I wanted to make today as an announcement because it's been a historical day for all of us. I'll start off from the beginning. In my fourth period class, this would have been around one o'clock, I had just walked in, and a girl had asked me, "Hey, I think you mentioned it before, but you're Catholic, right?" And I was like, that's really random what's going on, I mean I didn't say that, but I was like, "Yeah, yeah, I am." And she's like, "Oh my gosh, there was just white smoke over the Vatican." Do you know what that means? That means they elected a new pope. Guys, this is my first ever pope election. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's incredible." So I sent text messages to my family group chat, and my mom was like, "Yeah, I saw!" And so that meant in a few minutes, the new pope would be coming out of the balcony. But I was in the middle of class so I couldn't see, but I was in the middle of like a independent work time for our assignments, so I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'll be able to find out." But I didn't need to because my mom had sent me a picture. It turns out for the first time ever, we were going to have an American pope. For the first time ever guys, it's like actually crazy ‘cause if you think about it, Christianity has been around for 2000 years, which means Catholicism has been around for 2000 years. And like, Catholicism has only ever been over in the Americas for not even 500 years yet. That's like, it's only been over here about 75% of the time that the Catholicism has existed. That's insane! I mean, it's only 25% of the, only 25% of the time Catholicism has been existing. That's insane guys. Like the implications of that are crazy. I am living in the time of the first ever American pope. I also lived in the time of the first ever Argentinian, non-Caucasian pope, but I didn't realize that. Because I thought Pope Francis was Caucasian. But I was personally rooting for the African, uh, or Filipino, um, what's it called, cardinals? I was very, very surprised that the American guy won. I was very, very, very surprised. I think there was another American…

So, one of the end of the school activities was also like wrapping up all of the clubs I lead. Or not wrapping it up, but like, passing down, um, leadership and then just making sure that the person after me knows what they're doing and what they're supposed to do, so, um, one of which was anime club. So, we had this like -- something we've done every year is something we call the knighting ceremony. We literally have like -- previously, like the previous leader used like a meter stick, since we use the physics classroom for it, the anime club, right? So then he takes a meter stick and used it as the knighting, like -- the sword for the knighting ceremony, which is funny. This time I brought in a retractable sword, so it's not a real one, obviously, to school and then we did that. Basically, we just quote unquote "knighted" the, um, uh, what's it called? The next board members and next, president of our club. And then, um, the other -- so, the other senior who's graduating in the club helped make brownies and then, yeah, we had brownies and just watched some anime as usual.

Don’t poke the bear -- oh! Okay, so I have this one friend. We're gonna call her Shamika, and so Shamika, she has red hair, um, and you know, she has these really dingy shoes, right? And so, I have these really decent, nice shoes, right? New Balances. And basically, we were playing volleyball one day and she -- and I fell, 'cause I was going for the ball, and my shoe came off. And so she takes my shoe and she runs away. The audacity of this girl, bro. So you know what I did? Obviously, I chased her down, right? But she kept running, she kept running. So eventually she hid my shoe, and I was like, “Crap, how am I gonna get my shoe back?” So, I put my other shoe away, because like, because I didn't want to, um -- I didn't wanna hobble around anymore, so I took my other shoe off and then, um -- and so then I basically found her, right? And I grab her and I started choking her and I was like, "Shamika, where’s my shoe? Where's my shoe, Shamika?" And she was, like, crying, her face was really red. She was trying to tap out. I was like, "You can't tap out until you tell me where my shoe is." And, she was like, "Oh, let me go, let me go, please. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take your shoe." And I was like, "Come on, Shamika, where the shoe at?" And so then she told me where the shoe was, so I let her go, and then I put my shoes back on. And, Shamika, you know, I kinda warned her, like, don't poke the bear Shamika. Like, you can't be doing that, you know what I'm saying?

My best friend actually, her name was [name]. She like was always, like she kinda was mean to me, but like I understood it and like, she was my best friend growing up. And then like I remember she and the three other girls like were pulling away slightly. Like our group chats, which had just begun because everyone had gotten a phone in fifth grade, were slowly starting to die, and so was everything else. And like I would barely see them anymore. I became friends with my current best friends now. And I just remember them like pulling away. And it was crazy. What really -- the -- is it straw on the camel's back? Is that the saying? I can't remember. But um, we wanted to go to the [name of haunted trail], it's a about a mile trail in [a local town] that at night they'll do like a haunted trail and so they'll have scarers. And so I text the group chat and I'm like, "Oh hey, does anyone want to go to the [name of haunted trail]?" And the three girls, like I had already known that my two current best friends had already said no, because they hate anything scary. And so I texted the other ones, and they're like, "Oh no, sorry, we already have plans." And I'm like, "Okay, if anyone decides to come like, let me know privately and I will meet you there, we're going first thing it opened -- first, like first thing when it opens." And I get there a little, like 10 minutes before, and there's this group standing next to, like -- I remember this so vividly because it was just such a turning point in my life -- there was this group standing by the like port-a-potties, and they, the three people -- the four people who said no, were in it because um, the thing was the cross country team was going the same night. They couldn't just be like, "Oh my gosh, we're already going, like, we could meet you there. Maybe see you?" They were like, "No, we already have plans." So, that was just a really big turning point. Um, and on this trail you can get, like, you can get ahead of people. And so, at one point, um, we had this glow stick on actually and that's like,…

