This has been a crazy month; honestly, the last three years have been crazy in and of themselves. It's hard for me to believe that I'm about to move on in life and graduate from high school. This post isn't going to be very entertaining or beautifully symbolic, but I believe that the things that have been happening in my life are worth a little lamentation and reminiscing.
The month of May really has been a month of beginnings and endings for me. I've been brought to tears for multiple reasons; it was really stressful with AP tests coming on, the usual friend troubles, and thinking about going away to college college. It's hard to believe that in less than three months I will be moving out of my house and away from my family. But luckily most of my tears have been out of happiness, and I've thanked God every day for my fun life, because things are turning around. Admittedly someone who didn't know me very well could easily think that I've been developing a bipolar disorder with all these ups and downs.
I grinned as I put my pen down after my final ap test (which was English language.) Somehow at the end of the test, my packet managed to have eleven pages worth of essays scrawled inside, ready to be sent out east and graded for potential college credit. The very last ap test that I'll ever have to worry for in my life is over.
I grinned again several times as I played in my last soccer game; recreation soccer has been the most consistent sport in my life since Kindergarten, and now it's over for good. Soccer has been such a motivator for me to be active physically. My coaches have been amazing, it's crazy to think that I will most likely never play my favorite sport on an organized team again. Not only am I through with soccer playing, but I've also reffed soccer for the past three years; now soccer season is officially over I will never have to ref another soccer game in my life! No worrying about whether or not I make the right calls, no more worrying about parents complaining, no more worrying about coaches screaming in my face, no more worrying about the more snobbish kids getting angry at me. It's a truly amazing feeling of accomplishment and freedom that I've felt these past twenty four hours since my last reffed game!
It's been an amazing beginning. Now I have new friends and my first boyfriend ever. Now I'm packing up my room to move away for the first time. There are so many new beginnings! I'm beginning a new life filled with more happiness than I've ever had before. I am so excited for life, it is truly going to be a good run. Through it all I'll remember my hard-working past, the good times, as well as the bad times so that I can progress and learn even more.
Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Goodbye 2010
In the cheerfully said words of Albus Dumbledore, I can honestly quote:
"Another year... Gone!"
This past year has had many, many twists and turns. All these years I've scoffed when people have told me that life is a rollercoaster. It’s just never really seemed like that to me. It’s been a calm rowboat ride across a peaceful river up until this year. However, that was then; this is now.
I've been mercilessly shoved into the world's craziest roller coaster ride. There are no stops and there is no turning back. The ride started in January. The coaster started ominously slow. As the ride began, all I could see was a dark tunnel up ahead. Yet somehow, my mind reassured itself.
Don't all roller coasters always start the same way? They clank loudly as they are cranked to the top, just before the first plunge.
But not my roller coaster. January was a crazy blur, as a new semester rolled around the bend. My family faced unbelievable stress as my grandparents lost their house and moved in with us. They weren't happy to lose their house, and we weren't happy that they bickered about it. Lessons learned: don't buy more than you can afford, treat everyone lovingly no matter how upset you are, marry the man (or woman) of your dreams, and prepare for the future while you're young!
February was one of the months where I did some upward corkscrews that gave me butterflies. I gritted my teeth and focused on school rather than on family problems. My dad could see that the super glue holding me together was wearing off. So, he did something that I didn't expect. He decided to take me on a dad and daughter vacation. His work paid for free Nascar tickets, and so we traveled to Las Vegas. There, we cheered in unison for Dale Earnheart Jr. and Danika Patrick. It was hard to believe how fast their cars zoomed by on the track. Sure, there were lots of hicks there doing really weird things (like setting up their living room couches and TV’s in parking spaces,) but hey, there was no denying how cool the races themselves were. Lesson learned: take a vacation if you're overworked and overly-stressed, and too much stress is never healthy.
Near the end of that month, I swallowed my doubts and asked a boy that I had liked for six years to go to the girls' choice Sadie's dance with me. It made me so nervous that I was shaking when my brother doorbell ditched the clever contraption for asking him. Lessons learned: do what you're afraid to do; many times the rewards are greater than the risks, respect guys, because surprisingly, there are few gentlemen out there that are worth my time.
March was kind of a plunge in the love department. There was a lot of pressure from everyone to break things off with a guy that I had really liked for a long time. It was really difficult, because he was my best friend at the time. Not only that, but I knew that once I had made the decision that there would be no turning back. So I made the decision for him and drove on. Lessons learned: your friends will rarely appreciate you when you take it upon yourself to do what’s best for them, making the right decision is often the hardest decision that you’ll make, and sometimes doing the right thing pays off much later.
Isn’t that how life is? Sometimes we have to feel sad and alone, otherwise we'd never appreciate the friends who truly love us and stick by us. Happiness could never be happiness if it was how we felt all the time. Life is a roller-coaster, there are ups and downs. When we're at the top, we see the whole world laid out before us, and we know that it is the most beautiful place ever created. The blue sky stretches on forever and the sun gleams like the outline of heaven, enlightening us and helping us to see things for how they are. And when we're plummeting down the roller coaster, we become afraid and wonder if we'll be able to pull ourselves up before the crash. When we're down, we learn from our mistakes and we do our best to find more ways to pull ourselves out again.
Honestly, there were a lot more interesting stories and mistakes that I made this year. With the recurring question- should I follow, my mind, or my heart? I've come to find that there's no good answer for that
For now, I’m not going to talk about the negative things that have happened. That’s not the point of blogging. It’s been my goal to maintain a positive tone and voice as I journalize my life’s story. Squeezing out a few smiles and laughs has been my main goal along the way... And that's why I haven't written anything for two months. There hasn’t been much good to report. Despite how quiet things have been around here, I have a feeling that there will be more to talk about in months to come.
As for the more positive side of 2010, my family has had many adventures. Over the course of this year, we’ve been to Oahu, Florida, Yellowstone, Portland, and Las Vegas. In less than twelve months, we’ve been able to see more things than most people are able to see in a lifetime.
Personally, I’ve had the fortune of being able to snorkel with adorable sea turtles, had great luck in making new groups of friends out of people that I never would have seen coming, and best of all, I was able to be there for my sister when she had her baby.
All around me this roller coaster is changing, and many times it’s changed for the worse… Yet I can’t help but see these miracles happening every day. Miracles that would challenge even the most negative things those news men have the audacity to condemn our futures with on TV.
Though it's true that life’s roller coaster is a trial and a test, it is also a gift and a miracle. Have faith, have hope, and have charity, but most of all, cherish life as it is. Don’t let it slip away from you, and don't ever ever weigh yourself down with regret. We have one chance at life, live it to the fullest. Be different, make a difference, and let this New Year be better than the last.
"Another year... Gone!"
This past year has had many, many twists and turns. All these years I've scoffed when people have told me that life is a rollercoaster. It’s just never really seemed like that to me. It’s been a calm rowboat ride across a peaceful river up until this year. However, that was then; this is now.
I've been mercilessly shoved into the world's craziest roller coaster ride. There are no stops and there is no turning back. The ride started in January. The coaster started ominously slow. As the ride began, all I could see was a dark tunnel up ahead. Yet somehow, my mind reassured itself.
Don't all roller coasters always start the same way? They clank loudly as they are cranked to the top, just before the first plunge.
But not my roller coaster. January was a crazy blur, as a new semester rolled around the bend. My family faced unbelievable stress as my grandparents lost their house and moved in with us. They weren't happy to lose their house, and we weren't happy that they bickered about it. Lessons learned: don't buy more than you can afford, treat everyone lovingly no matter how upset you are, marry the man (or woman) of your dreams, and prepare for the future while you're young!
February was one of the months where I did some upward corkscrews that gave me butterflies. I gritted my teeth and focused on school rather than on family problems. My dad could see that the super glue holding me together was wearing off. So, he did something that I didn't expect. He decided to take me on a dad and daughter vacation. His work paid for free Nascar tickets, and so we traveled to Las Vegas. There, we cheered in unison for Dale Earnheart Jr. and Danika Patrick. It was hard to believe how fast their cars zoomed by on the track. Sure, there were lots of hicks there doing really weird things (like setting up their living room couches and TV’s in parking spaces,) but hey, there was no denying how cool the races themselves were. Lesson learned: take a vacation if you're overworked and overly-stressed, and too much stress is never healthy.
Near the end of that month, I swallowed my doubts and asked a boy that I had liked for six years to go to the girls' choice Sadie's dance with me. It made me so nervous that I was shaking when my brother doorbell ditched the clever contraption for asking him. Lessons learned: do what you're afraid to do; many times the rewards are greater than the risks, respect guys, because surprisingly, there are few gentlemen out there that are worth my time.
March was kind of a plunge in the love department. There was a lot of pressure from everyone to break things off with a guy that I had really liked for a long time. It was really difficult, because he was my best friend at the time. Not only that, but I knew that once I had made the decision that there would be no turning back. So I made the decision for him and drove on. Lessons learned: your friends will rarely appreciate you when you take it upon yourself to do what’s best for them, making the right decision is often the hardest decision that you’ll make, and sometimes doing the right thing pays off much later.
Isn’t that how life is? Sometimes we have to feel sad and alone, otherwise we'd never appreciate the friends who truly love us and stick by us. Happiness could never be happiness if it was how we felt all the time. Life is a roller-coaster, there are ups and downs. When we're at the top, we see the whole world laid out before us, and we know that it is the most beautiful place ever created. The blue sky stretches on forever and the sun gleams like the outline of heaven, enlightening us and helping us to see things for how they are. And when we're plummeting down the roller coaster, we become afraid and wonder if we'll be able to pull ourselves up before the crash. When we're down, we learn from our mistakes and we do our best to find more ways to pull ourselves out again.
Honestly, there were a lot more interesting stories and mistakes that I made this year. With the recurring question- should I follow, my mind, or my heart? I've come to find that there's no good answer for that
For now, I’m not going to talk about the negative things that have happened. That’s not the point of blogging. It’s been my goal to maintain a positive tone and voice as I journalize my life’s story. Squeezing out a few smiles and laughs has been my main goal along the way... And that's why I haven't written anything for two months. There hasn’t been much good to report. Despite how quiet things have been around here, I have a feeling that there will be more to talk about in months to come.
As for the more positive side of 2010, my family has had many adventures. Over the course of this year, we’ve been to Oahu, Florida, Yellowstone, Portland, and Las Vegas. In less than twelve months, we’ve been able to see more things than most people are able to see in a lifetime.
Personally, I’ve had the fortune of being able to snorkel with adorable sea turtles, had great luck in making new groups of friends out of people that I never would have seen coming, and best of all, I was able to be there for my sister when she had her baby.
All around me this roller coaster is changing, and many times it’s changed for the worse… Yet I can’t help but see these miracles happening every day. Miracles that would challenge even the most negative things those news men have the audacity to condemn our futures with on TV.
