First Grade: I attended the same school for all K-6 Grades. My teacher was Mrs. Gram, she was an old and short lady, and I was taller than her in first grade. For story time we read the books Amelia Bedelia. Mrs. Gram would say, “Okay story time, today we have a very special guest speaker,” she would leave the room and come back dressed up as Amelia Bedelia. She had puppets, food, costumes, and everything the book had. One day, my best friend and I were sitting on the carpet listening to her read, my friend wanted to braid my hair. I told her we would get in trouble but she insisted. She said, “We won’t get in trouble,” I believed her. Mrs. Gram saw us and told us both to pull a card; we also had to have a talk with her during free time, I knew we were going to get in trouble. That was the only time I ever had to talk to a teacher about disrupting class.

Third Grade: My teacher was Mrs. Smothers, she was my favorite teacher. I was on B track. I had many friends, but my best friend was Emma. Our brothers, Jacob and Daniel, were best friends in high school. Our brothers introduced Emma and I, she also lived on the same street as my grandparents. Emma and I did everything together such as, went to the same school, play soccer, play with Barbie’s, drove around in our little tike Jeeps, and had sleepovers all the time.

Fourth Grade: I switched to A track, my teacher was Mr. Stringer. He loved SpongeBob Squarepants. All of my friends stayed on B track and my mom made me switch. I had to make new friends. Mr. Stringer called home and he said, “Your daughter is failing in my class.” My mom explained to him that my dad works nights and sleeps during the day, and that she was at the hospital 24/7 with my grandma. My brothers, Garrett and Daniel, practically raised me for all of 4th grade. One weekend I spent the night at my friend Rachel’s house. That morning I came home, my mom was crying and I just knew what had happened. My grandma passed away. My grandma and I did everything together. She would pick me up from school; take me to the store and let me get any donut I wanted. We would go back to her house and she would help me with my homework. One week, I had a crazy idea to make a whole city out of paper. She loved that idea, we laid out a massive amount of paper and we sat there cutting out people, buildings, cars, houses, etc. It took up her whole living room floor. I could not believe it was all gone.

Fast Forward

Ninth Grade: Emma moved to Texas because her dad got a great job offer, I took the time for granted and had an extemporaneous goodbye. All of my friends went to the same school. We went to all the football games and rallies, my friends went to the dances but I always decided not to go. During freshmen year, I met a girl named Ione she was really good friends with my best friend Leanne. We all became really close in the matter of no time; they were the two best friends I could ever ask for.

Tenth Grade: I had my same friends, Leanne and Ione. Over summer Ione met a girl named Emily, she seemed kind and sweet when I first met her. Over time she caused many emotional problems between all three of us. It was very difficult to keep a friendship with Ione; she did not want to be friends with me any longer. Leanne and I have been friends for more than 14 years and I had just met Ione in ninth grade. Ione always felt like the third wheel, she never felt included in conversation, and she always had the idea she was second in my life. I found that continuing to be her friend was increasingly onerous. It put a great deal of stress on me. At the same time, my parents were planning on getting a divorce multiple times. I could never understand why they would stay with each other. They never said anything nice or did anything nice for one another. Maybe it was for the sake of my siblings and me? Part of me wanted them to get a divorce; it never seemed fair to me that I always had to hear them fight. One night I heard my dad pack his bags and saying that it was final, they were getting a divorce. Not like any of the other times they said they were separating, I thought this time was real. My mom and I looked at many apartments around Elk Grove. I found some that I loved and she loved them too. It never happened. We looked at apartments many times, my mom always said that we were going to move, it just was never the right time. As a teenager, understanding every word they said to each other and how they looked at one another like they did not want to be in the same house, it sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions and it made me very confused.

Eleventh Grade: I played competitive soccer for many years and I decided that this would be my last year playing. I wanted to get a job and focus on school. My Uncle, Keith, and I became very close over the past year. We went to the movies, played videogames, and went fishing all the time. Many years ago he became very sick; he was diagnosed with many different types of cancer. Now he is as skinny as a toothpick. He always had the courage to fight and try to beat the cancer, it was inexorable and it never went away. He recently had a surgery, he got his trachea removed. He will never be able to talk on his own ever again. In order to talk my uncle uses a device that makes him sound like a robot, it is very esoteric but I try to be patient. Over spring break I found out that the cancer that he believed went away has spread throughout all of his bones and he has a couple months to live at maximum. Despite being very lugubrious, he wanted to live his life without any regrets. He could choose to get treatment but it is very unlikely that it will help. My uncle decided that he is going to just live the rest of his life without getting the treatment, I try to understand but it doesn’t make sense why the good people have their life cut short. I wish that this would not have to happen. Time is a thief.