Sunday, June 21, 2009

Who Am I?

Wow, I realize I haven't updated this blog site since I started it. So, what better way to start than with a short, unaltered, 100% autobiographical account of my life so far! ...But enough small talk. Let's get started!

Hello, readers! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Charles O’Hara, senior at Wright Christian Academy, resident of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and currently 15 years sober… Moving on. If you’re reading this, then you’re probably wondering one thing: Who am I? Well, you’re in luck, because I’m here to answer that exact question. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
Now, in my opinion, there’s no better way to accurately describe myself than to start from the very beginning. Unfortunately, that’s apparently not allowed, so I’ll just start by talking about my life in its current, unaltered and somewhat stable condition. As I mentioned earlier, I currently live in Broken Arrow with my family. My parents’ names are Jeffrey and Deana O’Hara, and I have a 15-year old brother named Dillon. I’d like to say it’s a pretty quiet life, but if you’ve met my brother for even a minute, you’d know I was lying.
As I also mentioned earlier, I am currently experiencing my final year of high school at Wright Christian Academy. After this, it’s off to college. I just know the time is going to fly by, so I plan on using this year to the fullest. I will be determined! I WON’T GIVE IN! THEY CAN’T LET ME!!! Ahem… Sorry, got a little carried away. Anyway, I go to Our Savior Lutheran Church every Sunday (usually). I also go to an event called Ablaze Live Church every Saturday at Liberty Elementary. It’s a contemporary worship service that is also sponsored by a movement that is trying to establish more churches in the Midwestern U.S. It’s an awesome place to worship on Saturdays. What? No, I’m not using this as an excuse to advertise. What would make you think that? (4300 S 209th East Ave, Broken Arrow, OK, every Saturday night @ 7:00. Be there!)
Ahem… So, what’s next? Oh, yes! The neighborhood. Well, there’s been a bit of drama around my neighborhood recently. I was not extremely social around the people in my block, so I’m not too involved with the sitcom feuds between the families. So, here’s the situation in an eggshell. Two of the families were in a bit of a feud that started over their basketball nets, both of which had been badly damaged (there was probably more to it, but that was what started it). Things have calmed down a bit since then, and both families have a new net, though there are now some strict rules about playing with them.
Now, I think I’ll describe my family for a brief moment. My parents are both actively involved in the Ablaze movement. As a matter of fact, my dad’s the lead singer and guitarist for Zion’s Fire, which is the band that usually plays at Liberty on Saturdays. As most of you know, I also have a 15-year old brother named Dillon. He’s currently in 9th grade. All I can say about him is… well, it’s never a dull day when he’s around.
Okay, checklist. Home? Check! Church? Check! Neighborhood? Check! School? Big check! …Etc. Hm. Well, I’m a member of the Varsity soccer team for WCA. I’ve finished two stories in my “Holiday Detective” series. I like video games, I’m 18 years old, I have a Driver’s License, I type 65 wpm, I have a MySpace and a Facebook, I’m 5’ 9”, 145 lbs, and I have an alter ego! …Huh. I think that’s it. So for now, this is Inspector Charles O’Hara, Private Eye, Holiday Detective signing off.

Family Ties

Hello again, readers! If you’re still reading this, then I can safely assume I haven’t yet bored you to death. Hopefully, that will remain a fact (knock on wood). So now we move on to my family ties, the great bonding tree that is responsible for my very existence; the ever-branching complexity of my ancestors’ genealogy towards this exact point in time, the very… Well, you get the point.
Most of you probably already know about my immediate family. My mom’s name is Deana Chavanne O’Hara and my dad’s name is Jeffrey Charles O’Hara. I also have a younger brother (and don’t even pretend you’ve never heard of him) named Dillon. And of course, what would a common household be without a few pleasurable pets? We’ve got a rabbit, two frogs, a buck-load of fish, and two dogs. Our first dog was a black cocker spaniel named Trapper. Our second dog is collie named Sheba. Trapper passed away a couple years ago, and we got another border collie named Rocky a while later.
So anyway, let’s start with my dad’s side. My father’s parents were Arnold and Alice O’Hara, my grandparents. Arnold and Alice have three kids: Pat, Kevin, and Jeff (my own dad). Pat married and had four children named Janice, Melissa, Danielle and Shannon. Shannon enlisted in the Iraq war for awhile, but he’s back now, and he’s married to Anna, who is now my fifth cousin… I guess.
I wasn’t able to spend much time with my cousins, but I did get to spend time with my grandparents. Every once in awhile, our family would go out to Tampa Bay, Florida, to meet my grandparents and spend a week or so with them. We’ve caught and lost many-a large fish in that bay. Unfortunately, my grandpa recently died of cancer. The funeral there was one of few times I got to see the whole family together.
Well, sorry about the downer. Moving on to my mother’s side. Her parents were Bill and Patricia Chavanne (Yay! We’re German!). My mom is the only child of the two, although she had some step-siblings, none of which I recall meeting. Grandma Pat also has a sister named Ethel who is married to Ron. They have three children; Cary, Patti, and Craig. Patti has three kids of her own, the only cousins I’ve really known in the family. Their names are Jocelyn, Annaliese, and Tim. Craig has three (Jacob, Jordan and Jenna) and Cary has two, Cody and Cory.
Grandpa Chavanne recently moved down to Oklahoma, so we get to see him in church every now and then. The rest of the family lives up north, though, so I don’t get much opportunity to see them. Grandma Pat visits every now and then, and we spend time together. As a matter of fact, the time we visited her in New York was the first time Dillon and I learned how to fish. She had a pond out on her property where we tried to catch catfish. I also had fun chasing one of her cats, the most cowardly cat I think I’ve ever met. He’s still alive if I remember correctly, but he seems to hate me for some strange reason…
So, that’s my family, branches and all. They haven’t had a hugely significant effect on my life, since I don’t see them often, but they’re still special to me, and I love them all. So now you know a little more about me and the twisted, meaninglessly complex branches that formed my very being… How poetic…