Though it's true that life’s roller coaster is a trial and a test, it is also a gift and a miracle. Have faith, have hope, and have charity, but most of all, cherish life as it is. Don’t let it slip away from you, and don't ever ever weigh yourself down with regret. We have one chance at life, live it to the fullest. Be different, make a difference, and let this New Year be better than the last.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Memoir to An Amazing Dog
I remember the first time I saw her,Like a little energized feather-duster
With two black eyes darker than the sky.
Tiny eyes.
Slits of pleasure that you saw and loved instantly.
I remember how her fuzzy legs sprinted towards me from the end of the hall,
It was as if she was my best friend who hadn't seen me in a year,
Even though we'd never met.
Her fluffy and curly tail wiggled in sheer excitement,
It was always wagging like there was no tomorrow.
And now there isn't.
I remember the first time she played in the snow.
It's the only time that it's ever snowed that I've really remembered,
the rest are blurred together like a smeared painting,
But I remember.
She bounded up the stairs with her tongue hanging out,
Dripping, pure white snowflakes clung to her, forming snowballs.
Dangling from her like icicles from a roof.
She shivered, innocently, laughter shone in her eyes,
It was as though she had made a joke that she didn't understand.
I remember the first time she chased her tail.
I remember when she started that annoying habit of loudly barking at the door.
I remember when she played tag with her nose, and the triumphantly proud look on her face- victory every time.
I remember the pensive look written across her face whenever I cried, I know she would have cried with me if she could.
I remember her ears perking up when we asked her to sit, always alert.
I remember when she ran in circles around the house and never got tired.
I remember remembering her while I was at school or away from home. Reminding myself that no matter how people thought of me, that my adorable dog would think the best.
I remember that unconditional love and miss it with all my heart,
Because I remember.
Rest in peace Dusty!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Friends
I don't know why I'm just barely posting all these pictures from last year. But, there are memories from High School that shouldn't be forgotten!Somewhere deep down, I know that I would regret it if I didn't have a memory of these pictures ever again.
I recognize the fact that there are times in our lives when we must move on and really learn from the past, this is definitely one of those times. I'm glad to have had some friends in high school who helped me to realize the type of person I want to be as well as the type of person that I want to end up with in the future. Thanks for all the good times we had together when we were better friends :)
"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.
So make the best of this test and don't ask why. It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life.
So take the photographs and still-frames in your mind. Hang them on a shelf in good health and good times.Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial. For what it's worth, it was worth all the while.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life."
~Greenday
I recognize the fact that there are times in our lives when we must move on and really learn from the past, this is definitely one of those times. I'm glad to have had some friends in high school who helped me to realize the type of person I want to be as well as the type of person that I want to end up with in the future. Thanks for all the good times we had together when we were better friends :)
"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.
So make the best of this test and don't ask why. It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life.
So take the photographs and still-frames in your mind. Hang them on a shelf in good health and good times.Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial. For what it's worth, it was worth all the while.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life."
~Greenday
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Night
Today the happy wait
Is quickly passing like a stream
And the glitter gathers everywhere
Resting softly like moon’s gleam.
Oh, do you remember?
The tinkling song still lingers,
It’s sound dancing like the wind.
The smooth voice of Song,
And how her deep tone
Moved everyone to dance.
Us, dancing,
Laughing boisterously like children at our lack of skill
Or apologizing as we tripped,
Girls glaring in unison
As we brushed their shining diamond dresses.
You held my hand
And were unafraid,
Despite the sullen surprise of whispering friends.
Oh see the vibrant purple dress
That cascaded softly like the rain,
And the way it flashed, luminescent
Like a brilliant lion's mane
While happiness happiness
Happiness that I had never known engulfed my mind.
This was where the sound began;
With its profound ring
Opening my broken heart like a key.
And then the key disappeared
Into the black,
Forever flying out of reach.
I remember the color of music,
And how you
And all of your goodness
Were part of me for a breathless moment.
Is quickly passing like a stream
And the glitter gathers everywhere
Resting softly like moon’s gleam.
Oh, do you remember?
The tinkling song still lingers,
It’s sound dancing like the wind.
The smooth voice of Song,
And how her deep tone
Moved everyone to dance.
Us, dancing,
Laughing boisterously like children at our lack of skill
Or apologizing as we tripped,
Girls glaring in unison
As we brushed their shining diamond dresses.
You held my hand
And were unafraid,
Despite the sullen surprise of whispering friends.
Oh see the vibrant purple dress
That cascaded softly like the rain,
And the way it flashed, luminescent
Like a brilliant lion's mane
While happiness happiness
Happiness that I had never known engulfed my mind.
This was where the sound began;
With its profound ring
Opening my broken heart like a key.
And then the key disappeared
Into the black,
Forever flying out of reach.
I remember the color of music,
And how you
And all of your goodness
Were part of me for a breathless moment.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Prom the II
Prom was different this year, in it that it was the first time that I've ever been asked to a dance by anyone other than Wes. Joey had a lot to live up to, but I think that he did a pretty good job!
Jordan gave me the world's prettiest blue and purple corsage, and we rode in his cousin's sweet green mustang as well. As for Joey himself, he's a nice and funny guy, and he's been one of my best friends since before he moved away in ninth grade (not that that was so long ago or anything.)
Joey picked me up for the day activity the day before the dance at around six o'clock so that we could go to Ethan's house and play games. We played a fun game where you start off with a sentence that you have to draw. The next person has to guess what you've drawn, and the third person must then draw what the second person guessed. It's called Telestration and is actually quite fun. We went from a giant man-eating snake to a "giant man" eating snake, that one made me laugh. I found out that people don't have to be good artists to have fun.
When we'd had our share of fun with the drawing game, we went on a small hike to see the sunset across the lake and behind the mountains. It was so pretty, and the narrowness of the long lake made it look like the water had a large pink eye looking out at us.
The twelve of us went back to Ethan's house again after the hike and we watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
I was actually happy that we watched it, because it was my date's favorite movie- and one that we felt totally comfortable watching. Personally my favorite part is when the camera dramatically zooms up on the monks singing a deep-voiced chant. They then jerk their arms up randomly and whack themselves in the face with big wood-blocks. Can anyone say random? It was really fun to watch, and when I got home,my clothes smelled like campfire.
On April 24, we went to Prom at the capital building. I'm sure that most people were surprised to see me in a totally girly, purple, sparkly, ruffled dress, but I rather liked it! I'd almost decided to try and find another dress when the lady in the store made a comment that I looked like a barbie, but luckily I was able to ignore that comment. Besides, most barbies aren't supposedly short-people like me .
After Joey picked me up, we went to a park and his mom took pictures of us. Unfortunately I didn't know what camera to look at and made myself look like a dork, oh well, at least I tried! It made me laugh how excited Joey's little sisters were, I'm sure they'll be more excited when they get to go themselves!
After a really good dinner of shrimp, steak, salad, and rolls, we headed to the dance.
The dance itself was pretty fun! I was a little sad when I ran into my crush, who was dancing rather inappropriately with his date, but that wasn't enough to dampen my spirits for long.
We all went out and sat outside for a while to cool down and take off our shoes. Luckily we went back inside just in time to see the Prom Royalty being announced as they walked down the stairs. It made me happy to see my friend Shannon walking down the steps in her bright red dress, I was glad to have voter her into the royalty because she looked like she was having a blast!
Afterwards, we went to the temple and took pictures; it never fails to amaze me how one building can so brilliantly change the scenery in a city like ours. After pictures, my memory is a little fuzzier because of how late it got. Joey raced Caleb from the parking lot to another house afterward. I hate to admit it, but I was really scared.
The rest of the night was pretty fun, we had ice-cream sandwiches, and I got to play the piano for a bit. I really felt like I was at home as I played my normal repertoire of music including: "Time of Your Life," "Everywhere," "Sonatina," "Harmony of Angels," and my personal favorite, "1,2,3,4."
Here are the pictures from the dance.
Jordan gave me the world's prettiest blue and purple corsage, and we rode in his cousin's sweet green mustang as well. As for Joey himself, he's a nice and funny guy, and he's been one of my best friends since before he moved away in ninth grade (not that that was so long ago or anything.)
Joey picked me up for the day activity the day before the dance at around six o'clock so that we could go to Ethan's house and play games. We played a fun game where you start off with a sentence that you have to draw. The next person has to guess what you've drawn, and the third person must then draw what the second person guessed. It's called Telestration and is actually quite fun. We went from a giant man-eating snake to a "giant man" eating snake, that one made me laugh. I found out that people don't have to be good artists to have fun.
When we'd had our share of fun with the drawing game, we went on a small hike to see the sunset across the lake and behind the mountains. It was so pretty, and the narrowness of the long lake made it look like the water had a large pink eye looking out at us.
The twelve of us went back to Ethan's house again after the hike and we watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
I was actually happy that we watched it, because it was my date's favorite movie- and one that we felt totally comfortable watching. Personally my favorite part is when the camera dramatically zooms up on the monks singing a deep-voiced chant. They then jerk their arms up randomly and whack themselves in the face with big wood-blocks. Can anyone say random? It was really fun to watch, and when I got home,my clothes smelled like campfire.
On April 24, we went to Prom at the capital building. I'm sure that most people were surprised to see me in a totally girly, purple, sparkly, ruffled dress, but I rather liked it! I'd almost decided to try and find another dress when the lady in the store made a comment that I looked like a barbie, but luckily I was able to ignore that comment. Besides, most barbies aren't supposedly short-people like me .
After Joey picked me up, we went to a park and his mom took pictures of us. Unfortunately I didn't know what camera to look at and made myself look like a dork, oh well, at least I tried! It made me laugh how excited Joey's little sisters were, I'm sure they'll be more excited when they get to go themselves!
After a really good dinner of shrimp, steak, salad, and rolls, we headed to the dance.
The dance itself was pretty fun! I was a little sad when I ran into my crush, who was dancing rather inappropriately with his date, but that wasn't enough to dampen my spirits for long.
We all went out and sat outside for a while to cool down and take off our shoes. Luckily we went back inside just in time to see the Prom Royalty being announced as they walked down the stairs. It made me happy to see my friend Shannon walking down the steps in her bright red dress, I was glad to have voter her into the royalty because she looked like she was having a blast!
Afterwards, we went to the temple and took pictures; it never fails to amaze me how one building can so brilliantly change the scenery in a city like ours. After pictures, my memory is a little fuzzier because of how late it got. Joey raced Caleb from the parking lot to another house afterward. I hate to admit it, but I was really scared.
The rest of the night was pretty fun, we had ice-cream sandwiches, and I got to play the piano for a bit. I really felt like I was at home as I played my normal repertoire of music including: "Time of Your Life," "Everywhere," "Sonatina," "Harmony of Angels," and my personal favorite, "1,2,3,4."
Here are the pictures from the dance.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Nascar and Sadie Hawkin's Response
My life seems to have many different phases to it. If I had to give this month a name, it would probably begin something like, "The most crazy and busy month that I've ever had in my life."
