So...here I am...last day of highschool..ever. I knew this entry was coming, my remember entry...

I remember when I wasn't in school, I went out to the garage where my Dad was working and asked "Why don't I get to go where James and Timmy go in the morning?" And he said, "because you're not a big girl yet." So I went and dragged my youngest sister, Christi, to the garage and picked her up right in front of my Dad. "See? I AM a big girl!" Well...he didn't put me in school, but he did take a picture. Maybe I'll find it sometime...

I remember my first day of Kindergarten. I thought that you had to ask people if they wanted to be your friend before you could actually call them your friend. There were these two girls who were both named 'Danielle' (like me ^_^) . The first one came up and said "hi". I don't know why, maybe it was her short poofy hair and huge square glasses (which were quite popular in the 90s!), but she scared me! So I ran away and asked the other girl if she would be my friend. :-p

I remember once in first grade my teacher, Mrs. Tripp gave us paper with solid and dotted lines on it. She said "This is paper from the THIRD grade! I went to the third grade and borrowed some of it fom them so you guys could practice like BIG kids!" I was so proud! We ALL were. That is until she started giving us the paper every day...after that it kinda lost it's hype. Mrs. Tripp died of cancer when I was in sixth grade. One extra clear memory that stuck out of her was when she was taking us all out to the bus, and she stopped and looked at the sky and said "What a beautiful day God has given us..."

Second grade...ooh...scary teacher! My teacher really hated me, and that was no doubt the worst school year I ever had! I hated every day. I remember once I forgot my name tag when we were going into the gym. We were going into the class single file, and she stopped me by the arm. I looked up at her and almost peed my pants because she had the most terrifying expression on her face. I said something like "What? Oh me..uh..n-n-name tag? ...Sorry...should I go back..and um...g-get it?....um...okay ...I'll uh...go..." I walked back to the classroom shaking and I think I shook for two days!

In third grade there was a lot of walks. My teacher would randomly take us all out for a walk around the school. Even in the winter! Mom used to buy me these really loud fruit snacks for snack time. Everyone was annoyed by the sound of the wrapper. :-p

Fourth grade, the first half was spent in Mr. Marrin's class. I had a friend there. Stephanie. We used to always fool around and make our teacher angry...and not do our work. We were pretty much hooligans! the second half was spent in the school I'm in now. The difference in schools was a bit traumatic for me! When I heard the first person in my new class swear I said 'I'm telling!' I learned pretty quickly that the kids are a lot different at a K through 12 than at an elementary school.

Fifth grade was not fun...I didn't have any friends and I was getting picked on pretty badly. :/ Which is normal for that age, but I guess it was a little more than I could take!

Middle school was pretty terrifying for me! After coming back from two years of homeschooling all I really remember was being scared of seniors and homework and being late for classes and scurrying around the halls like a mouse. I got bad grades in middle school... So it pretty much goes without saying I wasn't very motivated. I had a group of friends that were younger than me, but they never did their homework so neither did I!

Highschool...I was so proud. So excited about being upstairs instead of down with the 'little kids'. I stopped hanging out with the younger girls. Not because I thought I was cooler, we just drifted apart I guess. :-p Everything started to change as a freshman. We got a class advisor, started talking about graduation, started fund raising. Yeah it was pretty busy! that was also when I started making friends with all the teachers! I think ninth and tenth grade I had Mr. Miller, who was the absolute best teacher in the world, EVER! He's the reason I'm considering being a biology teacher. He was amazing. He would tell the funniest jokes and make us all laugh.

Junior year Was super super busy. Every second. I had...I think three regents that year. Maybe four. Tons of work and tons of review! so glad I'm past THAT!

Senior year, this year...very full of drama. Needless to say. I mean, if you know our class at least. People fought a lot. But other than that, it was pretty good. A lot of memories with the other senior girls. My classes we very easy, I got a ton closer with all my teachers. Today was hard...I gave the teachers roses and told them thanks for everything they've done. There were a few tears. 

I know I'm supposed to be happy about graduation...I seem to be very emotional about it at least. I described it to a friend as losing an annoying but good old friend. A security blanket...of sorts?

"You look down at me but you don't look down on me at all

You smile and laugh and I feel the love you have for me

I think we're going somewhere, we're onto something good here

We're gonna make it after all"

-Relient K

~Dannielle~

Today in Sociology we learned about religion! It was very....informative. I think the definition they gave us was something like 'a collection of beliefs and practices all centered around one certain 'thing''. Kay first off....don't call God a thing. But anyway that's not my point. I wanted to talk about my teacher, our sub in Sociology. She started argueing the point that religion isn't centered around a 'thing' and she was like, really passionate about it. She asked the class if we believed that religion could be documented and studied scientifically. Her answer, which she shared with us -bless her soul :-p -was that religion was on a totally different level than science ( in other words, our earthly understanding of things) and so shouldn't be in a book being taught to kids who've never experienced it themselves. I totally agree. After the class left I asked her if she was Christian and she answered very forwardly that she was. I have to say, in all of my thirteen years of public school, I have never sen a teacher be that bold about their beliefs! I mean, she all but screamed 'I'M A CHRISTIAN!!' Man, I know it's hard for Christians who are teachers...they can lose their job over something like this...and she was just a sub, but our school, according to our super intendent, pays their subs higher than any school around. Man, she put it all on the line, really.

And the opprtunity she gave us was amazing. We got to basically got to tell our whole class why we belive that religion is more than religion....more than rules....more than a system of punishments and rewards in hope of us getting 'better'. A couple of the students got mad, but it didn't bother me at all. I know why they got mad. They got mad because a teacher was doing something other than just brushing aside religion as RELIGION. Rules. a silly little superstitious thing som people find themselves lost in. they were uncomfortable because the 'Christians' got to take the floor and talk about how real God is to them. It's hard to ignore the reality of God in the face of people who are alive with His love. It makes them uncomfortable, because it becomes evident that there's something that they've never given a chance to that could be more real than anything they've ever imagined. But...people are lazy. And insecure. Most people don't want religion no matter if it's real or not. Well, not unless they really understand it. For the most part people don't want someone bossing them around, that and they're too lazy to go figure out for themselves if God has any substance to Him.

Ah God...forgive us lazy people...we know not what we do.

<3 <3

~Dannielle~