Mom lay on the bed, worriedly trying to peer over the doctor's shoulder. She wanted a glimpse of the ultra-sound pictures he was stooped over. He straightened up, narrowly avoiding swinging into Mom's head as she strained to see the distorted black and white figures. Immune to Mom's anxious face - he was used to it from years of doctoring - he announced: " The brain looks normal. Must be a girl."
And so it was. On June 10,1991 a beautiful baby was born. A baby whose first word was " Da da," a baby who adored her cat from the moment she saw it. A reader, a writer, and a cat lover. Although the small head that poked out from under the blanket knew nothing of the life to be lived, she would soon.
My mom was born in Columbia, South Carolina. This was in a time when everyone knew everyone else, and all the neighborhood kids would gather to play a friendly game of baseball. Dad, however, was born in Washington, D.C. When he was five, he moved to Germany, where he stayed until he was ten. Now he works for the University of Georgia, as head of the English Department. He also works part-time at our house, playing the role of Head Comedian. My mom is County Attorney, and she works at City Hall.
Dad had been divorced before he met Mom, so I had a mom, a dad, and a step- brother Leo, waiting for me to enter the world. He's eight years older than I am, and is never around, which I regret. We've never fought, not once!
My parents and I always had a special bond. Oh, I know every kid probably says the same thing, but this is different. With them, I'm allowed to say what I think and feel, even on the verge of talking back. I enjoy my laid-back relationship with them, and love them more than anything.
I was an interesting baby. My idea of a good time was rubbing sour cream over people, and parading around the house with underwear on my head. And if there was one thing I positively loved it was, unfortunately for the cat, the cat.
I started daycare when I was three months old. Mom and Dad would deposit me at Flip's ( Flip was the name of the woman who ran the daycare), where I would spend half the day crying, half laughing, unlike my poor parents who would spend the whole day worrying. When I came home, I would either be giggling over some crime my best friend, Marcy, and I had just committed, or sniveling because Blid told me my drawing was just scribble. One particularly notable event was when I would come home, wailing that Blid, a nasty play mate, threw me down the hole. Mom and I still can't figure out what I meant by this.
Huge, bleak towers, gloomy in the rain, loomed above the small child, who clung to her father's pant leg. The setting is Oxford, England, in 1994. And, you guessed it, the small child is me. After experiencing my first flight, my family and I arrived at our hotel, a place where I was bathed in the sink, and where we tried to get out of as often as we could. However, England's beautiful scenery made up for our rotten living quarters
By this time Dad decided it was time for me to learn how to read. H e started by setting up a large poster with the alphabet on it. He then taught me the sounds of the letters. For days I was wandering around, muttering "A, B,D,E,C…..wait ,that's not right. A, B, E….". Eventually, once I had learned the alphabet well enough, he sat me down with the book Danny and The Dinosaur. The lesson would usually end with me fleeing the room, convinced I would never read, and that there was no point to learning.
In the end, Dad's wonderful teaching skills paid off, and I am now a dedicated reader. I created quite a reputation for myself, too, as I'm often walking into walls with my nose in a book.
Soon after our trip to England, I graduated from day care at age three. In my new school, Athens Montessori School, a maze of classrooms and halls, I met Ella and Bab. You could say we became the terrible three! Now, I've lost touch with Bab, and, although I miss her, Ella and I haven't talked in a long time.
Soon after our trip to England, I graduated from day care at age three. In my new school, Athens Montessori School, a maze of classrooms and halls, I met Ella and Bab. You could say we became the terrible three! Now, I've lost touch with Bab, and, although I miss her, Ella and I haven't talked in a long time.
We moved from our old house soon after I started Montessori. I positively hated the new place. The walls were a sickly yellow, and the lawn crawled with lubbers, a type of large black grasshopper, that should be called gardener's bane. And if there's one thing Mom hated, it was lubbers! Dad and I still won't let her forget how loudly she used to scream! Of course, we had the walls repainted, and we've learned to ignore our large grasshopper friends, who have declined in numbers now that Mom is the gardener.
Around this time, an animal lover began emerging in me. I would give the huge lubbers that slowly devoured our plants adorable little names, such as " Rainbow", and "Heart". I would burst into tears at that horrible crunching sound that meant one less six-legged friend in our world.
Right after we moved in, we got new next door neighbors, Kelsey and Leera. Kelsey is a year younger than I am, and Leera is six. I go over to their house just about every day, and both are like younger sisters.
Then, something happened that changed my life forever. As a little girl, I was only just beginning to understand the concept of death. Then, I found out exactly what it was. The hard way.
