Making friends has been really hard in Cedar City. Almost everyone my age has lived in Cedar City for a really long time, and already have their good friends, and they don't need anyone else to be friends with. When I first went to school I knew no one. The Sunday after school started I met a girl named Laura in my ward. We had a lot in common, and hit it off right away. She even lived just a street over. Laura was a great friend, and we could talk for hours, we shared so many interests. We always ate lunch together.
At SUCCESS I was meeting some girls my age, and mostly hung out with a group of girls from Canyon View, the other High School in Cedar City. I was also spending time with a group from Cedar High occasionally, so I was kind of bouncing back and forth, not really having a singular group of friends(which is not good for me).
Around the middle of the school year Laura started going to eat with other friends, so I was usually sitting alone. I usually ate lunch with Laura, then walked to SUCCESS with a group of girls. When Laura stopped eating lunch with me I went to eat with the girls I walked with. Within a small amount of time I suddenly had four new great friends. All that needed to happen for me to have good, permanent friends was for me to eat lunch with them. I have been so happy since then. It is great to have a solid group of friends. I am really happy with how it all turned out.
I am still having trouble making good friends in my ward, but having good friends at school has helped my move a lot. I am really grateful to them for including me and being my friends.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
School
During sixth grade, I was invited to be in the PUPs program at Provo High School. I would take all of my seventh and eighth grade classes at the high school, with a small group of other students. Basically I would have seventh and eighth grades at Provo High instead of a middle school. I thought about it, took a tour of the school, and eventually chose to go, even though none of my best friends at the time would be going. I loved it. Our group was small, only thirty or so people, and we got to know everyone. It was a very tightly knit group. I thrived. I made lots of good friends, and fell in love with the school. Even today my loyalty for Provo High surpasses any loyalty I might have for Cedar High. The PUPs were even going to have unique chances after we went on to High School grades. I was really excited to be a ninth grader at Provo High. Moving Schools was probably the hardest part of going to Cedar City.
I started school in Cedar City as a normal student at Cedar High School. It was really difficult to not know anyone and be just a single person in a swarm of freshmen. I hadn't gotten into any honors classes because I signed up for school just a few days before it started. For the two years earlier I had been part of a small special gro9up, and I was part of something. The first two days of school were so hard. I was no one. Nobody knew me, and I was in nothing special. I had such a horrible time that I came home crying. I just couldn't stand it. School was so terrible.
That weekend my mom went to a place called SUCCESS Academy. Students at SUCCESS Academy go to a boundary school for half of the school day, and go to the multipurpose building on SUU campus for half of the day. SUCCESS Academy covers core subjects(Math, English, Science, plus a few others), giving students both high school and college credit. If everything works out, students should have and Associates degree by the time they graduate from high school. SUCCESS is made up of two cohorts(AM and PM) for each grade(ninth through tenth). To get in a student must apply, and be chosen in the lottery, or be a child of the faculty and staff. My mom talked to the principal, and got a job as a consultant in Math(she has a PhD in math, and is a professor at SUU). Since my mom was now a part of the faculty and staff I was eligible to be in SUCCESS without going through the lottery(which was done and gone before summer started). I started SUCCESS on my third day of school and have loved it. My cohort has about thirty people, and we have four teachers at SUCCESS that we can really get to know, and who really care about us.I have thrived in SUCCESS it is just about perfect for me. I am a part of something special again.
I started school in Cedar City as a normal student at Cedar High School. It was really difficult to not know anyone and be just a single person in a swarm of freshmen. I hadn't gotten into any honors classes because I signed up for school just a few days before it started. For the two years earlier I had been part of a small special gro9up, and I was part of something. The first two days of school were so hard. I was no one. Nobody knew me, and I was in nothing special. I had such a horrible time that I came home crying. I just couldn't stand it. School was so terrible.
That weekend my mom went to a place called SUCCESS Academy. Students at SUCCESS Academy go to a boundary school for half of the school day, and go to the multipurpose building on SUU campus for half of the day. SUCCESS Academy covers core subjects(Math, English, Science, plus a few others), giving students both high school and college credit. If everything works out, students should have and Associates degree by the time they graduate from high school. SUCCESS is made up of two cohorts(AM and PM) for each grade(ninth through tenth). To get in a student must apply, and be chosen in the lottery, or be a child of the faculty and staff. My mom talked to the principal, and got a job as a consultant in Math(she has a PhD in math, and is a professor at SUU). Since my mom was now a part of the faculty and staff I was eligible to be in SUCCESS without going through the lottery(which was done and gone before summer started). I started SUCCESS on my third day of school and have loved it. My cohort has about thirty people, and we have four teachers at SUCCESS that we can really get to know, and who really care about us.I have thrived in SUCCESS it is just about perfect for me. I am a part of something special again.
Friday, June 7, 2013
My Dad
My parents are divorced. Previous to the move, it was easy to see my dad. He lived in Salt Lake, about a 45 minute drive from Provo. My brother and I would go up to see him every other weekend, and he was entitled to an afternoon every week(usually down in Provo). He was also entitled to some holidays. My dad hates living in Utah, but moved to and ultimately stayed in Salt Lake because he wanted to live near my brother and me. It means a lot to me that he lived someplace that he hated so that he could be nearby people that he loved.
It was hard to leave him and move to Cedar City. I was not used to being so far away from him, and not being able to see him very often. I missed him a lot, and tried to keep in touch with phone calls. They worked, but still did not make up for the lost time, spent just being around each other. We started writing letters to each other. It was the highlight of my week to receive that letter in the mail. It was a great way to let each other know how much we cared, and I keep the letters that I got from my dad safely stored in a box, where I can read them whenever I need a quick pick me up. Writing letters to my dad was not always easy, but it was always worth it.
It was hard to leave him and move to Cedar City. I was not used to being so far away from him, and not being able to see him very often. I missed him a lot, and tried to keep in touch with phone calls. They worked, but still did not make up for the lost time, spent just being around each other. We started writing letters to each other. It was the highlight of my week to receive that letter in the mail. It was a great way to let each other know how much we cared, and I keep the letters that I got from my dad safely stored in a box, where I can read them whenever I need a quick pick me up. Writing letters to my dad was not always easy, but it was always worth it.
Introduction
Moving to Cedar City was quite the adventure, and is still happening, even almost a year after the fact. I moved to Cedar City on August 10th, 2012 with my mother and brother. Moving was not easy, despite the fact that I had moved already moved about six times. Previously I was living in Provo, UT, where I had lived for five years. I had amazing friends, was living in a great neighborhood, was in a wonderful program in school, and had a lot of family living nearby. I was nicely settled in, and couldn't imagine living anywhere else.
During that last year that I lived in Provo, I had no idea that my life would be changed so drastically. I knew that my mom was finishing her degree, and that she needed to get a new job. I knew that we would probably end up moving. What made moving so hard and life changing was that I had attached every part of myself to something in Provo. Provo was my life. Everything that I knew about life was based in Provo.
During that last year that I lived in Provo, I had no idea that my life would be changed so drastically. I knew that my mom was finishing her degree, and that she needed to get a new job. I knew that we would probably end up moving. What made moving so hard and life changing was that I had attached every part of myself to something in Provo. Provo was my life. Everything that I knew about life was based in Provo.
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