However, K-12 has been over for several years now, and I finished the last three semesters of high school on a very high note (thanks to Eric).

I'm now in college, and have been in college for three semesters. I started college with one class: a five-credit Astronomy course, which I got a very high B in. Of course, I was stressed the fuck out during that entire first semester of college, but not because the work itself was difficult to me. If anything, I really enjoyed that Astronomy course overall, and felt like I fit in with the class very well. The stress and anxiety mostly came from the "newness" of everything, and the shock and awe that I was actually attending college in the first place.

Indeed, I didn't ever believe I'd step foot inside of a college of any kind, largely because... well... I didn't think that I'd actually live long enough to attend college, let alone be healthy enough to attend college if I lived past my eighteenth birthday. 

Up until a few short years ago, I sincerely believed that Cystic Fibrosis would kill me before I ever got to sign up for college. When death didn't come for me, I graduated high school on time with Eric's help, and then Trikafta came along and rendered my CF almost completely symptom-free, and then I survived a pandemic without even getting a cold for two years. I finally figured out that maybe I should give college a chance, just to see what it was like. 

I signed up for my local community college, taking only one class for my first semester: a five-credit Astronomy lab course. To be honest, Astronomy wasn't my first choice. It wasn't even my idea. I like to say that I was coerced by my dad and grandma Debbie into signing up for it (though, in reality, it really was my own choice).  

"Go big or stay home!" Dad facetiously chanted, "Don't wuss out. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has some good books for you to read if you can't figure shit out."

"Astronomy sounds fun." Grandma Debbie mused, "You get to play with telescopes and talk about aliens. At least, that's what I heard about the class when I attended [Arapahoe Community College] all those years ago..."

That, and because I signed up for college very close to the start of the semester, my options were limited. Either I gave Astronomy 101 a shot, or I had to take World Mythology or Pre-Calculus instead. So, Astronomy 101 it was!