At the beginning of the month, my grandparents were living in my house. I won't say too much about it if I can help it, (I want to be respectful.) My grandparents don't get along very well, and I felt like I didn't have a peaceful place where I could go to be alone and let out the stress. Lots of times the only peace I could find was in the menial day to day tasks in school. It was terrible to see my grandparents lose their house and everything they had to debt, there are so many happy memories of me and my cousins at their house. And now it's not theirs. The financial crisis has scared me a lot, and I hope with all my heart that I'll be frugal and not have to end up in the same situation.
Fortunately, there was light at the end of the tunnel for my grandparents, due to Franklin Roosevelt's social security plans from about sixty years ago, my grandparents had enough money to move out and go on a mission. My Grandpa has always wanted to go on another mission to Brazil, and I'm happy that he got to meet one of his life's goals.
During February and March, my life was passing me by quicker than I could imagine. The snow melted, leaving the cold and bare ground, leaving me with a feeling of hope. Most of the sadness in my life melted away with the melting of the snow. You never realize how much you miss the sunshine until it hits you full on in the face.
My Dad recognized the fact that I needed a vacation more than anything, a chance to get away from everything and just be able to relax. I can't begin to write how glad I was to go on a vacation. Together, me and my dad decided to test the experience of going to Las Vegas and seeing Nascar!
The road ahead of us stretched on forever. Mirages glinted off of the surface of the hot black gravel, making you thirsty, even from a perfectly air-conditioned car. The magic of the mirages was quickly vanished once we reached the largest parking lot that I've ever seen, we had reached Las Vegas.
The parking lot spanned a mile in every direction from wherever you stood. I could barely comprehend the amount of cars that I saw there. Cars all have to have a driver to drive them, and so I wondered in awe at the enormity of the crowd of people that must be waiting in the arena. They had all come to see one thing; millionaires racing across the huge NASCAR circle to become even more famous than they already were.
Colonel, Jackson, my dad, and I were able to see one of the few and far between rainstorms that occur in such a desolate desert landscape. The pelt of rain postponed the race for an hour or two, so we sat in a guard trailor. The huge guard trailor that we were able to see the next day frustrated me a little. Taxes had paid for the making of the National Guard trailor which had tons of luxuries, (including a t.v. in the bathroom.) Aside from my slight irritation, I must admit that it was cool to watch the race while sitting on seats that were safely secured to the top of the trailor itself.
We had to wear earplugs as the race comensed, cars raced by at two hundred miles an hour. The roar of the engines was quickly replaced by the sight of the cars shooting down the track.
In the end, Dale Earnheart Junior, (the driver that we were rooting for,) got sixteenth place. It made me laugh that Joey Lagano (a nineteen year old boy,) ended up beating our well experienced Guard Car driver.
Aside from going to NASCAR, I did another crazy thing that I never thought I'd do. I asked someone to Sadie's! It was funny, because most of my friends just laughed when I told them,
"Well finally you asked him, Jojo! It's about time!"
Despite the scepticism, I was extremely excited to go. Surprisingly it didn't take me very long to decide how to ask him. I used a method that I'd come up with a few weeks before I'd decided to ask anyone. Knowing that Don's (sorry for the fake name again,) family is pretty in to movies and costumes, I got a huge bucket of popcorn to ask him. On the outside of the popcorn bucket, I taped a sign that read,
"John, now that I've buttered you up... Will you go to Sadie's with me?"
Door-bell-ditching has never been one of my favorite things, as a matter of fact, I've never door-bell-ditched anyone except for my own family on Valentine's Day. So what better use for a brother than to have him do the dirty work? My brother was nice to consent to sprinting across the col-du-sac to help me deliver my Sadie's invitation.
Well I must admit that I thought my idea for asking was pretty nifty, but in all honesty, it wasn't nearly as cool as the response. I don't think that I've ever seen a more well thought-out and creative response in my life, and I probably won't see one like it again! Don responded with a funny video that he'd made to put on YouTube. It was great to see the boys in my neighborhood be simultaneously tackled to the ground by my Sadie's date. I never thought I'd see that one I'll admit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X7_Q-PfSw8
At the beginning of the month, my grandparents were living in my house. I won't say too much about it if I can help it, (I want to be respectful.) My grandparents don't get along very well, and I felt like I didn't have a peaceful place where I could go to be alone and let out the stress. Lots of times the only peace I could find was in the menial day to day tasks in school. It was terrible to see my grandparents lose their house and everything they had to debt, there are so many happy memories of me and my cousins at their house. And now it's not theirs. The financial crisis has scared me a lot, and I hope with all my heart that I'll be frugal and not have to end up in the same situation.
Fortunately, there was light at the end of the tunnel for my grandparents, due to Franklin Roosevelt's social security plans from about sixty years ago, my grandparents had enough money to move out and go on a mission. My Grandpa has always wanted to go on another mission to Brazil, and I'm happy that he got to meet one of his life's goals.
During February and March, my life was passing me by quicker than I could imagine. The snow melted, leaving the cold and bare ground, leaving me with a feeling of hope. Most of the sadness in my life melted away with the melting of the snow. You never realize how much you miss the sunshine until it hits you full on in the face.
My Dad recognized the fact that I needed a vacation more than anything, a chance to get away from everything and just be able to relax. I can't begin to write how glad I was to go on a vacation. Together, me and my dad decided to test the experience of going to Las Vegas and seeing Nascar!
The road ahead of us stretched on forever. Mirages glinted off of the surface of the hot black gravel, making you thirsty, even from a perfectly air-conditioned car. The magic of the mirages was quickly vanished once we reached the largest parking lot that I've ever seen, we had reached Las Vegas.
The parking lot spanned a mile in every direction from wherever you stood. I could barely comprehend the amount of cars that I saw there. Cars all have to have a driver to drive them, and so I wondered in awe at the enormity of the crowd of people that must be waiting in the arena. They had all come to see one thing; millionaires racing across the huge NASCAR circle to become even more famous than they already were.
Colonel, Jackson, my dad, and I were able to see one of the few and far between rainstorms that occur in such a desolate desert landscape. The pelt of rain postponed the race for an hour or two, so we sat in a guard trailor. The huge guard trailor that we were able to see the next day frustrated me a little. Taxes had paid for the making of the National Guard trailor which had tons of luxuries, (including a t.v. in the bathroom.) Aside from my slight irritation, I must admit that it was cool to watch the race while sitting on seats that were safely secured to the top of the trailor itself.
We had to wear earplugs as the race comensed, cars raced by at two hundred miles an hour. The roar of the engines was quickly replaced by the sight of the cars shooting down the track.
In the end, Dale Earnheart Junior, (the driver that we were rooting for,) got sixteenth place. It made me laugh that Joey Lagano (a nineteen year old boy,) ended up beating our well experienced Guard Car driver.
Aside from going to NASCAR, I did another crazy thing that I never thought I'd do. I asked someone to Sadie's! It was funny, because most of my friends just laughed when I told them,
"Well finally you asked him, Jojo! It's about time!"
Despite the scepticism, I was extremely excited to go. Surprisingly it didn't take me very long to decide how to ask him. I used a method that I'd come up with a few weeks before I'd decided to ask anyone. Knowing that Don's (sorry for the fake name again,) family is pretty in to movies and costumes, I got a huge bucket of popcorn to ask him. On the outside of the popcorn bucket, I taped a sign that read,
"John, now that I've buttered you up... Will you go to Sadie's with me?"
Door-bell-ditching has never been one of my favorite things, as a matter of fact, I've never door-bell-ditched anyone except for my own family on Valentine's Day. So what better use for a brother than to have him do the dirty work? My brother was nice to consent to sprinting across the col-du-sac to help me deliver my Sadie's invitation.
Well I must admit that I thought my idea for asking was pretty nifty, but in all honesty, it wasn't nearly as cool as the response. I don't think that I've ever seen a more well thought-out and creative response in my life, and I probably won't see one like it again! Don responded with a funny video that he'd made to put on YouTube. It was great to see the boys in my neighborhood be simultaneously tackled to the ground by my Sadie's date. I never thought I'd see that one I'll admit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X7_Q-PfSw8
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Halloween Dance #2
On Halloween night, I went to my school's girl's choice Halloween dance with my friend Parker, and it was really fun!
I asked Parker in a way that I made up myself, I got a Halloween Chinese fortune cookie box and then bought some fortune cookies that I customized with the help of my mom. We cooked fortune cookies in the microwave for about twenty seconds- they become soft enough to open just a crack. Once that was done, we removed the paper fortune inside and then replaced it with our own home-made fortunes! On the fortunes that I made for Peter, I had lucky letters instead of a lucky number. The lucky letters spelled out my first name.
The fortunes had awesome sayings on them that I chose like:
"Curiosity kills boredom. Nothing can kill curiosity."
"The harder you work, the luckier you get." and my personal favorite,
"Help! I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese bakery!" and on the outside I had a note that said, " I would be very "fortunate" if you'd go to the Halloween dance with me!"
Peter then responded by giving me a ton of Chinese take-out boxes that were filled to the brim with white rice, each contained a Chinese character. Admittedly, I had to get my Chinese teacher's help the next day to figure them out, but he said "yes" on the same day that I asked him!! Isn't that nice?
I like how every guy I've asked so far has responded on the same day, I know sometime that my luck will run out with that whole "same day" thing, but I'm still pretty fortunate myself.
For the day activity on Friday, we had a Freaky Feast that my mom did a ton of work for. There was a list of crazy named items that we had to order from for dinner, but we didn't know what any of them were, (well maybe I knew a few...) Anyway, so that was really fun to order stuff that you didn't really know what it would turn out to be! After an amazing dinner, we all went to the Farmington corn maze, nobody in my group knows this to my everlasting embarrassment, but my cellphone fell out of my pocket during the maze!! Luckily we were able to call the maze and it was found and returned safely. The last thing we did for the day activity was go to Jessica's and watch "The Sixth Sense," what a creepy Halloween movie!!!
It was really scary driving so many people in my car, because I've never ever driven more than two other people in my car at any given time, I know that I only had one more person to drive, but it really scared me. I'm not the world's best driver, and now I realize that I am absolutely terrible at directions. Oh well! It was kinda fun to drive my mom's more expensive maroon Tribeca.
The dance itself was more of a party than a dance, the music was extremely loud, and it was that punky almost rap style of music that most teenagers (other than myself like.) There wasn't a single slow dance for partner dancing, so I started using crazy dance moves that other people started teaching me and then made myself look pretty weird! Good times!
I asked Parker in a way that I made up myself, I got a Halloween Chinese fortune cookie box and then bought some fortune cookies that I customized with the help of my mom. We cooked fortune cookies in the microwave for about twenty seconds- they become soft enough to open just a crack. Once that was done, we removed the paper fortune inside and then replaced it with our own home-made fortunes! On the fortunes that I made for Peter, I had lucky letters instead of a lucky number. The lucky letters spelled out my first name.
The fortunes had awesome sayings on them that I chose like:
"Curiosity kills boredom. Nothing can kill curiosity."
