Well singest th'cucu nu swik tha naver nu
I should do several entries in one. I guess as a "Seniors' Last Hurrah Week!" post.
So we wear these REALLY AWFUL CHOIR GOWNS lol We all looked like sexier versions of nuns. I don't know if you can see the gowns very much here or not, but. They aren't very flattering on most people. I think I pulled it off as well as a person could... or I did until I saw Missy! lol On her, it looked like a freaking PROM GOWN. She looked so good in it lol And she's so skinny that it just looked heavenly on her, everybody thought so. But that there picture I posted above is me and Sara Baker, the soloist who went before me.
We got there and went through the chaotic bandroom taking pictures and eventually had to come out and warm up. I was starting to freak out, going, "OMG SOLOOOO OMG SOLOOOOOOO!" but we went out on the risers (both freshman and upperclassman choirs) and started rehearsing. Can you say CROWDED up on those risers? If you saw the video, you will know what I mean, and a lot of people didn't even show up! lol But it turned out that a lot of parents were already there in the audience at 6:00 when we started warming up, even though it starts at 7:00... and that was actually really good because performing in front of them informally FIRST was just a good way to ease nerves.
We left and went back to the bandroom, and Mr. Bullock was yelling at the entire band for something... That some of them were late and you aren't late to your own concert, I think it was. And Travis was walking around with those like overall type things on that they have to wear as pants. The band was wearing their marching uniforms, which is kind of lame because they're MARCHING BAND uniforms and not, you know, CONCERT uniforms. (But once they started performing, no one really cared.) I hugged Travis and he was like, "DON'T SCREW UP!" and he hugs like better than most people so I was like, "<3"
And then we went out in as good order as we could and boarded the risers. We performed "Sumer is Icumen In" which is this old-english song about the arrival of summer. The guy behind me was so completely tone deaf it was ridiculous. He's a freshman, I don't know him. And the senior next to me wasn't that great pitch-wise either. But once that was over, we upperclassmen rushed off the risers (by row this time, so we'd stay in order) and sat down in the bleachers behind the risers so the underclassmen could perform "Ave Maria" which was BEAUTIFULLLLLLL! and I'se th'by? What ever that is? It was like a square dancing tune or something, and everyone was like, "Wtf?" when they sang it ha. And the soloists in that song were... really, they were not good. It was all nerves, though. I think...
And then they got off and we got on again. We performed "Siyahamba Kuka Nyeni Kwen Kos" (pronounced "seeya hahmba kooka nnyenee cwen cose")which is Zulu for "we are marching in the light of God." The first verse was just Sharlene singing it in Creole (gorgeous) and then it was all of us singing it in Zulu and then we sang it in English, and then we went back to Zulu and did some intricate harmonies and swayed lol It was really fun. And Carly played these African-type drums and Rachel tapped a maracca.
Then we also sang this song called "In Flanders' Fields" and it's GORGEOUS, but it's all the words of the first three verses of the famous poem entitled In Flanders' Fields by the Canadian army physician John McCrae about the graveyard of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. When they soldiers dug the graves for their comrades, they apparently stirred up all the buried poppyseeds and once those rose to the surface, the next spring the entire graveyard was red, full of poppies. Anyway, Travis Milam (different from MY Travis) sang the solo in the beginning with his beautiful, warm voice, and I'm SO glad he nailed it because he hadn't yet until that night. It was marvelous. And then we all came in with these really good harmonies and it's a GORGEOUS song! Sara, the girl I showed you before, played the piano during this song so Mrs. Rose could direct us properly.
I kept thinking about Travis. And how he was sitting there watching me. Took me a while to find him among the sea of band members, but. He was there. And it made me happy.
And then the other choir came on again and we sang The Storm Is Passing Over (really good, great dynamics) and then Seasons of Love, which was the BIG finale!
Seasons of Love was AMAZING! What's-her-name, the girl who got the solo I wanted that no one likes because she's a skank but who is extremely good at singing (and she knows it), Sharlene, Sara, and I came to the front of the risers, directly in the center (I love how this happened because I want to be SEEN when we sing this song, I LOVE THIS SONG I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!) becuase we all had solos! It went very, very well. All of us. I was just kind of loving it, acting and stuff because you know how in the movie when the RENT cast sings it they're all intense and quiet but their music has energy in the beginning, and when you get to the "measure in love" they come alive? We were supposed to do that, to, but then I tried making eye contact with all of the audience, singing to them what the words actually mean instead of just the tune of the song. I don't know, I just felt like I was doing a good job with it. Although, come to find out I was the palest person there lol And my lipstick was very bright, but I kind of wanted it to contrast with the blackness of the choir gown and bring some color to the scene since we weren't allowed to wear anything colorful.
When it came time for my solo, my lip was only SLIGHTLY freaking out. And my legs weren't shaking much because I was really into it and, you know, just really happy to be singing this song for people with my choir buddies. Megs reached out and scratched my shoulder, letting me know she was wishing me good luck. And when I stepped up to the mic, it was really nice! I was nervous, yeah, but I think I just made the decision to just roll with it and I was wrapped up enough in the moment that the nerves didn't affect me as well as they normally would have. I did my best, of course, and in the end I thought I did all right! My lip twitched more, but I kind of like. Smiled. And it didn't happen because I was smiling widely.
And Ms. Rose's husband was looking pretty ADORABLE playing the drums along with us. Ha. THEY ARE SO FREAKING CUTE, I JUST WANT TO SQUISH THEM EVERY TIME I SEE THEM BECAUSE OF HOW AMAZING THEY LOOK TOGETHERRRRRRRRRRRRRR! OMG. OMG OMG. CUTEST COUPLE I HAVE EVER SEEN, I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!
Then the concert was over! Ms. Rose told us soloists to take a bow, then she took a bow, then she told the entire choir to take a bow, and it felt SO GOOD! Like, we as a choir had pulled off the best concert Tech had had in a while (because of the new choir teacher, not us, but. lol)I love the end of performances for people when you know you did a good job, and you can look forward to hearing their reactions. I ran to the choir room and got my purse, and people told me they liked it as I walked. I looked for Travis and I didn't see him. But then I saw Mr. Conaway, who had been filming the concert, and he goes, "Fabulous. Think you did well?" and I was like, "I hope so. I thought I did all right." And he was like, "I have the tape to prove it. It was flawless. Excellent job." THAT made my night. I think.
And then I kind of hung around for a while talking to people. And had freshmen come up to me and be like, "NEWS LADY!" because I'm on the RR and they know my twin sister so they confused us at first? And they were just clarifying, I guess. And I saw my parents.
This was a good moment for my parents and me, because like. Dad was in the choir in college and they are his favorite days of his life. We both share that for performing and singing in large groups, like. He was really excited about this and it was something we could both talk about together. I knew he could really appreciate the music we were making as well as be proud of me with my solo. And he was, and it was great <3
And then I went back to the band room, told all my band friends to break a leggggggggg! and FOUND TRAVIS! To hug him and tell HIM not to screw up! Jk. But I did hug him. I love collecting hugs from him.