Suddenly, I Became Me!

Welcome to Part 3 of the epic, suspenseful drama that is my life! In the following pages, you shall find the earliest chronicles of my childhood; the unwritten record of my first steps into reality; the vague, hardly memorable and mostly exaggerated events that spurred the life that I have come to know now. I speak, of course, of my first memories.
Now, I won’t lie to you. It was recommended that I share some of the “cuter” things I did as a mischievous littlun, and it is for this reason I feel obliged to share these untouched memories. Oh, how I wish to remember those precious times: my first words, my experiences at children’s church, my new friends, and most notably my attempt to chug an entire can of beer before anyone could stop me. Unfortunately, the latter event wiped my memory of anything prior to that. So, I’ll just move on from there.
My first conscious memories came to me at about the age of four. At this time, my parents both had jobs, so I would go to a sort of daycare center five days a week. There were two daycare centers, if I recall correctly. The first was run by a nice lady named Tina. She had a son who was about my age, and he was probably my best friend there. There were also two older girls there who felt it was their moral obligation to teach me how to tie my shoes. As a robust individual, I knew what I wanted. I wanted to watch Face and Blues Clues, and as far as I was concerned, the TV wasn’t going to turn off just because my shoes were untied. There were also two brothers there who decided their idea of entertainment was to do something and blame it on me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the means or the vocabulary to properly defend myself, which resulted in a lot of time in the corner. (I’m not a psychiatrist, but this may have contributed to my acute interest in vocabulary terms).
Apart from that, the experience was great. But Tina had to move away, so we found a new daycare lady named Lori. She also had a son who was a little older than me. This boy had a sister whom he named “Sassy”. Thinking back, that probably wasn’t her real name, but that was what I knew her as nonetheless. Now, this experience seemed fine; nobody to annoy me, tattle on me, or even try to teach me trivial shoe-related matters. Life was good… but it didn’t last. Apparently, there was some drama in Lori’s house. One day, exasperated, she decides to send us outside where it’s 105 degrees in the shade. She wasn’t completely heartless, however, because she left us a large pitcher of water on the table. Nevertheless, my parents found out, and I was quickly removed.
Then came ABC Daycare, a promising recreational center. The daycare encouraged an “outdoor experience”, meaning there wasn’t much to do indoors. Out in the playground, however, it was an adventure everyday! With seesaws, swings, and jungle gyms galore, there was always a game to be played. The top favorite? Dodge the hornets, of course! With a nest of stinging insects every five yards, the game becomes a fun yet challenging experience. One nest in particular was located directly above the seesaw, which I’m pretty sure gave me a permanent fear of heights… and anything with a fulcrum.
So, my toddler years were less than reputable, which made me not too keen to start Kindergarten. Fortunately, my elementary years would be among the greatest years of my life. But, for the sake of suspense, I cannot write about it here. So, you’ll just have to wait… Or you could just keep reading. Your choice.

School Bells!

