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First day of preschool
The day that started it all. I remember it like it was yesterday. My parents left me in the classroom, and I swore I was getting abandoned forever. I hated all of my classmates, though I remember the teachers doing their best to deal with me. My parents told me that they knew from the moment they got me that day that school was going to be an issue for me. While I do have fond memories of preschool, the first day is not one of them. -
Hawaii trip
I have a very strange list of memories from this trip. Super Mario World music, banana smoothies, dark mansions with lots of cats (according to my grandma, this was a coffee farm), Lilo and Stitch, a sweaty and cranky wait with my grandma while my parents toured a volcano, sleepy flights back home. I have zero context for these memories since it was such a long time ago. This was still during preschool. My mom tells me that I got a hula costume from that trip that I almost never took off. -
Disneyland trip
I was around seven when we took this trip. I was still obsessed with the movie Lilo and Stitch. Disneyland was a magical place for a little kid like me. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was so colorful and light, I felt like I was constantly sleeping in a cloud. I also got lost, but since I was very heavily educated on what to do, I went to a security guard there and was quickly reunited with them. -
Horse riding incident
When I was in third grade, I wanted to be like the other girls in my class and ride a horse. The first few lessons went well, but during the third one the horse started to suddenly run and I fell off. I almost broke my arm, though that isn't what made me remember this incident so much. It was one of the first times that I realized that sometimes it's okay to not have the same tastes as others around you. I also gained a fear of horses, that I've been slowly able to get over. -
Wrote my first story that I felt passionate about
When I was in fourth grade, I played a game that changed my life, Super Smash Brothers Brawl. It was the first piece of media that I grew a deep affection for, and in a way this is the game that spawned my love for writing. During that year, I wrote an amateur story about Yoshi and Kirby becoming friends. This may sound silly, but this little story was the first thing I wrote that I felt any kind of passion for. I even showed it off to my friends and family! -
Arizona to Oregon trip
This was a two week trip that I will never forget. It involved me and my family traveling through California and seeing all of the most famous destinations, before staying in Medford for a couple of days with my grandma. To be honest, I don't remember the Medford part as much as I remember the California trip. I saw sights that will never leave me. In fact, this trip was so influential, that I plan on having the northern California area play a big part in the book I'm writing. -
7th grade blues
While I do have some fond memories of this year, the impact it had on me was mostly negative. I spent way too much time alone in bathrooms crying. Though, it's been so long since that time that I can't pinpoint a single reason as to why I was so sad. It was an amalgamation of many things. Bullying, lack of friends who didn't treat me like garbage, vindictive and toxic teachers, loud and annoying classmates, not to mention the beginning of puberty turning my brain into a whirlwind of emotions. -
Liberal middle school
After the disaster that was 7th grade year, my parents and I both decided it would be best for me to move to another school. So that's exactly what I did, and I had a much nicer time here. The class sizes were smaller, people were less loud, everything had a light green palette that was very calming. During History class I could look out the window and see the gorgeous mountains in the distance. -
Wrote a story that gained a small fanbase
Throughout all of my middle school years I was still writing a lot. Probably more than I should have, since my grades were never the best. During eighth grade year I wrote multiple stories that I would show to my classmates, and they would all be impressed with it. One was a short series of stories about a group of people getting caught in a mansion with monsters in it, and another was a strange story about a group of people being able to transform into magical fighters and battle monsters. -
First love
During my freshman year I met a senior boy, who I grew to have a crush on. He was tall, nerdy, and really into science and video games. We only talked a few times before he asked me out to the fall dance. It was a few days before thanksgiving, and I felt like I'd never been happier. We danced together and, as cliche as it sounds, I felt like time had stopped. That dance lead to me getting my first and only boyfriend, we were together for over six months (which is a decade in high school time!) -
Lowest I've ever been
Before my sophomore year started I knew it was going to be bad. Most of my friends were seniors the year before, which means it was going to be me with the class of people I hated. Not only that, but my tensions with the principal of the school kept getting worse. I wasn't a troublemaker, but I was anxious and it was easy to make me cry. For some reason that got me sent to the office more than the kids that blatantly cursed at teachers and other students. -
New beginnings
Luckily, that low point didn't last for very long. I went to a therapy session, and the therapist immediately told me that I needed to switch schools. So, that's what I did, and I ended up moving to this very school. I'm happy to say that I'm much better off now than I was before. My grades are better, I'm in a much better mood, my social anxiety has greatly decreased, and my life has gotten a lot better. I'm very happy to have made the change!
