When I was six my parents decided that it was necessary for us to move to Missouri (the place that I believe created the word “boring”) because of my mom’s job. It was our choice to move or for my mom to get laid off- so off to Missouri we went. My mom went out first, by herself, and found us an apartment. My dad and I soon followed, with out 5 goldfish in the back of our 1987 Honda Civic, trying to amuse ourselves during the long 15 hour drive.

We arrived at our new home, “the apartment”, we had our first Christmas in Missouri there. Our next habitat arose when we moved into a house in Holts Summit, MO. The town was small, a population of about 300, I suppose, and a traffic jam (my mom always liked to joke) was “three cars at a stoplight.”

I found it very hard to make friends at my school, North Elementary. I finally discovered a few friends who I could keep relatively close and I saw quite a bit of them, while the other people who went to my school were rather “clique-ish” and didn’t seem to like me. I tried girl scouts and that seemed to go okay. I played soccer for the YMCA (for a year) with some friends from school, but being a little chunky then, I always got the boring positions on defense. I wasn’t much of a runner anyway.

My story with animals begins here. I still had some of my goldfish of course- “Sammy” and “Cleo”, but I also acquired my cat Connie, a beautiful long-haired calico. I got her as a kitten, and my cousins delighted in sliding her into their shirt pockets at our thanksgiving reunion- she was very tiny. I also met Midnight—we found him really. My mom was outside one night watering the plants…he rubbed up against her legs, and she screamed. I was told that he had to go, but I was determined to keep him. I loved that cat. He was skin and bones when I got him, but over time he grew into a grandly healthy cat- he was always beautiful though. My parents eventually gave in, and he stayed. He stayed almost until we had to move to Pennsylvania.

I was going to school one morning and I found Midnight, head smashed open, laying cold and dead on the intersection of Britton and Branch streets. My heart was lonely and broken. His collar hung lifelessly from his neck.

A couple months later, the cold air rushed in the front door as the movers carried boxes out to the moving trucks and we rushed to the airport to catch our flight to Philly.

We stayed in an apartment for a while, where I met one of my best friends forever, Yi, a curious and brilliantly intelligent Chinese girl. Before I could attend T/E Middle School, however, we needed to find a house in the school district. Conveniently, a house was for sale, so we bought it and moved in. The house was walking distance from both the middle and high schools, but was in desperately bad shape. When the former family left the house they also left a full size trampoline (which I didn’t complain about), piles and piles of dirty laundry in a few rooms (simply gross), pet stains on the floor (yuck) , and a turkey thawing in the middle of the living room floor (just nasty). We’ve been repairing our house ever since we’ve lived here, putting in some spackle here, doing a little painting and sanding here, nailing and hammering there…

Pennsylvania has been fun. I’ve made so many friends. I was on track for a year in middle school, however my sport for the past 5 years has been horseback riding. I love to work at the barn, which I do two times a week, and during most weeks I ride two or three times. I have been riding for the past 5 years, and for 3 of those I have also been riding on and assistant coaching an equestrian drill team. I have 6 cockatiels at home (but I have had up to eight at one time) and I enjoy breeding them, and taking them to shows all over the United States. I love getting on MySpace and talking to my friends and I frequently turn up the radio and sing along to my favorite music.

School is going good. I will be applying to three colleges (some of the applications are already pending), Delware Valley College, Penn State University Park and Carnisius College in Buffalo, NY. My dream school is Delaware Valley… haha… my counselor says that I haven’t stopped talking about it for three years straight. I guess that’s a good thing though. I want to go to school for Zoo Science, or for Biology with a minor in Zoo Biology. I have always been attracted to exotic animals.

This year has been a good year. I have gone bowling twice in the past fours weeks, I have quite a few genuinely awesome friends, I am finally getting a handle on my future, and I am now involved in a wonderful relationship with my boyfriend Harrison. So life is good.

Before I go, and leave only stuff about me, I would like to turn the camera and thank those who made this all possible. I would like to thank Intellistudent for letting me share my story and for picking me to be Intellistudent of the month. Thank you for giving “ordinary” students the chance to share themselves with the world and giving them the opportunity to express themselves. And in case you were wondering, I think those few minutes I spent to fill out that application has paid off. Thank you, and have a wonderful day!

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