Welcome, one and all, to the wondrous experience that is elementary school! …What? You don’t think elementary school was wondrous? Oh yeah, the start of homework, the loss of freedom, blah blah blah. Look at it this way: academics aside, would you be who you are without elementary school? Would you know the same friends? Same experiences? The list goes on. Let’s face it: elementary school was an integral part of the recipe that is us… Okay, that was cheesy. Let’s just move on.
Now, I’d had sort of an undeserved reputation as a troublemaker before coming here, but that had all been water under the bridge by then. This was Tulsa Lutheran School. These were new people, new opportunities! I wasn’t going to mess up! But things never go as planned, do they? All I remember is being given a half-pint carton of chocolate milk. With my weapon in hand, reinforced by my lack of respect for the laws of gravity, I managed to leave a large brown streak-stain across the ceiling… I’m not sure how it happened, but ever since then, I’ve occasionally seen some weird guys in white coats investigating the “physics” of that room. At any rate, my reputation had restarted.
Things weren’t all bad, though. At the school, I made friends with Douglas Hall and Roland Cline, both of whom I am still good friends with. In First Grade, I met Micah Schneider, and soon our trio became a… well, there were four of us now. The days of recess were never dull for us, especially when we played Cowboys and Indians. As an unstoppable group, we gathered our guns and fought the enemy! …Well, they did anyway. I had some sort of obsession with faking my death accurately, and in my mind, getting up after dying would tarnish the quality of my dramatic act. So, I’d kind of just lie there for the rest of recess until the teacher forced me to come inside.
We all got along well throughout our individual experiences. Our best early-school teacher was undoubtedly Mrs. Pralle, the principal’s wife. She was the one who taught us how to read, write in cursive, and sing in a somewhat bearable fashion. Unfortunately, she and the principal had to move away to Kansas. While I didn’t know it then, this set the stage for some dark days at that school.
Then, we moved up to Third Grade, officially members of the “Upper Graders” (so-called, because we had class upstairs). Then we had a new member of our fearsome foursome. At first, I knew she looked familiar. I thought it was just one of the older kids with a haircut, but then I saw both of them at the same time, which meant I must have known her from somewhere else. I realized she was one of the girls who went to my church, which I hadn’t been to for some time. Because of this, I couldn’t even remember her name. She wasn’t too offended. In fact, she had a very humane and effective solution: getting Roland and Micah to pin me down until I could remember. It was on that day that Malinee Powell had been quite unanimously initiated into our “tribe”. There were others in our group as well, but we were really the only ones who stuck around until the end of 7th grade (It was a really small school).
After the embarrassing recollection of Malinee’s “identity”, I told my parents we should go to church more often. While I’m not so sure that was what convinced them, we started going to church regularly. Later that year, though, Pastor Lessing was called to lead seminary in St. Louis. Near the end of my Third Grade year, he and his family moved out of the church, and Pastor Kloetor (CLAY-ter) took his place. His move probably had the most significant impact on my life right now, though I obviously hadn’t realized it yet.
In Fourth Grade, I had a year of weakness where I decided to move to Peters Elementary in the Union district. My mom had actually suggested this because of problems with choosing our school’s principal, but I had my own reasons. I was deathly afraid of Mrs. Kelliher, the 5th Grade teacher, and I knew this may be my only chance to escape (I’m not even kidding). I don’t remember a whole lot about Peters. I made a lot of friends really quickly, but I really didn’t learn much, and I missed my old friends. So, after that year, I reluctantly decided to face my fear and go back to the school.
For me, 5th Grade was really the start of middle school, which is the next section of this little project. So until then, my fellow readers.

Middle School...

Ah, so the drama starts! We have come to epic point of the story that is Middle School. I’m sure we all remember that awkward stage in our lives where we are defined as nothing else but the Great “Missing Link”, commonly known as preteens. This is where the true drama starts, when the fear that we cannot possibly survive a full school day without recess becomes the least of our worries… But of course, while we loathe the mix of incomprehensible emotions, we are glad to have experienced these years, because they have formed, like many points in our lives, the very essence of identity that makes us who we are! Yeah, you’re pretty much used to me saying stuff like that by now, but let’s get started!
So, my “Middle School” years really started around 5th Grade, when I came back to TLS to face my fear. I wasn’t so much worried about Mrs. Kelliher as I was worried about the experience in general. We were the “big kids” now. We had responsibility. I thought to myself, though, that as long as I had my friends with me, I would be okay. Lo and behold, I was right! The first thing I remember about coming back is seeing Douglas, and then everything soon came into the right place again. As it turned out, Mrs. Kelliher was actually the best teacher I’d ever had there! She knew how to teach us, and she could always make us laugh.
Now, as far as middle school goes, the most popular subject is the crushes. Who’s liking who and whatnot. As an indecisive young lad, I’d had a crush on a different girl every year since Third Grade. (That streak went on for a length of time I’m not currently at liberty to discuss). Fifth Grade was Malinee Powell, though I later realized I wasn’t the only one. The problem was that I had come to that strange point in adolescence where I was afraid to talk to girls… I’m not sure if everybody’s had an experience like that, but I sure did for that year. That spurred the fourth most embarrassing moment of my life. I can’t remember much, but I’m pretty sure it involved a tissue box, a long stare, and a very awkward smile.
Sometime around 6th Grade, somebody told me I was part crow. I didn’t necessarily believe it, but I thought, “Hey, I’ve broken the law of gravity once, why not do it again?” So every recess (we were blessed with recess in middle school), I would go out to the field and run as fast as I could while flailing my arms wildly, and then I would jump over the lower area of the field and try to fly… unsuccessfully. I went through many school pants that year. It wasn’t until later that I learned I was actually part Crow Indian. That killed the mood a bit, but by then I was sure I had the trick down. I read in a book that the secret was to jump towards the ground and miss unintentionally. I don’t know if it worked, but I swear I got a good few seconds of air time once or twice.
We had some great experiences at that school, not the least of which was “track-and-field” day! We’d all drive out to Ponca City and run each of our different courses, including the long jump, relay, 100-yard dash, and even a spelling bee (I was a whiz at that one!). We also had occasional weekend trips to Camp Lutherhoma (which surprisingly few people have heard of). Then, we can’t forget those wondrous school plays, like “Jonah, the Musical!” There was rarely a dull day at that school.
Although some may find it hard to believe, I was the class clown in Middle School. I loved nothing more than to make everyone else laugh. If anybody had ever commented that I was shy, I would be taken aback. Roland would reply with, “Yeah, about as shy as a hand grenade.” Unfortunately, due to financial circumstances and an incompetent principal, the school closed down permanently after 7th Grade. Roland and Douglas went to Wright. Malinee went to Metro for a year and later moved away to Colorado. Micah and I went to Mingo. 8th Grade and 9th Grade can pretty much be coupled in the same category, so the rest of the story is for another time. Until then!

