![/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]
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Post by CAITLYN AUBREE SOMMERLOT on Aug 1, 2012 15:42:28 GMT -5
Caitlyn laughed. If there was one thing she'd been told all throughout high school by her science teachers whenever those things came up, it was that no, CSI was really not a realistic show by any means. Actually, the main point that made the shows blatantly unrealistic was the time frame in which everything happened and was done. DNA tests didn't come back nearly as quickly as that, certainly not for little cases like... murders. Was it worrying to Caitlyn that murders weren't always considered big deals? A little, yes. She hoped that once she got into the field, she wouldn't actually clam up at the sight of anything gruesome, but Cait was a pretty able person. She would probably be able to do it if she'd been able to handle all her classes thus far. Then again there also weren't as many homicides and the like as shows like CSI always made there out to be either... but really Matthew was pretty much correct if the shows were realistic at all. "Something like that!" she confirmed and nodded. "A little bit less exciting and dramatic, though. But other than that!" It was still definitely interesting, just without all the glamour of TV.
Luckily, she'd never had to deal with adjusting to an entire campus and not getting lost, considering the fact that she'd chosen to stay at the Academy. Though it was a huge castle, the fact that she had been there for her high school years already was definitely helpful. She hadn't stumbled around for the first few days of college completely lost at the very least. It was pretty much what she had done during ninth grade and that was quite enough for her never to want to experience it again. Other than that, however, she was pretty sure that things were... more or less the same for every Freshman. "The workload is the worst," she agreed. "If I thought high school was bad..." But she hadn't that much, because high school was nothing. She'd known that. "Yeah," was all she had the chance to say, agreeing with him. It was true that their elements weren't going to be of much use in the future, at least for most of them.
But when the music started up again, Caitlyn actually cringed. Okay. This wasn't as bad as it had been before, but she would have hated even her favourite music if this guy next door were blaring it. It was nighttime, even if it wasn't terribly late. He should have some... some respect or something! Apparently this was too much to ask for. "At least it's better than dubstep," she said, raising her voice to be heard. There they were again, shouting. This should never become a regular thing, just yelling at her neighbours like this... but Caitlyn was starting to get a headache. She should really go back to her apartment at least. 'I, uh, should probably head back, actually... I have work to do." She didn't know what Matthew had been doing before she'd gotten here (other than hating his next-door-neighbour) but maybe he had things to get back to, too. Caitlyn smiled either way, once he had shown her out of the apartment (not that she wouldn't have found the way herself considering these were all the same, but that'd be rude). At least Matthew was nice. It was good to know that she had some friendly neighbours around here after all; she really didn't know enough of them personally. "It was nice meeting you, though! Try not to go crazy living next to him." She pointed a finger down the hall in Dubstep Guy's direction and laughed. "I'll see you around!" Then it was back to her apartment down the hall, where the music was at least mercifully a little bit quieter. Just a little.
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