A Little Bit of Everything

Hi everyone! I've missed you!

So a lot has happened since I last posted. Our newspaper won some awards (it's first year!) and my teacher named an award after me (The [insert my last name] Initiative Award)! School was crazy with AP tests and my Hero Project (80 hours of community service at a tutoring center- Lily Adams did the same thing- yay!).

I went on my first (and probably last) cruise. It was to Mexico and was gorgeous. I got to swim with dolphins and that was fantastic.

I graduated high school! Magna Cum Laude, I had a 4.3 GPA and a couple chords around my neck- plus a pin fr having over 250 hours of community service. The graduation service was pretty good, short compared to others. I had a lot of family and friends come (had to bribe students to give me their extra tickets haha).

I went to that scholarship competition I mentioned... and won! Full ride, room, board, and lap top! So, long story short, I'm typing on the school laptop up here in the upper peninsula of Michigan (brrrr!). I'll be studying elementary education with a language arts emphasis.

My current classes are (well they start on Monday anyways):

Honors Origins of Western Values: antiquity (which means...old books! yay :] and the teacher is amazing, I've only met him twice but he is very enthusiastic and nice).

Honors Influences of Modern Art: European sources

Public Address (aka speech class. I've heard the teacher is as dry as sand from the Sahara)

Health Promotion (the mandatory health class for all students- it's on saturdays!)

and

Life Science for the Elementary Educator (easy biology but the teacher is slightly loopy! Half of our class will be spent in a virtual world. Have you ever heard of Second Life? We had to create an account and learn the basics- walking, flying, teleporting, changing clothes....etc. She likes to appear as a snow leopard sometimes. )


So, yah...those are my classes. I'm kind of bored waiting for classes to start. I'm all alone up here- no friends or family really near by. I have a third cousin's best friend living 2 1/2 hours away who I've met before....my third cousin lives 2 hours away from her so that 4 1/2 hours to the nearest relative.

I also I the most amazing relative ever living about 12 hours away. He's my second cousin. He lives out in the middle of nowhere in between a river (about a stone throws from his house) and a lake (across the street from his house) where he enjoys canoeing with his dog ginger and going fly fishing. He lives is the gorgeous three story log cabin by himself- his wife died of cancer last year. He also makes stone carvings. they are gorgeous! Even the President owns one of them! He goes on trips all over the world- to speak and to collect art. He teaches at Western Michigan University and has a doctorate. All this is pretty amazing- what's even more amazing is...

he is blind! that's right, blind. Can't see a thing. Someone shot him when he was 30 and he's been blind the last 30 years. But he still does all those amazing things! I got to visit him this last week on my way up here and it was inspirational. To see him do things a normal person has trouble with, without the use of his eyes...wow. Here's a link to his website but the pictures aren't very good so don't judge his artwork of them :]

http://ananastonecarving.com/index.php

Anyways...in other random news my brother is finally leaving for the air force! He's been trying since march of last year and he is scheduled to leave in November. My mom will be left alone with the dogs so she's been feeling lonely lately.

hm...what else? Well I can't think of anything right now but I'm sure I will later.

I'm still writing poetry, maybe I'll post some here a while later.

Write to you later!