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Yes! Yes! Every child in his life needs a pastime, a hobby, a recreational activity that distracts them from pondering the meaning of life! What kind of world would we live in without that three-letter word called fun? …Well, I assume it’d be pretty boring. But anyway, these are just a few of the things that I always enjoyed doing in my pastime. You may notice I might have mentioned some of these in earlier chapters.
As a young child of the age of six… or seven… eight, nine, ten and so on, I had a couple things I found were worth my time. One of those, I’m slightly ashamed to admit, was the joy of videogames. One thing I remember, though, as one of the “little peoples” was the old 90’s shows they used to have. Rocko’s Modern Life, Aaah! Real Monsters, and my personal favorite, Angry Beavers! …Yes, let the record show I did not have a life as a child.
One of my most favorite experiences was a daycare center called Playtime Plus (still open if I recall). It had everything! A fort, a Jupiter Jump, a ball pit, and videogames of course. It was always an adventure there, and the Jupiter Jump could keep me busy for hours, even if those hours consisted of running in circles repeatedly…
Then, I grew up to the healthy age of… 9. That’s when I learned I had a riveting imagination! Already, the stories become clear in my mind, and I start to live them out. I’m living with a family in the boondocks. Suddenly, a wormhole opens and sucks me in! Now there’s a weird guy with electric hands! But then I grow up, and become a professional snowboarder! But I get captured by secret service to work to kill the guy with electric hands, who actually dies shortly afterwards by other means. Then I die and come back as a ghost to haunt people. Then I learn how to fly a jet fighter! Well, it goes on from there. I’m fairly certain I have a girlfriend throughout the story, too… Anyway, I decided if I’m going to think of this stuff, I might as well write it! Thus, my career as a novelist began, starting with the adventurous story I just described! Eventually, I wrote and finished my first story in 7th Grade, “The Case of the Missing Turkey”, later dubbed “Holiday Detective: Thanksgiving Theft!”
There were also a few random things that kept my attention. For a few years, I took lessons on the piano. It was fun, albeit frustrating. Unfortunately, I discontinued my lessons, but I did manage to learn Beethoven’s Symphony #5. Duh, duh, duh, duhhhhhhhhh! I also had an intriguing interest in chess, which still stands as my all-time favorite board game ever! At first, I started learning from my family until I could beat everyone except my dad (at least to my knowledge). Eventually, I started participating in tournaments. I enjoyed everything about those tournaments: the long tables, the concession stand, even the smell of the boards coming fresh out of the cases. (You might think it weird, but I liked it!).
Let’s see… Well, my experiences in 8th and 9th Grade tampered with my stories a bit. One I had been working on was supposed to be a sort of funny adventure with a ghost and some petty criminals. Well, the petty criminals eventually turned into vicious criminals; the ghost’s memory of death becomes gruesome, and about 4 of the five main characters get killed off. So yeah, you could say I was going through sort of a “stage” at the time. Let the record show that WCA marked the end of that horrific stage! And now, I usually like to hang out with friends, work on some stories, and yes, I still do play videogames. My active life will always have a little bit of “lack thereof” added to it, so I might as well live with it.

Let's Take a Vacation!

