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This summer during my study abroad trip to Spain, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a group trip with my program to Morocco. While in Morocco, our ISA directors told us they’d pay for us to experience the traditional Hammam Bath house during our trip. Of course, I jumped on the opportunity and I talked my roommate into coming as well. She was hesitant because we would be in public bathrooms essentially and were only allowed to wear our swim bottoms. Let me tell you, I was not prepared for the hammam. The ladies who worked there not only prepared the bath, but they scrubbed us as well. Everywhere. Luckily, I’m not shy but I spent a great deal of time dumping cold water on my roommate’s head in the midst of her panic attack. While I’ll never repeat that experience, I’m grateful I did it simply to say that I did.

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Let me start this by saying that my boyfriend, Noah, and I were really close friends with this girl named Lindsay this time last year. We literally did everything together. We even named ourselves “El Trío.” As I said before, I came to the realization when I was in Argentina that I liked Noah as more than a friend and I didn’t know how Lindsay was going to react when I told her. To make a very long and extremely complicated story much shorter, I told Lindsay in August that I liked Noah. I told Noah in October, and he didn’t officially ask me until January to be his girlfriend. It all started with the night he decided to buy tickets to go watch the Kansas City Symphony play the background music for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was absolutely amazing. He asked me that night to be his girlfriend and I will always remember it fondly. Lindsay and I are no longer friends but Noah and I are still very close.

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After graduation, its normal for people to move away for college. Not for me though. I stayed put in Warrensburg. So did my best friend Jada. She actually moved in with her boyfriend because she has a bad relationship with her dad, but she stayed in Warrensburg so I could still hang out with her. Then she and her boyfriend got engaged the next year and moved to Alaska because he’s in the military and was stationed in Anchorage. Jada moving was really tough for me. She was my closest friend in Warrensburg and I don’t make friends easily. I’m accustomed to the distance now, but it was really difficult at the time.

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Last summer I got a job a Pack ‘N’ Mail. It was about 2 weeks after I had returned home from Argentina, and I was in need of a job. About three months in to this job, a customer came into the store. He looked Latino but I never assume that anyone speaks Spanish because many people don’t. To my surprise however, this man knew less English that I did Spanish, so for his convenience I switched to Spanish to help him with his transaction. It was an amazing feeling being able to communicate with this man in his own language. He seemed so pleased that anyone would take the time to learn it. It was one of the best moments I can remember working this job and it reminded me of why I wanted to learn Spanish in the first place.

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The first time that I traveled anywhere by myself, I went to Argentina. It was a really big jump. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a new language. I made friends with people that I would never have spoken to in the US. It was a really difficult time in my life, but it was also one of the best decisions I ever made. It was also during this trip that I realized how much I missed having my best friend Noah around. Now he’s my boyfriend. I like to tell him that it took me flying to a foreign country to realize that I liked him.

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In 2015-2016, my family took me on a trip to celebrate my last year of high school. I chose to go to Universal studios in Orlando. It was one of the best trips I have taken with my family because I got to experience "The Wonderful Wizarding World of Harry Potter" for the first time. It was a super relaxing trip and all of us were able to enjoy it. It was also the first time I had ever flown anywhere before so it definitely gave me the travel bug.

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In high school I was a member of the dance team. I was actually the captain my junior year. I don’t really know why I stayed on the team to be completely honest. I was probably the worst part of high school with all the drama and stress associated with it. If I had a good coach, my teammates were terrible. If my teammates were amazing, my coach was horrible. I finally quit after my junior year and it was the healthiest decision I’ve ever made.

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When I was 15 my parents decided that they wanted me to go through driver’s education. I was really nervous about driving in general. My parents had been practicing with me all summer long and I finally went on my first class with my new teacher. He gave me great marks on everything, including my speed control. When we got back to my house, I pulled into the driveway. I tried to press the break, but ended up hitting the gas pedal on accident. I drove right though the garage door. It was horrible, but I’ll never make that mistake again.

