SOCES -> UC Davis
Have you ever gone to summer camp and gotten to know a bunch of really cool people, had lots of fun, and then been sad at the end of summer when you knew you wouldn't see them for another nine months? Well, my time at CES felt NOTHING like that. When you go to the same school for as 9 years of your life, leaving it behind isn't easy. SOCES isn't just a big part of our lives, its the ONLY part of our lives. When you think about it, its completely true: practically all of our friends go to SOCES, even most of our siblings go there. And when you are talking to your non-SOCES friends, the first thing we always do, is try to get them to come to a SOCES party, a concert, a play, or SOMETHING. Other than my family, everyone I care about is at SOCES. So leaving all that behind isn't at all easy.
Over the years, I've changed SO much. Just by reading back to the first year of this journal (2004) you can see just how much one person can change. I remember clearly my first days at CES, when Kristine Gottesman's mom walked me up to GCOR for homeroom. I remember racing Geoffery Hovivian to room 603, Mrs. Miller, and getting in trouble because we thought the passing bell rang but it was just the janitor bell. I remember some fat kid, and a kid whos name I think was Igor, introducing me to Pokemon by showing me the little panphlet that came with the gameboy color game, and I remember being so gullible that I was convinced by them that it was real. I remember sitting in Mrs. Bartel's class across from justine playing with simple mahcines. I remember getting in trouble in Mrs. Clark's class for reading ahead in "The Trumpet of the Swan" and I remember Mrs. Clark always got mad at Brianna Orland for clicking her mechanical pencil. I remember copying spelling words out of the English book with the shells on the front, and asking Tyler Keene for a pencil because I didn't have one. And he alwasy gave me a really short, crappy one. I remember Thor's realm with Marlon and Matt S. and I remember Matt S had the coolest shoes because they were pumpy shoes that would fill with air. I even remember Greg and Geoffery throwing me into a trash can outside a bungalo just because I challenged them to do it.
And that was just fourth grade, off the top of my head.
In any case, I know that when I miss SOCES i actually wont miss the school. I'm certainly not going to miss walking through those gates, or hearing the Junior Band rehearse during a math test, or seeing Mrs. Stotland in the hallway and being forced to acknowledge her pitiful existence. What I am going to miss are, frankly, my friends. Every one of the people I talk to has had some impact on my life. Everyone has taught me something, and helped me to become who I am someway, from Ahoraian to Zvansky. And of course there are some that I didn't enjoy the company of as much as others, but you know what? They taught me something too.
Anyways, what I'm trying to say, is that I connected with each and every person at SOCES that I came across, on some level. And I know that I want to stay in contact with many of you, but I also know that that is unlikely. After summer, most of you I will see only at reunions, and Winter Break, and visiting the now-Senior class of 2008, and things like that. As someone who is literally being left alone on his college journey, there are a few of you whom I will strive to remain in contact with, only because I know you will want to remain in contact with me. There are a couple of you who I smile at, and tell that I want to remain in contact with, when we both know that we most likely won't talk unless we're forced too, and its not because we dislike eachother, its just because we contect on a different level, and we aren't alike enough. And there are some of you who I will say to your face I wont stay in contact with, because I know it aint gonna happen. But MOST OF ALL, I know that I WILL remember EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU. I mean, if I can remember all that shit from 4rth grade that really didn't mean so much, how can I forget you guys? I wouldn't be able to forget if I tried!
Conrats c/o 2007, I love you guys.