Let’s take a break from my normal life story to dive into the details of the thirteen wondrous summer vacations of my life. (That’s right, I’ve only had thirteen. But for the record, the first one lasted five years). Ah, the glorious feeling of freedom after that final school bell! It’s like waking up from a horrible dream that seemed to drag on for ages. Well, it’s time to embrace those priceless life qualities found only in a summer break, consisting of 3 PM wake-up calls, hours of mind-numbing television, and of course the numerous complaints of unbearable boredom.
But of course, these already tantalizing concepts are not all that entailed my unforgettable experience. How could I forget the great adventures we had around the states? My first memorable experience was a trip to New York. I vaguely remember the drive there, because we passed by the Smoky Mountains. (I’d always thought the mountains would be steeper, but I’d been mistaken). The last day of the drive, we apparently got lost, and I had a strange but interesting visual of us having to sleep with the wolves. When we finally got there, I said, “Okay, nobody wake me until 9 o’clock.” …I’d love to be able to wake up that early nowadays. Anyway, we arrived at my Grandma Chavanne’s house. I don’t remember a lot about that trip except that I’d learned to fish for the first time in her pond, which was loaded with catfish. Dillon, Dad, and I each managed to catch one, and Mom buried them in the ground, telling me that they would help the garden grow. Again, my imagination got the better of me and as we left, I swore I’d come back to see the fish-head tree when it was full-grown.
Many years later, summer 2006 to be exact, we went back to New York one more time. The visit there was much more memorable, particularly the journey there when the food became noticeably better the farther north we drove. Our first stop was the beautiful Niagara Falls, which is incidentally about as close to outside the border as I’ve ever gone (excluding Belize). After that, we visited my grandmother again, and we went sailing on Oneida Lake! One day, we went to the Herkemer Diamond mine where we collected small diamonds and got to keep them as souvenirs! A few of my cousins from Pennsylvania also came to visit, and we all got to hang out together!
There were also many summers when we went to Tampa Bay, Florida, to visit Grandma and Grandpa O’Hara. They lived right next to the bay, so we went fishing all the time. In New York, I learned how to fish. In Florida, I learned how to fish the right way. We even got to visit the Gulf of Mexico and go swimming there! And of course, my first visit to Florida also became my first visit to Disneyworld! I went to Typhoon Lagoon, which had the best wave pool I’ve seen in my entire life! (Seriously, the little kids had to hold on to rubber buoys in the shallow end just so they wouldn’t get sucked under). We even visited the Animal Kingdom and that giant castle you see at the beginning of every Disney movie! I even got to meet Mickey Mouse! (There was a rumor that it was only a guy in a costume, but the evidence was inconclusive).
My last trip to Florida actually started off as a National Youth Gathering the summer after my Sophomore Year. That was an awesome week-long experience, where we got to hang around a huge hotel plaza and witness the biggest thunderstorms I have ever seen in my life! (As a big fan of thunderstorms, it was quite a thrill.) During the day, we would gather with Lutheran youth groups from around the nation to worship and sing. At the end of the week, my youth group went to MGM studios for the day. When everyone was going home, I stuck around with my family to visit my grandparents again.
Then, of course, we had those memorable visits to my hometown: Chicago, Illinois. We had some great reunions with some of my parents’ friends. The most prominent of these people was Uncle Todd, who isn’t actually my uncle but a great friend of my dad’s. We would hang out at his house for a while and also see some great Major-league baseball games! And of course, what’s a trip to Chicago without visiting the famed Sears Tower and Navy Pier? With ship rides, ice cream, and all the hot dogs you can eat, not to mention the wonderful family reunions, Chicago was always a great place to be.
However, our most frequent vacation was a trip to Branson, Missouri! There was always something to do there. White Water Rapids was always a wonderful water park in the middle of summer. And you can’t even think of leaving without visiting Silver Dollar City at least once. Silver Dollar City spurred my gradual appreciation of roller coasters… But for the record, I’ve still never ridden the Wildfire. (Don’t tell anybody). And the comedian to see was Yakov Schmirnov! If you haven’t heard of him, look him up. His antics were funny whether you were a kid or a grumpy old man!
Now, one of the most special places I’ve visited recently is a place most of you have probably heard of: Camp Barnabas. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a special needs camp in Purdue, Missouri, designed to give kids a great experience that they can’t normally get anywhere else. With a little persuasion from Jon and my class, I agreed to volunteer there with them for a week. We started out with a day and a half of training, followed by the opportunity to choose which child we would sponsor. Then the kids would arrive, and we would make sure to give them the best week of their lives! My kid’s name was Blake Gonnerman. Now, I was already nervous about messing up, but Blake happened to be quite a handful. I won’t get into detail, but by day 3, I was ready to leave. Oddly enough, he was in love with Veggietales, and I just so happened to know almost all of the Veggietales songs. I even began writing a story (which I was unable to finish unfortunately) about a meteor named Wonderfall. Everyone told me I was meant to be with this kid, which quite honestly didn’t help my mood at all. But looking back on it, I’m pretty sure it was true. If I could do it again, which I plan to this summer, I would do it in a heartbeat. After the week finished, our group stopped by Trout Lodge for a couple days to relax, and then we headed home. That was one of the best experiences of my life.
Oh, I almost forgot! There’s a camp I’ve been to almost every year since Third Grade called Camp Lutherhoma. It’s a Lutheran church camp in Tahlequah, about an hour and a half from Wright. The area there is wonderful (though there’s a considerable amount of debris at the moment). The main area is a large field with a Friendship Tree in the middle. Theimer Hall is in front of the tree, and the cafeteria is beyond it. Behind the cafeteria is the Illinois River, where we have canoe races and campfires (by the side of the river, of course). There are other fields as well, and the camp is a wonderful place to stay for a week to worship and enjoy nature. I’ve got a lot of memories there, but I may write about that another time.
Whew! I’ve been to more places than I thought. Summer vacation sure is eventful. So, these are the highlights of all the in-betweens of school. These wonderful weeks have always made summer vacation as enjoyable and eventful as they can be. They also make me look forward to all the exciting summer vacations to come… Just remember, don’t wake me till 3.

