I have few interests, but I am pretty involved into what interests I do have. I love Metal music preferably from the subgenres Metalcore and Deathcore. I enjoy cleaning because it keeps order. I also have a passion for learning as well. I’m a bit simple, and very boring.

My favorite things? Well, my most favorite thing ever is listening to music. My favorite food is hands down meatloaf. Meatloaf is a godsend. My favorite games would be anything fast paced. Something that I love: anime. It may be strange, but I am a huge nerd whenever it comes to anime, games, and anything you can get me interested in.

Another fun little story; I was about 2 or 3 and there was a ridiculous snowstorm that had come through Salem. At the time, we lived behind my grandmother in her house. When my mom had woken up, she instantly knew something was wrong with me. She sprung up and realized that there was a bit of a chilly breeze in the house. Strange. She gets up to find the front door wide open and tracks from our door up to ol’ Gee-maw’s house. Turns out I did that adventure in a simple dress of diaper and some Clifford, The Big Red Dog slippers. Good times.

The day I’d met the woman that I call my grandmother, Paula, was definitely a funny one. Paula comes home after another day in her office at S&T, unlocks her apartment door, steps inside, closes the door, and locks it back. She turns around to be greeted by a chunky, little five year-old. Said chunky, little five year-old hops up from the couch, walks to her, stretches out his hand and says, “Hi, I’m Brenden Gregory Blaney.” She looked at him and said, “Well, my name’s Paula.” To which his response was simply, “I know.” Bewildered, she watches as he sits back down on the couch. “There’s TV right there, if you would like to watch it. The channel for cartoons is-” She begins to say before he interrupts, “I know, I’ve been here before.” 

I don’t really remember much about my first decade starting my life, but, I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to forget about my younger sister, Bobbi. She was born April 26, 2007. She was my baby which was kind of a surprise to some people apparently. I say that because my grandmother warned my mother, telling her that she was afraid that I might kill her. As if that would ever happen; she’s still my baby.

In the summer of getting ready for fourth grade, we moved in town. I lived in another trailer park right next to a McDonald’s and a Dollar General. It was a pretty plain place. I never really hung anything up on the walls or anything. I had a buddy of mine that lived with me at the time. His name was Dylan, and he added more character than I ever did in his time there. I lived there until sophomore year, which is whenever I moved here to Ozark.

He seems to act like he’s in a gang, and he uses drugs for recreational purposes. He’s changed a lot since whenever I first met him. I’m thinking about finding some way for he and I to hang out for a week or so sometime. Maybe he could learn a few things, and we could catch up.

Sophomore year was a bit better. I had the sudden urge to excel in school. I did everything in my power to make sure that I had perfect attendance, and I did my work in my classes. I had actually woken up late one day and I started running to school with my bag on. Once it was 7:45 and the school was still two and a half miles away, I ditched my bag underneath a tree at a church, and ran the rest of the way there. The bell rang as soon as I sat down in my seat for first period. I had a big fear of everyone at the time. I tried to stay quiet so that no one would pay much attention to me, and I avoided too much contact with anyone. At the end of the year I enrolled into Ozark, and it changed me entirely. 

Then I was a junior, and things aren’t too terribly different. Still getting used to everything being done on computers instead of paper, and stuff. I still tried in my classes, but I can’t say that I didn’t have any trouble at all. I had a lot of rough spots. I remember my drama class being a lot of fun. All of the improv we’d done always ended up being pretty funny. Especially when Kyle Widmar was involved. He was so funny, and he did everything perfectly.

Despite the fact that I don’t feel like I belong in this position, I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it. My favorite thing about it is whenever I meet an underclassmen and they ask what grade I’m in. I never really realized the whole glorification of seniors thing was real until I became a senior, because they just sit back, wide-eyed, gasping, realizing that one of their “superiors” has been just hanging out with them as another person and not as a Freshman, Sophomore, or Junior. 

Despite that, I don’t think I would want that now. I am who I am because of what I’ve been through, and I like who I am. Maybe I would like to actually feel like I earned this graduation, or that I didn’t waste my childhood in an escape from reality. But, I like where I am now. I am graduating and I’m sure I’m going to be a bit of a child for the rest of my life in some aspects, so it all works out. I’ll just have to keep myself moving forward; one foot in front of the other.

Plan B is achieved by having a fully functional relationship with someone. That’s the only catalyst that’ll take me away from living in my apartment. In this instance, I would have my own home, a wife, and a child if not two. I’d be working constantly, and I’d come home to clean, and spend some time with the family. That’s about all I can really see for myself in ten years.