I went off to my favorite store today in search of a GRE study aid. I finally found the aisle that has all the books about standardized tests, and my eyes were immediately drawn to a book that I thought was certainly out of place.

Why on earth is a book about Twilight in this section? I mean, I love all things Twilight, but this just seemed odd. Then I saw the rest of the title…

Defining Twilight: Vocabulary Workbook for Unlocking the SAT, ACT, GED, and SSAT

*blink*

Can you resist the allure of Edward’s myriad charms—his ocher eyes and tousled hair, the cadence of his speech, his chiseled alabaster skin, and his gratuitous charm? Will you hunt surreptitiously and tolerate the ceaseless deluge in Forks to evade the sun and uphold the facade? Join Edward and Bella as you learn more than 600 vocabulary words to improve your score on the *SAT, ACT^®, GED^®, and SSAT^® exams!

I am baffled yet completely delighted that this book exists.

But I wasn’t there to find help for the SAT so I turned around and scanned the three shelves devoted to books about the GRE. Yes. Three shelves full.

I plopped on the floor and started comparing the different books and finally concluded that they’re probably all about the same. I ended up picking one of the larger ones because if it has more pages it likely covers more information.

So now I’m armed and ready. I bought a new calculator (apparently someone who hasn’t done real math in 9 years doesn’t own one anymore) and pens/pencils and a fresh notebook.

Then I decided to tell my parents. Well, two of them at least. I told my mom, and as I expected she wasn’t thrilled about it. I had to ask her to please not be negative and to just be excited with me. It didn’t work. Then she was convinced my stepdad would agree with her so she made sure to tell me to talk to him about it. His response? Honey you can do whatever you want to do in this world. And then he offered to pay for me to take the GRE.

At least one member of my family is showing me support. It’s kind of sad that it’s someone I pick to be in my family, rather than someone who is family by blood or law.

But she’ll come around.