And then Kelly and Liv and Nicole and Maham and I sat in the bleachers to watch the band. It was fun because we kept waving at Travis and going, "WE LIKE YOU!" and he didn't know what we were saying so we had to sign it to him. It was kind of amazing. The band ITSELF was amazing, they played some fantastic songs that are well-known and they were SO GOOD, I was so proud of them and I really, really enjoyed it! I also really enjoyed that Travis was like facing us, so he could see us lol
At the end of the entire thing, Chase came on stage and gave Ms. Rose some roses <3 It was SUCH a nice moment! We choir kids who remained ran over to the stage and clapped for her. He'd hidden the roses under the bleachers so she wouldn't find them, and I'd donated a dollar to the cause earlier before the concert because I hadn't known about it until that moment lol
But yeahhhh we hung out and stuff afterward in the band room and then left. It was a good night. I realized how much more confident I am in my own singing voice because of that experience, like. You know how when you're just goofing off with your friends, you think twice about singing because you don't know whether you're good enough to try it in front of them sometimes? Or they're like, "Hum the song, I don't think I know the one you're talking about" and you're like, "nah" because you don't want to embarrass yourself? Well I totally don't think I'll be doing that anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So on Friday, my last odd day, I went to the Raven Report for my last day of hostinggggggggggg v.v It was sad. Very sad. But kind of surreal, though, because I'd been opening the documents and programs on the teleprompter and turning on the computers and writing the script and putting on the mic for so long now that it felt like "just another day" you know? But we signed yearbooks and took pictures and I listened for Mr. Conaway break down the show layout for the last time (I thought) ever. And then Rachel arrived (late, but she had an excuse) to host with me, our last hosting day ever!
I kind of sucked, but it was okay I think. You all saw it-- that was the show I posted and said "WATCH THIS NOW!" because Mr. Conaway showed CHOIR FOOTAGE at the enddddddddd! So we watched that when the show was done. It was us + all of Mr. Conaway's freshman students gathered around the 40 thousand monitors in the Control Room. And when I came on Courtenay (left of me) was all like, "GET IT, KRISTEN!" And she was like, "I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD SINGGGG!" and it made me happy. I got stuff like that the rest of the day, like, "was that you singing on TV?" and in Calculus Justin was like, "Everyone was impressed, I couldn't tell you went flat on a few notes" because I told him I thought it sucked lol
Yeah, then I went to Calculus. On the way, I got to hug Josh about forty times and Josh always kisses me on the cheek like every day. So I got him back, for the first time!
And in Calculus we did nothing, it was great. Justin played his guitar like he always does when we don't have anything to do in there, it was magnificent. I LOVE HIMMMMM! He shaved his head, as you can see, because someone at our school (we don't know who she is, he wouldn't say and we didn't force it out of him because it's not something he was comfortable sharing) has cancer and she's starting to lose her hair. He is SO sweet like that! He and a bunch of his friends in JROTC did it, and she saw them that day and cried. ISN'T THAT JUST REALLY, REALLY THOUGHTFUL OF THEM?
And then the rest of the period Kariann went off, talking about administrators and how much she hates administration at Tech and how she's so glad to be getting out... it was a downer, for sure. She annoyed me, I just sat there like, "She has NO idea what she's talking about." Because if she really did, she'd like. She'd not say what she said. I kept my mouth shut, I do know slightly more than she does about the situations she discussed. But then Mr. Heuring made it worse, he started talking about the problems teachers were having with administrators and yeah, a lot of that sounds incredibly true, and it made me realize YET AGAIN that education and the hiring of teachers is including politics more and more with each passing minute... and it was just.. I didn't want to remembe that class and Tech for that. What matters to me is that this school has given me so many wonderful memories. If I gave you a tour of the school, I could probably take you to most rooms and every square on the hallway tile and tell you a good memory that happened there. You know? So like. I don't care that no one likes our principal or whatever. It didn't affect my good memories of that place VERY MUCH. Except that I had to edit out the good parts of the senior video... yeah. That bites.
Spanish. Signed yearbooks, took pictures with my amazing Presidenta de la Sociedad honoria de español, and watched Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights! lol I loved that movie, I was sad we didn't get to finish it!
Now, the annual Variety Show/Talent Show dedicated to the seniors was Friday. As seniors in choir, we were PLANNING on singing the senior song, Ride of Your Life- John Gregory, but that hadn't worked out. So I get a text in Spanish (while maneuvering around Sra. Stewart since she HATES texting) that says, "We're rehearsing Seasons of Love right now, can you come down?" and I was like, "OMG" because when we rehearsed the other song, it sounded HORRIBLE and two of the like 8 kids were either tone deaf or cannot for the life of them find the right pitch in most of the song, either one... so I had backed out, not wanting to be associated with that kind of performance. And I was like, "@.@" and tried to find out more info, only to find that it was the same kids as before... and I skillfully let him know I wouldn't be able to make it and to do it without me.
Onward to Design Art, where a LOT of things happened. First, Sam Conaway Stranick (pregnant and married to another senior in our class, Cory Stranick) sees me as I walk in and goes, "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN WE WERE REHEARSING, WE DESPERATELY NEEDED YOU" and I was like, "ummm I couldn't get out of Spanish, I have Stewart" and she goes, "Ohhhh..." not really realizing that all we did was watch a movie last class, since Ms. Stewart has a reputation for being strict. Although I love her to death, and she is the best Spanish teacher there is. Anyway, Sam was like, "We were all PRAYING you'd show up!" and I was like, "Why" and she was like, "Because we need you for your solo. Madeline McCann agreed to do it in your place, and we really don't want her to do it, SHE SOUNDS LIKE SHE'S SINGING OPERA!" and I was like, "O.O" And I was like really flattered by all this. But. I was really scared to agree to help because, you know, it sounded like such crap last time we tried to put something together. But then she was like, "More than just us original 8 are coming, we have probably 15 now! Sharlene's doing her solo and we really need you to do yours! Chase and Ivy are actually doing yours, you can take Sara's but they're almost the same thing, right?" And she almost had me convinced, until she said that, because I thought I'd just be doing the same solo as before, but now I'd be taking Sara's. And in my solo from the choir concert, I'd perfected exactly what my "improving" and my runs and my frills on the original version of the song written in the music were going to sound like. And I wanted to fancify the music this time, again, and I had in no way ever attempted to do it to Sara's part...
And I also found myself really wanting in on this.
And it really helped that they all WANTED me in on this.
So I was like, "Sure." After I ran through it a few times in my head. And after a long period of removing all the good pictures from Prom off of Mr. G's Davor CDs:
(our table at prom, Me, Mason, Ian, and Carrie, me doing the Booty Call, Bethany being crowned Prom Queen, etc etc)
and taking pictures of my Design Art girls and me and Josh Dickson, we went to lunch. It was a really weird schedule today so most seniors had A lunch. I sat with Anthony, Kelly, Joy, and Sarah, and eventually we were joined by Justin W, Keri, and Dawn. And most of that time I spent either laughing with Anthony and Kelly about our thousands of inside jokes or running around the cafeteria signing yearbooks. Or just signing yearbooks with people around me. I was very productive.