4-Ever Friends

Heh heh. See what I did there? With the "4" and the "ever" together? Heh... Ahem. Anyway, it’s the best friends forever chapter! Unless you have some major social issues to sort through, you’ve probably had some people that you could call good friends. This chapter is devoted to those friends of mine who have stayed by my side throughout all the hardships; those relentlessly committed people who stuck it through with me in the end, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish from this day forward. The few, the proud, the Marines… er, friends.
The first people I should note are those of my old school. Douglas, Roland, Micah, Malinee and I were the inseparable vigilantes who stuck it out until 7th Grade. We always stuck together in recess with soccer and Cowboys and Indians. We always had a fun time in the classroom together, making jokes and messing with the computer. If it ever overheated, Doug would turn it off and refuse any requests to use it. “It’s too risky,” he would say. And of course, we all had a special bond brought on by our unbroken commitment to the Lego-Land Law. Heck, they even stuck with me during my “phase” when I was fully convinced I could fly.
But of course, disaster struck when the school closed down. Douglas and Roland went to Wright, and Malinee moved to Colorado. For a while, it was just Micah, me, and Mingo Valley. The events of Mingo are for another time, but I will mention one friend I happened to keep even after my move to Wright. His name was Adam Dwyer. I met him in 8th Grade, because Micah happened to know him from a while back. Adam was probably one of the nicest people I’d met there, and I found it worthwhile to remain friends with him. We were both very interested in videogames (one of my guilty pleasures), and he had an acute interest in Star Wars and Dragonball Z. We’ve been to a lot of places together, including the PAC production of the Phantom of the Opera, currently my all-time favorite musical! Adam and I still hang out occasionally, and I hope to stay friends with him for a long time to come.
Then, of course, I have my friends from church! I’m still good friends with Micah, thanks to the church, and we’re both good friends with Casey Young. We also sometimes hang out with Josh Pittman, whom you may know from our school. Ah, heck with it, you can’t possibly go to this school without knowing Josh. We are also good friends with Alex Meyer, Caitlyn Patterson, and Rachel Patterson, the girls of our youth group. We’re usually the ones that you’d find going to all the youth gatherings and Bible studies.
Sophomore year, I came to Wright and met up with Roland and Doug again. The fearsome foursome has returned! And of course, I met up with some new friends throughout my experience. I’d probably say my first good new friend at Wright was Matt Harader. Somehow, we hit it off really well and hung out all the time. Oddly enough, Matt’s girlfriend was Fiona Lutz whose best friend was Lauren Barger, whom I became a good friend with through completely unrelated circumstances. So, the four of us became really good friends. We went to church together a couple times, and we always stuck together at the retreats. During the summer of sophomore year, we all went to Camp Bristow together and had a great time! We even hung out together during the Junior prom.
I also became good friends with Joseph Rodenbaugh, and I would somehow end up sitting next to him in almost every class. We always talked about what was going on, and our biggest topic of conversation, at least for Junior year, was prom. For the sake of keeping my neck, those conversations will remain secret.
Then came Senior year. Lauren and Fiona had graduated, and Matt left the school due to unforeseen circumstances. So, I started hanging out with other people from my class. I’m still good friends with Joseph and Roland, and I hang out almost every day with Douglas after school. I also had the chance to hang out with Corey more often, and now we’re going to be roommates in college (w00t!). I started hanging out with Tim more often as well, and we became good friends, supported somewhat by our innate interest in the performing arts. Through Tim, I also started becoming really good friends with Deanna, whom I took to the prom this year! We’ve had a really good time together this past semester.
All of these friends, especially in the past three years, have been wonderful. They have all been there for me, and I have tried my best to be there for them as well. This is the reason that graduation comes to me as scary on top of the excitement. My experience with these people has been a blast, and I am not sure who I will have to say goodbye to when the time comes. If graduation does mean goodbye, I will still have the memories, and years later, I still won’t have forgotten a single one of them.