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In sixth grade, I was terrified of everything. I couldn’t talk to adults without worrying. I cried all the time, and I was horrible with confrontation. One day my teacher said something to me in class that upset me. She kind of snapped at me and it really hurt my feelings. I didn’t say anything at the time but my mom bribed me with an Italian soda from the Go-Go Bean if I went back into the school and told Mrs. J. Smith that she hurt my feelings. I did, and I got the soda too.

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In fifth grade I was pretty terrible at making friends. I had a few close friends that I treated like family, but anyone outside of our friendship was off-limits in my mind. I didn’t like talking to new people because I got nervous about introducing myself. There was one girl in my class that year that I talked to once in a while, but I always thought she was kind of weird. Her name was Caroline. I mentioned her to my mom a couple of times and she seemed to think we were friends so she invited Caroline over to my birthday party that year so that I could have a couple more people come. I didn’t really want her to come but I was nice and didn’t complain. Now I’m supper thankful that my mom invited her because I got to see a different side of her that day. She became one of my closest friends and she still would be today had she not moved to North Dakota after Middle School.

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For Christmas during fifth grade, my parents bought my brother and I an awesome gift. Two adorable puppies. I honestly have no idea how they kept them from barking all night long because they kept them in their master bathroom the whole night. We woke up Christmas morning and mom and dad had Simon and I come in their bedroom and they told us to open the bathroom door. Out came two Maltese Bichon puppies – one much chunkier than the other. I went for the small one and Simon went for the bigger one. Pip and Poof kept us very entertained then, and now they basically just sleep with us all the time.

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In third grade, I was just as much of a spitfire as I am today when someone underestimates me. It has always been one of my biggest pet peeves for someone to think I am unable to do something perfectly within my abilities. While I was shy, I wasn’t one to allow boys to treat me like I was incapable either. One day, Jonathan Schuler, one of the many mean boys in my grade school bet me I couldn’t climb the basketball pole at recess because I was a girl. I didn’t particularly want to climb it, but I absolutely did because it angered me that he thought I couldn’t. That day was the first time I remember feeling like I had to prove myself to someone specifically because of my gender. It was not the last time either, but it was the moment I realized I didn’t like being underestimated. It was also when I realized I enjoyed putting people in their place when they were being bullies.

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For some odd reason, I always wanted to play soccer. My mom was a dance teacher in Windsor, so I always took dance lessons because it was a free hobby and easy babysitting if I was just in one of my mom’s classes. In third grade, my mom decided to sell her dance studio to one of her former students. It was that year that I finally was able to do something outside of dance. I immediately chose soccer. I don’t know why really. Maybe it was because my cousin played or because I like the way the name of the sport sounded, but that was what I wanted to do. It was in my first year of soccer that I met one of my good friends who I am still friends with today. I also continued to play in high school because it was something that I was genuinely good at and loved to do. I almost played in college as well but having spent so much time on the field, I had begun to get burnt out, and I wanted to focus on my academics as well. I still love the sport to this day though.

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When I was really young, maybe 7 or eight years old, my cousin Sidney was my best friend. We did everything together even though she lived a little less than an hour away from me. One day, Sidney and her older sister Shelby came over to my house in Windsor, MO. They had brought a camcorder with them and we dressed up and made stories and played with it all night long. I remember very distinctly reenacting the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet from my bunk bed that I shared with my brother. Sidney dressed up like Romeo and stood at the base of the ladder calling up to me, Juliet, telling me my eyes were as brown as poop, and hair long as spaghetti. These games were extremely absurd, but they brought Sidney and I closer as cousins, and helped us understand each other better. I think these games are some of the reason why we remain close to this day.

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August 7, 2002, my brother was born. I was four. I remember everyone being so excited, myself included. My parents had made having a little brother sound like so much fun. But I learned the truth that day. The first him I met him my Aunt Dee Anne was holding me on her hip. He was in my mom’s hospital room and the doctor was changing his diaper. It was that moment that he decided to pee. It went everywhere, but luckily it didn’t hit anyone. Except my Aunt and myself. My aunt laughed and said “That’s good luck!” but for me, that moment merely gave me a glimpse at what the rest of my life was going to be like with a little brother. I wasn’t pleased.