Sarah and I high-tailed it to the gym after that, though, to go to the variety show rehearsal. We did our thing on stage, after mass confusion, and it actually seemed like it was going to be okay! We worked some stuff out with mics, and we did some other rearranging with parts and whatever so it turned out that I was also going to be singing with Chase and Ivy during my original solo anyway, I don't know, it was confusing and I spent most of the time saying, "WHAT ARE WE DOING?" but it worked out okay. I think. I mean, I spent most of the time I wasn't saying, "WHAT ARE WE DOING?" thinking, "THIS IS GOING TO SUCK" but. I ended up being proven wrong.
The rest of rehearsal = us sitting there in folding chairs in the middle of the gym while the other acts performed. It was SO COLD in that gym because they decided to cool it off before the entire student body came inside and heated it up. But I was dying in my Senior T-shirt and shortsssss! (All the seniors were supposed to be wearing senior shirts that day, the one with a giant 08 on the back with all of our signatures inside the letters. On the front off to the side, it says "Senioritis: A way of life. '08 the great.") And I got this massive headache from the volume of the music and the guitars and that one guy rapping and all the insanity. I had to freaking leave the gym, my head was hurting so badly. And also because I was cold and I needed to walk around to warm up.
I did see Lonny a lot thoughhhh! And hug him. I hugged him more Friday than I probably have the entire year prior to that day. We are such good friends, I missed him this yearrrrrrrrrr v.v Our dynamic is so interesting.
Signed more yearbooks/got more signatures.
And then the rest of the school started arriving at the gym as they were dismissed from class/lunch/wherever they came from. They streamed in and filled up the bleachers, and I finally joined the kids I would be sitting with for the rest of the show: Joy, Kristen, Steph, Sarah, Bethany, Sharlene, Dominique, Sam, etc were all of the kids around me. We sat like right next to the giant group of black kids, like... when the rapper got on stage it was so incredibly obvious beacuse they were the only ones on their feet yelling lol But when Sharlene and Dominique got up there to sing, I was so on my feet with them! I pulled Joy along with me. They were like, "Yeah, we found out about this this morning..." and I was like, "NO WAY!" because they are so talented you'd think they'd rehearsed forever. What I love about my senior class, besides that we are all so ridiculously awesome (I will talk about that later, I think), is that we're all pretty much friends despite what ethnicity we are or what technical area we are in. And it's AWESOME.
So our performance started the pep rally-- the senior choir was first. So we all got up there around a mic in front of the entire school... and I wasn't that nervous. Because we felt like a little family up there, it was SO NICE. Ms. Rose started playing, and we started singing, and of course the dynamics were off because half the kids probably didn't know what dynamics were in the first place... lol But we had fun! When Sharlene got up on the second mic to do her solo, all the black kids started SCREAMING and like yelling and freaking out, and I squeezed her arm. It was so awesome. People went wild when she started singing-- she's amazing. And then she got done and we did that "seaons of loooooooooooooooooooooooooove" thing and then I got up there and even though the black kids didn't like yell for me, I def. heard some yells! And then Ivy and Chase joined me on either side of me and we put our arms around each other and finished the solo portions. Joining the rest of the group on stage, we all swayed together and rocked out and smiled and sincerely enjoyed ourselves. It was AWESOME. And I don't think it could have gone any better.
When we were done, the rest of the pep rally began. We had guitars doing instrumentals, Kelsey Daisey doing an INCREDIBLE job singing and playing the piano, some rock song that everyone else seemed to know, and the guys in the band playing/singing dressed up all awesome with ties and black pants and white shirts, but the lead singer's voice sucked, a senior skit that kind of amazed me (where James dressed up like Mr. G and Brittany looked exactly like Mr. Jefferson and Jermaine stole the show, acting like Mr. Collick our Dean of Students), and at the end, Fred played Swing Life Away. Joy and I ran out and started waving our hands and swayin as he sang, because he "closed the pep rally' and everyone was leaving to go home as he sang, which was like disrespectful because they made him sing to a room where no one got to really listen and he was singing to an emptying room. And more people showed up and swayed with us... it didn't get as big as I wanted it to. I wanted to give Fred an audience, but I wanted it also to be like last year where all the seniors got up around the stage and started crying and singing together as Schyler played. So I mean, it's sad that didn't fully happen but.
We took more pics, like me with Mr. Sell (I will miss that man's jokes) and Josh got really emotional, so I got him hugging Megan and stuff, it was all VERY VERY sweet and I wanted to cry, but I never did.
And we hung out in the parking lot for a long time, all of us. I didn't get any pictures of that, though, Jenna did. We all felt the Farewell Senior show should have been on our last day, Monday, but. Alas. They said goodbye to us and then we came back for Monday anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday. Our last day. All the time, I kept thinking, "This is the last time I will ever do this" or "this is the last time I will ever be here and do that as a senior" or "I might never see this person again" and "after today, I won't belong here." It was depressing, but once again life was going too quickly for me to stop and soak in the moment and say, "This is it; time to cry now."
Walked into school looking ADORABLE in this amazing dress!!! (DO YOU SEE THE FACT THAT I HAVE CLEAVAGE? DO YOU SEE IT?)
Oh yeah, I also broke the dress code the last day. Whoops.
Anyway, I made all my stops along the way flawlessly: The mailroom to deliver notes to teachers who had a profound impact on me (too bad I only wrote 6 because I ran out of cards/stationary... that and I got lazy. I could have written like 12. For real. I LOVE THE TEACHERS AT THIS SCHOOL), Student Services to drop off some scholarship letters of what I've received... and then I got to MB and we took Raven Report photos, including another with Mr. Conaway. And to prove how much he loves me, my camera ran out of batteries and I asked him for batteries. After giving me a hard time (just for fun... you just have to know Mr. Conaway) he goes away, and five minuets later when he comes back, he just slips them in my hand all secretively. I was like, "YAY!"
And after that, my camera like DIED. Wtf, it wouldn't take any pictures. It would turn on, but it would turn off when you tried to snap a pictureeeee v.v So I dug around my purse to find more and I found some Duracell ones and shoved them in there and it worked for a good two hours. I ran around taking pictures of everyone I wanted to remember. In choir, we did nothing, so we were free to run rampant. Missy and I sneaked out while Ms. Rose was doing something in her office to go to the bathroom, Student Services, and then Ms. McKean's to get my Prom pictures. In Ms. McKean's (the student activities coordinator) a group of like eight people were playing Guitar Hero! lol! It was so funny.
Then on to AP English where we did... nothing. We had a party is what we did. I ate:
+ 1 blueberry square by Britt
+ 1 brownie by my sister
+ 1.5 pieces of "chocolate brownie pie" from Kristin
+ 1 doughnut from Evan
+ 1 bite of a piece of cheese Danish from Mr. Forcucci
+ 1 GIANT piece of Rob's mom's yellow cake with chocolate icing and a layer of peanut butter (I LOVE THAT STUFF)
It was amazing, let me tell you.
We kind of got to run around the school and do whatever we wanted. But I didn't do that MUCH. I mean, it was just as lively in the classroom:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o310/aisutennyo/Last%20days%20of%20high%20school/100_1994.jpg = this slutty girl's President campaign poster for the senior class of 2009. She's not even officially on the ballot. But her posters have like nasty cleavage crap in them, so administrators have gone around the school and colored big black lines over her boobs ha. It's funny, but anyway, they didn't get this one hanging in Forcucci's room. So Evan and Brittany did. Mr. Forcucci put "Curley's wife" on it since they're reading Of Mice and Men in his junior classes lol
AP English has been LOVELY this year!
