Every person has a different story, stories about all sorts of things, such as, trips, events, holidays, and such. Not every great story has to be happy either, some can be so sad but they lead you to a better ending. My name is Julie M. and this is my unique story, well part of it.
It was fifth grade and I was normal until I became her friend. My friends and I weren’t wild, loud, or anything of that sort; yes, we laughed and had a good time but for the most part we were normal. Then I don’t know how but one day this girl, Sarah, and I were outside of the class room for inside recess playing the new Bop-it toy (that sounds really stupid when I say that now). We were having a great time be complete idiots and just being our selves. We became best friends for the rest of my time I spent at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School. I think this memory sticks with me because she’s the friend who brought out the crazy and stupid side of me.
I have a couple family traditions that I remember from my life. I remember when I was little sitting at the table and we all would hold hands and pray, nothing special, but it was something that kept us together some how I think. Time went on, the tradition changed and eventually stopped. Another is the family trips we took; trips are meant to be fun, and ours were, for an hour or so. I’m not going to lie, you’d probably rather shoot yourself then go on a family trip with us. Put four screaming immature kids/teens in the car for at least a six hours trip, and, yeah it’s not good. Pulling hair, screaming from everyone, crying, throwing things, you probably get how awful it was. The one good thing that came from the fights is that I believe these fights are partially what made me a stronger person in a way.
Christmas and Easter are two of the three big holidays my whole family spends together, including cousins and such. These holidays don’t just bring us together as a family but also in a religious way to. Religion is a huge part in a person’s life, some bigger than others. I am raised Christian -- Catholic, go to church on Saturdays, go to youth group, and celebrate events. Even though right now this isn’t really a part in my life I believe that later in my life I will respect my religion and it’ll be a greater part in my life. Some of the things I don’t really appreciate are the meanings behind things, like Christmas and Easter, but there are great family times that happen. On Christmas Eve I and my sisters, Kristen and April, would sneak down really early in the morning to see what ‘Santa’ brought us for Christmas. Eventually ‘Santa’ found out that we were peeking at our presents and started wrapping them; when we found out it took the fun out of it. My sisters and I never looked at all our presents but we did peek downstairs to see if he came yet and what he got us. Another thing we still do is have a big breakfast, eggs, bacon, pancakes, and almond rolls; they are my absolute favorite part of the breakfast. Then later we usually go to my cousins for a while to see some family in Ohio, since they are the closes; also my Grandma alternates between coming to see my family here in Indianan and my cousins and their family in Texas.
I use to love the snow and winter, it was my favorite season and I use to never get cold at all, I could have been outside in shorts and a t-shirt and be like it was seventy out not thirty. I remember getting woken up early, putting on my snow pants, shoes, gloves, and then jacket. We would get our two sleds, grab Sable, our dog, and get into the car and head over to Cool Creek Park. Since we got up so early to do this there was pretty much no one else there, every now and then another family would be but usually it was just us. I sled with my family for a few hours I think and we then would head home for hot chocolate. My mom is always freezing so she would do whatever not to go outside in the freezing cold, I don’t even remember if she went sledding with us. I was little and I remember pushing her out the door to come play with us in the snow, she was probably only out there for an hour bur I still got her to come out.
It was so funny; I was about five years old I think. We had this Golden Retriever, Sable, and she was still a puppy I don’t know how old though. Since I was little I had this plastic high chair that you sat in a normal chair and it raised me up so I could reach the table and on the back of it was this handle. I would first tie Sable’s pink leash to the back of my high chair, call Sable over and hook that end to her collar. I didn’t know at the time that it would scar her to death, but it did. She ran straight from my kitchen through the front hallway, and she peed ever where on the wood floor. I didn’t know that would happen; I though I’d sit in the chair and she would pull me around, apparently it didn’t work too well. I got in trouble for it, but it is quite amusing looking back on it now. Also Sable from then on was scared of her water bowl and we think it was because I traumatized her with the chair.
There isn’t just one story that I remember about my life, there are a lot of short stories that make up my life and that have influenced me in a way to become the person I am today. Some of the family traditions I miss, but when old traditions go it makes room for us to make new traditions.