Dear Senior Memory Book,

            Middle School was a good time for me, because I was finally making lasting friendships. Most of the friendships I have now started in middle school. One of my good friendships started in 7^th grade when he and I discovered we had all but two hours together and we liked to do a lot of the same things. He got me to sign up for JROTC club with him and we did many things like learning some basic drill team commands, repelling, and zip lining off of the repel tower.

            My first dance was the 7^th grade fall dance; I believe the theme of the night was the 80s. I thought I was a good dancer, but looking back now I look like a complete goof, but who doesn’t the first dance they ever been to. I met one of my girl friends at that dance. She was in my Intro to Spanish class and I never really noticed her until she came up to me and asked me if I wanted to dance. I was nervous and didn’t know how to slow dance so I looked around and did as everyone else was doing. With in the next few weeks she asked me out and I thought it was cool that an 8^th grader wanted to go out with me so I accepted. We dated for 2 months and then split up and I haven’t seen her since middle school.

Dear Senior Memory Book,

            I cannot remember who my very fist crush was, but one of my crushes that I can remember was one of my best friends in fifth grade. She was a little taller than I was at the time and she had one of the most amazing smiles I have seen. We were always flirting with each other and playing with each other on the playground.

Her and I were together in Mrs. Power’s homeroom class. Some memories I have that I can remember include when I came to class with a mohawk and she said it was as tall as a pencil or on Valentines Day when I gave her a special card that was bigger than all the rest. At lunch she would sit next to me and we would trade lunches.

If she was interested in me back I cant recall if she ever really showed any signs of it. Although we spent a lot of time together I was never sure that she liked me as anything more than a friend. I was planning to ask her to be my girlfriend on the last day of fifth grade year, but I chickened out at the last minute. I believe that it was for the best that we never got together because I never really got to see her after that. In sixth grade and on I didn’t have any classes with her.

Dear Senior Memory Book,

            The town I currently live in, Monett, is where I grew up. I spent my first five or six years of my life living at my grandparents house on their ten acres outside of town. My grandparent’s house was a doublewide trailer with a playhouse, a trampoline, and a pool in the enclosed front yard. I spent my days playing in the yard pretending to be the action heroes I saw on the television.

Behind my grandparent’s trailer was my aunt’s house and behind that was my uncle’s workshop that was merely a singlewide trailer with tools and car parts on the floor. My uncle and other aunt lived behind the shop and I used to visit them almost everyday helping with the chores and talking with them.

Back then the pond behind their house was always full of water and life. I would sit out on the edge of the water and listen to the frogs croak and the birds sing. The dragonflies would land on the lily pads just to be scooped up unexpectedly by a frog that was waiting in ambush. Many minutes of my young life were wasted trying to catch all of these creatures.