Then I went almost across the hall to Anatomy. It was a free period, but the beginning was like AMAZING. Jenna is always eating in class and complaining that we never do anatomical activities that require eating, and last class she told Mr. Shaffer that we should have a party (with food) this class, so he comes up to her in the beginning of class and goes, "This is for you, Jenna:"
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o310/aisutennyo/Last%20days%20of%20high%20school/100_2008.jpg
!!!! Ha. She was so excited.
After many, many pics with the Anatomy crew and others, I headed down to Carpentry to get my yearbook signed! And Calvin was all, "THERE'S NO MORE SPACE!" so I showed him this bare spot on the Girls Basketball page and it was just a half-page where there were no pictures, and he took up the whole thing lol Which amazed me because we have only spoken a few times, but I find him to be one of the most incredible people. And he kept going, "That's my page, no one else can have it!" so Danielle and Sam wrote on it too, just to spite him.
It was awesome, taking pics with Anthony, Travis, Ashley and everyone! And then Axel commandeered my camera and took pictures like this with Justin. Ha.
Then back to Anatomy to take more pics and just hang out and read yearbooks. Mr. Shaffer let us all borrow his teacher ID and go into the teacher's lounge and get a soda! But the thing was, we all borrowed it at different times and he was like, "I've given this ID to you all at least 50 times, and I only have 20 students!" lol
Then lunchhhhhhh! I skipped in the lunch line for the last time with Hannah. Guess what this is? It's my lunchhhhh. lol It's the famous diced chicken and biscuits + a hashbrown that I'd kind of... half-eaten. Along with a special treat I wish I'd actually finished... CAKE! WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAA! But yeah, that diced chicken stuff looks so nasty, but it is actually pretty good. Ha. Half the kids won't touch it, though. I was happy I got a picture of it, honestly.
Then Ian and I went into the senior courtyard for the last time. We talked about the year, about how sad we weren't yet but how we would be once the day was over, about how crazy it was that we've come this far. It was a VERY good talk. We both think a lot alike about this, I realized. It was a chance for us to get prepared for what was about to come-- the saddest part of the entire day. The last thing we said to each other as we walked away was Ian said something along the lines of "Let's start the war" and I was like, "Good luck."
And then MB. I didn't take many pics in there-- it was all about making my master tape. Which I didddddd and it's good! But I also had to build the show for the end of the year-- the last senior raven report... EVER. OMG. EVER.
The last time I ever hosted at that desk and went out to the entire school. The last time I ever got to read off those teleprompters with my friends.
IT WAS SO HECTIC THOUGH! At the last minute, Mr. Conaway had the tape of the senior video and he was gone. And we needed to air it. The show needed to start at 3:02, the whole senior class was expecting it. People gathered around their TVs ESPECIALLY for this. And at the end, we were so unsure of what to do about our show layout and who was going to be where and what was happening, and he was late!
And to make it worse, at 3:02 Schyler and Erika came in the back door and started the hugging frenzy. We were screaming and Erika was laughing and it was AMAZING, but we had a show to doooooooooo!
So what ended up happening was Brittany and I hosted, with our entire class standing behind us. So as it cut to shots of the two of us, there were bodies behind us lol Kind of looked awesome, but ghetto. They kept making Britt laugh, but I only got like a few seconds of air-time. Someone must have edited the script at the last minute and my name just have gotten erased in the process, but it's cool, I don't mind that because it was AWESOME at the end. We got to say our goodbyes, Britt and I, and then I said something to the underclassmen like stay true to who you are, enjoy your next few years here because they go by fast, blah blah, we'll miss you. And then my video aired.
AND EVERYONE LOVED IT!
It was so amazing. CIBS kids and Joy and everyone came down to MB to watch it with us. And we all crowded around the many TVs in MB and watched it. Some in the studio, some in the classroom like that photo. They laughed, they smiled, they said "aw", they gasped... at all the right places. EVEN BETTER THAN I IMAGINED. And it was THE COOLEST feeling, to see people I love watching something I made, and know that everyone in the entire school was watching it and enjoying it in the same way. I didn't even give myself credit for it-- I think people knew it was all me-- and the entire day and even afterwards, people were asking me how they could get copies of it. It made me SO HAPPY and SO PROUD...
and so sad, in the end. After it was over, I was dry-eyed, but then Megan Campbell and I hugged and I started crying, and she started crying, and it started. I hugged all my friends in that room, and we cried together. Adam was like, "Awwww come here" and Joy and Keri and Bethany and Danielle and Olivia and Brittany. And Schyler and Erika were like, "Don't cry, you'll see them at graduation! GREAT VIDEO" and Mr. Conaway was like, "Come back and put stuff on a field tape" and it was a giant blur of activity as I cried and searched for my stuff. Mr. Conaway and I hugged a lot o.O He got my card and was like, "That was a fantastic card" and I really will miss this man. Over the years I've learned how to interpret all his idiosyncrasies and I think I'm overall his favorite besides Josh. Like, he just likes us because we actually work. Media Broadcasting has helped me to get everything I can out of HS. Really, it truly has.
So I ran out of school, on the way seeing Justin Rider who saw my tears and hugged me, and Emily and I kind of ran at each other... and then we were out the door and I was hugging Josh, in one of those huge hugs of his, and we were crying with each other and Ashley came over and I was in the parking lot with all my friends who I hadn't seen earlier, hugging them one by one. Ian comes up to me, crying, and goes, "Did it just hit you, too?" and I hugged him, it was one of the most meaningful moments of the day. It was kind of crazy, all of this happening. I stopped crying after I left the initial group, but I wasn't NOT emotional, you know, but going around from group to group and talking and just...
MAN. Yesterday, we were all a family. For pretty much the last time besides graduation. And I am SO sad that has to end.
I couldn't believe it, I kept thinking, "This is it, the beginning of the great divide. The beginning of the breakup, the separation where we all leave to go other places."
It was good, hanging out in the parking lot and all of us just being together.
Then I got in my car, honked at everybody, and drove away behind a giant like hayride (without the hay) full of kids I know.
And I started crying again on the way home.
But it wasn't long until 7:00, when Ashley and Anthony came over. So many inside jokes spawn every time we are together, even more when Travis is there, but I cannot say how much I love hanging out with them and being with them and just... them. I mean, I laugh hardest when I'm with them. I laughed the hardest than I had in a LONG time last night.
"Oooooooooooh that was more than burned... that was SUNBURNED. Girl, she sunbuuuuuuuurned you!"
Among others. Every time we hang out, I wish I had a videocamera set up and with an endless supply of tapes because it's AMAZING and I want to remember everything forever. I've never felt like that MORE for a group of people.
We watched Mean Girls. THAT MOVIE GETS ME EVERY TIME lol I love it. And what better way to celebrate the end of high school than watching the ultimate parody of high school? Ha.
And we also watched my field tape, that I stole from MB with all my footage of seniors on it.
Sad v.v
This is the end.
The beginning of something more.
As I've said many times, I've gotten everything I possibly could have out of high school, and now I guess it's time to move on.