"The harder you work, the luckier you get." and my personal favorite,
"Help! I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese bakery!" and on the outside I had a note that said, " I would be very "fortunate" if you'd go to the Halloween dance with me!"
Peter then responded by giving me a ton of Chinese take-out boxes that were filled to the brim with white rice, each contained a Chinese character. Admittedly, I had to get my Chinese teacher's help the next day to figure them out, but he said "yes" on the same day that I asked him!! Isn't that nice?
I like how every guy I've asked so far has responded on the same day, I know sometime that my luck will run out with that whole "same day" thing, but I'm still pretty fortunate myself.
For the day activity on Friday, we had a Freaky Feast that my mom did a ton of work for. There was a list of crazy named items that we had to order from for dinner, but we didn't know what any of them were, (well maybe I knew a few...) Anyway, so that was really fun to order stuff that you didn't really know what it would turn out to be! After an amazing dinner, we all went to the Farmington corn maze, nobody in my group knows this to my everlasting embarrassment, but my cellphone fell out of my pocket during the maze!! Luckily we were able to call the maze and it was found and returned safely. The last thing we did for the day activity was go to Jessica's and watch "The Sixth Sense," what a creepy Halloween movie!!!
It was really scary driving so many people in my car, because I've never ever driven more than two other people in my car at any given time, I know that I only had one more person to drive, but it really scared me. I'm not the world's best driver, and now I realize that I am absolutely terrible at directions. Oh well! It was kinda fun to drive my mom's more expensive maroon Tribeca.
The dance itself was more of a party than a dance, the music was extremely loud, and it was that punky almost rap style of music that most teenagers (other than myself like.) There wasn't a single slow dance for partner dancing, so I started using crazy dance moves that other people started teaching me and then made myself look pretty weird! Good times!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
My Favorite Birthday Present of All Time
It was about two months before my birthday when I was randomly looking through a National Geographic magazine. Generally magazines don't really hold my interest, I like awesome long novels that I can get hooked on. As I was flipping through the pages, I saw a picture that caught my attention more than anything in any book could have. There were three or four pictures of adorable little children, there was only problem... Their mouths and teeth were completely deformed into unbelievable shapes that tore at my heart strings. It was then that I realized that more than anything, I wanted to help those kids. My mom was surprised when I called her name loudly across the house and said, "Mom, I know what I want for my birthday!!" I proceeded to tell her that I had everything that I truly wanted, telling her that those children's needs were so much greater than mine that I was willing to give them any birthday presents I would have gotten by donating to their cause. 
That became my favorite birthday present of all time, because I don't truly need anything. I have food, shelter, family that supports me, and the most amazing best friends that anyone could have. Why was I sent to Earth for if I'm not going to benefit it in some way?I must admit that there was one other thing that I thought would be cool for my birthday. I didn't expect it at all, and I was more concerned about my gift to Operation Smile. As I listened to the radio in September with my mom, I heard that one of my favorite singers was coming to Utah to have a concert, on my birthday! My mom told me that we couldn't go, because Colbie Caillat's concert was going to be held in a bar. It turned out that the concert wasn't really IN a bar, but next to a popular local bar in Salt Lake City.
To my great astonishment, my mom bought multiple tickets to see Colbie Caillat and Howie Day, she, my cousin, and my sister were able to keep it a secret from me for over a month... Even when they had talked about going to see a concert, right in front of my face!
It was funny, because as my birthday was approaching, I started talking to my mom about having a kind of "birthday party" on my birthday. I just wanted to have four or five close friends come watch a movie with me and not even call it a birthday party. Not even realizing how suspiciously against my easy and simple idea she was, I didn't even think that the reason she was so against it was the fact that she already had plans for me! In a desperate attempt to distract my mind from the idea of a birthday party, my cousin told me at school that she wanted to take me out to dinner on my birthday. To my embarrassment, I remember thinking to myself that it was pretty odd that Alexis had taken a day off work just to take me out to dinner. I mean come on, I'm not THAT special!
The concert turned out to be amazing! Howie Day is such a better singer live and he has crazy facial expressions!! Colbie Caillat was just absolutely amazing. Her voice is so pretty, and I enjoyed all of her songs! I was a little sad though that she didn't sing my favorite song, it's definitely not her most popular (Tailor Made.) Oh well, it was way cool!
All in all, it was a crazy and eventful day. It started with hiking with my friends in the morning, running around town all day with my mom, going out to dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant, and finally ending in an amazing concert! My seventeenth birthday was a day to remember!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Three of My Life Changing Events
Sorry guys, but I'm posting yet another essay. This essay is different from any essay I've ever written because it's pretty personal to me, and it gives very accurate incite to why I act like I do, and tells readers how my mind works. In this essay for A.P. American history I was required to write about three of my most life impacting events. They might not seem like that big of a deal to you, but they were to me. Of course I knew a teacher would be reading this, so I tried to make it a little less personal. Don't be offended if you aren't personally mentioned; all of my friends have made an impact on my life. In fact, I didn't mention the affects of the friends I made at Fairfield. Because of my friends at Fairfield, I was able to have friends at Davis. To be more particular, I ended up meeting my very best friend of all time. So enjoy the essay!
There are a few things about me that many people could easily point out when first meeting me, Jojo. I’m a simple girl, very easy to please, and excited for just about everything that life has in store for me. Although I’m the type of person who enjoys simplicity, and have only lived sixteen years, I have had personally significant, life changing experiences that I will never forget. I’ve had a complete paradigm shift from a near death experience, I’ve been able to start out on a fresh slate from an unexpected change of schools, and I now know the significance of both hard work and team work through my past efforts in the Davis High Marching Band.
When I broke a blood vessel at the young age of ten, I came to realize the importance of life. Being as young as I was at the time, I had never had anyone really close to me die. My broken blood vessel was located somewhere above my nose, so at first, my family thought that it was simply a bloody nose. Unfortunately, the blood pouring from my nose didn’t stop after the first twenty minutes; after forty-five minutes, I was practically passing out while in the process of being carried into the Emergency Room. As I started to lose my senses, sitting on the gurney in the waiting room, I began to recognize the fact that I might die before a doctor could save me. With tear-filled eyes, I told my dad that I loved him and apologized to my older sister for being angry at her earlier in the day. A short time later, I was being carried again, but this time I was being lifted into a car instead of onto a gurney. The doctors saved me, but that is an event that I will never forget. Breaking a blood vessel was a very traumatizing experience, but I was able to learn first-hand that tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. I finally comprehended the importance of living without regrets and making sure that you truly appreciate those you love before it’s too late.
The second life changing experience that I had wasn’t as scary as my first, but it still had a huge impact on my life’s outlook. Halfway through eighth grade, my neighbors and I were informed that there was going to be a boundary change that would encompass not only us, but the two neighborhoods next to us. I was completely devastated. From the beginning of my torment in seventh grade, I had imagined what it would be like to be at the top of the rung, a ninth grader. In all my times of envisioning, I had never imagined that I would be going to a new school. Somehow, I would be re-living my seventh grade experience again, but this time I’d be a lost and shy ninth grader. Amazingly, going to Fairfield Junior High turned out to be the best experience of my life, and I learned so many skills, both socially and academically. The district that changed my neighborhood’s boundaries had a student body officer elected to help the other new kids involved in the boundary change, and I became the officer. In eighth grade, I had never tried to get to know anyone; I already had friends and didn’t feel like I needed more. When I became an officer that kids looked up to at a new school, I realized how important it is to make others feel important. I did my best to befriend lonely kids, like myself, and now I know more than ever that sometimes it’s the little things that count in someone’s life. Someone’s whole day can be made by one small and kind act.
My final life changing experience wasn’t a single experience, but many impacting memories and challenges that I faced when first joining the Davis High Marching Band. It all began with my amazingly smart sister, Ashli. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be like her. Before I even knew the purpose of Ash’s shiny silver instrument, I knew that I wanted to grow up and play it too. Although I didn’t completely follow in her footsteps when it came to band, it has still been one of the best experiences of my life. After playing the flute all through junior high, for the marching band, I decided to learn a new instrument, the baritone. A baritone is a brass instrument, best described as a miniature tuba (although it is still extremely heavy.) Learning a new instrument was a lot harder than I’d expected. Sometimes I would sit in my room, practicing for hours on end, trying to make my mouth properly buzz. Carrying such a heavy instrument was mentally and physically strenuous; just holding the baritone up for a minute became a burden, but I learned how to mentally push through pain (even though I injured myself a few times in the process.) Marching band taught me the importance of hard work. Hard work not only benefits the person that’s working hard, it benefits every person that you keep in mind while completing the difficult task. The most important lesson I learned was the lesson of teamwork. While competing against other high schools, I had to rely on my fellow baritone players many times; they taught me how to follow in their footsteps so that I could be a positive asset to our team.
Even though I have lived a fairly short life so far, I’ve already found meaning and purpose to my life through my many experiences. Through a completely random “bloody nose,” I learned how important it is to live life as best as you can before it’s too late, in school I learned about leadership and just how important it is to lovingly include anyone in need of friendship, and through marching band, I learned how good it feels to work towards a goal, accomplish it, and learn to be a team player as you work with others.
There are a few things about me that many people could easily point out when first meeting me, Jojo. I’m a simple girl, very easy to please, and excited for just about everything that life has in store for me. Although I’m the type of person who enjoys simplicity, and have only lived sixteen years, I have had personally significant, life changing experiences that I will never forget. I’ve had a complete paradigm shift from a near death experience, I’ve been able to start out on a fresh slate from an unexpected change of schools, and I now know the significance of both hard work and team work through my past efforts in the Davis High Marching Band.
When I broke a blood vessel at the young age of ten, I came to realize the importance of life. Being as young as I was at the time, I had never had anyone really close to me die. My broken blood vessel was located somewhere above my nose, so at first, my family thought that it was simply a bloody nose. Unfortunately, the blood pouring from my nose didn’t stop after the first twenty minutes; after forty-five minutes, I was practically passing out while in the process of being carried into the Emergency Room. As I started to lose my senses, sitting on the gurney in the waiting room, I began to recognize the fact that I might die before a doctor could save me. With tear-filled eyes, I told my dad that I loved him and apologized to my older sister for being angry at her earlier in the day. A short time later, I was being carried again, but this time I was being lifted into a car instead of onto a gurney. The doctors saved me, but that is an event that I will never forget. Breaking a blood vessel was a very traumatizing experience, but I was able to learn first-hand that tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. I finally comprehended the importance of living without regrets and making sure that you truly appreciate those you love before it’s too late.