Everything was gonna go fine, I was kind of freaking out but like not horribly so. And then all of a sudden, this random girl comes in. And she starts screaming, she's like, "Don't touch me! No, I'm taking this test today, now!" and we're all like looking at each other like, "Who the heck is this girl?" And the lady's like, "No, I'm sorry, you can't take your test," because -- well I, what I understood was that we had already passed, like the 8 o'clock limit. And like, if you're late to the test, you can't take it. Even if they haven't started the test, which I guess makes sense 'cause then everyone has to start the test at the same time, otherwise, you're not allowed to take the test. And so she came in, she was like -- and she was like, "No, I'm taking it now, stop touching me!" and I was like, "Oh, did something happen in the hallway where they were trying to stop her from coming into the room 'cause that might void our scores?" Even though we hadn't started yet. But I thought maybe you're not allowed to come in after a set period of time. And then she just keeps screaming off her head, and she calls her mom and put her on speaker phone. And she's like, "Mom, they're not letting me take the test!" And then everyone's just like staring. Some people are giggling 'cause this is like such a crazy thing. None of us really know what to do. We were so stressed out and there's just this random girl coming in, like yelling at the top of her lungs. Like what are we supposed to do?  And then she starts screaming again, "Don't touch me!" and I'm like, I can see now at this point that like, no one's even gotten within a foot of her, if I'm being quite honest, like no one's touching her at all. And so I'm like, "Oh, she crazy. Ahhhh." I thought she was just stressed out. I was kind of like sympathetic to that. I was like, yeah, you know, I got you, girl. You just get stressed out sometimes, it kind of makes you crazy. But no, she was, she was, she was just plain crazy. And so then she leaves the school -- she leaves the room sobbing, and like…

Um, so Friday the 14th was -- for February was, um, wint- midwinter -- sorry, that was our school Olympics, and that was the day before midwinter break. So, um, I was in two events: for Spoons, the card game, and then Uno, also the card game. And then we had, um -- so, out of everyone, I got -- I was able to get first for Spoons, which was really nice because this was technically my last school Olympics. And, yeah, I think like, I must -- I've gotten first for the events that I've got put in in previous Olympics and previous years, like Jenga I think I got first both times I entered, and then Spoons I might have gotten first before, like, once. The other times, like, I absolutely got eliminated, like, at third place -- or, like, not -- I guess third place, but it's like they had like 20 people playing. Like, we have three people representing each, um, of our social groups and we have six of them for our school. But yeah, I was able to get first and then it's really nice ‘cause it's, it's the last, um, Olympics and I was able to get first in Spoons. Uno I'm not that good with. I got third which wasn't -- isn't too bad. Third is not that bad.

I really am glad that they made lunches free this year, uh, so it can be accessible for everyone. But what is this talk about, we -- that we should be 'eating healthier?' Just eating more nutriti- nutritious foods and less caloric, less -- with less junk food, when our school is serving us the exact characteristics of unhealthy food? Do you know what we have on our lunch menu? Let's start. Well, first off we have the hamburgers -- and they're not even that good 'cause they got no vegetables in them! No tomato, no lettuce. It's literally just a white, white bread -- white squishy bread, which is not healthy, and some like oily patty. I don't, I don't even know what it's made out of. Then we have hot dogs, again just white bread and a sausage. I don't even know how they feel full from this food, because you're actually supposed to 'eat the rainbow,' that's how you feel healthy. That's why salads are so healthy. Not because they're made out of vegetables, but because it's a variety of different foods, you're getting a variety of different nutrients. And then next we have -- okay, so let me talk about the salads. You say, "Well, there's salads at the school." You know what's in the salad? Do you know what it is? Okay: lettuce, lettuce, and lettuce. It's just lettuce and it's not even -- it doesn't even look like organic lettuce, it's just dry lettuce. And you know what else? Just to make it -- the salad a little bit more colorful so it's not just lettuce? It's -- and the lettuce doesn't even taste natural by the way. I'm telling you, I love lettuce, and I would -- I, I'll eat a whole batch of it, but that does not taste like lettuce.  But you know what they do to make it a little more colorful? They add chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets! It's literally -- I mean, it depends on what type of chicken nuggets you eat. But considering the fact that the school serves hot dogs and hamburgers, chicken nuggets are probably the same McDonald's type of food. So, kind of junk food, you know? So why are they putting chicken nuggets, junk food, into the one healthy meal that we have at our school? And fine, don't eat the chicken nuggets, but then it's completely…