I don't think college will even beat this...
but I'll try to give it a run for its money.
So we wear these REALLY AWFUL CHOIR GOWNS lol We all looked like sexier versions of nuns. I don't know if you can see the gowns very much here or not, but. They aren't very flattering on most people. I think I pulled it off as well as a person could... or I did until I saw Missy! lol On her, it looked like a freaking PROM GOWN. She looked so good in it lol And she's so skinny that it just looked heavenly on her, everybody thought so. But that there picture I posted above is me and Sara Baker, the soloist who went before me.
We got there and went through the chaotic bandroom taking pictures and eventually had to come out and warm up. I was starting to freak out, going, "OMG SOLOOOO OMG SOLOOOOOOO!" but we went out on the risers (both freshman and upperclassman choirs) and started rehearsing. Can you say CROWDED up on those risers? If you saw the video, you will know what I mean, and a lot of people didn't even show up! lol But it turned out that a lot of parents were already there in the audience at 6:00 when we started warming up, even though it starts at 7:00... and that was actually really good because performing in front of them informally FIRST was just a good way to ease nerves.
We left and went back to the bandroom, and Mr. Bullock was yelling at the entire band for something... That some of them were late and you aren't late to your own concert, I think it was. And Travis was walking around with those like overall type things on that they have to wear as pants. The band was wearing their marching uniforms, which is kind of lame because they're MARCHING BAND uniforms and not, you know, CONCERT uniforms. (But once they started performing, no one really cared.) I hugged Travis and he was like, "DON'T SCREW UP!" and he hugs like better than most people so I was like, "<3"
And then we went out in as good order as we could and boarded the risers. We performed "Sumer is Icumen In" which is this old-english song about the arrival of summer. The guy behind me was so completely tone deaf it was ridiculous. He's a freshman, I don't know him. And the senior next to me wasn't that great pitch-wise either. But once that was over, we upperclassmen rushed off the risers (by row this time, so we'd stay in order) and sat down in the bleachers behind the risers so the underclassmen could perform "Ave Maria" which was BEAUTIFULLLLLLL! and I'se th'by? What ever that is? It was like a square dancing tune or something, and everyone was like, "Wtf?" when they sang it ha. And the soloists in that song were... really, they were not good. It was all nerves, though. I think...
And then they got off and we got on again. We performed "Siyahamba Kuka Nyeni Kwen Kos" (pronounced "seeya hahmba kooka nnyenee cwen cose")which is Zulu for "we are marching in the light of God." The first verse was just Sharlene singing it in Creole (gorgeous) and then it was all of us singing it in Zulu and then we sang it in English, and then we went back to Zulu and did some intricate harmonies and swayed lol It was really fun. And Carly played these African-type drums and Rachel tapped a maracca.
Then we also sang this song called "In Flanders' Fields" and it's GORGEOUS, but it's all the words of the first three verses of the famous poem entitled In Flanders' Fields by the Canadian army physician John McCrae about the graveyard of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. When they soldiers dug the graves for their comrades, they apparently stirred up all the buried poppyseeds and once those rose to the surface, the next spring the entire graveyard was red, full of poppies. Anyway, Travis Milam (different from MY Travis) sang the solo in the beginning with his beautiful, warm voice, and I'm SO glad he nailed it because he hadn't yet until that night. It was marvelous. And then we all came in with these really good harmonies and it's a GORGEOUS song! Sara, the girl I showed you before, played the piano during this song so Mrs. Rose could direct us properly.
I kept thinking about Travis. And how he was sitting there watching me. Took me a while to find him among the sea of band members, but. He was there. And it made me happy.
And then the other choir came on again and we sang The Storm Is Passing Over (really good, great dynamics) and then Seasons of Love, which was the BIG finale!
Seasons of Love was AMAZING! What's-her-name, the girl who got the solo I wanted that no one likes because she's a skank but who is extremely good at singing (and she knows it), Sharlene, Sara, and I came to the front of the risers, directly in the center (I love how this happened because I want to be SEEN when we sing this song, I LOVE THIS SONG I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!) becuase we all had solos! It went very, very well. All of us. I was just kind of loving it, acting and stuff because you know how in the movie when the RENT cast sings it they're all intense and quiet but their music has energy in the beginning, and when you get to the "measure in love" they come alive? We were supposed to do that, to, but then I tried making eye contact with all of the audience, singing to them what the words actually mean instead of just the tune of the song. I don't know, I just felt like I was doing a good job with it. Although, come to find out I was the palest person there lol And my lipstick was very bright, but I kind of wanted it to contrast with the blackness of the choir gown and bring some color to the scene since we weren't allowed to wear anything colorful.
When it came time for my solo, my lip was only SLIGHTLY freaking out. And my legs weren't shaking much because I was really into it and, you know, just really happy to be singing this song for people with my choir buddies. Megs reached out and scratched my shoulder, letting me know she was wishing me good luck. And when I stepped up to the mic, it was really nice! I was nervous, yeah, but I think I just made the decision to just roll with it and I was wrapped up enough in the moment that the nerves didn't affect me as well as they normally would have. I did my best, of course, and in the end I thought I did all right! My lip twitched more, but I kind of like. Smiled. And it didn't happen because I was smiling widely.
And Ms. Rose's husband was looking pretty ADORABLE playing the drums along with us. Ha. THEY ARE SO FREAKING CUTE, I JUST WANT TO SQUISH THEM EVERY TIME I SEE THEM BECAUSE OF HOW AMAZING THEY LOOK TOGETHERRRRRRRRRRRRRR! OMG. OMG OMG. CUTEST COUPLE I HAVE EVER SEEN, I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!
Then the concert was over! Ms. Rose told us soloists to take a bow, then she took a bow, then she told the entire choir to take a bow, and it felt SO GOOD! Like, we as a choir had pulled off the best concert Tech had had in a while (because of the new choir teacher, not us, but. lol)I love the end of performances for people when you know you did a good job, and you can look forward to hearing their reactions. I ran to the choir room and got my purse, and people told me they liked it as I walked. I looked for Travis and I didn't see him. But then I saw Mr. Conaway, who had been filming the concert, and he goes, "Fabulous. Think you did well?" and I was like, "I hope so. I thought I did all right." And he was like, "I have the tape to prove it. It was flawless. Excellent job." THAT made my night. I think.
And then I kind of hung around for a while talking to people. And had freshmen come up to me and be like, "NEWS LADY!" because I'm on the RR and they know my twin sister so they confused us at first? And they were just clarifying, I guess. And I saw my parents.
This was a good moment for my parents and me, because like. Dad was in the choir in college and they are his favorite days of his life. We both share that for performing and singing in large groups, like. He was really excited about this and it was something we could both talk about together. I knew he could really appreciate the music we were making as well as be proud of me with my solo. And he was, and it was great <3
And then I went back to the band room, told all my band friends to break a leggggggggg! and FOUND TRAVIS! To hug him and tell HIM not to screw up! Jk. But I did hug him. I love collecting hugs from him.
