I graduated High School!

Class of 2001

After 12 years of school I finally graduated!! I am not going to lie, it was not an easy road. But I finally did it and on this hot June day, I walked up and excepting my diploma! My family came to watch and they could not have been prouder!

Thank you everyone who has made my years in school a little easier:

My Mom and Dad

Cant thank them enough for all the projects, sporting events, plays, parent-teacher conferences, and time that they always gave me. Even though I wasn't the easiest kid to deal with my skipping classes, running off to Maine without adults, detentions, broken bones, difficult math teachers and my many F's. They have always been there for me. Thank you both and I love you very much!

Becca

My friend since second grade. Thanks for always putting up with me.

Ms. Finn

My art teacher. A great woman who everyone loved. I was so lucky to be in her class.

Ms. Colozzo

My 6th grade teacher who pushed me to read. She was also the teacher that taught the girls in the class how to play football. I will never forget her for those things.

Mr. Freeman

My elementary gym teacher. Was the nicest guy. Always tried to get us to laugh (he was once a clown). He always quoted the golden rule for us.

Next adventure for me? College? Work? Being a bum? We will just have to see. Right now I am just living for the moment and enjoying every second of it.

Met Johnny

If you were from the ages of 14-21 between the years 1998-2000, chances are you met or had some kind of “relationship” with someone from an online chat room. I was one of these people and I am not proud of it. I resorted to online chat rooms to find the man of my dreams after my boyfriend broke up with me. It was my goal to make my ex jealous and to fix the broken heart that he gave me.

You heard the horror stories and seen news specials of people meeting from online. But you also have heard of how people met their soulmate or made a great lifelong friend from online chat-rooms. For me, chat-rooms allowed me to be myself or someone else completely instead of the awkward geeky girl I was around guys. I could talk to guys without them judging me on my looks but on my personality instead. Lies and perverts were throughout the internet. At 16-17 years old, I felt I was too smart and could tell the difference between a nice guy and a pervert.

I met several guys through online chat rooms in real life. Nothing to boast about, believe me. I am still ashamed and scared at what could have happened. My Junior Prom date was a guy I met through a chat room who I never heard from again after that day. I met a guy who I feel head over heals from and hung out with for 6 months before he told me he saw me as a sister.

Throughout all the losers I met online, I finally met someone who I connected with. His name was Johnny and he lived only a town away from me. We talked online through a chat-room. I really loved his screen name and began to private message him. Pictures were exchanged and then phone calls. We agreed to meet at the local mall. Of course I was nervous (not to mention really really late) when I walked up and down the mall looking for my date. Finally I spotted him.

Although, I found out that he was not hard to miss.

Johnny's hair was dyed bleach blond and he wore a bright blue Hawaiian shirt. Yikes! I felt regret right away and wanted to bail. But instead the stupid 17 year old naïve girl I was got into his car to go out to dinner. Luckily he was a nice guy and we had a good time. Although it was not a love at first time feeling that I always wanted. After dinner we said goodbye and agreed to meet again. It took several dates to fall for Johnny. It took even longer for us to have our first kiss.

Years later he told me how he almost left because I was so late. Oh how my life would have been so different now.

Got my first full-time job

It’s official.

I am an adult :(

After being unemployed for 2 months, I got a full time job working as a teller for a small community bank that my boyfriend’s mom works for. It’s not exactly my ideal job, but it pays the bills and gives me health insurance. My plan is to stay here for a year and get back on my feet financially. I have seriously only $2.00 in my name right now. I barely have money for gas.

Since I am working for a bank now, I needed clothes that are professional looking. With $10 my Mom gave me, I headed to a used clothing store on my lunch break my second day on the job. I was able to buy 3 pairs of pants and a couple of tops with the money. Combined with clothes that my Mom had, I had enough clothes to make it through a week until I got my first paycheck!

One of my first major purchases with my new fortune was a beautiful velvet coat from a store I went into during my lunch break. It was $100 and I couldn’t wait to get it.

Being a banker has its ups and downs. I work Monday thru Friday with weekends and holidays off and I am home by 5pm. But it is very boring work and not what I wanted to do with my life. I can’t believe I went from training to be an EMT to training to be a Bank teller.

My First Broken Heart

Chris and I were considered a power couple in Jr. High School. Meaning we were together more then 1 year, almost 2. We were one of two couples that had made that 1 year mark. I was pretty proud of myself considering our relationship was VERY rocky and unhealthy at times.

I won’t and don’t want to go through the details of our two years together, there are some stories that I wish to bury in my brain forever. Needless to say we were getting older and our relationship was just not fun anymore.

