“Life is full of surprises” was always that phrase that my parents told me when something, well, unexpected happened. This applied to both the good and the bad. I got a good part in a ballet? Surprise! The costume in that part is a unitard? Surprise…

Just when I thought everything was falling into predictability, something somewhere decided that it didn’t enjoy me being too comfortable.

Let’s start with school. The class of 2016 knew that we would be taking the new Common Core testing, and have accepted the fact that we’re one of the guinea pig years. But, we didn’t know when the Common Core would be. When we’d found out that it would be the week before AP tests, the grand majority of us were upset. Surprise! You, my AmEx friends, get to miss two class periods of history and two class periods of English. In regards to AP Physics students (you brave souls), I don’t know whether Common Core gets in the way of preparing for your AP test or not, but I do know that it’s an added stress that you don’t need.

On a more personal scale, during spring break I’d gone to visit the oral surgeon to see when I’d get my wisdom teeth out (normal, unexciting teenager stuff). I was thinking that I would get them out towards the beginning or end of summer, however somehow, the scheduling didn’t work. Surprise! My wisdom teeth were removed the Friday of spring break, two days after the consult appointment.

I could go on about how I’m kept on my toes (whether I like it or not) but the fact of the matter is that I am no special snowflake. As much as I try to tell myself differently, somewhere in the deepest depths of my heart I know that I’m very, very average. The advantage to this is that hopefully you, my dear readers, can relate to these columns.

We all have little blips in our lives that make us groan, “Another surprise? Really?” We all feel like there’s something forcing us out of our comfort zones and trying to keep us out. It’s almost to the point where we have to expect the unexpected.

But wouldn’t life be boring if we were to predict everything? The little surprises keep life interesting and a little more worth living.