And then Kelly and Liv and Nicole and Maham and I sat in the bleachers to watch the band. It was fun because we kept waving at Travis and going, "WE LIKE YOU!" and he didn't know what we were saying so we had to sign it to him. It was kind of amazing. The band ITSELF was amazing, they played some fantastic songs that are well-known and they were SO GOOD, I was so proud of them and I really, really enjoyed it! I also really enjoyed that Travis was like facing us, so he could see us lol
At the end of the entire thing, Chase came on stage and gave Ms. Rose some roses <3 It was SUCH a nice moment! We choir kids who remained ran over to the stage and clapped for her. He'd hidden the roses under the bleachers so she wouldn't find them, and I'd donated a dollar to the cause earlier before the concert because I hadn't known about it until that moment lol
But yeahhhh we hung out and stuff afterward in the band room and then left. It was a good night. I realized how much more confident I am in my own singing voice because of that experience, like. You know how when you're just goofing off with your friends, you think twice about singing because you don't know whether you're good enough to try it in front of them sometimes? Or they're like, "Hum the song, I don't think I know the one you're talking about" and you're like, "nah" because you don't want to embarrass yourself? Well I totally don't think I'll be doing that anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So on Friday, my last odd day, I went to the Raven Report for my last day of hostinggggggggggg v.v It was sad. Very sad. But kind of surreal, though, because I'd been opening the documents and programs on the teleprompter and turning on the computers and writing the script and putting on the mic for so long now that it felt like "just another day" you know? But we signed yearbooks and took pictures and I listened for Mr. Conaway break down the show layout for the last time (I thought) ever. And then Rachel arrived (late, but she had an excuse) to host with me, our last hosting day ever!
I kind of sucked, but it was okay I think. You all saw it-- that was the show I posted and said "WATCH THIS NOW!" because Mr. Conaway showed CHOIR FOOTAGE at the enddddddddd! So we watched that when the show was done. It was us + all of Mr. Conaway's freshman students gathered around the 40 thousand monitors in the Control Room. And when I came on Courtenay (left of me) was all like, "GET IT, KRISTEN!" And she was like, "I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD SINGGGG!" and it made me happy. I got stuff like that the rest of the day, like, "was that you singing on TV?" and in Calculus Justin was like, "Everyone was impressed, I couldn't tell you went flat on a few notes" because I told him I thought it sucked lol
Yeah, then I went to Calculus. On the way, I got to hug Josh about forty times and Josh always kisses me on the cheek like every day. So I got him back, for the first time!
And in Calculus we did nothing, it was great. Justin played his guitar like he always does when we don't have anything to do in there, it was magnificent. I LOVE HIMMMMM! He shaved his head, as you can see, because someone at our school (we don't know who she is, he wouldn't say and we didn't force it out of him because it's not something he was comfortable sharing) has cancer and she's starting to lose her hair. He is SO sweet like that! He and a bunch of his friends in JROTC did it, and she saw them that day and cried. ISN'T THAT JUST REALLY, REALLY THOUGHTFUL OF THEM?
And then the rest of the period Kariann went off, talking about administrators and how much she hates administration at Tech and how she's so glad to be getting out... it was a downer, for sure. She annoyed me, I just sat there like, "She has NO idea what she's talking about." Because if she really did, she'd like. She'd not say what she said. I kept my mouth shut, I do know slightly more than she does about the situations she discussed. But then Mr. Heuring made it worse, he started talking about the problems teachers were having with administrators and yeah, a lot of that sounds incredibly true, and it made me realize YET AGAIN that education and the hiring of teachers is including politics more and more with each passing minute... and it was just.. I didn't want to remembe that class and Tech for that. What matters to me is that this school has given me so many wonderful memories. If I gave you a tour of the school, I could probably take you to most rooms and every square on the hallway tile and tell you a good memory that happened there. You know? So like. I don't care that no one likes our principal or whatever. It didn't affect my good memories of that place VERY MUCH. Except that I had to edit out the good parts of the senior video... yeah. That bites.
Spanish. Signed yearbooks, took pictures with my amazing Presidenta de la Sociedad honoria de español, and watched Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights! lol I loved that movie, I was sad we didn't get to finish it!
Now, the annual Variety Show/Talent Show dedicated to the seniors was Friday. As seniors in choir, we were PLANNING on singing the senior song, Ride of Your Life- John Gregory, but that hadn't worked out. So I get a text in Spanish (while maneuvering around Sra. Stewart since she HATES texting) that says, "We're rehearsing Seasons of Love right now, can you come down?" and I was like, "OMG" because when we rehearsed the other song, it sounded HORRIBLE and two of the like 8 kids were either tone deaf or cannot for the life of them find the right pitch in most of the song, either one... so I had backed out, not wanting to be associated with that kind of performance. And I was like, "@.@" and tried to find out more info, only to find that it was the same kids as before... and I skillfully let him know I wouldn't be able to make it and to do it without me.
Onward to Design Art, where a LOT of things happened. First, Sam Conaway Stranick (pregnant and married to another senior in our class, Cory Stranick) sees me as I walk in and goes, "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN WE WERE REHEARSING, WE DESPERATELY NEEDED YOU" and I was like, "ummm I couldn't get out of Spanish, I have Stewart" and she goes, "Ohhhh..." not really realizing that all we did was watch a movie last class, since Ms. Stewart has a reputation for being strict. Although I love her to death, and she is the best Spanish teacher there is. Anyway, Sam was like, "We were all PRAYING you'd show up!" and I was like, "Why" and she was like, "Because we need you for your solo. Madeline McCann agreed to do it in your place, and we really don't want her to do it, SHE SOUNDS LIKE SHE'S SINGING OPERA!" and I was like, "O.O" And I was like really flattered by all this. But. I was really scared to agree to help because, you know, it sounded like such crap last time we tried to put something together. But then she was like, "More than just us original 8 are coming, we have probably 15 now! Sharlene's doing her solo and we really need you to do yours! Chase and Ivy are actually doing yours, you can take Sara's but they're almost the same thing, right?" And she almost had me convinced, until she said that, because I thought I'd just be doing the same solo as before, but now I'd be taking Sara's. And in my solo from the choir concert, I'd perfected exactly what my "improving" and my runs and my frills on the original version of the song written in the music were going to sound like. And I wanted to fancify the music this time, again, and I had in no way ever attempted to do it to Sara's part...
And I also found myself really wanting in on this.
And it really helped that they all WANTED me in on this.
So I was like, "Sure." After I ran through it a few times in my head. And after a long period of removing all the good pictures from Prom off of Mr. G's Davor CDs:
(our table at prom, Me, Mason, Ian, and Carrie, me doing the Booty Call, Bethany being crowned Prom Queen, etc etc)
and taking pictures of my Design Art girls and me and Josh Dickson, we went to lunch. It was a really weird schedule today so most seniors had A lunch. I sat with Anthony, Kelly, Joy, and Sarah, and eventually we were joined by Justin W, Keri, and Dawn. And most of that time I spent either laughing with Anthony and Kelly about our thousands of inside jokes or running around the cafeteria signing yearbooks. Or just signing yearbooks with people around me. I was very productive.
