shit.

I can't believe high school is over. I don't know if I expected it to go on forever, but somehow I got swept into this impression that EKA was going to be my home forever. It's where all of my best memories originate, where all of the funniest jokes came from, where I met everyone I call my best friends, it's just... home. I should have thought, sometime last year, that even though we experience so many things in one home, there always comes a time when we have to move out. We have to find a new home and make new friends. I guess I never thought this because, no matter how many houses we moved into our out of, because of foreclosure or divorces or money issues, EK was always there. I never left that home. Even on the days we were moving, I went to school.

It's just hitting me now that I won't get to go to another block D or B in my life. There's going to be no more surgery, no more Pokemon class, no more after-lunch riots, no more "let's go outside" and no more "snack shack doesn't have shit today". I'm never going to have to wake up at 6:20 and straighten my hair to put my ribbons in. I won't be taking pictures of barbecues and dances, I won't be struggling with my math grade or scholarships, I won't have to sneak kisses with James when the teachers aren't looking. There won't be guitar at lunch, playing Audiosurf during project time, and smashing food in the keyboards. No experiments, no Ubuntu, no credits to get, no projects to do at the last second. No projects at all.

I'm going to miss middle and high school more than I've ever missed anything. I remember being so happy and upbeat on the very day the school opened, my first day of 6th grade. I was wearing a blue and white striped shirt. Mr. Gakuru's class was unruly from the start, but I found a friend in this girl Alexis Todd, who had a fleck of brown in her otherwise blue eyes. We became inseperable best friends for that year. We shared our desk and went on Horseland with a blonde girl named Nicole, Indra still went to the school and we hung out sometimes, but she left. After winter break we had a big conference table and rolly chairs for everyone. Seirra Pagrovsky and I talked about animals and drew stuff during math class, and Mr. Gakuru's wife had a baby. I got him a gift for the baby, a blue jumper thing with a giraffe on it. Kaela and Lindsey became our friends, and they came over after school so we could walk to the park and play Horseland. At the end of year, I printed all of my pictures out, put them in my rolling pink backpack, and walked cheerfully to my mom's car. We drove our two blacks back home to the Westbury house.

In second year, seventh grade, the boys and girls were separated by gender. The building's elementary and middle/high school switches sides, and the girls all ended up in the garage. I didn't really have any close friends. I took horseback riding lessons, get intrested in photography, and did no projects because Mrs. Erickson didn't show up on most days of school. Kaela left the school to go to Green Valley, so I just hung by myself on my desk. I was very stuck up at the time. I sometimes went to visit Kellie and Jen in the corner with Corinne, and we all ate lunch with Tyler and Nate. We went with Mr. Gakuru to Paradise Park for soccer class and dicked around. Sometimes I brought Dracula along. We had Boxermath and Ms. Mattson for the first time. I had lots of notebooks and read / wrote fanfics. We went over to Dad's golf course house for the weekend and watched Killing Spree and FMA. At the end of that year I picked up all of my notebooks and stole two crates from the school so I could take them all home, back to the new Ridgewater house.

Third year, eigth grade, was awesome. I was in Yetter's class and mom babysat for Michael a lot. He was super into garbage trucks and we left the school for about a month. When we went back, my sister and I were best friends and working on You Die, and I became close with Riley and Cassandra. We climbed up the mountain and did BRS stuff and rode the roller coasters and chilled at Harley and the Rec Center. We talked about Naruto and only Naruto, Cassandra spent a few nights over every week, we drew and sang and stayed up until the sun rose. We hung out at the smoke shop and caught little fishies and I was intrested in MPD and hte Donner Party. I became friends with Cera and we shared a desk and chocolate covered cheese bunnies. At the end of that year, we moved into the building we're in now. I think my mom was dating Ken by then.

Fourth year, ninth grade, was weird, because we were in a different side of the building. Me, Kelllie, and Emily sat in the far corner of the classroom and improved our artwork. This was the year that mom got married to Ken, and halfway through the year we moved to the Calvino house. My sister and I were still BFFs, and we played Rule of Rose and Okami every single day. We were all over Gaia and spent money on it. I drew on a tablet for the first time that year, becuase it was my birthday gift. When we left the Ridewater house, I had Muffin with me, and Dracula was not to be allowed upstairs. I dyed my hair red and I started wearing colorful stuff and I met Bonnie and Sadey in the new neighborhood. I found all of the music I'm into today in that year. It was a musical breakthrough for me. Brina was in Webster's class and I visited her sometimes. We had math with Mr. Price (and we never did make him that PEMDAS bracelet) and it was my first year being in Quinn's class. I remember one of the first things he and I did was preform surgery on a broken football. It was also my first Anime Vegas.