The second life changing experience that I had wasn’t as scary as my first, but it still had a huge impact on my life’s outlook. Halfway through eighth grade, my neighbors and I were informed that there was going to be a boundary change that would encompass not only us, but the two neighborhoods next to us. I was completely devastated. From the beginning of my torment in seventh grade, I had imagined what it would be like to be at the top of the rung, a ninth grader. In all my times of envisioning, I had never imagined that I would be going to a new school. Somehow, I would be re-living my seventh grade experience again, but this time I’d be a lost and shy ninth grader. Amazingly, going to Fairfield Junior High turned out to be the best experience of my life, and I learned so many skills, both socially and academically. The district that changed my neighborhood’s boundaries had a student body officer elected to help the other new kids involved in the boundary change, and I became the officer. In eighth grade, I had never tried to get to know anyone; I already had friends and didn’t feel like I needed more. When I became an officer that kids looked up to at a new school, I realized how important it is to make others feel important. I did my best to befriend lonely kids, like myself, and now I know more than ever that sometimes it’s the little things that count in someone’s life. Someone’s whole day can be made by one small and kind act.
My final life changing experience wasn’t a single experience, but many impacting memories and challenges that I faced when first joining the Davis High Marching Band. It all began with my amazingly smart sister, Ashli. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be like her. Before I even knew the purpose of Ash’s shiny silver instrument, I knew that I wanted to grow up and play it too. Although I didn’t completely follow in her footsteps when it came to band, it has still been one of the best experiences of my life. After playing the flute all through junior high, for the marching band, I decided to learn a new instrument, the baritone. A baritone is a brass instrument, best described as a miniature tuba (although it is still extremely heavy.) Learning a new instrument was a lot harder than I’d expected. Sometimes I would sit in my room, practicing for hours on end, trying to make my mouth properly buzz. Carrying such a heavy instrument was mentally and physically strenuous; just holding the baritone up for a minute became a burden, but I learned how to mentally push through pain (even though I injured myself a few times in the process.) Marching band taught me the importance of hard work. Hard work not only benefits the person that’s working hard, it benefits every person that you keep in mind while completing the difficult task. The most important lesson I learned was the lesson of teamwork. While competing against other high schools, I had to rely on my fellow baritone players many times; they taught me how to follow in their footsteps so that I could be a positive asset to our team.
Even though I have lived a fairly short life so far, I’ve already found meaning and purpose to my life through my many experiences. Through a completely random “bloody nose,” I learned how important it is to live life as best as you can before it’s too late, in school I learned about leadership and just how important it is to lovingly include anyone in need of friendship, and through marching band, I learned how good it feels to work towards a goal, accomplish it, and learn to be a team player as you work with others.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Cutest Homecoming Invitation
Once again, I'm sorry that I haven't been writing very much dear blog readers! It's been a crazy and hectic past month (particularly the past week.) I'm back in the marching band, and yes, I'm playing the heavy baritone again. On top of the three and a half hour long practices after school every week day except for Tuesday and Friday, I have hard classes like Chemistry, Honors English, and the infamous A.P. American history that I've done four and a half hours worth of homework over this weekend on. Ouch!Even though it's been kind of tough getting back into the work hard and no sleep routine, it hasn't been all bad. In fact, I was asked to my very first Homecoming dance (to my continually happy and most astonished surprise.) To be completely honest, I've spent the past month just trying not to think about the Homecoming dance. I kept telling myself that if I didn't expect to get asked, then it wouldn't hurt as much when I didn't get asked. But somehow I was wrong.
On Wednesday night I was downstairs working diligently on my A.P. American essay (which I will post later,) when my dad called my name. My concentration was a bit shattered after working on this essay for over two hours, so I didn't stall for too long. To my surprise, dad stared me down and said,
"Beth, the door's for you." My brother next to him snickered a little, and I felt really confused. Had I been so concentrated that I couldn't even hear someone knocking on the door?
Yet again I was surprised when I walked into the entry way to find the door closed, not an inch of the night beyond could be seen. Walking a little bit quicker, I reached my hand for the door and peered outside no longer expecting to find a person. Even though I'd only been asked to one other dance, it felt just like the first time.
One of our lawn chairs was sitting on the outer edges of the porch light's circle, I noticed a white piece of paper taped onto the back of the chair before I noticed the bright red rose sitting on top of it. The note read:
Dear Jojo...,
I would be immensely honored if you would accompany me to the Home Coming dance.
(and in a bit smugger tone of letters beneath it said,)
provided you can find all twelve roses to figure out my name.
After doing so much homework, I was more than happy to take a break. It took me about thirty (or more) minutes to find all of the vibrantly red roses all around my yard and in the bushes and only five minutes to figure out that Wes was the one who asked me. For the past year I have collected every flower I receive. Wes didn't know that when he bought the roses, but I'm probably going to keep those roses for the rest of my life so that I can remind myself later in life that there's always someone out there who cares enough to make me feel happier.
The next day Wes got a box of twelve donuts in his last period math class. I wanted to give him a dozen of something too! On the outside of the donut box it said something along the lines of:
"Do not open this box in class! If you are clever enough to unscramble these letters, (which I'm sure you are,) then you will have your Homecoming response!
Best of Luck! -Beth."
As you've probably guessed, I stuck twelve letters inside the box, one in each donut hole. It spelled out, "I would love to!" because those were the first words that popped into my head when thinking of how to respond.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Visiting Great Grandma Walker
So the last nine days have been completely scheduled to the rim with activities! Of course, I was on vacation. Our family went on a trip to Oregon, which concluded in a visit to San Francisco, and the long, rainy drive home.
The first part of the trip was dedicated to Grandma Walker... She is quite the character! She's like the energizer bunny, trapped in a ninety year old person's body!
Strangely I've come to find that the two of us have a lot in common. We both love life and are excited about pretty much anything good. We're both really short, (I'm shorter,) and we both really love animals.
Despite our similiarities, there is a minor difference between me and Grandma. For the most part, I prefer speaking my mind, but I try to filter what goes in and out of my mouth at all times; Grandma doesn't. She has no problem cursing, and has loads of famous quotes. The way she talks is a little bit childlike, she is blunt, and doesn't care if she insults other people with her honesty. The good thing to this is that you always know what's on her mind, and what she thinks of you.
When we walked into her old, whitewashed house in her old folks area in Oregon, the memory of our last visit was fresh on our minds. We stood nervously before her big black door as my dad knocked. A strange anticipation hung in the air, along with a foreboding sense of dread. For some reason, it took a really long time for her to reach the door of her small rambler. We found out after the door was swung slowly open that Grandma Walker had finally acquired a walker for herself, her ankle had never properly healed after she'd broken it last year... Her ankle was totally deformed, and I clenched my fists in anger as she told us how the doctor's had treated her. Technically they hadn't treated her at all, acting like she was too old to be helped and not doing anything.
She kept talking to us for a few minutes, her voice was a bit rattly, and she laughed often in her low alto voice. My dad acted clownish, just to see her reactions.
After talking so seriously, it wasn't long before we couldn't surpress laughs. Grandma finally took the time to observe the family that she hadn't seen in a few years, and she commented on her grandson's appearance.
Without sympathy, she looked my dad up and down. After her eyes were done scrutinizing my dad, she loudly exclaimed, "Why Grant, you've gotten so fat! You're just so fat, you must really like to eat!!" I felt a twinge of pity for my dad, but I just couldn't help but laugh at her unchanted, unrelenting bluntness. I was relieved that she didn't think I was fat.
Our Grandma Walker has was born in 1919, so she's lived through a lot. She's lived through the Great Depression and both world wars. Because of her age, she has lots of traditions and formalities that haven't really changed much since her younger ages.
The worst part of going to Grandma's is her hospitality. When she was our age, it was always necessary to offer to feed your guests. Grandma took it upon herself to make sure that we, "her guests," were well fed. This eventually led to her trying to force us into eating her old food,"Just shut up and eat some potato salad!!"
I really love my Grandma, but there is one thing that our family can't deny. Her food would easily qualify for Fear Factor. After trying to stall the inevitable, we finally knew that there was no way to avoid eating what she offered. That night's course was potato salad.
She'd been eager to have us eat the potato salad she made from the day she made it about a week before...
My grandma sat in her rocker in the next room, watching us in the kitchen to make sure that we were well fed. Fortunately, her sight isn't all that great, she didn't see our noses crinkling in blatant dismay.
As if on cue, everyone looked to me, desperation emanating from their eyes. My mom silently questioned, "How much do you love your grandma?" I gulped and shook my head. I felt like I was volunteering for the guillotine. With a little hesitation, I muttered,
"Alright, I'll eat some in front of her, that way she gets the impression that we've eaten." As if reading my mind, mom whispered in relief,
"Are you sure? Okay, we'll stay over here, just come dump the rest in the garbage after you're done." I trudged into the front room with a paper plate, armed with only a fork against the potato salad.
Grandma looked at me expectantly, I dipped the fork into an odd colored potato and shoved it into my mouth before I could cower out. My heaved in protest to the disgusting salad, the second that I put the food in my mouth, I involuntarily gagged, chewing just enough to swallow it down, and then quickly forced three more bites before my stomach settled again.
After I was sure that my grandma had seen me eat her salad, I slinked back into the antique filled kitchen and found the garbage can. That wasn't the worst food I had at Grandma's last week, but that really was taking one for the team.
My whole family stayed in a fairly nice hotel while we visited Grandma Walker, her house was much too small for everyone. Even though we had a hotel room, my dad insisted that I spend the next three nights alone with Grandma to prove how much I love him... I really must love my dad, because there are things much worse than potato salad lurking in Grandma's fridge.
As much as I tried to sleep in that morning to avoid breakfast, I just couldn't. Grandma's house was really cold, and it didn't help that I'm an early bird. At six thirty, I walked into the kitchen, only to find Grandma waiting for me. The very first thing out of her smiling mouth was,
"Let's get you some breakfast!!" I groaned inside, wondering if I could possibly come out of this trip alive.
For breakfast, I had shredded wheat, with sour milk poured on it. That was pretty gross, but not the worst part. After only being able to eat half of it, Grandma insistently tried to make me eat everything else in her fridge. She handed me a black banana. I peeled the skin off, to reveal that the banana itself was covered in brown spots. Grandma handed me a butter knife, so that I could cut off the larger spots.
When I was done cutting, there wasn't really much banana left. She looked at me encouragingly as I bit into the hard banana. Even though that also was too gross to finish, I couldn't force myself to eat anymore after the tropical canned fruit. That fruit must've been opened and left in the fridge for a decade, it tasted like tuna...
Aside from the Fear Factor food, it was fun to visit my grandma again. We spent the whole first day in Oregon by doing things that she couldn't normally do for herself.
She scowled at my dad when he told her that we were going to go pick the weeds outside her house. She loves her potted garden, and didn't want us to think that she'd somehow not taken care of it,
"I don't think you'll find any weeds out there!! I don't think you can tell the difference between the plants and the weeds!" She was scared that we'd ruin her beautiful English Roses, and turned out to be really surprised that we actually managed to find so many weeds.
The last day in Oregon was sad, but it was the best day at Grandma's. We went on an eight mile hike called "Canyon Trail," which had ten gorgeous waterfalls.
