Wednesday, January 9, 2013

New New New

That's right ya'll! It's all new times up here in Logan. New year, new semester, new classes, new friends, new new new! And so far it's started out pretty darn well:) (Including the new episode of Pretty Little Liars that was released last night. Can you say trippy?! Dang Toby :'( still makes me super mad)

Annnyway.... Along with all my new classes, I have signed up for the required English 2010 this semester. One class and i'm already in love. Again. I didn't realize how much I have missed writing!! I went like 8 months without an English class and forgot how much I loved it. Yeah, i've written a little since high school. A couple poems and of course i've tried to keep up this blog, but to be given a topic that I normally wouldn't think of and be FORCED to make time to write about it because it's part of your grade? Well i'm just excited.

Our first day in class we went over the loooong syllabus like all other classes. This is my smallest college class that I have taken yet. There are probably only about 25 of us. (Mostly female... which SUCKS and doesn't help to achieve the "meet new guys" goal for the semester, but oh well. No distractions, right? ;))

After the syllabus, we started getting right into the real stuff. Talking about books, (mainly our love of Harry Potter) poems, and our goals for the semester. I am already stoked about my English teacher. What is it about English teachers that just makes them so awesome?? I had amazing English teachers in high school too! Mrs. Baker sophomore year who taught me to fall in love with poetry. And my all-time favorite teacher Mrs. Vorhees who taught my AP English class my senior year. She -surprisingly- taught me to fall in love with literature and picking apart writings that have a much deeper meaning behind them. Well, my English professor this semester is no different. She's already the bomb.com

First day of class she had us draw a picture of our neighborhood growing up and to put stars by places where we have very distinct memories of childhood experiences. I drew my neighborhood from up in East Layton. On it, I put stars next to my best friend's house, the road where I almost got ran over, the hill that our cars would always slide down in the winter, the block that the mean boys down the street would always chase us on our bikes, the sidewalk where my friends and I would drive her Barbie jeep around all Summer and the construction site.

She then asked us to pick one of the memories that were connected with one of the stars, and write about it. She gave us maybe 20 minutes and then called on some to read theirs in front of the class. I was one of the chosen few. :P I hadn't finished it at the time, but my professor classmates really enjoyed it, so I wanted to type it on here and finish it.... here goes.




Construction Flags 
     The sun was beginning to set. My friends and I all knew what that meant. Time to go home. "Be home when the street lamps turn on" I distinctly heard my mom say as I walked out the door earlier that day.
     My two friends and I had been having a rather boring Summer day. We played our usual round of Barbies and rode our bikes around the block 4 whole times. It was Summer though and so we wanted to make every day count.
     "We need to do something exciting before we go home", my best friend Taylor said. It didn't take us long to decide what we would do.
     Just across the block from our houses, there was a new road being constructed. Our favorite part about construction sites? The pretty colored flags that would be stuck in the ground to proclaim the exciting work that was being done. Little did we know at the time that the flags were vital to the progress of the construction.
    "Let's go take the pretty flags by the new road!" Mckenzie, the third member of our best friend circle exclaimed.
     We all rode with a purpose on our bikes to the construction site in the dusk. We imagined capes flying in the wind behind us as we three rode in a line to achieve our goal We jumped off our moving bikes and sprinted to the pavement hearing our bike bells ring as they hit the sidewalk. Time seemed to move slowly as we picked the flags out of the dirt like one would pick dandelions in a field. Hopping and skipping from one to the next. Then, the streetlights flickered on like a firefly lighting itself up for the first time after nightfall. 
     My two best friends and decided that we should head home before our parents decided that we would be grounded. We couldn't risk 2 whole days at home doing nothing during the Summer. As we headed to the sidewalk to pick up our bikes, we were startled by a voices that were at the top of the construction road. The voices belonged to two large people with flashlights and two large dogs.      
     All of a sudden the thought ran through my mind that maybe we shouldn't have been taking these flags. Maybe we were stealing. In an instant, all of my mothers favorite TV shows were flashing before my eyes. Criminal Minds, CSI, and Law & Order. Cops. These two shadowy figures with flashlights and dogs were policemen. Panic shot through my body and I could tell my friends were thinking it to as they began to run to their bikes. 
     We pedaled as fast as we could - the purple, yellow, and red flags still in our hands as we gripped our handlebars. We stopped in front of my house deciding that we needed to get rid of the evidence. Taylor and Mckenzie were scared that they would get in trouble for being late, so I told them they could take off and I would throw the flags away. They handed me their flags and then I felt uncomfortably alone as I watched my friends getting smaller and smaller.
    My hands were burning with the evidence. After putting my bike away, I headed towards our big black garbage can to discard them, but remembering how the police work in my moms TV shows, I figured that if the cops found my house, they would search our garbage. So instead, I ran down our driveway, across the street and threw them in my neighbors can that was outside of their garage. 
    Walking back into the house, the whole rest of my family was sitting on the couch watching Hook; one of my favorite movies. My mom looked at me, smiled, and said "Oh, is it dark outside already?" I just nodded, kicked off my shoes and tried my best to act casual, being so thankful that I wouldn't have to live with the regret AND live with being grounded. I had a hard time sleeping that night because I was scared that I would hear a knock on the door or see flashlights in the window.
    Never did I mention this felony that I had committed to my parents. The secret stayed between my two best friends and I and we swore each other to never speak of what had happened that night. 

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Whoo! Okay, that's it.. haha I was such a rebel child. It's late though, I'm running out of juice and can't think properly, so I'm heading to bed. Thanks for reading! So far, the semester is going great!