the mind, the hands, the heart
Well now, I haven't posted in a while and most of my life changing experiences occurred during the past few days, so here's a little backtracking.
I finished my Japanese essay. It surpassed the minimum page count of 7 by 2 pages, and I just got it back yesterday with a big fat A smacked on the front cover. whoot!
I also finished my flash animation which I'd been slaving over for an entire quarter!!!! IT'S'A HEA!!!
We got our yearbooks and this year, the design and the overall polaroid theme was mega cute! I looove it! Though I didn't really get many signatures on my book because I only started signing on the last day of school, I'm not at all disappointed. The whole process is somewhat onerous. I've made several pages for people with illustrations. Here's an example of what I did to givethesignal, willt and jamesyscull's page.
Then, I graduated.
After my 14.5 years of ASIJ education, I finally received my diploma at the center of the Fuchu no Mori auditorium. Man, how I'd dreamed of that day ever since I was learning to spell "because". It was really surreal and rather abrupt, probably because I had an exam and a couple projects due just the previous day. I had originally prepared a plan for the way I my graduation would progress and how I would gradually prepare my heart for the big day, which didn't end up being executed after all.
What hit me most was the process of walking. Walking through the green cemented corridor of the elementary school inner circle, which I'd passed through so many times as I skipped minutes in class pretending to go to the bathroom, or walking passed the lower field which was once construction free and speckled with classmates all rooting for each others teams dividing the bleachers in red and white, or walking on the same path that I once sprinted across to reach Mrs.Fuller's music room on Halloween day because everyone knew she provided the best candies, or walking on the carpet of the middle school commons, which four years ago was damp by the tears shed for the loss of a wonderful friend, walking through the social studies section of the high school embracing those teachers whom I've adored the past four years, walking down the stairs which were once a nightmare to climb in crutches, and walking on the class stones which I once skipped along on my way to swimming class, stones on which I first discovered the term "XYZ" after which the second grader Kent Itoh hastily fastened his fly, the stones which I'd consistently dreamed of placing my own, which I'd finally fulfilled.
So they ask me, what do you remember most about ASIJ? How does it feel to have graduated?
Well... pictures. Images. Sensations. Try 14 years worth of moments. And objects. The yellow clock with blue printed numbers and red hands - the first clock I read. The orange ones, tens, and hundreds unit cubes - my first step to three digit multiplication. Roald Dahl's "Matilda" and "BFG" - my first book reports, the pencil grip eraser - Ms. Crane's futile effort to fix our handwriting. The Oregon Trail map - the most difficult group project I encountered in 5th grade...
How does it feel?
All I know is that it's time. Things are changing, like they always have and always will. And now I make my decisions and efforts to gain my own outcomes. I'm grateful to my school, which I will always refer to as "my school" and I'm honored to have been the class of '07, and to now partake in the membership of the alumni.
And guess what - I stood there. They called my name as they announced the number of years I had attended ASIJ and I stood there. And now, that 1st grader is satisfied. Her dream came true and she's completed her duty.
"You may be excused." - ES Principal, Dan Bender
I finished my Japanese essay. It surpassed the minimum page count of 7 by 2 pages, and I just got it back yesterday with a big fat A smacked on the front cover. whoot!
I also finished my flash animation which I'd been slaving over for an entire quarter!!!! IT'S'A HEA!!!
We got our yearbooks and this year, the design and the overall polaroid theme was mega cute! I looove it! Though I didn't really get many signatures on my book because I only started signing on the last day of school, I'm not at all disappointed. The whole process is somewhat onerous. I've made several pages for people with illustrations. Here's an example of what I did to givethesignal, willt and jamesyscull's page.
Then, I graduated.
After my 14.5 years of ASIJ education, I finally received my diploma at the center of the Fuchu no Mori auditorium. Man, how I'd dreamed of that day ever since I was learning to spell "because". It was really surreal and rather abrupt, probably because I had an exam and a couple projects due just the previous day. I had originally prepared a plan for the way I my graduation would progress and how I would gradually prepare my heart for the big day, which didn't end up being executed after all.
What hit me most was the process of walking. Walking through the green cemented corridor of the elementary school inner circle, which I'd passed through so many times as I skipped minutes in class pretending to go to the bathroom, or walking passed the lower field which was once construction free and speckled with classmates all rooting for each others teams dividing the bleachers in red and white, or walking on the same path that I once sprinted across to reach Mrs.Fuller's music room on Halloween day because everyone knew she provided the best candies, or walking on the carpet of the middle school commons, which four years ago was damp by the tears shed for the loss of a wonderful friend, walking through the social studies section of the high school embracing those teachers whom I've adored the past four years, walking down the stairs which were once a nightmare to climb in crutches, and walking on the class stones which I once skipped along on my way to swimming class, stones on which I first discovered the term "XYZ" after which the second grader Kent Itoh hastily fastened his fly, the stones which I'd consistently dreamed of placing my own, which I'd finally fulfilled.
So they ask me, what do you remember most about ASIJ? How does it feel to have graduated?
Well... pictures. Images. Sensations. Try 14 years worth of moments. And objects. The yellow clock with blue printed numbers and red hands - the first clock I read. The orange ones, tens, and hundreds unit cubes - my first step to three digit multiplication. Roald Dahl's "Matilda" and "BFG" - my first book reports, the pencil grip eraser - Ms. Crane's futile effort to fix our handwriting. The Oregon Trail map - the most difficult group project I encountered in 5th grade...
How does it feel?
All I know is that it's time. Things are changing, like they always have and always will. And now I make my decisions and efforts to gain my own outcomes. I'm grateful to my school, which I will always refer to as "my school" and I'm honored to have been the class of '07, and to now partake in the membership of the alumni.
And guess what - I stood there. They called my name as they announced the number of years I had attended ASIJ and I stood there. And now, that 1st grader is satisfied. Her dream came true and she's completed her duty.
"You may be excused." - ES Principal, Dan Bender