When we came back to Grandma's house after the hike, we got to hear lots of her stories and lectures. My favorite part of the whole conversation was a reference to her little old cat "Kissy Kissy." My grandma looked intensely at my dad as she asked,
"Now Grant, do you believe in aliens?" To which he instantly replied,
"No Grandma, there's no such thing. Don't worry about them." To which my grandma passionately exclaimed,
"Then what happened to my cat?!?"
I know that it's sad and crazy, but my Grandma believes that she has proof that her cat was abducted by aliens. The worst part about her cat stories is that Kissy Kissy was actually her neighbor's cat. (For some reason my grandma thought that their cat was hers.) One day, after grandma let him outside, Kissy Kissy "ran away," and she never saw her beloved cat again...
We're pretty sure that the neighbors just reclaimed their cat.
The first part of the trip was dedicated to Grandma Walker... She is quite the character! She's like the energizer bunny, trapped in a ninety year old person's body!
Strangely I've come to find that the two of us have a lot in common. We both love life and are excited about pretty much anything good. We're both really short, (I'm shorter,) and we both really love animals.
Despite our similiarities, there is a minor difference between me and Grandma. For the most part, I prefer speaking my mind, but I try to filter what goes in and out of my mouth at all times; Grandma doesn't. She has no problem cursing, and has loads of famous quotes. The way she talks is a little bit childlike, she is blunt, and doesn't care if she insults other people with her honesty. The good thing to this is that you always know what's on her mind, and what she thinks of you.
When we walked into her old, whitewashed house in her old folks area in Oregon, the memory of our last visit was fresh on our minds. We stood nervously before her big black door as my dad knocked. A strange anticipation hung in the air, along with a foreboding sense of dread. For some reason, it took a really long time for her to reach the door of her small rambler. We found out after the door was swung slowly open that Grandma Walker had finally acquired a walker for herself, her ankle had never properly healed after she'd broken it last year... Her ankle was totally deformed, and I clenched my fists in anger as she told us how the doctor's had treated her. Technically they hadn't treated her at all, acting like she was too old to be helped and not doing anything.
She kept talking to us for a few minutes, her voice was a bit rattly, and she laughed often in her low alto voice. My dad acted clownish, just to see her reactions.
After talking so seriously, it wasn't long before we couldn't surpress laughs. Grandma finally took the time to observe the family that she hadn't seen in a few years, and she commented on her grandson's appearance.
Without sympathy, she looked my dad up and down. After her eyes were done scrutinizing my dad, she loudly exclaimed, "Why Grant, you've gotten so fat! You're just so fat, you must really like to eat!!" I felt a twinge of pity for my dad, but I just couldn't help but laugh at her unchanted, unrelenting bluntness. I was relieved that she didn't think I was fat.
Our Grandma Walker has was born in 1919, so she's lived through a lot. She's lived through the Great Depression and both world wars. Because of her age, she has lots of traditions and formalities that haven't really changed much since her younger ages.
The worst part of going to Grandma's is her hospitality. When she was our age, it was always necessary to offer to feed your guests. Grandma took it upon herself to make sure that we, "her guests," were well fed. This eventually led to her trying to force us into eating her old food,"Just shut up and eat some potato salad!!"
I really love my Grandma, but there is one thing that our family can't deny. Her food would easily qualify for Fear Factor. After trying to stall the inevitable, we finally knew that there was no way to avoid eating what she offered. That night's course was potato salad.
She'd been eager to have us eat the potato salad she made from the day she made it about a week before...
My grandma sat in her rocker in the next room, watching us in the kitchen to make sure that we were well fed. Fortunately, her sight isn't all that great, she didn't see our noses crinkling in blatant dismay.
As if on cue, everyone looked to me, desperation emanating from their eyes. My mom silently questioned, "How much do you love your grandma?" I gulped and shook my head. I felt like I was volunteering for the guillotine. With a little hesitation, I muttered,
"Alright, I'll eat some in front of her, that way she gets the impression that we've eaten." As if reading my mind, mom whispered in relief,
"Are you sure? Okay, we'll stay over here, just come dump the rest in the garbage after you're done." I trudged into the front room with a paper plate, armed with only a fork against the potato salad.
Grandma looked at me expectantly, I dipped the fork into an odd colored potato and shoved it into my mouth before I could cower out. My heaved in protest to the disgusting salad, the second that I put the food in my mouth, I involuntarily gagged, chewing just enough to swallow it down, and then quickly forced three more bites before my stomach settled again.
After I was sure that my grandma had seen me eat her salad, I slinked back into the antique filled kitchen and found the garbage can. That wasn't the worst food I had at Grandma's last week, but that really was taking one for the team.
My whole family stayed in a fairly nice hotel while we visited Grandma Walker, her house was much too small for everyone. Even though we had a hotel room, my dad insisted that I spend the next three nights alone with Grandma to prove how much I love him... I really must love my dad, because there are things much worse than potato salad lurking in Grandma's fridge.
As much as I tried to sleep in that morning to avoid breakfast, I just couldn't. Grandma's house was really cold, and it didn't help that I'm an early bird. At six thirty, I walked into the kitchen, only to find Grandma waiting for me. The very first thing out of her smiling mouth was,
"Let's get you some breakfast!!" I groaned inside, wondering if I could possibly come out of this trip alive.
For breakfast, I had shredded wheat, with sour milk poured on it. That was pretty gross, but not the worst part. After only being able to eat half of it, Grandma insistently tried to make me eat everything else in her fridge. She handed me a black banana. I peeled the skin off, to reveal that the banana itself was covered in brown spots. Grandma handed me a butter knife, so that I could cut off the larger spots.
When I was done cutting, there wasn't really much banana left. She looked at me encouragingly as I bit into the hard banana. Even though that also was too gross to finish, I couldn't force myself to eat anymore after the tropical canned fruit. That fruit must've been opened and left in the fridge for a decade, it tasted like tuna...
Aside from the Fear Factor food, it was fun to visit my grandma again. We spent the whole first day in Oregon by doing things that she couldn't normally do for herself.
She scowled at my dad when he told her that we were going to go pick the weeds outside her house. She loves her potted garden, and didn't want us to think that she'd somehow not taken care of it,
"I don't think you'll find any weeds out there!! I don't think you can tell the difference between the plants and the weeds!" She was scared that we'd ruin her beautiful English Roses, and turned out to be really surprised that we actually managed to find so many weeds.
The last day in Oregon was sad, but it was the best day at Grandma's. We went on an eight mile hike called "Canyon Trail," which had ten gorgeous waterfalls.
When we came back to Grandma's house after the hike, we got to hear lots of her stories and lectures. My favorite part of the whole conversation was a reference to her little old cat "Kissy Kissy." My grandma looked intensely at my dad as she asked,
"Now Grant, do you believe in aliens?" To which he instantly replied,
"No Grandma, there's no such thing. Don't worry about them." To which my grandma passionately exclaimed,
"Then what happened to my cat?!?"
I know that it's sad and crazy, but my Grandma believes that she has proof that her cat was abducted by aliens. The worst part about her cat stories is that Kissy Kissy was actually her neighbor's cat. (For some reason my grandma thought that their cat was hers.) One day, after grandma let him outside, Kissy Kissy "ran away," and she never saw her beloved cat again...
We're pretty sure that the neighbors just reclaimed their cat.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A Year to Remember
“Did you hear the news, Beth?” asked my Dad cautiously, eyeing me as if expecting me to know.
“Uh, I have no idea what you’re talking about to be honest.” I responded. My Dad took an intake of breath, looking at me seriously,
“The district changed the school boundaries; you’re going to Fairfield next year.” As if on cue I gasped in horror,
“What?! Fairfield Junior High? But Dad, this is my last year of junior high; they can’t just force me to another school!” He just shook his head at my incredulity as I sank into a pool of tears.
Fairfield…
I was going to be at the top of the rung, the oldest in the school, yet, I would be new!
At first I protested the idea altogether, literally, I went protesting during a public meeting held at Layton High to discuss our neighborhood’s “fate.” Why should I let the unseen district push me around like a child’s play-toy? The fact of the matter was that I truly was nothing more than a pawn in their hands. Just another number, easy to be moved around the board. It wasn’t long before the hopelessness set in, the realization that I was going to a new school hit me harder than a ton of bricks; there was nothing I could do about it!
Before I knew it, my time as a knight of Kaysville Junior High was up; the last months with my friends from fourth grade were over. Despite my feelings of self doubt and depression that I faced when I thought of the ominous outlook of attending a new school, there was a little compensation for my situation. In a feeble attempt to make the poor kids in my neighborhood have some confidence, they decided to elect a ninth grader to a student body officer position. With some luck and lots of posters, I became the “new student student body officer!” It was after the election that my attitude changed dramatically. As I had learned earlier, there was nothing that I could do to change the district, it’s not like I could really change the world just because I was “officer.” Like I’d been taught in Kindergarten, I was completely in charge of myself; attitude and all, and I decided that I was going to make the best of what I’d been given. After all, wasn’t there a reason for everything?
After a long summer of contemplation, and heart-rending worries, it was the night before school! Where had summer gone? Life wasn’t like a train; it was more like a roaring subway that never stopped. Scared completely out of my wits about the quickly fading summer; I prayed earnestly that I might somehow at least recognize one person in all my classes. It was a ridiculous thing to ask for really, but God always finds a way to help those that try.
After getting the least amount of sleep that I’ve ever gotten on a school night, I woke up calm and collected. It was just another day of school, and hey, I wasn’t the only new student out there now was I?
Well Fairfield was definitely a crazy experience at first. The first day of school was very interesting. I sat in all of my “ninth grader only” classes, yet many kids thought I was an eighth grader, just because I was new. In band class, I felt the full force of all of the staring! The band was a unified team of percussion and woodwinds who had learned to play together over the years. To their apparent amazement, Mr. Earl had let an outsider in, a little green-eyed flautist who had come from an opposing school! Well, it was hard to grin and bear the stares in that class; I was too busy blowing through my flute.
Even though the first few weeks were pretty tough, Fairfield became my second home in no time! I knew only a handful of officers at first, but that slowly changed as I began branching out. My prayer on the first night of school had been answered and somehow the student body president was in all seven of my classes!
For the first two and a half months I didn’t have a main group of friends; instead I sat with random kids that looked as lonely as I sometimes felt. Even though I didn’t really mind, I missed having my fun, over-dramatic best friends that actually new me. Maybe I shouldn’t have really missed that, because I got plenty of drama later on!
Without warning, a quick week of school rolled past, becoming a month, which brought up the first menacing school dance.
The terrible smell of cafeteria food wafted over all of the junior high students; the stench was terrible, but the smell of nervous sweaty kids had not yet settled. Trying to forget the fact that no boy would ask an unfamiliar girl to dance, I merrily wove my way through couples, asking many random boys to dance. I tried not to let my voice shake as I asked a simple “Will you dance?” question to all of those scary boys. It seemed weird asking them to dance, but unfortunately it was one of my many new “officer” duties. The weirdest part was the fact that I couldn’t differentiate between ninth eighth and seventh graders yet, everyone was taller than me anyway!
