Original Writing : The Glen

At the end of my first grade year, I moved away from the small, rural town near Vienna where I had lived since I was born. On my first day of school at Lincoln Elementary, I quickly made friends with two girls in my class named Pam and Kelly. Pam and Kelly introduced me to their group of friends that were all in our second grade class. For the rest of the school year, this group of friends was who I played on the playground with everyday and talked to in the classroom. After a great first year of school in Marion, the time came for my third grade year. Every year at Lincoln, there is a day that is close to the beginning of the school year where the students can come to the school to meet their new teacher and look at the class list to see which of their friends is in their class. On that morning, I went to Lincoln to find out who my new teacher was. To my dismay, I found out that all of my friends from second grade had a different teacher than I did. After finding out that I was not in class with any of my friends, I knew that I would have to find a new friend to talk to in my third grade class in addition to having all of my friends from second grade. At the beginning of my third grade year, I hung out with two friends I met named Phyllis and Erin. As the year progressed, I started to hang out with Angela who would soon become one of my best

When school was out, I would play with my friends in the neighborhood. These were kids who were not my age- some were older, and some were younger. We all had one thing in common, though- we wanted to have fun! We would throw sponge balls at the pool, play basketball at the park, or try out new videogames at my house. These were always good times.

As a child, I remember growing up in the beautiful city of Detroit, Michigan. It was clothed with one hundred plus degree summers, 6 feet or more of snow winters. A building called the Renaissance, which housed a rotating restaurant on the Penthouse level. It was the Motor city home of General Motors and the Motown city of music. Growing up there was so much fun and amazing to me. Where we would watch the bright, red, blue, green and yellow fireworks on the Fourth of July at Edgewater Park every summer, participate in community activities at the 4-H club. There were barbecues with our neighbors, one of which had a daughter with the exact first, middle and last name as mine. On the one side of me a lady everyone referred to as Ms. Pat, use to bake fresh yeast bread from scratch, and would always share with me and my sisters. We could smell it while outside playing in the yard and inside the house. Then you had the neighbor across the street with the rough edge to them, where you would hear an argument or two every once in a while, but when Mama needed some help while my stepfather was away in the Army, she could call on Joey and he would always be right there with his "yes ma'am and no ma'am" etiquette. With the memories of all things good from the eyes of a child, seeing everything as

Kids on my block always loved to play outside. Growing up we always knew each other. We cherished the times we would spend with each other. Whether it being on the Scorching hot days of Summer, the chilly days of Fall, Or the rainy days of Spring. We would be on that street hanging out and spend time with each other.

When I was only four years old, my life changed forever. It was the year I moved to North Carolina. My dad’s friend got him a job opportunity that he simply couldn’t give up. So, he quit his job and found a nice rental house to live in. I had moved before but I don’t remember. I moved from Indiana to North Carolina with my brother my cat and my parents. When I moved to North Carolina, I was aware of what was happening, but I never realized how different everything would be. The house we moved into we only lived in for a year, but it was a pretty hectic year.

In my neighborhood there is not many kids there to play with that I know and there is only five and they are Austin, Julius, Cole, Mason, and Tyler including me. it was so fun it was like i was on a cruize when i played with them like during the winter we had a violent snowball fight it was like as violent as world war 2. And we also played football and we did not want it to be violent so we just played two and tap. Kickball was fun until i kicked it into the thorn bush and it popped, and went sledding too and i crashed because when we raced i hit the metal fence and flipped off my sled like i just got in a car crash.