Sarah and I high-tailed it to the gym after that, though, to go to the variety show rehearsal. We did our thing on stage, after mass confusion, and it actually seemed like it was going to be okay! We worked some stuff out with mics, and we did some other rearranging with parts and whatever so it turned out that I was also going to be singing with Chase and Ivy during my original solo anyway, I don't know, it was confusing and I spent most of the time saying, "WHAT ARE WE DOING?" but it worked out okay. I think. I mean, I spent most of the time I wasn't saying, "WHAT ARE WE DOING?" thinking, "THIS IS GOING TO SUCK" but. I ended up being proven wrong.
The rest of rehearsal = us sitting there in folding chairs in the middle of the gym while the other acts performed. It was SO COLD in that gym because they decided to cool it off before the entire student body came inside and heated it up. But I was dying in my Senior T-shirt and shortsssss! (All the seniors were supposed to be wearing senior shirts that day, the one with a giant 08 on the back with all of our signatures inside the letters. On the front off to the side, it says "Senioritis: A way of life. '08 the great.") And I got this massive headache from the volume of the music and the guitars and that one guy rapping and all the insanity. I had to freaking leave the gym, my head was hurting so badly. And also because I was cold and I needed to walk around to warm up.
I did see Lonny a lot thoughhhh! And hug him. I hugged him more Friday than I probably have the entire year prior to that day. We are such good friends, I missed him this yearrrrrrrrrr v.v Our dynamic is so interesting.
Signed more yearbooks/got more signatures.
And then the rest of the school started arriving at the gym as they were dismissed from class/lunch/wherever they came from. They streamed in and filled up the bleachers, and I finally joined the kids I would be sitting with for the rest of the show: Joy, Kristen, Steph, Sarah, Bethany, Sharlene, Dominique, Sam, etc were all of the kids around me. We sat like right next to the giant group of black kids, like... when the rapper got on stage it was so incredibly obvious beacuse they were the only ones on their feet yelling lol But when Sharlene and Dominique got up there to sing, I was so on my feet with them! I pulled Joy along with me. They were like, "Yeah, we found out about this this morning..." and I was like, "NO WAY!" because they are so talented you'd think they'd rehearsed forever. What I love about my senior class, besides that we are all so ridiculously awesome (I will talk about that later, I think), is that we're all pretty much friends despite what ethnicity we are or what technical area we are in. And it's AWESOME.
So our performance started the pep rally-- the senior choir was first. So we all got up there around a mic in front of the entire school... and I wasn't that nervous. Because we felt like a little family up there, it was SO NICE. Ms. Rose started playing, and we started singing, and of course the dynamics were off because half the kids probably didn't know what dynamics were in the first place... lol But we had fun! When Sharlene got up on the second mic to do her solo, all the black kids started SCREAMING and like yelling and freaking out, and I squeezed her arm. It was so awesome. People went wild when she started singing-- she's amazing. And then she got done and we did that "seaons of loooooooooooooooooooooooooove" thing and then I got up there and even though the black kids didn't like yell for me, I def. heard some yells! And then Ivy and Chase joined me on either side of me and we put our arms around each other and finished the solo portions. Joining the rest of the group on stage, we all swayed together and rocked out and smiled and sincerely enjoyed ourselves. It was AWESOME. And I don't think it could have gone any better.
When we were done, the rest of the pep rally began. We had guitars doing instrumentals, Kelsey Daisey doing an INCREDIBLE job singing and playing the piano, some rock song that everyone else seemed to know, and the guys in the band playing/singing dressed up all awesome with ties and black pants and white shirts, but the lead singer's voice sucked, a senior skit that kind of amazed me (where James dressed up like Mr. G and Brittany looked exactly like Mr. Jefferson and Jermaine stole the show, acting like Mr. Collick our Dean of Students), and at the end, Fred played Swing Life Away. Joy and I ran out and started waving our hands and swayin as he sang, because he "closed the pep rally' and everyone was leaving to go home as he sang, which was like disrespectful because they made him sing to a room where no one got to really listen and he was singing to an emptying room. And more people showed up and swayed with us... it didn't get as big as I wanted it to. I wanted to give Fred an audience, but I wanted it also to be like last year where all the seniors got up around the stage and started crying and singing together as Schyler played. So I mean, it's sad that didn't fully happen but.
We took more pics, like me with Mr. Sell (I will miss that man's jokes) and Josh got really emotional, so I got him hugging Megan and stuff, it was all VERY VERY sweet and I wanted to cry, but I never did.
And we hung out in the parking lot for a long time, all of us. I didn't get any pictures of that, though, Jenna did. We all felt the Farewell Senior show should have been on our last day, Monday, but. Alas. They said goodbye to us and then we came back for Monday anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday. Our last day. All the time, I kept thinking, "This is the last time I will ever do this" or "this is the last time I will ever be here and do that as a senior" or "I might never see this person again" and "after today, I won't belong here." It was depressing, but once again life was going too quickly for me to stop and soak in the moment and say, "This is it; time to cry now."
Walked into school looking ADORABLE in this amazing dress!!! (DO YOU SEE THE FACT THAT I HAVE CLEAVAGE? DO YOU SEE IT?)
Oh yeah, I also broke the dress code the last day. Whoops.
Anyway, I made all my stops along the way flawlessly: The mailroom to deliver notes to teachers who had a profound impact on me (too bad I only wrote 6 because I ran out of cards/stationary... that and I got lazy. I could have written like 12. For real. I LOVE THE TEACHERS AT THIS SCHOOL), Student Services to drop off some scholarship letters of what I've received... and then I got to MB and we took Raven Report photos, including another with Mr. Conaway. And to prove how much he loves me, my camera ran out of batteries and I asked him for batteries. After giving me a hard time (just for fun... you just have to know Mr. Conaway) he goes away, and five minuets later when he comes back, he just slips them in my hand all secretively. I was like, "YAY!"
And after that, my camera like DIED. Wtf, it wouldn't take any pictures. It would turn on, but it would turn off when you tried to snap a pictureeeee v.v So I dug around my purse to find more and I found some Duracell ones and shoved them in there and it worked for a good two hours. I ran around taking pictures of everyone I wanted to remember. In choir, we did nothing, so we were free to run rampant. Missy and I sneaked out while Ms. Rose was doing something in her office to go to the bathroom, Student Services, and then Ms. McKean's to get my Prom pictures. In Ms. McKean's (the student activities coordinator) a group of like eight people were playing Guitar Hero! lol! It was so funny.
Then on to AP English where we did... nothing. We had a party is what we did. I ate:
+ 1 blueberry square by Britt
+ 1 brownie by my sister
+ 1.5 pieces of "chocolate brownie pie" from Kristin
+ 1 doughnut from Evan
+ 1 bite of a piece of cheese Danish from Mr. Forcucci
+ 1 GIANT piece of Rob's mom's yellow cake with chocolate icing and a layer of peanut butter (I LOVE THAT STUFF)
It was amazing, let me tell you.
We kind of got to run around the school and do whatever we wanted. But I didn't do that MUCH. I mean, it was just as lively in the classroom:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o310/aisutennyo/Last%20days%20of%20high%20school/100_1994.jpg = this slutty girl's President campaign poster for the senior class of 2009. She's not even officially on the ballot. But her posters have like nasty cleavage crap in them, so administrators have gone around the school and colored big black lines over her boobs ha. It's funny, but anyway, they didn't get this one hanging in Forcucci's room. So Evan and Brittany did. Mr. Forcucci put "Curley's wife" on it since they're reading Of Mice and Men in his junior classes lol
AP English has been LOVELY this year!