It was at the first dance that I met the first person that befriended me. Picking at my sporty green skirt, I noticed a girl coming toward me. I didn’t know her at all; I didn’t even know what grade she was in. Well it turns out that “her” name was Heather; she had bright red hair and towered inches above me. Ignoring my shyness, Heather walked up to me and immediately burst into conversation as if she had known me for her whole life. Without further ado she declared,
“You have to dance with my brother!” Somehow she didn’t notice my cheeks turning redder than her hair, or my hand obsessively plucking at my clothing. Trying to imagine how shy or genuinely cowardly her brother must be, I was dragged across the flecked white floor by my arm. Wishing that I could sink through that white floor, I finally met the reason for my embarrassment. I was a bit surprised, he wasn’t as social inept as I assumed he must be, but he gave us both a rather penetrating grey-eyed glare; as if saying,
“Heather, you are dead! Another one?!” Politely, the vivacious red-head demanded that her brother ask me to dance. His reply was short and expected,
“I don’t know her.” Unfortunately, Heather was persistent even though I stood there feeling extremely awkward. After a slight pause, she continued trying to persuade him to do something that he didn’t want to,
“She’s Beth, the new S.B.O., now you do!” Now his glare was completely directed at her, contempt written in every crease between his eyes; somehow she had the strength not to pull her own eyes away as she bluntly stated,
“Tyler, you’re being a jerk.” Tyler's next few words were the first he ever spoke to me,
“Hi, I’m a jerk!” and to my disbelief, “jerk boy” asked me to dance. Despite the rather odd introduction, he turned out to be was a pretty funny kid that I grew to like.
The next month after the dance, I realized how much I really wanted to have a best friend. One day after my geography class, I pulled a girl to the side and asked her if I could sit by her at lunch, biting my lip and wrestling with mountains of self doubt. We didn’t really know each other, but I thought she was awesome, (just because she played tuba.) Just as I'd expected, she gave me a weird look and replied,
“Um… Okay…” Not sensing her skepticism at having a peppy girl like me ask her that question, I was elated.
I continued being friends with Jess, and in turn earned three new friends that helped to staunch the loneliness of being a new kid. As if on cue, they began invading our lunch table daily. The first new friend was Jason; he became one of my best friends over time. His dark brown eyes always seemed to smile by themselves, and he was a genuinely nice, down-to earth boy. My second new friend was Caleb. His looks practically defined his personality; bubbly and hyper. It was really easy to spot his bright yellow hair and his loud, childish laugh in a crowd, which wasn’t a bad thing! One of Caleb's favorite hobbies was staring off into space; perhaps he was just secretly thoughtful? His wandering mind made me raise my eyebrows a few times, but despite his sometimes dreamy state, he was still a good friend. The third and last friend that adopted me was Joey, he was a bit short compared to most boys and had a tendency not to worry as much as everyone else. He was unique in a good way. Out of the three of my new friends, Joey was the easiest for me to talk to. He became my friend much more quickly than the other two; it made me smile when he actually laughed at my tacky jokes.
Now approaching was the third term; the year was almost over. My work as an officer became really tough and time consuming. At the beginning of the year, I had been appointed “historian” in my officer class. That meant that I had to gather all of our schools history and photos and put it into the end-of-year slideshow. For two terms I worked, there was an hour every day dedicated to putting familiar and unfamiliar faces on a screen that everyone would see.
The third term was the fastest by far; I worked diligently at the show, and in the meantime, went to those gross, sweaty wrestling matches. I can’t deny how relieved I began to feel when the lunch bell rang, weekends became my best friend!
Third term dissolved into fourth term, I cracked down on the slideshow even harder, even skipping half of Lagoon day so that I could work on it. My teachers weren’t lenient on me, but I still loved them all anyway, what’s not to love about people that teach you everything you know?
The best part of the whole year (and the saddest,) was the last week of school. It had come so fast, and I just wasn’t ready for it to be over. There were times when I’d been sad and angry, sure, but the pros outweighed the cons so much that tears filled my eyes once more at the thought of leaving another school.
There were three notable events in the last week. The first was the ninth grade photos. The photographer took the pictures as the sun was rising in the east, blinding everyone who was attempting to look at the camera. We were all tried to shield our eyes while staring into the heat of the sun for nearly ten minutes. Although that was painful, it wasn’t as painful for us as the poor boy that threw up over the side of the scaffolds. Conveniently that happened as we were taking our final picture as Fairfield Junior High’s ninth grade class.
The second to last event was the “ninth grade dance” where only the big “ninth graders” themselves were allowed to attend. It was the best night at Fairfield by far! That night, I spent the laughing with my friends Jill, Jeremy, Kyle, and Jordan; we had become really good friends, but only Jeremy and Kyle would be attending the same school as me next year. We all tried our best not to feel sad then, as the full realization hit that we were dancing our last tacky junior high dance away. Brushing aside fears of high school, I couldn’t help being happy. The ninth grade dance was the first dance that anybody had asked me to dance all year!
Finally the last song of the night came, leaving everyone breathless. My friend Joeycame and found me to ask me to dance, but out of the blue, a crowd of people separated us before I could respond to him. On the other side of the crowd was my friend Caleb who stood on his tip-toes and mouthed, “Do you want to dance?” I just yelled over the crowd,
“Sorry Caleb, I’ve already been asked!” Caleb might have heard me, but the crowd certainly didn’t. In that crowd was a motley crew of boys, heading in my direction. They were pushing a tall and rather embarrassed looking boy in my direction, unexpectedly; he walked up to me and asked shyly,
“Can I have this dance?” I turned beet red and said,
“Sorry. I’ve actually been asked to dance, twice!” Not wanting to turn down another boy, I practically ran over to Joey who was still waiting for a response.
The last day of school was so short, bringing tears of pleasure and sadness. All students (to my relief,) watched the end of year slideshow in awe, making me feel so much better about my hard work. With only a short time left before the summer, everyone signed year books for a few hours.
After all was said and done, my group of four fantastic friends huddled into our little circle outside the school that we had become so fond of.
Jess cried more than anyone, and we all tried to comfort her. It was unanimous that ninth grade had been the best experience of our lives so far.
I learned a lot in ninth grade. I learned how to be a leader, and how mitigate petty drama. I learned how to make friends, I learned to forgive, but I never learned how to forget; how could I forget such a great school? At Fairfield I had learned a lot from my supportive teachers, Mr. Thompson Mrs. B, Mr. Earl. Even better than all of those perhaps, I had finally broken my “shy shell” that had completely enveloped me since elementary school. Finally, and best of all, I had had the best year of my life, I had learned to truly love school.
“Uh, I have no idea what you’re talking about to be honest.” I responded. My Dad took an intake of breath, looking at me seriously,
“The district changed the school boundaries; you’re going to Fairfield next year.” As if on cue I gasped in horror,
“What?! Fairfield Junior High? But Dad, this is my last year of junior high; they can’t just force me to another school!” He just shook his head at my incredulity as I sank into a pool of tears.
Fairfield…
I was going to be at the top of the rung, the oldest in the school, yet, I would be new!
At first I protested the idea altogether, literally, I went protesting during a public meeting held at Layton High to discuss our neighborhood’s “fate.” Why should I let the unseen district push me around like a child’s play-toy? The fact of the matter was that I truly was nothing more than a pawn in their hands. Just another number, easy to be moved around the board. It wasn’t long before the hopelessness set in, the realization that I was going to a new school hit me harder than a ton of bricks; there was nothing I could do about it!
Before I knew it, my time as a knight of Kaysville Junior High was up; the last months with my friends from fourth grade were over. Despite my feelings of self doubt and depression that I faced when I thought of the ominous outlook of attending a new school, there was a little compensation for my situation. In a feeble attempt to make the poor kids in my neighborhood have some confidence, they decided to elect a ninth grader to a student body officer position. With some luck and lots of posters, I became the “new student student body officer!” It was after the election that my attitude changed dramatically. As I had learned earlier, there was nothing that I could do to change the district, it’s not like I could really change the world just because I was “officer.” Like I’d been taught in Kindergarten, I was completely in charge of myself; attitude and all, and I decided that I was going to make the best of what I’d been given. After all, wasn’t there a reason for everything?
After a long summer of contemplation, and heart-rending worries, it was the night before school! Where had summer gone? Life wasn’t like a train; it was more like a roaring subway that never stopped. Scared completely out of my wits about the quickly fading summer; I prayed earnestly that I might somehow at least recognize one person in all my classes. It was a ridiculous thing to ask for really, but God always finds a way to help those that try.
After getting the least amount of sleep that I’ve ever gotten on a school night, I woke up calm and collected. It was just another day of school, and hey, I wasn’t the only new student out there now was I?
Well Fairfield was definitely a crazy experience at first. The first day of school was very interesting. I sat in all of my “ninth grader only” classes, yet many kids thought I was an eighth grader, just because I was new. In band class, I felt the full force of all of the staring! The band was a unified team of percussion and woodwinds who had learned to play together over the years. To their apparent amazement, Mr. Earl had let an outsider in, a little green-eyed flautist who had come from an opposing school! Well, it was hard to grin and bear the stares in that class; I was too busy blowing through my flute.
Even though the first few weeks were pretty tough, Fairfield became my second home in no time! I knew only a handful of officers at first, but that slowly changed as I began branching out. My prayer on the first night of school had been answered and somehow the student body president was in all seven of my classes!
For the first two and a half months I didn’t have a main group of friends; instead I sat with random kids that looked as lonely as I sometimes felt. Even though I didn’t really mind, I missed having my fun, over-dramatic best friends that actually new me. Maybe I shouldn’t have really missed that, because I got plenty of drama later on!
Without warning, a quick week of school rolled past, becoming a month, which brought up the first menacing school dance.
The terrible smell of cafeteria food wafted over all of the junior high students; the stench was terrible, but the smell of nervous sweaty kids had not yet settled. Trying to forget the fact that no boy would ask an unfamiliar girl to dance, I merrily wove my way through couples, asking many random boys to dance. I tried not to let my voice shake as I asked a simple “Will you dance?” question to all of those scary boys. It seemed weird asking them to dance, but unfortunately it was one of my many new “officer” duties. The weirdest part was the fact that I couldn’t differentiate between ninth eighth and seventh graders yet, everyone was taller than me anyway!
