Graduation and Summer

Well, I am officially a high school alumni. It's bittersweet. I'm going to miss all my beautiful friends that I've made over the past four years, but then again, I have another four years at a new school and many more chances to make friends with more exciting new people.
In two weeks, I will be heading off to college (pre registration program), and hopefully I will meet someone who wants to be my roommate. I'm super excited to be on the JBU campus again. It felt like home when I visited it last October. Wow, time flies! It seems like just yesterday I was working at camp, then learning about JBU, and now I'm actually going there in August...how crazy is that??
Speaking of camp, I'm bummed that I don't get to go this year. I have to stay home and get summer job....that pays me. I just volunteered at camp last year. It rocked. I just want to go back and sleep in a cabin and play piano in chapel and pick flowers for Sarah and make a batch of monster cookies and play plunger ball and build beautiful relationships again. God truly created a little piece of heaven inside of that camp, and I yearn to go back to it....but I have to get a job :P
Maybe next year I can be a kitchen aide or something. Hmm.
Graduation was exciting! I got to read a poem I wrote in front of the biggest crowd I have ever talked to. What a rush! God totally allowed me to get through it without messing up :) Thank you, God! That night was one of the best nights of my entire high school career. It was just so cool having everyone I love around me, and all the speeches were inspiring, and the music was beautiful. I definitely loved the valedictory. The number one of the class of 2010 gave us a speech and it was awesome and funny AND inspiring. At the very end all of my classmates and I got to walk through a long line of all our teachers and hug them and thank them for all they have done. Mr. Herkelman gave me a big hug, so did Mr. O'Dell, whom by the way is moving back to Illinois to be an associate principal next year. Good for him! I'm so glad he's doing what God wants him to do. He especially has been a blessing in my life this past year. His room was a safe haven where I could go and be encouraged for the day.
Here's where I list the teachers who have especially helped me in my highschool career.
I will start with Mr. Moran. He was a great teacher. He always kept his classroom under control and taught people to appreciate others and not to discreminate. He taught me to be myself and have my own voice. He allowed for my creativity to flow, and he would say what he thought about my work which helped me in my writing and in my speaking. He definitely had a dry sense of humor and it was AWESOME! I really enjoyed his classes :)
I've already mentioned Mr. O'Dell. He rocked and was an awesome encouragement to me this past year. His room was definitely a place I could go to and just chill out and be myself. He taught me a lot about history, life, and God. If I did something for him, he would thank me and appreciate me for it which is my love language I've learned. That is one of the things we talked about is the love languages. He taught me a lot about myself and other people.
Next I would like to thank Mr. Grady for making me love an AP course. His AP Economics class is the best, and if you are going to be a senior next year at Kennedy, you had better take it, for it IS the best class you will have at Kennedy (in my opinion). His vibrant attitude always kept me awake even though it was the first class of the day. His teaching habits kept my work in line, too. I always did my homework for his class no matter what. He made the coursework interesting by being interested in it himself. He welcomed questions on the material and made me not afraid to ask questions in his classroom and in other classrooms as well, which stimulated my learning by a lot.
Mrs. Jones is the lady who got me interested in reading. She organized me and got me on the ball with my homework. This is the reason why: she didn't give any extra credit and she graded hard. Every single one of my works cited pages was never good enough. Haha! But that's okay, because it got me to read my work over and over again. She kept control of her classroom, too, even though she had some of the goofiest students with which to deal. From her, I learned to finish the projects that I started. Though she won't be at Kennedy next year, I hope she continues to change students at Harding the way she changed me.
Next I would like to thank Mr. Beall and Mr. Herkelman for believing in me that I could do math and excell in it. They both taught me in a way that I could remember the subject, and it didn't scare me out of my wits to speak up in Mr. Herkelman's class. They both had wonderful senses of humor which helps when it comes to "boring" subjects.
My next thank yous go out to Mrs. Steinmetz and Miss Suiter. They taught science in a way that interested me. In ninth grade, Mrs. Steinmetz really came along side me and helped me to receive my first "A" in science since the sixth grade. I have never been good at science and probably never will be (though I did get that math and science Air Force award....hmmm), but she helped me to see the world around me through fun projects and interesting pictures and videos. Miss Suiter was a friend as well as a teacher. She really loved the subject that she was teaching which helped me to find a love for it. We always had interesting projects to do in her class which really helped me to understand the criteria better. (I am a kinsthetic learner, so I LOVE projects.) I got to look at the moon and stars up close because of her star parties which was top neato for me. She also had a sweet sarcastic sense of humor which I really enjoyed.
Thank you to the art teachers Mrs. Ennis, Mrs. Walsh, and Mr. Scheumuker. You taught me to love art and to be creative. There was always a lot of encouragement and humor in your classrooms. Thanks to you, I've found that I love painting and critiqueing paintings. The museum in Chicago would never be as interesting without you.
Thanks to Mr. Barry Wilson for teaching me a subject that I thought I would never succeed at. I definitely learned a lot in Auto Tech, and I definitely succeeded in the class. Thank you for not giving up in me, and for not treating me like just another one of the boys. You made that class fun with your humor and your hands on learning.
Thank you to Mr. Benedict again for the FCA Lock-In; we could not have done it without you. Thank you for the hands on learning projects that we got to do in your class. I will always remember the Barbie project at the end of the year. Savages!
Thank you to Mrs. Elliot for teaching me how to use my voice and for telling me that my voice doesn't suck. I will always remember you and your sweet self behind the piano smiling at me.
Thank you Mr. Carolin for not only teaching me a different language, but also for giving me a lot of wisdom on life and relationships. You have been an encouragement through some rough times, and I will not forget your smiling face and New York-ian accent. :)
Thank you Mrs. Hrubes for being my AP Calc teacher and for getting me through. You are quaint and cute with your random outbursts of singing and math jokes.
Thank you Brooke Hoover for teaching me how to play guitar. It opened up a new world and a new love to me.
And thank you Mrs. Collins for encouraging me to be myself and follow my dreams. Your encouragement has opened up a whole new world of learning to me for the next for years, and I am excited.
That is the end of my thank you's and rememberances for right now. Kennedy was definitely the most awesome place to be for the past four years.