Fifth year, tenth grade, was hilarious. This was the year I really got to know the people I hang out with today, Jake and Guam and others. Quinn's class moved to where Price's had been the year prior, Mrs. Davis came in with her crazy Beowolf and Tempest/Hamlet, and it would be Mr. Gakuru's last year. We sat around the big table in the morning and had circle, I drew Rule of Rose fanart, played on my laptop, and Jake played guitar every lunchtime. I worked on my Naruto charcter and super shipped SasuIta. I discovered the power to download music and used it. We walked with Quinn to the library and all yelled at him about locking our mothers in the basement in front of a cop at Ethel M, after he almost got us run over by a pink car. We had Grandpa and RJ and Christa and Kyle in the class, and the classroom itself was filthy all the time. Sometime that year we moved into the Stephanie condo. It was a loud year full of Guitars and rave music and mathbook fights and yo-yos. We played Guilty Gear a lot.

Sixth year- last year, eleventh grade, was the night class. The greatest. School started at 10:30 and ended at 5:00 or something. We sometimes got out in the pitch black of night. Rocky and Jake played instruments in the classrooms that empties when normal classes ended, I worked relentlessly at stories and drawings and Orrery. Chalkie and I became incredibly close when I got MSN on my laptop, and we talked every single day about weird dreams we had and our little sisters and pets and animus that we had watched. We shared music and loli pictures and smiles and laughs even though we were thousands of miles away from one-another. We were best friends. I studied airplaines and astronomy and World War II, I played Guilty Gear and Transformers game at night and I played Audiosurf for the first time. It blew my mind. We had Geometry with Ms. Kino and I had english with Collier, we skimmed over Macbeth and I adored Fahrenheit 451, we wrote a puppet show, I did stuff on Swine Flu and Catherine of Aragon. I did a big project on Jonestown and never wrote the paper.

And then there was this year. 12th grade, seventh year, senior class 2010. This year was a year of experiments and riots and Pokemon and pictures and Shakespeared done right. It's been the year of Transformers and hats and Mr. Ruhele's long algebra 2 class. We had Henderson doing our whimsical little science class that no-one ever did anything in and Quinn lecturing us on government stuff. We've had elections and fritos and chili and ipod on the way to school. We moved into the Overture house on the first few days of school. We had a senior trip of loud dinner tables nad Dig Dug and Blue Man Group toilet paper. We had senior meetings that were loud and lame and amazing. We had 711 and mall day and dances and government. We had drama and SimCity and rollerskates and bathroom pee. There was out ball and scholarships and Minecraft and Beat Hazard. Best of all was that I had James with me through all of it, offering me an opinion I never would have thought of and a challenge for my head and a shoulder to rest my head on. This year was the best, or one of the best along with last year and third year.

Today the bunch of us just kind of gathered in the church where we hold big school events, got ready with all of our gowns and stuff, and kind of high-fivewd eachother. Everyone was there and I think the ceremony went pretty well. Mr. Z told us to give literature a chance, he forget where everyone was, and the head of the board of directors like cried for himself for some reason. Collier cried and I think Jessica cried, but Xoli and I cried the most for some reason. Xoli made people he didn't even know cry with his speech. Afterward we all went to Macaroni Grill- Me, my mom, James, Hunter and his family, Lexi, Mike, Megan, Mari, Xoli, Hayden, David, everyone pretty much. Quinn showed up late and surprised Hunter and I with "graduation gifts" he must have spent a fortune on- an iPod for Hunter because his Zune was stolen, and a DS lite for me because he knew I ws using Bri's. My mom bought me my CMYK Diana and a graduation gift also, but the best parts weren't the gifts. It was just like. Chilling and talking with everyone after dinner and after the ceremonies. We're like a big family. I'll never forget all of the memories I have from EKA, but that's a given. The one thing I refuse to give up is that sense of familial affection we have for one-another, the "you got this" attitude. I freaking loved high school. And middle school too.

Fuck yeah Explore Knowledge Academy.