It was at the first dance that I met the first person that befriended me. Picking at my sporty green skirt, I noticed a girl coming toward me. I didn’t know her at all; I didn’t even know what grade she was in. Well it turns out that “her” name was Heather; she had bright red hair and towered inches above me. Ignoring my shyness, Heather walked up to me and immediately burst into conversation as if she had known me for her whole life. Without further ado she declared,
“You have to dance with my brother!” Somehow she didn’t notice my cheeks turning redder than her hair, or my hand obsessively plucking at my clothing. Trying to imagine how shy or genuinely cowardly her brother must be, I was dragged across the flecked white floor by my arm. Wishing that I could sink through that white floor, I finally met the reason for my embarrassment. I was a bit surprised, he wasn’t as social inept as I assumed he must be, but he gave us both a rather penetrating grey-eyed glare; as if saying,
“Heather, you are dead! Another one?!” Politely, the vivacious red-head demanded that her brother ask me to dance. His reply was short and expected,
“I don’t know her.” Unfortunately, Heather was persistent even though I stood there feeling extremely awkward. After a slight pause, she continued trying to persuade him to do something that he didn’t want to,
“She’s Beth, the new S.B.O., now you do!” Now his glare was completely directed at her, contempt written in every crease between his eyes; somehow she had the strength not to pull her own eyes away as she bluntly stated,
“Tyler, you’re being a jerk.” Tyler's next few words were the first he ever spoke to me,
“Hi, I’m a jerk!” and to my disbelief, “jerk boy” asked me to dance. Despite the rather odd introduction, he turned out to be was a pretty funny kid that I grew to like.
The next month after the dance, I realized how much I really wanted to have a best friend. One day after my geography class, I pulled a girl to the side and asked her if I could sit by her at lunch, biting my lip and wrestling with mountains of self doubt. We didn’t really know each other, but I thought she was awesome, (just because she played tuba.) Just as I'd expected, she gave me a weird look and replied,
“Um… Okay…” Not sensing her skepticism at having a peppy girl like me ask her that question, I was elated.
I continued being friends with Jess, and in turn earned three new friends that helped to staunch the loneliness of being a new kid. As if on cue, they began invading our lunch table daily. The first new friend was Jason; he became one of my best friends over time. His dark brown eyes always seemed to smile by themselves, and he was a genuinely nice, down-to earth boy. My second new friend was Caleb. His looks practically defined his personality; bubbly and hyper. It was really easy to spot his bright yellow hair and his loud, childish laugh in a crowd, which wasn’t a bad thing! One of Caleb's favorite hobbies was staring off into space; perhaps he was just secretly thoughtful? His wandering mind made me raise my eyebrows a few times, but despite his sometimes dreamy state, he was still a good friend. The third and last friend that adopted me was Joey, he was a bit short compared to most boys and had a tendency not to worry as much as everyone else. He was unique in a good way. Out of the three of my new friends, Joey was the easiest for me to talk to. He became my friend much more quickly than the other two; it made me smile when he actually laughed at my tacky jokes.
Now approaching was the third term; the year was almost over. My work as an officer became really tough and time consuming. At the beginning of the year, I had been appointed “historian” in my officer class. That meant that I had to gather all of our schools history and photos and put it into the end-of-year slideshow. For two terms I worked, there was an hour every day dedicated to putting familiar and unfamiliar faces on a screen that everyone would see.
The third term was the fastest by far; I worked diligently at the show, and in the meantime, went to those gross, sweaty wrestling matches. I can’t deny how relieved I began to feel when the lunch bell rang, weekends became my best friend!
Third term dissolved into fourth term, I cracked down on the slideshow even harder, even skipping half of Lagoon day so that I could work on it. My teachers weren’t lenient on me, but I still loved them all anyway, what’s not to love about people that teach you everything you know?
The best part of the whole year (and the saddest,) was the last week of school. It had come so fast, and I just wasn’t ready for it to be over. There were times when I’d been sad and angry, sure, but the pros outweighed the cons so much that tears filled my eyes once more at the thought of leaving another school.
There were three notable events in the last week. The first was the ninth grade photos. The photographer took the pictures as the sun was rising in the east, blinding everyone who was attempting to look at the camera. We were all tried to shield our eyes while staring into the heat of the sun for nearly ten minutes. Although that was painful, it wasn’t as painful for us as the poor boy that threw up over the side of the scaffolds. Conveniently that happened as we were taking our final picture as Fairfield Junior High’s ninth grade class.
The second to last event was the “ninth grade dance” where only the big “ninth graders” themselves were allowed to attend. It was the best night at Fairfield by far! That night, I spent the laughing with my friends Jill, Jeremy, Kyle, and Jordan; we had become really good friends, but only Jeremy and Kyle would be attending the same school as me next year. We all tried our best not to feel sad then, as the full realization hit that we were dancing our last tacky junior high dance away. Brushing aside fears of high school, I couldn’t help being happy. The ninth grade dance was the first dance that anybody had asked me to dance all year!
Finally the last song of the night came, leaving everyone breathless. My friend Joeycame and found me to ask me to dance, but out of the blue, a crowd of people separated us before I could respond to him. On the other side of the crowd was my friend Caleb who stood on his tip-toes and mouthed, “Do you want to dance?” I just yelled over the crowd,
“Sorry Caleb, I’ve already been asked!” Caleb might have heard me, but the crowd certainly didn’t. In that crowd was a motley crew of boys, heading in my direction. They were pushing a tall and rather embarrassed looking boy in my direction, unexpectedly; he walked up to me and asked shyly,
“Can I have this dance?” I turned beet red and said,
“Sorry. I’ve actually been asked to dance, twice!” Not wanting to turn down another boy, I practically ran over to Joey who was still waiting for a response.
The last day of school was so short, bringing tears of pleasure and sadness. All students (to my relief,) watched the end of year slideshow in awe, making me feel so much better about my hard work. With only a short time left before the summer, everyone signed year books for a few hours.
After all was said and done, my group of four fantastic friends huddled into our little circle outside the school that we had become so fond of.
Jess cried more than anyone, and we all tried to comfort her. It was unanimous that ninth grade had been the best experience of our lives so far.
I learned a lot in ninth grade. I learned how to be a leader, and how mitigate petty drama. I learned how to make friends, I learned to forgive, but I never learned how to forget; how could I forget such a great school? At Fairfield I had learned a lot from my supportive teachers, Mr. Thompson Mrs. B, Mr. Earl. Even better than all of those perhaps, I had finally broken my “shy shell” that had completely enveloped me since elementary school. Finally, and best of all, I had had the best year of my life, I had learned to truly love school.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
About This Girl...
I was just thinking about it, there are lots of stories and experiences on this blog! But there isn't anything that people could get to know me by, like my favorite color, or my favorite instrument. Here goes!
The Basics
Hair Color: Dirty blonde
Eye Color: Green, grey, and blue!
Height: 5'2-5'3ish
Profession: 10th grade student, and awesome band geek ^_^
Relationship Status: I don't really need a relationship, I love all my friends!
Religious Views: Latter Day Saint
My Favorites
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Car: Little Green Ford Focuses
Favorite Movie: Movies are like doritoes, you can't pick just one. I like Spiderman, Elf, Prince Caspian, The Counte of Monte Cristo, and Les Miserables. (My favorite cartoon movie is Hercules.)
Favorite Hobby: Soccer
Favorite Song/Singer: Into the dark (DeathCab for Cutie) Sadly I don't like any of their other songs...
Favorite Book/Author: My favorite book that's not in a series is "Once Upon a Marigold." My favorite series is Harry Potter, (especially the seventh.)
Favorite School Subject: English and World Civilzations
Favorite Vacation Destination: Seaside, Oregon. (It is so beautiful!)
Favorite Food: Chicken Enchiladas
Favorite Animal: My favorite zoo animal is a lion, and my favorite animal in general is probably just a dog.
Favorite Store: Barnes and Noble all the way!
Favorite Childhood Memory: Wow, there are so many. Probably playing with Brea in her back yard with her beagles. Or maybe it was when I finished that mini triathalon in fifth grade.
Favorite Baby Names: I can never think of a girl name, but I really like the names Skyler, Rylie, and Christian.
Favorite Person In Your Life: Smiling! Smiling's my favorite! (Notice how I avoided answering that question, pretty smooth huh?)
This or That
Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla
Big Mac or Whopper: Neither, gross!
Coke or Pepsi : Same as above.
Beer or Wine: I will never taste either, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Coffee or Tea: Never tasted either, tea looks pretty gross.
Apple Juice or O.J.: Apple Juice.
Summer or Winter: Summer, (until I get to snowboard)
Cats or Dogs: Dogs all the way!
Rain or Shine : It depends!
Morning or Night: Morning
Movie or Play: Movie
Walk or Drive: Walk
Forgiveness or Revenge: Forgiveness, even though it's harder. (Take a lesson from La Compte de Monte Cristo!)
Paint or Wallpaper: Paint
Do You?
Have Any Pets: Two pomeranians that love to bark!
Have Any Children: Um... If my friends count, I have to act like their mother sometimes, it's all good though!
Smoke: No!
Drink: No!
Exercise: Yes, at least every other day. And my favorite form of excersize is tackling in soccer.
Play On A Sports Team: Yes, go Envy! And I count marching band as a sport, thank you very much!
Belong To Any Organizations: "Who's got the best band anywhere?!" "DHS!!!" "Band dismissed..." "Davis!!!!"
Like To Cook: Mmm hmm! ("Mmm" especially when I have time to cook.)
Play An Instrument: Flute, Piano, Baritone, ocarina, a bit of harmonica, improving on drums, and I can play very little guitar (thank you Jordan!)
Sing: If you want to hear a good impersenation of William Hung, sure!
Dance: At dances, (well duh!) But only with a partner, it's weird dancing by myself.
Speak Multiple Languages: Wo shi Zhong guo ren, wo bu shi Mei guo ren! Haha, totally kidding, but I am trying to learn Chinese. I know a little bit of Spanish too.
Ice Skate: I'm terrible at it!
Swim: Yep! I was on a swim team for three years, and loved almost every minute of it! (Like the sarcasm? It was a love hate relationship.)
Paint: I like to use paint on the computer, but I can't really paint.
Write: Yes, all the time!
Ski: Snowboard
Juggle: I can't!
Have You Ever
Stolen Anything: Never!
Been Drunk Before Noon: Never been drunk ever, not only that, I've never had a sip of alcohol.
Been Arrested: No!
Littered: Not that I can remember, and never purposefully if I did.
Cheated In A Relationship: Never had one, but I wouldn't do that.
Failed A Class: Nope!
Stuck Gum Under A Desk: No, gross!
Wished You Were Someone Else: Yes, someone invisible (at very embarrassing times, I can turn so red!)
Cried During A Movie: Yes, four I believe. Bridge to Terabithia, Charlie, the Joseph Smith movie, and Tuck Everlasting (that was so dumb of me to cry during that one!!)
Other
Describe Yourself In One Word: Me!(haha, really creative huh?)
Biggest Fear: Hurting anyone and vise versa.
Biggest Mistake: Trusting people too easily. I am really gullible, and I believe that everybody tells me the truth all the time.
Your Proudest Accomplishment: Student of the month (Thanks Mr. T!)
#1 Priority In Your Life: I have 3 number one priorities! Family, friends, and church.
Dream Job: Graphic design artist
Special Talents: Instruments, soccer (when I'm awake enough to play,) and designing things.
Where Would You Rather Be: School
Famous Person You Want To Meet: I would rather meet somebody that's died than somebody alive right now.
Place To Visit Before You Die: England
Song Played At Your Funeral: Don't worry, be happy!
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