Sometimes, I just want to reach out and strangle somebody. More particularly, one of my professors. I won't name names because I don't want a person of authority to see this and arrest me or whatever. But if I actually did strangle her, I'd have good reason. Next week is the last week of classes, and then the week after that, we have finals. In one of the classes I'm in, we have to write a paper between thirteen and fifteen pages and turn it in the Monday of finals week. The time's a-ticking and when am I going to find time to pull a decent paper out of my ass? I know the entire class knew about the paper since the beginning of the quarter, and with every class she'd tell us she'd give us a handout on what she wanted us to write about. Several weeks later...still nothing. She's supposed to have office hours at 5:30 so I'm just sitting here on campus waiting until she gets in so I could see what's going on.

Other than that bit of "drama," everything's been going pretty well. I talked to my oldest brother, Freddie, and he was reminding me about he and Alicia's wedding that's in July. I still need to buy a plane ticket. He and my parents are insisting that they pay for it, but I don't want to do that. Stubborn? Maybe. Independent? Oh yes. But how am I going to get the money to get a ticket to Texas? Well, one option was to borrow Aaron's credit card when he wasn't looking and get myself a first-class ticket, but that'd be pretty messed up of me to do and I wouldn't stoop that low. I think what I may do is try to get a part-time job for the summer or something. I probably should've been applying for jobs a long time ago, but oh well. Maybe I'll make that a weekend project.

The weekend...I don't even want to think about it. I have some reading and studying to do but...I don't want to do it. Does that make me a horrible person? Eh, I think not. I need to do something fun to help me unwind before hell week. Maybe the movies or some shopping. Or going out to eat will be cool too. We'll see. But let me jump off of this thing and head to the commons to get a coffee and a muffin before I go to strangle see my teacher.

If there was one thing that Blake Quinn and his wife Roselyn, were certain of, was that tradition was very important. They both having come from conservative families with strong values, and knew that once they first started dating, that Blake would have to first meet Roselyn’s parents, then there would be no kissing on the first date, and there will definitely not be any form of fornication going on until after they were married. After dating for two years, Blake and Roselyn walked down the aisle and got married. They went on their honey moon where they consummated their marriage, and also conceived their first child. As those first few months began to go by, Blake and Roselyn moved into a home in Austin, Texas and Blake enrolled in the police academy. Just shortly after Blake graduated from the academy, he and Roselyn, welcomed the birth of their first son, Fredrick Blake Quinn, or Freddie as they would sometimes call him for short.

The birth of Fredrick sent the couple over the moon. They loved and cherished their son to no end and they wanted him to have the best of everything. And on top of that, they wanted to do something every year to help build memories. During the winter, the family would travel to Colorado, in the spring, the family would go on a small road trip, and in the summer, they would all go camping in the beach. Two years after Fredrick was born, Blake and Roselyn had a second son named George Blake, or Georgie and then Howard ‘Howie’ Blake, and their first daughter, Isabelle ‘Issy’ Blake followed soon after. Despite the chaos of having four young children running around the house, Blake and Roselyn enjoyed every minute of it. One of the highlights of it all was seeing the looks on their children’s faces whenever they went on vacation. Some people thought that the couple would stop having more children, but that definitely wasn’t the case. On June 7, 1988, the couple welcomed their second daughter, Jennifer ‘Jenni’ Blake Quinn into the world. After the birth of Jennifer, they both agreed that she would be the last child.

In the early years of Jennifer’s life, there was never a dull moment. She had plenty of siblings that she grew up with, so she always had somebody to play with. And all of the family vacations were always a ton of fun. However, the main drawback to having such a large family was that there was little to no privacy. She shared a bedroom with her older sister, which was something that she did not mind too much since she could always go to her sister about things that would bother any other teen. But, her sister was probably the worst person to tell secrets too because she would always go and babble everything to their parents and then her parents would try to sit down and talk to Jennifer about what was going on. Embarrassing? Probably not as bad as having older brothers who knew all of the hiding spots for her diary and would read her journals. Or, if there was a boy that she had a crush on, then her brothers would make sure they did a damn good job of scaring the guy off. They always said that their actions were all out of love, but to her, it was a thorn in her backside.

As she grew older, as did her siblings which meant, having her own bedroom! When her two older brothers moved out of the house after graduating from high school in to college dorms at the University of Texas, Austin, she was finally able to cherish having her own space. With her brother’s out of the house, she felt that she had a little more freedom to do what she pleased, but that wasn’t always easy. Since the Quinn family lived in the same neighborhood, the boys, and her older sister, had created something similar to a legacy at the high school which they attended. They were all involved in Cross Country, the student council, and made excellent grades. The grade thing was not a problem for Jennifer because she actually enjoyed going to school and finding some joy in getting good grades. As far as sports were concerned, she found cheerleading to be more enjoyable than cross country. But after the head coach of the cross country team all but begged Jennifer to join, she had eventually caved in and tried out during her junior year.

When Jennifer entered her senior year of high school, her sister was an incoming freshman at the University of Texas, Austin. Surprise, surprise. Jennifer was well aware that it was now her turn to start thinking about college. All of her older siblings had gone to UT Austin, which was a good school and all, but did she really want to continue to follow in her siblings footsteps? She gathered numerous applications from schools within Texas as well as even a few universities out of the state. She got accepted into several schools, including UT Austin. Before confirming which school she wanted to enroll in full-time, she had confided in her parents to get their input on the matter. They spoke highly of UT Austin’s education, how her siblings had had a good experience at the university, and on top of that, she would be close to home. Those last two words plagued her thoughts for what felt like an eternity, especially after she contacted the admissions office at UT Austin and confirmed her student status.

She graduated from high school in June of 2006, and went straight to college the following fall. She had two of her older siblings who were still at the school which was a good thing because they helped her navigate around the campus, give her ideas of what professors to avoid, and knew a lot of the good places to go get food and coffee late at night. She made a great deal of friends, had fun going to the concerts and activities that were held on campus, and what she loved the most was being out of her parents home. However, she wasn’t completely happy. She needed a change. During her second year of school, she had changed her major from biology to undecided, then to women’s studies, and then undecided again. She also tried to get more involved in school by joining clubs, but that didn’t seem to do the trick either. It took some time before she realized that what she needed was a change of scenery. She ended up going under he family’s radar, and began contacting schools she could transfer to that were outside of Texas.

The first school that got back to her, and that seemed like the easiest transition without having to take extra classes was the University of Washington. She didn’t inform her family that she would be transferring until she was able to get an apartment, all of her transcripts and financial aid were transferred over to U of W, and all of her classes were set up. When she did tell them, they were not pleased at all. They tried their best to talk her into staying, but Jennifer knew that she had to stand her ground and do what she wanted to do. In the end, her family ended up supporting Jennifer on her decision.

She moved into her very own apartment in Seattle and started her third year of school in the fall of 2008. After doing some research on what she wanted to major in, she settled on studying Early Childhood and Family Studies with the long-term career goal of being a teacher. As soon as she had everything situated, Jennifer couldn’t feel anymore liberated. She was far away from her parents’ watchful eye, she had no legacy that she had to live up to, and she was finally on her own and living her life the way that she wanted to.