Mr. D. H. has a fascinating memory about his childhood, although he doesn’t remember his time as a toddler. One of the very first statements he made to me about his childhood was, “When I grew up, life as a child was a whole lot different than it is now” (D.H., personal communication, September 26, 2016). He was born in Troy, Ohio but the majority of his family stayed in Cleveland, including his grandmother, his aunt and uncle. Mr. H. began to reminiscence about a trip my uncle had taken him on, a couple years ago, “My son took me back to Troy and we found the house I use to live in. It looked so big when I was a kid, running down the big hills and the yard and stuff, but when I went there wasn’t no big hill

Soon enough preschool was over and here came our elementary school days. Everyone met many people in kindergarten. Many will be my friends throughout high school and beyond. Kindergarten was filled with arts and crafts, my portfolio, 2008 handprints, and stamped tee shirts. Suddenly kindergarten graduation was here, everyone was paired up and danced with a partner. First grade flew by and then came second grade with Ms. Foisy and Ms. Okabioshi. Ms. Okabioshi was one of the best teacher assistance we have ever had. Third and fourth grade with Mrs. Schuler and Ms. Ittes. These years were filled with warm fuzzies, a lot of reading and writing, and a lot of fun playing on the playground. The class watched Shilo and everyone hated the evil father. After that came fifth grade with Mr. Sifferman, also known as Millie’s cousin, he gave the hardest tests we have ever taken, but the most fun and memorable times we have had. After that year many people changed schools, I moved to California.

I would wake up really early and play Pokemon in order to get an edge on my friends and cousins by gaining stronger Pokemon before it was time to leave for school. Before I left my house I would always meet up with my cousin talk and walk to school together. When school was over I would meet up with my friends and we would all walk together to a deli shop called water and subs, talking about new rare Pokemon we had captured. At water and subs, we all got ourselves our favorite type of slushy and a slice of pepperoni pizza while we decided who will have the very first Pokémon battle. Finally, after we all arrived at back school we chose the best place with shade and got the tournament started the winners will move on until two finalist met in the championship battl.

It was hard, but very fun. There was always something going on, and I played three sports at the time: baseball, football, and ice hockey. I also have a love of cars, which flourished in my environment. My parents owned old and beat-up cars, and no one else in my family even took an interest in them.

I spent the first six years of my life in Locust Grove, a suburb of Atlanta, playing next door at my cousin Jordan’s house. Spending many hot summers playing pirates on the giant water slide his parents bought for him, is one my most fond memories from Locust Grove. I loved my time there, but eventually, my father lost his job at General Mills and we had to sell our house. Moving even farther south to Tifton, Georgia, my favorite place in the world, was an easy move. In Tifton we would be living with my grandparents, Uncle Jed, who was only sixteen at that time, and my Great-grandparents. The pool made up for the number of people living there.

In the afternoons we had time to ourselves. A lot of the times a group of us lounged by the pool. One day I went to Universal with Mom and we explored Harry Potter world. Another day I went with my friends and we went and saw Adam Lambert perform. We laughed and joked at team dinners and lunches, but when it

This house was the best as a child it had a long drive way and big field of green grass and cows. I grew a big connection to my childhood house like roots to a tree. It was a little down the road from Mt.Peak and I would always going hiking because it was enjoying for me to be with nature. I remember elementary school and seeing the same faces in some of my classes tell this day. I met my best friend in kindergarten and I’m still really good friends. Growing up in a small town there was always the same faces and same people working at the local grocery store, it takes around a minute to walk through town, most of the time you can take a bike to your friend’s house, walking to school wasn’t that hard because it’s not far and of course the same old smell of

A great deal of my childhood was spent outside. My brother Will, a kind soul, was never one of those bully brother types. We got along well, and he taught me many different basketball games. We would often visit our good family friends, the Nalty’s. The Nalty kids, made up of Layne, Morgan-Elizabeth, and Abby, were always such fun to be around. We’d spend hours running around their backyard. Abby, a bold and outgoing girl, was always someone I looked up to. Ironically, she was younger than me! Despite her young age, she was always someone that people admired and listened to. Her existence had a way of captivating your entire attention and admiration. She was confident without being cocky and she was fun without being annoying. Abby, tall and

As a child the most important place to me was the block in my neighborhood I grew up on. It was a particularly long and very wide street with several pairs of incredibly tall palm trees spread throughout both sidewalks. There was no shortage of playmates; almost every other home on the block had children around my age I could play with. There was also an older generation of teenagers that hung around together. I also had other family members living down the street from my house on the same block. As the children played daily so did the adults. The men of the block all met daily after work rotating from one home to another. They could be seen sitting around every