Then I went almost across the hall to Anatomy. It was a free period, but the beginning was like AMAZING. Jenna is always eating in class and complaining that we never do anatomical activities that require eating, and last class she told Mr. Shaffer that we should have a party (with food) this class, so he comes up to her in the beginning of class and goes, "This is for you, Jenna:"
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o310/aisutennyo/Last%20days%20of%20high%20school/100_2008.jpg
!!!! Ha. She was so excited.
After many, many pics with the Anatomy crew and others, I headed down to Carpentry to get my yearbook signed! And Calvin was all, "THERE'S NO MORE SPACE!" so I showed him this bare spot on the Girls Basketball page and it was just a half-page where there were no pictures, and he took up the whole thing lol Which amazed me because we have only spoken a few times, but I find him to be one of the most incredible people. And he kept going, "That's my page, no one else can have it!" so Danielle and Sam wrote on it too, just to spite him.
It was awesome, taking pics with Anthony, Travis, Ashley and everyone! And then Axel commandeered my camera and took pictures like this with Justin. Ha.
Then back to Anatomy to take more pics and just hang out and read yearbooks. Mr. Shaffer let us all borrow his teacher ID and go into the teacher's lounge and get a soda! But the thing was, we all borrowed it at different times and he was like, "I've given this ID to you all at least 50 times, and I only have 20 students!" lol
Then lunchhhhhhh! I skipped in the lunch line for the last time with Hannah. Guess what this is? It's my lunchhhhh. lol It's the famous diced chicken and biscuits + a hashbrown that I'd kind of... half-eaten. Along with a special treat I wish I'd actually finished... CAKE! WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAA! But yeah, that diced chicken stuff looks so nasty, but it is actually pretty good. Ha. Half the kids won't touch it, though. I was happy I got a picture of it, honestly.
Then Ian and I went into the senior courtyard for the last time. We talked about the year, about how sad we weren't yet but how we would be once the day was over, about how crazy it was that we've come this far. It was a VERY good talk. We both think a lot alike about this, I realized. It was a chance for us to get prepared for what was about to come-- the saddest part of the entire day. The last thing we said to each other as we walked away was Ian said something along the lines of "Let's start the war" and I was like, "Good luck."
And then MB. I didn't take many pics in there-- it was all about making my master tape. Which I didddddd and it's good! But I also had to build the show for the end of the year-- the last senior raven report... EVER. OMG. EVER.
The last time I ever hosted at that desk and went out to the entire school. The last time I ever got to read off those teleprompters with my friends.
IT WAS SO HECTIC THOUGH! At the last minute, Mr. Conaway had the tape of the senior video and he was gone. And we needed to air it. The show needed to start at 3:02, the whole senior class was expecting it. People gathered around their TVs ESPECIALLY for this. And at the end, we were so unsure of what to do about our show layout and who was going to be where and what was happening, and he was late!
And to make it worse, at 3:02 Schyler and Erika came in the back door and started the hugging frenzy. We were screaming and Erika was laughing and it was AMAZING, but we had a show to doooooooooo!
So what ended up happening was Brittany and I hosted, with our entire class standing behind us. So as it cut to shots of the two of us, there were bodies behind us lol Kind of looked awesome, but ghetto. They kept making Britt laugh, but I only got like a few seconds of air-time. Someone must have edited the script at the last minute and my name just have gotten erased in the process, but it's cool, I don't mind that because it was AWESOME at the end. We got to say our goodbyes, Britt and I, and then I said something to the underclassmen like stay true to who you are, enjoy your next few years here because they go by fast, blah blah, we'll miss you. And then my video aired.
AND EVERYONE LOVED IT!
It was so amazing. CIBS kids and Joy and everyone came down to MB to watch it with us. And we all crowded around the many TVs in MB and watched it. Some in the studio, some in the classroom like that photo. They laughed, they smiled, they said "aw", they gasped... at all the right places. EVEN BETTER THAN I IMAGINED. And it was THE COOLEST feeling, to see people I love watching something I made, and know that everyone in the entire school was watching it and enjoying it in the same way. I didn't even give myself credit for it-- I think people knew it was all me-- and the entire day and even afterwards, people were asking me how they could get copies of it. It made me SO HAPPY and SO PROUD...
and so sad, in the end. After it was over, I was dry-eyed, but then Megan Campbell and I hugged and I started crying, and she started crying, and it started. I hugged all my friends in that room, and we cried together. Adam was like, "Awwww come here" and Joy and Keri and Bethany and Danielle and Olivia and Brittany. And Schyler and Erika were like, "Don't cry, you'll see them at graduation! GREAT VIDEO" and Mr. Conaway was like, "Come back and put stuff on a field tape" and it was a giant blur of activity as I cried and searched for my stuff. Mr. Conaway and I hugged a lot o.O He got my card and was like, "That was a fantastic card" and I really will miss this man. Over the years I've learned how to interpret all his idiosyncrasies and I think I'm overall his favorite besides Josh. Like, he just likes us because we actually work. Media Broadcasting has helped me to get everything I can out of HS. Really, it truly has.
So I ran out of school, on the way seeing Justin Rider who saw my tears and hugged me, and Emily and I kind of ran at each other... and then we were out the door and I was hugging Josh, in one of those huge hugs of his, and we were crying with each other and Ashley came over and I was in the parking lot with all my friends who I hadn't seen earlier, hugging them one by one. Ian comes up to me, crying, and goes, "Did it just hit you, too?" and I hugged him, it was one of the most meaningful moments of the day. It was kind of crazy, all of this happening. I stopped crying after I left the initial group, but I wasn't NOT emotional, you know, but going around from group to group and talking and just...
MAN. Yesterday, we were all a family. For pretty much the last time besides graduation. And I am SO sad that has to end.
I couldn't believe it, I kept thinking, "This is it, the beginning of the great divide. The beginning of the breakup, the separation where we all leave to go other places."
It was good, hanging out in the parking lot and all of us just being together.
Then I got in my car, honked at everybody, and drove away behind a giant like hayride (without the hay) full of kids I know.
And I started crying again on the way home.
But it wasn't long until 7:00, when Ashley and Anthony came over. So many inside jokes spawn every time we are together, even more when Travis is there, but I cannot say how much I love hanging out with them and being with them and just... them. I mean, I laugh hardest when I'm with them. I laughed the hardest than I had in a LONG time last night.
"Oooooooooooh that was more than burned... that was SUNBURNED. Girl, she sunbuuuuuuuurned you!"
Among others. Every time we hang out, I wish I had a videocamera set up and with an endless supply of tapes because it's AMAZING and I want to remember everything forever. I've never felt like that MORE for a group of people.
We watched Mean Girls. THAT MOVIE GETS ME EVERY TIME lol I love it. And what better way to celebrate the end of high school than watching the ultimate parody of high school? Ha.
And we also watched my field tape, that I stole from MB with all my footage of seniors on it.
Sad v.v
This is the end.
The beginning of something more.
As I've said many times, I've gotten everything I possibly could have out of high school, and now I guess it's time to move on.
I don't think college will even beat this...
but I'll try to give it a run for its money.