720 Days

In KOM, we were told to give our freshmen a "720 Day Speech". 720 is the amount of days that you have in high school from first day of your freshman year to last day of senior year. If I would have been told that freshman year, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. I would have thought that high school would be so boring and monotonous that I wish it would go by fast. But in all honesty, it has. I know I'm just a junior and have only gone through half of my high school career, but in that time, it went by so quickly, I can recall almost every day of both years. I cannot believe that I am already a junior, that most of my friends are seniors, some of my friends graduated last year, even. So far, high school has gone so fast and I wish it would have gone a little bit slower for me to have done some more things my first two years.

Friendships doubles joy, halves grief

This is very true to me. I have always had friends there with me when I needed them, and that's what makes me feel better and raises my spirits. When my mother was in the hospital two summers ago, my friends were there for me, as well as her friends. It made me feel much better and I wasn't as upset with my friends there.

Also, I always like to share experiences with my friends because it seems to bond us and make us closer. When my family, the Minto/Stoen side, go out to Lincoln City, IN every spring, I have, since sixth grade, been taking a friend because it makes that time seem more fun than being in the wilderness with no one my age. So when my friend comes, my grandparents take us places and to do things around there and it's a lot of fun that I can talk with my friend about.

Friendship is very important to me and always affects, usually in a positive way, life's experiences.

Blah, blah. Look at Kelsey Bringing up the Past.

I'm not trying to bring up emotions that weren't there before or that have been gone, done with, I just need to talk about how I feel.

Freshman year was not the best year for me. A lot of things going on with friends that made me feel like an outsider in my group. After that, I started hanging out with my guy friends, who were also partly part of that same group because of mutual friends.

Sophomore year, I went to a completely different group. With my friends whom I feel the closest to right now. A few of those people hung out with my old group, but I just needed some friends.

Junior year, I feel that I am so much better than what I was freshman year. I'm not afraid to tell people how I feel, I know who my real friends are, and I know how to express my emotions instead of supressing them like I did for two years. I've found myself, in high school terms and not in the big picture, but I'm okay with who I am, what I have done in the past, everything.

Similar Sire, Similar Scion

Umm. Can that be translated to mean "like mother, like daughter"? I am so much like my mom it is ridiculous. Same hair, same looks (which creeps me out sometimes), and same personality. I love my mom, because if I didn't, technically, I wouldn't love myself.

Same. Same. Same. Everything's the same between us it seems. We both have dark brown hair that is very thick. We look a TON alike. One time, I was looking at this picture of my mom when she was in probably the seventh grade with one of her friends, whose daughter looks and acts a lot alike, and I got really creeped out. That was in the picture! But, technically, it was my mother. All the same, very creepy.

Our personalities are so much alike that we do get on each other's nerves every once in a while. We have the same jokes, say the same things at the same times, and we can make people look at us with pained looks like we're the new Naomi & Wynona Judd.

All in all, being so much like my mom is pretty nifty and I love it (most of the time).

Family

Family is the most important thing in my life. My mom, dad, grandparents, and cousins mean the world to me and I don't know what I would do without them - yes, I know that's cliche.

I am an only child so my parents are always with me, or I am always talking to them. My dad is gone a lot on business. I don't get to see him much, but when I do I cherish that. We talk at the very least once a week and that is very important. My mom is probably the most important to me. We are so much alike in looks, sense of humor, everything. Her friends and my friends say that we're twins. I have so much appreciation for my mom that probably stems from almost losing her once. I was only six, and looking back on it now, I really cannot imagine what would have happened to me if something happened to her. When I was six, my mom was in the hospital for four months and I got to see her every Saturday. I learned to look forward to that Saturday; but I never quite understood what she was there for. In the summer of 2008, my mom had another stay in the hospital where they thought she had cancer. That was very scary for me. I had already been through almost losing her once, I didn't want to do it again. Luckily, she did not have cancer but it opened my eyes and made me realize how important she was to me.

My cousins and grandparents mean alot to me, also. My cousin, Nick, just graduated boot camp for the Army and is now in Arizona for more training. His sister, Jessica is only four years older than me and I am very close to her. My other cousins, Matthew, Sarah, and Tonya I became close to over the summer and I wouldn't change that for anything. I helped babysit my cousins' babies, four under five years old (there are five but one of them went to daycare), and one of the babies that is only eight months old has to have heart surgery by the end of the year. My grandparents I cannot say enough about. When my mom went into the hospital those two times, my grandparents were always there for me and I stayed at their homes when I wasn't staying with my mom. My family means so much to me and I couldn't imagine going a day without them.

The KOM social last night was tons of fun. A few freshmen would not socialize; but me, being the loud, outgoing, and pushy person that I am, pushed them into the group of people so they would socialize. I'm honestly looking forward to doing stuff in KOM which I didn't think I would.

I'm really nervous about this school year, though. I have so many AP and Honors classes but no study hall. Also, I have four extra-curriculars, so far. And that may increase. So now I am off to do homework which will probably take most of the weekend. Fun. Hardy har har.