- My first memory consists of me being held down in a dentist's chair, screaming, because Sam had knocked me into a pole in my aunt Nancy's basement, causing me to slam my teeth against the metal. Consequently, my left front tooth, up until the first grade, was a pleasant shade of black.
- You should know that when I was young, almost every weekend we ventured to southern Maine to visit Nancy and Mike. I was so spoiled and such a whiner that I cried in the car for hours at a time. On one trip, it got so bad that my dad pulled the car over and started walking the 300 mile trip. Luckily for me and for Syracuse University, he came back.
- I went to preschool almost directly next door to the house I grew up in. There was a path through a field from my house to Mother Goose Nursery, and one time my mum forgot to pick me up.
- Seeing pregnant women when I was little scarred me for life. I still am wicked uncomfortable around it and babies make me so nervous and awkward.
- In second grade, I won the A2 spelling bee. After weeks and weeks of practice for the second grade wide event, I was knocked out in the very first round by the word "crunchy." Crunchy. C-r-u-n-c-y. Crunchy. I cried for the rest of the day. I think my mum even stayed at school for lunch in an attempt to console me, but that didn't work.
- In third grade, I was the self-titled Mistress of Ceremonies for our Japanese feast. I memorized two-hours worth of lines. I got to wear a real kimono.
- When I was in third grade, my teacher had a nervous breakdown (I think?) and missed a huge chunk of the school year. I got an 11 on a science test and am still affected by that every day. Surprise, mum, didn't know that one, did you?
- I also never got anything out of a single episode of Reading Rainbow that we watched every single day in third grade.
- I'm still disappointed that I was second in (again) my third grade class to learn my times-tables. I was the first (okay, along with Sarah Bouchard) to master my 2's.
- I cried when I found out my 4th grade teacher. I saw her boob fall out of her dress, once, and will never forget when she put her wooden turtle necklace over her face in an attempt to make Daryn Levesque stop doing the same thing.
- After crying while struggling to learn long division, Jon Belanger taught me how to do it.
- Fifth grade might have been the most dramatic year of my life. I bawled hysterically when I lost student council elections. It was my first year as a part of a clique that had a different person to hate every week. It was my turn to be hated during the week we went on the trip to Irving woodlands. I felt left out of everything because I didn't have ICQ or MSN and wasn't allowed to see PG-13 movies until I was almost 13.
- I still haven't forgotten that Jamie Pelletier threw up on the first day of sixth grade.
- I attended ATLC in middle school and it took years for my emotions and mental stability to recover.
- I went on vacation with my family in eighth grade and got a wicked black eye the first night of the trip after a head-to-head collision with a kid playing basketball. My mum followed me around the entire trip taking pictures.
- I found out later in high school that people considered me slightly emo my freshman year; apparently my black eyeliner was darker than I ever realized.
- For a brief stint in time, I owned a black one piece jumpsuit that I used to wear on cruises. I got it in Canada.
- Being a part of Lady Warrior varsity soccer from freshman year might have been one of the best things that ever happened to me. Until I became a part of the varsity basketball squad.
- I was blamed and take responsibility for the unexpected abrupt end of my soccer team's most beautiful season ever my senior year of high school.
- My most glorious moment in my athletic career came in our second match against Madawaska at their field my senior year when I made the most incredible explosive save against Susan Lavertu's upper-nine shot. I still have the faces and reactions of my mum and Meagan Charette frozen in my mind.
- Our epic win against Presque Isle my senior year is still one of my favorite moments. I still remember my mum and Sharon Chasse celebrating on the side of the field. I could barely stand the last four minutes of the game I was so overwhelmed with emotion.
- I have never been more affected by a coach than I was by Travis Delisle. Seeing him is still a highlight of my visits home.
- I still can't tell you why I cried through an entire basketball practice my senior year of high school.
- The most pressure I have ever felt in my life was a result of my own demands, goals, and expectations my senior year. I hadn't ever missed a day of school that was unexcused until 2007. The stress and responsibilities I had willingly placed upon my shoulders forced me home in tears a number of times that year.
- I won't ever, in my entire life, forget what it felt like to be honored by my class at Class Day.
- Likewise, I don't think I'll ever forget how close I came to wiping out on the stairs at graduation.
- The faces of my mum and grandmother at my high school graduation are forever frozen in my mind.
- The emotional journey of my transition from high school to college began on Ash Wednesday in church during my junior year of high school. It was a long year and a half until I left.
- I still cry in church on the weekends leading up to my departure for school in the fall. Sam never knows what to do. We're at the point where I'm excused from mass the Sunday before I leave because everyone knows I can't keep my feelings in check.
- I like this summer-in-the-city/grown-up sort of thing, but I'd give anything to have my pool job back. I miss swimming lessons, doing nothing but sitting on the deck on Tuesday/Thursday mornings, buddy check pool breaks, milkshake deliveries, ChillaThrillas, and finding the scariest things when cleaning bathrooms.
- I'll never forget how much my dad cried when he left me at college.
- When I was little, I used to have this purple LL Bean sweatshirt that had a sunset on it and said "LL Bean" across the chest. When the mean, blonde-haired secretary told me she liked it, I felt honored.
- I lost the 8th grade spelling bee to my friend Greg, who never ended up graduating from high school. Sapphire. S-a-p-h-i-r-e. Sapphire.
- I received an A+ on the first paper I ever wrote in college. My professor noted on it that he had never, in his almost 40-year career, given an A+ before.
- I cried the day we picked up Duke from the lady in Caribou. I cried all the way home, and was so sad that I had a new puppy that I would leave when I went to college at the end of the summer. He threw up all over me on the way home; I should have known that was just a prelude as to what he would actually be like.
- When the brown-haired secretary asked me to be responsible for taking the coffee to the office every morning in late elementary/all of middle school, I never felt more important.
- When I look at the yearbook I was 75% responsible for, I'm embarrassed by 60% of it.
- My first two attempts at being friends with Courtney Rung were absolute failures. We actually met our senior year at a scholarship conference (she won one, I didn't). Court rejected my first Facebook friend request, and shut me down when I tried to welcome her back to Brew 1. Luckily, (for both of us) she decided to start being my best friend when we went to a Kelly Clarkson concert on her birthday.
- I have no idea what's going to happen to my life in the next 3 years, and I've never felt more scared, excited, worried, and loved as I am right now.
If you know anything about me, you know I have a stream of consciousness issue. Writing this post in bullet form was so helpful and I really enjoyed it. Look forward to more of these in the future.
Keeping it epic, always.
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