High School: The Early Years

And we’re back on track with the chronological order of this autobiography. When we last left our hero, he was heartbroken at the realization that his years at Tulsa Lutheran School had come to an end. Separated from his friends, he and his good friend Micah set forth towards a new beginning at Mingo Valley Christian School. Fearing what was ahead, our brave, handsome hero vowed to change his disposition. No more would he be the class clown, embarrassing himself with all his silly antics. He would enter this school with a new identity. And thus we enter the next chapter of our story: High school… plus 8th Grade.
Okay, enough of the third-person talk. Anyway, Micah and I entered Mingo Valley for the first time. I am not exactly sure how things turned out the way they did. If I remember correctly, I was not used to having to take initiative, because at TLS, we all pretty much knew each other. In this new environment, we were completely at a loss as to what to do. The first day, we ended up sitting together for lunch. After a couple of days we befriended two people: Adam Dwyer and Phillip Gilley. Adam was two years older than us, but he happened to know Micah from a long time ago. I also became friends with his sister, but it was sort of a love-hate thing at first. Phillip was in our class, and we became friends for awhile. So, the four of us would sit together at lunch and talk. Other than that, I didn’t have much luck in finding friends within my class. It seemed intimidating that they already knew each other so well, and I started to become distant with them. I began to regret my decision to change my identity, because I felt like I lost it in the process. For the first time in my life, I started becoming the thing I used to be shocked to hear: shy.
I tried to get involved in the school plays, but I choked in the auditions at first. In The Sound of Music, I started speaking in a British accent. My excuse was, “Well, the story takes place in Britain, right?” The reply, “It takes place in Austria.” …Oops. The beginning of 9th Grade wasn’t much better. I still didn’t talk to people, and on top of that some tensions were rising between my friends. Nasty rumors had gone around about Adam Dwyer, which pretty much everyone in my class believed, including Micah and Phillip. There were also some tensions between Phillip and me, which would later result in the end of our friendship. By Christmas, I wanted to escape from everything, Mingo Valley, the students, and even my friends. I was done.
After hearing that I would probably go to Wright next year, I had a different perspective. Since I was probably leaving anyway, I should probably learn to take initiative. So, in lunch from then on, I began to sit at the lunch table with everyone else from my class. They weren’t happy at first (simply because the table had already been too full), but a compromise was made, and I was able to get to know them better. I also managed to snatch a minor role in the musical Anne of Green Gables, where I was able to get to know more people from around the school. My last semester there was, admittedly, enjoyable. However, the tensions in the classroom were high, and I still wasn’t feeling much like myself. So, at the end of 9th Grade, I transferred to Wright.
During the summer I began take an interest in soccer, so I signed up for the Varsity Soccer Team in my Sophomore year. It was a good decision, because I was able to meet up with a lot of people in my class before the school year, including Jonathan, Grant, Jordan, Sam, and Ali. I also vividly remember my first day at Wright. I saw Doug and Corey down the hallway, and Doug said hi. Corey freaked out that Doug knew me when he didn’t. Just to make sure he didn’t miss something, he asked Roland, who also knew me. Freaking out, he began to ask other people, all of which were on the soccer team and therefore knew me. Finally, he stopped Nita, whom I’d never met in my life. Despite that, she also said hi, and Corey ran screaming down the hall. I knew then that this was the place for me.
I was still pretty shy and easily embarrassed when I came to the school. I was in an advanced math class, which I was reluctant to share with others in my class, but it got out anyway. Because of that class, I became good friends with Lauren Barger. Everyone in my class helped me up from my “low spot” for lack of a better term. 10th Grade was like my redemption. Slowly, I was becoming an extrovert again.
10th Grade came and went. By Junior year, I had quite a few friends, and a keen familiarity about the school that I never had at Mingo. Granted, I still had a tendency to be shy around certain people, but I was stepping up at least. As a matter of fact, I think I started becoming more daring than I was at TLS. I was a completely different person now, but at the same time, I was still myself. And I became myself just in time to experience that wonderful event that every Junior looks forward to: prom.
Ok, so Junior year alone is enough to give a grown man an ulcer, but somebody thought it keen to add another ingredient to the recipe for stress, and boy does it intensify the flavor. We get to set up the Junior/Senior prom. On top of that, the guys also have to find somebody to ask to said prom. Figuring out who to ask, when to ask, how to react after you’ve asked. I was successfully recovering from the introversive illness, but this was still quite a challenge.
Again, for the sake of living to see college, I will not necessarily mention what happened during the months before prom. Suffice it to say that our worrying was all for naught. Prom was a blast! The person I took to prom was a girl named Emily Allen, a girl I knew through Lauren Barger. She was pretty shy (Can’t really complain though, can I?), but she was a nice girl, and we had a lot of fun. After prom, we had quite a blast at the after-party, where we ate food, raced on inflatable machines, played basketball, and just generally had fun. After that, we had an after-after-party, where we all went to the McIlroy’s for a much-needed rest. After that, we finished off the year, finishing last-minute projects, studying for finals, and adding the finishing touches to our already convulsing ulcers.
But we finished the year with pizzazz, and as an added bonus, we celebrated at Eryn’s house, where we ripped our chemistry books to shreds and threw them into the bonfire, screaming in ecstasy! What a way to end the year! And thus, our early high school years came to a close, and the last year of high school was about to begin.

