ammunroeENC1101: Memoir-Final Draft

This was it; the magical day was finally here! I was about to pick out my senior schedule. When you’re in high school or grades even younger, you aspire to be a senior. I was finally the “big woman on campus”, technically speaking. Your senior schedule could make you or break you in a college’s eyes, so it was very important to pick classes that looked good, but still allowed you to slack off a little bit. I decided to do child care two-three which sounds like a piece of cake but, it ended up being my hardest class. I also decided to take college algebra, my first college level course. To round out the rest of my schedule I chose psychology, marine biology, fashion design two, and English honors four. Little did I know that the
senior year ahead would be one of the most exciting and emotional years of my life.

I was thrilled my first day of school, I didn’t have to wake up until an hour after school started, which was a huge plus because I absolutely hate waking up early. Child care was my first class, and preschool would hopefully start on time in September. Unfortunately, we were stuck in a trailer while our preschool classroom was being “renovated”. I was overjoyed to know that we would sitting around unprepared for two months, and then be expected to teach four year olds unknowing of what to work with, and not knowing the children we were lucky enough to teach. The rest of my day was fairly boring, listening to lectures about how challenging the class ahead was going to be. But I had my eye on the prize just like every other new senior, graduation.

Even though my final year was going pretty well, at home things were very different. One night I came home late from hanging out at a close friend’s house. I was in my room lounging on my bed and listening to Paramore on my computer when my dad knocked on the door and asked, “Lex can I come in?” “Sure”, I replied back as my dad walked through the door. He stood around awkwardly for a minute and sat down on my bed. My dad had a strained, tired look on his face and started to speak in a somber tone, “Your mom and I are getting a divorce. You know things have been rough lately, and this is the only other option as I see it right now. I think that maybe someday things will get better, but I’m not sure. Your mom is moving out in two weeks to live at her friend’s house and we’re going to try to make things as normal as possible for you, Erica, and T.j.” I was in complete shock, and I could only mutter an “Okay, can you please go now?” My dad gave me a sincere hug and left while I spent the rest of my night crying.

Those next few weeks of going to school and putting on a happy face while my family unit was crumbling were very hard. I could barely concentrate in class, and put in a lot more hours thinking about what was going on at home then on my schoolwork. Luckily, I found relief in teaching the preschoolers. The kids made the long, tiring days go by faster and easier and my favorites could always make me laugh, no matter what was on my mind. The day my mom moved out, I couldn’t even look her in the face. I had a feeling that my parents would break up eventually after fighting so much, but it was sooner than I thought. My brother and sister were completely clueless about what was going on, and the shock of the divorce hurt them more then me. My little brother T.J. was upset, but instead of being sad, he showed more aggression towards my mom and rarely to the rest of the family. I only saw my mom once or twice a week, if I was lucky and our relationship was strained because I believed she had hurt our family out of her careless actions. I felt like I couldn’t talk to my mother about anything anymore and if I did say anything I had doubts that she honestly cared about what I had to say. My sister, Erica was more accepting of the situation and went to sleep over my mom’s house a couple of times, while my brother and I stayed home with my dad. I relied on my friends a lot during this time, and distracted myself as much as I could by putting more effort into my schoolwork.

The saying ‘when it rains, it pours’ showed its true colors because soon after my mom moved out, my dog Rusty died. My one hundred pound, yellow lab who always had been a comfort to me in the hard times, whether they were over a boy who made me cry or that my little brother had ate all of the ice cream (again), was gone forever. This really hit my family hard, and I spent a couple sleepless nights upset that my pet wasn’t snoring beside me. It was hard to think about my college decisions as well because of all of the problems that were occurring at home. It didn’t help I discovered I had been deferred from my first choice college, the University of Central Florida. I thought I had written a killer essay and that my SAT scores were good enough for an admission, but I was wrong. I was upset, but I wanted to keep trying my hardest to get in, so I signed up for an ACT test and hoped for the best.

Eventually, the end of the school year was approaching and everything slowly started to get better at home. My parents started talking again and my mom started coming back home and spending more time with us. In time, my mom moved back into our house after five months of being away. It was still tough at first, getting used to my mother being home again but our relationship has healed somewhat since then. After a while, my parents said that we were allowed to get another pet, but this time it would be a cat! After thoroughly searching a local pet adoption site one kitty turned into two, and after visiting the animal shelter two kitties turned into three! We were able to save one of our new pet’s lives (even though she’s the meanest one) and I’m glad we were able to walk into the animal shelter when we did. I picked the only boy cat out of our new additions, that was about six months old and I fell in love with him instantly. I named him Edward after the book Twilight, and because well, frankly he just looks like an Edward. And to put the icing on the cake, I finally received an acceptance letter from the University of Central Florida. I had discovered that my SAT score I had sent in was not high enough, but that my twenty six on my ACT was just right to receive admittance. Needless to say I was ecstatic and ran around my house dancing and screaming.

As I look back on my senior year, I’ve had so many wonderful memories and sad ones as well. All of my hard work and effort throughout my whole career in school was built up for my final year. I’m proud to say I graduated with honors, and didn’t trip when I walked across the stage. My senior year of high school at Satellite High School was a bittersweet and one of the most memorable school years of my life. Even though I went through multiple emotional ups and downs like my parent’s divorce and my dog’s death, I wouldn’t miss a chance to repeat that year again.