The end came when I heard a rumor that this other boy liked me. My stomach did back flips knowing another boy liked me and that maybe there was more out there. Deep down I really liked this other boy and wanted to go out with him.

During a fight on the phone, I let it slip that I heard someone else liked me and that I liked them too. I then let it out that I wanted out of our relationship. I was not brave when I said this, I was crying the whole time. He slammed the phone down on me and that was the end of that.

The next few days I regretted us breaking up and called Chris a few times to go back out with me. I wore my scrubbiest sweat shirts, dingiest jeans, no makeup and red stained eyes to school for that week to show how miserable I was. That ended when I heard a rumor that he told people HE broke up with me! The pathetic appearance was gone soon after that and I moved on.

Peer pressure, teenage gossip and the roller coaster of teenage love was the result of our breakup. Sadly, Chris and I never remained friends after the breakup. Too many bitter words were spoken during that time. Mostly these words were said because of our broken hearts.

A funny thing about our breakup, I never did go out with that boy who liked me. It just seemed to open my eyes to other opportunities that were out there. I never even tried to date that other boy because I was enjoying the single life. I was soon busy hanging out with new friends, playing sports in school and finding a part time job.

Got my first real job!

I was 15 ½ when I decided to get my first real job. I was tired of asking for money from my Mom and Dad. I needed to make my own money now. So I got my working papers (you need to be 16 to work in Massachusetts unless you get working papers) and applied at Brighams down the street. A few days later I got a call that I could start next week as a waitress! I was estatic.

My work uniform was an apron with the Brighams logo and a plan maroon polo shirt. I couldn’t be prouder to wear it. I was quickly trained how to scoop the ice cream properly into sugar cones, make frappes, milkshakes and sundaes. Once a few of my friends heard about my first job they applied too. So going to work was like hanging out after school.

Want to know what the best part of the job was???

ALL THE FREE ICE CREAM I COULD EAT!!

Lets just say, I quickly gained 10lbs.

For $5.25 an hour plus tips, I was able to open my first savings account. I was also able to save up for my first car!

Said goodbye to a Princess

Princess Diana

July 1, 1961-August 31, 1997

On this day, millions of people across the world heard the news.

Diana, Princess of Wales was fatally killed in a car accident in France. I was 14 years old when this news happened. I didn’t believe it at first. I thought that somehow Diana would be okay. But sadly I was wrong.

Growing up I idolized Princess Diana. What ordinary girl didn’t want to grow up and marry a prince? What little girl didn’t want to wear a crown and be a princess? I know I always did. Especially since Prince William is my age. I even had little paper dolls of Princess Diana. Somewhere they are stashed in the attack.

Diana was not only beautiful outside but inside as well. She had been a member of many charities and I dreamed of the day that I could one day meet her. I never let the divorce of her and Charles changes my mind about her. In fact, it made me like her even more to see that she was an independent and outspoken woman who wasn’t afraid to say it like it is. I watched with my mom her funeral along with millions of other viewers. It was a sad day. We lost a real life angel. You don’t find too many people like her in this world.

My first boyfriend

Nothing is more memorable then your first relationship. The nervous giggles, the exchanging of notes, butterflies fluttering in the stomach and the pure innocent feeling of being in love. At 12 years old, I had all the symptoms of being in love.

His name was Chris and I had only a few classes with him. Being boy crazy, I had my focus on this other boy who was in my classes also named Chris who I nicknamed Rob (long story). My diary was cramped with hearts and fairytale adventures of Rob and me. Once I even got him to look at me! Boy did my heart skip a few beats! I had no idea that while I was ogling one boy another boy was ogling me.

In December, my friend told me about Chris and that he liked me. I can honestly say that before her saying that to me I never even knew this boy existed. Needless to say I was shocked. Someone actually wanted to be my boyfriend? I believe I gave a maybe and wanted to think about it. Something I always do when I am nervous. This was life changing for a 12 year old!

Finally I agreed and our first date was on this day. We spent the date going to the movie theater in town with a few other people we knew which was a perfect little date for 12 year olds. I was so nervous and can’t even remember what we saw.

Soon we became a couple and I was desperately in love with him. I remember telling my Mom point blank that Chris and I were going to be together forever. There was no such thing as us breaking up. I still can’t get over how serious and hurt I was when my Mom said that we may not be together forever.

With Chris I held hands with a boy for the first time, got my first gift from a boy on Christmas (earrings and a stuffed dragon) and experienced my first kiss. We went to dances together, held hands around school and wrote ooey gooey notes to each other. I kept a box filled with letters, trinkets and movie stubs. Nothing beats the first time you fall in love.