Happy Birthday, America.

Rock on with your bad self. Let's celebrate by crashing a space probe onto a comet 83 million miles away! Sounds like fun, ya? It will totally be like galactic fireworks.

Man, I wish I had wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. Someone should have warned me...

[hazy edges around your eyes indicate that this is either a flashback or a dream]
Generic adult: Little girl, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Little Brenna: A doctor!
Generic adult: Oh, no, no, no. If you do that, you'll have to study all the time, even on the Fourth of July. You don't want to study on America's birthday, do you?
Little Brenna: That sounds horrific! (little Brenna has a big vocabulary) Maybe I should be an astronaut...?
Generic adult: That sounds much better. You don't get motion sick do you?
[fade to black, indicating the end of the dreamy flashback.]

Alas, poor little Brenna didn't know any better. So big Brenna finds herself studying the day away. Independence day my gluteus maximus.

It is nice to see that I did learn something over the last year or so, though. When I studied for Step 1, it took a long, long time to get my overall average on the Kaplan Q-bank up to 65% (the rumored average you need to get to pass the boards) Right now, I'm at a comfortable 69%, and still have another week of studying to go. In high school or college, 69% is abysmal. Now, though, it is cause for celebrating (bring out the comet probes!) - it means that I have remembered almost 70% of EVERYTHING that has been crammed into our heads over the last three years. Imagine taking a test in your senior year of college about what you learned in freshman philosophy. Sounds more impressive when you put it that way, huh? Or, maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better...