Okay, so, freshman year, we had Olympics, and we were supposed to do like a little dance, and this is for school, it's nothing crazy. And I was supposed to prepare with two of my friends. We did not prepare. Oh, there was also someone else, but, like, they didn't really have like a huge part. It was just like they were supposed to dress up in a hippo costume and just do their part. Um, and, I don't know, we just -- we didn't practice, we kept procrastinating. We honestly thought, like, we could wing it, it's fine, whatever. I honestly had not even processed what it was gonna be like. So in my mind, we were just gonna do something, and we were gonna plan it out, figure it out. I was like, maybe we're not even performing, right? Because we haven't thought about it. It's the lunch before, they're downstairs, I’m upstairs. We're not even, we're not even communicating. I'm in the cafeteria eating lunch, they are actively downstairs practicing something that I was unaware existed. And I meet up with them, I'm like, "Hey guys, like I could not find you, like, I never got a text. I did not know if we were meeting up or what we're doing. Are we doing something?" And the person who was supposed to be in a hippo costume, he also had no idea what was going on. So, um, yeah, they were basically like, "Yeah, we made a little soundtrack and we're just gonna dance to it," and I was like, "Okay, cool, do I have to do something?" and they're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, just like follow the lead." And I was like, "Okay, cool." So we get up there -- keep in mind, I have not practiced this, not once, I don't even know what they have planned out. So we get up there and I'm literally just smiling and moving my feet like ever so slightly and just kind of staring off in the distance. I'm like, "What are we doing? Like, what is this?" And I'm trying to mimic whatever they're doing, but they're not doing anything. So we're all just awkwardly standing there. It was so bad. I did redeem myself last year, I guess this year. I mean like just like last Olympics, I guess, where we actually properly did a dance,…

So, earlier in the night, we had the great idea of going down to a graveyard because we could see the sunset, and it was really pretty from there. But we probably got back to [Name 1]'s house around like, I don't know, probably like 10. And this is a group of 5th graders, so, you know, 10 is pretty late and we were gonna be camping outside in this tent. And so, all on our walk back, [Name 2]'s really tired and she's kind of — she, she's a reader and when we — she read Warrior Cats when we would hang out, and we came up with, like, our own little language about it, kind of, but I think she kind of got into it more than we did. So she talks with, like, "Oh, the bird fea — like the lizard feathers, the owl's scales," and she just does that stuff. And — well, she doesn't do it anymore, when she was little, she did. And she was talking like that and me and [Name 1] were kind of getting creeped out. And so we were walking, we were pulling [Name 2] along and she's staring off into the distance, into the dark of the woods, and she's like "I see something out there." So we started getting a little freaked out. And so, we're like camp — like, we finally get back. We all like, get cuddled up, we try to watch a movie and [Name 2]'s kind of like — she's not nocturnal. She will wake up at, like, 4 a.m., but if you make her stay up until 12, she's dying, you know? So she goes to bed pretty quickly, and we decided to watch, with all intelligence — I'm usually pretty good with scary stuff, but I don't even remember what we watched. But we watched something. It was something about possession, 'cause [Name 1] talked me into it and she's like, "Oh yeah, it's a really good movie, like, my brother watched it!" and her brother was, like, 18 at the time. So, we watch it, and we kind of were getting into the creeps, you know, and [Name 2] starts talking, and she just starts, she starts, like, mumbling, and then she starts, like, grabbing onto us, like, you know, like she wants to cuddle, but it's just really weird. And that like — we stayed up that entire…

The, um, the whole hill is covered in ice, and -- everything. On our -- at our school, at least. Um, so we're not allowed to go sledding, so we end up going sledding on our backs 'cause it's just ice. And it actually works, but it kinda hurts sometimes. But the soccer field and everything is covered in ice. I don't, I don't even know how that works, but I think freezing rain just ices over the snow and then it melts and then it hardens into snow after it -- I mean, hardens into ice after it freezes.  I don't -- I think we should be allowed to sled, but of course that would be dangerous and we can't do dangerous things here. But at least we're allowed to go on it, 'cause the elementary kids aren't allowed to go on the hill. Um, my little brother doesn't -- he's not, he's not even allowed to go on the soccer field, um, because it's too slippery. There's this new ice mountain thing, but I don't -- it's just huge. It's just plain ice, it's like an iceberg. Um, and yeah.