At Last, I'm a Senior!

At last, we have come to the stunning conclusion of this story. This chapter chronicles the last year of my life up to this point. Boy, what a year it’s been. I have never seen a year go by so quickly, but I guess that’s inevitable. Having grown through the years into the person I’d become, I began to prepare for the end of high school and the beginning of college and afterwards the rest of my life. Oddly enough, I find it difficult to write about senior year. It’s happened so recently that it’s hard to tell what I’ll remember. I’ll try my best, though.
I guess the first thing I can write about is my first trip to Washington D.C.! I went along with Ali, Taylor, Mitchell, Sam, Justin, and Elizabeth as well as the 8th Grade class. My experience there was amazing, and the seven of us spent the 5-day vacation walking through the plazas and visiting the museums. I found it unfortunate that the 8th Graders missed having to ask each other to the dinner at the hotel. (Granted, I never had to either, but we can’t all be lucky, can we?)
The bulk of senior year, at least for the beginning, was trying to figure out which college was right for us. After visiting three of my top college choices, I decided to stick with OC. During that time, I was also struggling with my choice between engineering and journalism. On one hand, I was really good with engineering, and I enjoyed mathematics most of the time, not to mention the decent wages. On the other hand, I REALLY enjoy writing, and I’ve wanted to go into writing since 4th Grade. In the end, I decided to try my hand at journalism.
Senior year was a very different experience with friends. Matt, Fiona, and Lauren, the people I usually hung out with, had left the school. So, I started hanging out with my other classmates, particularly Corey and Tim. In second semester, I also started hanging out with Deanna, as most of you probably already knew.
Speaking of which, the senior prom was making its way into the conversations yet again. With the Juniors planning it out, the topic was much more laid back for us more “experienced” seniors. However, the guys still had the obligation to ask… The Question. (And Joseph, if you’re reading this, that doesn’t mean a proposal). Waiting for the opportune moment, I mustered up the courage to ask Deanna. There was a brief silence and then a yes, followed by a 15-minute drive home, the events of which will remain undisclosed for eternity.
And thus, on April 24… or somewhere around there, the invitations went out. On with the week, the Juniors and Seniors prepared for the joyous event. The day of prom, the Seniors and Juniors had the day off; the girls would spend the day getting ready while the guys would watch Wolverine and rent that tux they’ve been meaning to get…er, or so I’ve been told. It may have been just a rumor…Ahem, anyway, the prom was a blast! Taylor and Ali were crowned king and queen, and then we all went dancing. Corey, Ali, Jamie, and Jonathan showed us all up on the dance floor. Roland kept the party lively. And of course, Deanna and I got to dance together late into night… or at least until 11. It was a night to remember...
Now, who could forget this year’s WCA theater production, aka Harvey! It’s the story of a middle-aged man with a 6-foot, 1½-inch rabbit. Tim and I were the psychiatrists, and Sam was the judge. Despite the major scene cuts and 5-6 hour practices, the play was a fun experience… But please buy the DVD!
So, those are the main events of my last year at the school. It has been quite an awesome experience here, and Wright has transformed me completely! I hope these memories will continue to inspire me through my college years and so on. For now, it’s Belize and the rest of the summer for me to enjoy.

Epilogue

Would I change anything about my past if I could? That question is relative. The simple answer is no, I would not. That isn't to say I don't have any regrets. I have more than I can count, as a matter of fact. Looking back, i wish I hadn't ried to change my personality at Mingo. I also wish I had paid better attention to the friends I knew before and after then, people I rarely talk to nowadays. There are things that I haven't done simply because I couldn't muster up the guts to do it, and I most certainly wish I hadn't missed those opportunities. However, I can't honestly say I'd change it if given the chance. These unforutnate circumstances, wheter they were my own fault or someone else's, have shaped who I am today. if I went back and undid all of my regrets, I probably wouldn't be going to Wright. If I did end up at Wright, I still wouldn't be who I was. For one thing, I would be much more naive than I already am, simply because I have not experienced these consequences. As a matter of fact, if I had redone everything, I probably would have had this thing finished instead of typing it at 11:30 pm the day before it's due... Ahem. I don't intend to change the past, and the truth is i can't. However, my knowledge of the past will help me change my future... Aw, come on. It's the last chapter, so I'm entitled to one more cheesy line.
So anyway, thank you, fellow readers, for following through with this entire book. I must say, you definitely have a lot of time on your hands. As for those of you who just skipped to the ending... shame, shame. So thanks again to all of you for keeping my story alive. So, for the last time, good day, my fellow readers!