a treat for you.

so i recently figured out that i still have access to the email account that i used during high school, and i have been delighted to find the treasures hiding within the archives. here is one particular gem for you--my speech that i gave at graduation. it's long, but will always live on as my moment of glory. enjoy.

Families, friends, faculty, and fellow graduates, the future can be two-faced. Sometimes, it feels as if it is always just at your fingertips, tantalizing you with its nearness, but never a tangible object. Sometimes, it stares you right in the face whether you like it or not. But mostly, the future is everything we expect and not what we expect at all, curiously wrapped into one mysterious package.

Mysterious? Yes. Because unlike Michael J. Fox, we don’t have a silver time-traveling car and a crazy scientist to show us what our lives will be like. Trying to determine the future by looking at the past is like driving a car only by looking in the rearview mirror. Now we stand alone, no longer depending on the past to support us. We can only look forward now.

Our futures are up to us. You are your own boss now. When we leave here tonight, you never have to come back. Mr. Mileham won’t be there to keep you in line. Bob and Christina aren’t going to chase you around with golf carts to make sure you aren’t ditching. Now you can go to lunch whenever you want. Life has an open-campus policy. Now it is up to you. Whether you feel like graduation is an overdue blessing or a premature finale, the time has come. We’re big kids now, and the bell ending recess has just rung.

For some of us, the future is only as far as the party going on this weekend, with the only important details being where it’s at and who’s going to be there. Others still have an eye on what’s a little further down the road: college, careers, military, whatever you want. We’re not in high school anymore guys, and there are bigger things out there than what your best friend’s boyfriend’s cousin’s sister said about your sister’s cousin’s boyfriend’s best friend. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to do something with our lives. We’ve been to school for the past 13 years just waiting for this day, and now it’s here.

John M. Richardson, Jr. said, “When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” So what kind of person are you going to be? The future is promised to no one, whether you were the captain of the football team, or prom queen. We cannot expect life to be a Xerox copy of high school. There may be a “No Child Left Behind” policy in the classrooms we spent the last four years in, but in big bad “reality,” there is no such thing. In the real world, there will be no Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So to hold your hand and make sure you keep up. Our lives will be what we make them, and now we don’t have extra-credit to motivate us.

We’ve all had different experiences that have shaped and molded us into the people we are today, and those experiences will continue. What we do with them, how we handle them, is up to you. I can’t tell you what to do with your futures (and I don’t really want to). Handling my own future is plenty for me. But I can tell you to be smart. We’ve made it this far- now is not the time to resort to idiocy. Know that the choices and habits you make and form now will have a profound effect upon the life ahead of you. You can’t take laziness to the bank, and if you could, it wouldn’t amount to much more than a few crumbs between the couch cushions. Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” The masses don’t lie when they say life is tough- it’s tough because if you want it good, you have to do it yourself. Silver spoons are found only in fantasy. Do not be afraid to work for your happiness- otherwise you may find yourself faced with many disappointments and dead-ends. Your future? It’s up to you. But make it big. Make it the best you can. Make it something you can be proud of. Make it you.

Now, I could get up here and try to inspire you with some clichéd poem about two roads diverging in the woods and how we should all take the one less traveled by, but let’s face it: Robert Frost ain’t got nothin’ on the Class of 2006. So graduates, let’s get out there and introduce ourselves to the world!

chopstairs

this made me smile.

weasels.

you know how animals all have special names for their group formations? i.e. a school of fish, a herd of cows, a pack of dogs, etc.

well, weasels have three different names to choose from when banding together.

a boogle of weasels. a sneak of weasels. a confusion of weasels.

no joke. BOOGLE. a boogle of weasels. that one's my favorite. but this begs the question, what the heck is so special about weasels that they get three different names? and who the heck came up with the word "boogle"?!

this could lead to another civil war.

slave: a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person: a slave to a drug.

alternate definition:
amy,

entirely under the domination of

this show is taking over my life. only seasons 5 and 6 to go, and then i'll be free at laaast, free at last.

SEATTLE (this is long.)

so i went to seattle! that merits an exclamation mark. the epic journey began on thursday afternoon at 4:30. we drove all night (literally) through utah, idaho, oregon, and finally washington.

highlights of the roadtrip:
1. got holli to sing along to lady gaga. she totally loves her now.
2. MASH-- I will be marrying Doug AND Phil, Scott will claim Selena Gomez as his wife, Doug will marry me, with Lady Gaga as runner-up, and Holli will marry...someone.
3. Shouting for joy when seeing the "Welcome to Oregon" sign. I probably would've done the same thing for Washington, but I was in a coma after having driven for 10 hours straight. Obviously we didn't do the same thing for Idaho, because...it's Idaho.
4. Stopping for gas in Oregon at 2:30am. I pull up next to the pump, and suddenly there is a bearded, creepy-looking man standing next to my car. I open the door, and we look at each other.
me: "...Hi."
creeper: "..."
me: (waits expectantly for some kind of utterance)
creeper: "We're in Oregon, so..."
me, inner monologue: (So what?! I hand over my keys and no one gets hurt??)
creeper: "So...it's full service."
me: "Oh. Ok. Well...fill 'er up."
5. finally arriving in Seattle.

the weekend included:
1.Pike Market Place-->gum wall, fish throwing, chocolate pasta, fresh sea food.



2.Space Needle. a must, of course.


3.Experience Music Project museum thing where we jammed on instruments we had no idea how to play
4.Mariner's baseball game. i'm obviously a huge fan. but hey, they won. all is well.

5.Seattle Art Museum-->Andy Warhol had an exhibit going with a piece where you could take your own picture and add it--now, holli and i are officially apart of an andy warhol.



6.Making our own sushi. it. was. good.


7.Karate Kid. that movie changed my life. not really. but i loved it.


we did other cool stuff, too. but my blogging attention span is waning, so thus ends the trip to seattle. i really like seatlle, and so does my hair. never have my curls been more defined. it was fun, to say the least. wish we could've stayed longer, but apparently some people have real lives or something. weird.

this is what i call a back-up plan

in case my whole "teaching" career doesn't work out, i think i'll become a street artist. or one of those people who draw your cartoon portrait at sea world. maybe both.

behold my masterpieces.

a first.

i sang karaoke. badly. good thing i had sweet dance moves and enthusiastic backup singers.

a trip down memory lane

i love my boys from freshman year.



so excited for seattle with them next weeeeeeeek!

ay yi yi!

thus far today, i have been quite productive. i taught, came home, WENT FOR A RUN (close your mouths, because i know your jaws just hit the floor), and then since i was already hot and sweaty, i decided to bike to the grocery store. i'm cute.

anyway, i'm biking along down 500 north on my way to smith's, la la laa, and as i pass the entrance to a gas station, this old man comes out in his truck and is totally not paying attention as i cross (as is my right as a vehicle on the road, and his responsibility is to yield as he tries to exit), and HE HITS ME! ON MY BIKE! HE HIT ME ON MY BIKE! i didn't know what to do. i looked down at my bike to make sure it wasn't screwed up, then i looked back at him with crazy eyes and a outraged/slightly confused look on my face and gave him a little wave and kept riding.

i made it to the grocery store without further incident. and then i bought a gallon of milk and some other stuff. i bet you're curious as to how i got that gallon of milk home on a bike, huh.

boom. bam. bangs.

so i got a haircut.