A small child peered out the door, and ran out. Plopping down, she happily sifted sand through her fingers, listening to the whispery hush it made. Then she remembered something. Struggling up, she vainly attempted to whistle. Giving up, she began to call shrilly, " Here, kitty, kitty, kittttyy! Moxie! C,mere, boy!"
From inside, a curtain moved. The child's mother watched Suzie peer through bushes, gaze up trees, all in search of her Maine Coon cat.
Another movement caught her eye. Dad's car pulled up the driveway. Hurrying down the steps, she swept towards the car. "Well?" she questioned anxiously, fearing the answer.
Dad, (the driver) his face grave, pulled Mom to the side. They held a quick whispered conference.
Dad broke away and approached Suzie, who had stopped searching in order to watch this most interesting scene, and hesitated. This was a girl who burst into tears if her pet rolly-polly died. What would she say to this?
Then, resolving himself, he took hold of her shoulders. "Suzie? Moxie's dead."
Moxie was fifteen when he died of a dogbite. I never knew he had been at the vet. I never said goodbye.
After Moxie died, we acquired a three year old cat who had been found in an abandoned apartment. She looked as though someone had taken some different colored cloth and slapped her together. Consequently, we called her Patches. I still have good ol' Patchy, although she's getting pretty stiff around the joints. She's now officially queen of the house, and has a silk pillow to prove it!
First grade was destined to be my last year at Montessori. I moved into a whole new world when I first stepped into Barrow Elementary School. Barrow was a public school, while Montessori was private. The first difference between the two, I soon learned, was that Barrow had a cafeteria. I brought my lunch from home the third day.
We took in a new kitten from the pound shortly after I started at Barrow. Flannery, a beautiful gray tabby, was a very sweet little thing with a wonderful personality. Even Patches tolerated her, after she got over the first initial shock. For days she wandered around, with this hurt look on her face. You could tell she was thinking something along the lines of " A kitten?! In my house?!!!"
However, getting a cat from the pound had its drawbacks. One of my eyes began swelling shut, shortly after playing a game called "Tickle the Kittie's Tummy Until She Gets Tired of it." Several days later, I landed in the hospital with a bad case of cat scratch fever. I missed several days of Sat-9 testing, and believe me, gnawing on a pencil while trying to think of the answer to a particularly hard make-up test question is not my idea of fun.
Second grade was awful. Although the teachers were wonderful, it was so hard to adjust, because the methods of teaching were so different. For example: In Montessori, they taught cursive. When I came to Barrow, I didn't know what print was.
Around this time, I began noticing that I couldn't see too well. My third grade teacher moved me up to the front of the room for all my squinting. Mom eventually insisted that we schedule an appointment with an eye doctor. The next day, I sat staring at a worksheet that would have been blurry just the other day. I focused on the last question. What do you hate the most? Slowly I wrote my answer. "My glasses".
All my life, I had been starting activities and then quitting them. When I was 4, it was violin. Then I started swimming. Shortly after I started Barrow, I began piano. I gave up all of the above. Discouraged by all my failures, I thought I had given up hobbies forever. Then, in 1999 Kelsey told me about diving. After she begged me to join, I agreed. After all, what harm could it do? That was two years ago. After much trial and error, I am now a pre-JO.(junior Junior Olympic.) I don't intend to quit, even though Kelsey did.
I like to think of my self as a good student. I went through Barrow getting star student awards, all A's, and a few B's. In fifth grade I became a patrol. And, as I've said before, I enjoy reading and writing.
Last summer, I decided to try and find another activity I could keep up. I started horseback riding. Really, I'm surprised I hadn't started before, as I've loved horses for a long time. (Although, not nearly as much as I've loved cats.)
The thing that started my idea for horseback riding was Charlie. Charlie is a horse who had encephalitis about a year and a half ago. All though the white pony nearly went blind, he has recovered now. I first met him at a Fourth of July party. He's fat, and if you try and move him, he digs his feet in and stands stubbornly, even if you throw all your weight into it. In spite of all his faults, I immediately fell in love with him.
Suzie looked around her nervously, in the huge hall. Hardly glancing at the rows of lockers around her, she headed to her teacher's room. I'm in CMS. The day is August the eighth, the first day of middle school. Following in the footsteps of my brother, I've been walking around the schools halls, first nervously, then confidently.
There are many questions I ask myself as I look over this. What will happen in the future? Will I become a marine biologist, like I plan to, or something completely different? Will I end up with a job I loathe? And before I even get a job, will I get to go to a good college? I guess all I can do is go with the flow, and take whatever is thrown at me with good humor. And I plan to.