My letter to the world
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Everyday I'd kiss my grandmother goodbye and walk the three blocks down the street to my elementary school. She would watch with an eagle eye from the front porch until I reached the front gate and waved to her to let her know I was okay. I would watch her disappear into the house and I'd go about my day. I was always a pretty good student. I colored inside the lines, I wrote my alphabet as neatly as I could, and I never ate the paste.
Rainy days and grandma's chocolate cake were my favorite things. I knew that when it rained I would have home made chocolate cake waiting for me when I arrived home from school. I love my grandmother and at the time I had been living with her since I was a few months old. When I was six months old my grandma enrolled me in swimming lessons and I continued swimming until I was thirteen. I love to swim. I was faster and better than anyone else on my team. My teachers and coaches described me as a fish out of water. I only quit swimming because I had reached the highest ranking I could achieve and they couldn't teach me anymore. They encouraged me to join a higher team that would one day lead me into training for the Olympics, but that wasn't what I wanted for myself.
At the age of thirteen, I had begun to experience the worst time of my life. The summer of 6th grade my parents decided that it was time I come live with them. And before I knew it, I was being taken away from the only home I had ever known. Leaving behind my friends, grandmother, and my childhood. As you can imagine I didn't take this change lightly. I became distant from everyone and went through a time of depression. I stopped eating and I couldn't sleep a full night through. Shameful, horrible thoughts ran through my head. I had become a totally different person. I had become your typical teen who hated her parents, despised the world, and loved the color black. By the end of 8th grade I had begun to find myself and my new place in life. Things started turning out better. I didn't totally hate my parents anymore...
High school has been a big part of my life because it is where I have learned and grown the most as a person. High school is where I discovered my passion for writing and the hidden talent I uncovered. It's hard to believe but I hated to write. When I would receive an essay assignment in middle school I would do the minimum I had to do and not think twice about it. That is, until 9th grade when I was enrolled in Mr. Andersen's Language Arts Honors class. I don't know how he did it, but he somehow made me believe that what I was writing was worth something. He made me believe that what I was writing wasn't just an assignment, that if it was from my heart, then I was a writer. Ever since then I haven't been able to stop writing. Over the years I have accumulated many poems and stories that I've written as a hobby.
Although writing had been my first love, I never knew what a fight Tyler would put up to achieve that title. Falling in love at the age of 17 took me totally by surprise. Before that, I never really dated, and had only one boyfriend prior. I don't think I can begin to describe what it feels like and how my outlook on life has changed because of the presence of one person. The most wonderful feeling in the world is the feeling of total peace of mind. And knowing that there is one person who knows everything about you, and sometimes knows you better than yourself. He is the only person I can count on to be there when I need someone. He is more than my boyfriend; he is my best friend.
So now I set and look back on the past 18 years, and see how it only took a page and a half to sum up what I have learned and lived through. I have no idea what the future holds for me or what I might experience next. I can only welcome what comes my way, and hope it leaves me with wisdom and a new outlook. Robert Frost once said that there were three words he learned that summed up what he knew about life, and that is: IT GOES ON.