The day of my 8th grade graduation was a very big day for me. It marked the end of the best and most important part of my life. I started going to bethel life school at the very beginning of 6th grade. It was a small Christian private school. Other than me in my class there was only 6 other girls and we had 1 boy but he left at the beginning of 8th grade but he was still a part of us. Bethel was different than other schools. We were close. We knew all about each other, we loved each other, and we had been through everything together. We were a family. It was terribly sad because after school ended bethel was shutting down. So not only was it me, Marissa, Lily, Mikayla, Kenzie, Willow, and Monique that were leaving. It was an ending for everybody. That made this graduation important to everyone.
    I woke up the morning of May 12th 2014 very excited but it was a bitter sweet feeling. That was the day that we had been planning for months but it was also the day that symbolized an end to an amazing past three years. I woke up around 530 and finished gluing pictures to my collage board. Then I threw on sweat pants and a grey tank top that I zipped up a hoodie over and I slipped on my black converse and tied them.  I didn’t bother to do anything with my hair since I would be getting it done latter so I left it all wavy and natural and didn’t put on any makeup except mascara. Then my mom helped me load up her car with my stuff and then we left to go eat breakfast.
    We went to village inn and I got strawberry crepes and bacon just like I always do. I didn’t eat as much as I usually would though. After that we went to the school. We started unloading my stuff and I said good morning to a couple pepole as I was walking up the steps with them. Nathan opened the door for us and we all stood there talking for a while. They said my hair looked “beautamous” natural even though I didn’t think so. After that Nathan went back to class and we went to the room that they had set up for after the graduation.  There was seven tables set up against the wall, one for each of us, and one long one in the middle that would have cake and punch on it later. 
    We picked out a table that are parents would decorate with stuff that was important to us while we were practicing and then we hung out and talked till everyone got there. Marissa was a little late as always. Once everyone was there we went into the auditorium and sat down and put on are shoes. We all had beautiful sparkly high heels. I didn’t have my shoes yet so I borrowed my mom’s shoes that she wore to her wedding. They are silver with sparkly straps that wrap around my feet. They had a four inch heel and they fit me perfectly. After that Mrs. Cowsill came in and passed around are graduation caps.
    After we had ran through the graduation over and over again for a couple hours Mrs. Cowsill said we were done so we went back into the other room. Are tables were mostly done by then and they were great. Marissa said “It looks like we died or something” and I agreed. The tables had a lot of stuff that said something about each of us. Kenzie’s table had a ton of her trophies from sports, dancing, gymnastics, and a few from pageant’s she did when she was little. Mckayla’s table had all her ice skating stuff. Willows had all of the weird stuff that she’s into.   
    My table was amazing. It had a black and white table cloth with fake candles on pieces of glass and green, purple, and blue (which are my favorite colors) fake gems scattered across the table. Two poster boards were set up across the back of the table that had pictures from the time I was a baby too recent photos with my best friends. There was a wine glass that said keep calm and dream on that was full of life saver mints which was funny because everyone I was addicted to them. My cheer pompoms and my pink volleyball were there. They belonged the school but we got to keep them because there wasn’t going to be a school any more. My two trophies from last year were there and my letter B that had my pins from the sports I did. There was also my princess crown that marina bought me because every one called me princess HayRae. It also had some of my favorite books since I’m such a book nerd. There was The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, and my giant book of Edgar Allen Poe poems.
    After we left the school we went to get coffee at Panera. I got an iced chi tea latte. When we were in the drive through Kenzie texted me to see if I wanted to go get my nails done with her. That was already something we needed to do so we met up with Kenzie and her mom at the nail salon. We both got French tipped manicures and pedicures with a thin line of glitter. It was fun to spend some time together before graduation.
    Next we went to get my hair done. I decided to get a braided up do inspired by Katniss’s hair style from the reaping scene in the hunger games. It looked great. Then we went to look for shoes. We went to couple different places to try on shoes. I eventually decided to just wear my mom’s shoes. They went with my dress perfectly and I was used to them. After that we headed back to the house.
    Then I started getting ready. My dress was beautiful. I had already been looking at dresses for months when I found it with my mom and Monique at a mall in Kansas City. It was everything I had been looking for. It was the perfect color of tealish green that looked great on me and it had a runched top with pretty sparkly silver beading across it. It had thin straps and a Hi-Low cut. It hit right about the knees in the front and touched the ground when I was wearing heels in the back and it was very flowy. I slipped a small black knit cover up over it and put on beautiful Betsey Johnson earrings that I bought with the dress. Then I put on makeup. I dusted on powder and shimmery brown eye shadow. Then I curled my lashes, applied eyeliner and mascara, and put on light pink lip gloss. After that I felt like a princess and I was ready to go.
    My mom decided to take a nap and she over slept so we were late to the graduation. Everyone was walking down the hallway about to go in to the graduation when I got there. I ran in and Mrs. Cowsill helped me bobby pin my graduation cap on. When we got to the doors we lined up in alphabetical order. I was last. The doors opened and the graduation song was playing. One by one each person started walking toward the stage through the crowd of people. When it was my turn it started steadily walking down the aisle. At first I was terrified. I usually get very nervous around people when there not even watching me but as I was walking for once I actually felt confident.
    When we got to the stairs Mr. C helped each of us up. Then Savanah, Nathan, and Luke came up to lead the pledges and we sat down in the seven chairs they had set up on the stage for us. Then the pastor of the church came up and prayed. After that Mrs. Cowsill came up and talked and then it was time for us to give are speeches. I went last. I had went over my speech so many times I had it memorized. I was nervous so I went fast but didn’t really mess up. While I was talking though I heard my 3 year old little brother yell “Sissy!”
    After I finished my speech and went and sat back down they showed us are video. The first part was of pictures of us through the years to the song I hope you dance which we picked out early in the school year. Every one tried to talk us out of it at first because they said it was cheesy. My pictures went first. There were pictures from when I was a baby, a toddler, and all throughout elementary school. Then there was a picture of me and my brother when I had just started bethel, a beautiful picture that Lily took of me with an umbrella when it was raining in front of the capitol building during are Washington D.C. trip the year before, and a pretty picture that I took of myself last fall with a sepia filter. It was fun seeing everyone’s baby pictures. Everybody was laughing and saying aww. The second part was pictures of all of us to the Miley Cyrus song wherever I go which I thought fit very well. There was SO many good pictures of all of us. By the end I was crying.
    After that Mrs. Bauer came up to talk and introduce Mr. Smith who was are speaker. Mr. Smith was are P.E. teacher in 6th grade, homeroom teacher in 7th grade, and are math teacher for both but he got a job teaching at another school are last year. I liked how all are teachers were involved because we were a family and they were important to us. His speech was long, kind of boring, and didn’t really have one central topic but it was really the thought that counted. Then Mrs. Cowsill and Mr. C came up and began calling us one by one to get our diplomas and are bibles with our names on them. After we all got them we went back then we stood up and moved are tassels. Looking at the 6 people standing up there with me I was just so proud of us. Since I first met them we have all changed so much. We grew up a lot together.
    Then Mrs. Darrah prayed and the graduation was over. After that we went into the room with are tables for the reception. I took pictures with all my friends and family and talked with everyone for a couple hours. I didn’t want to leave but we had to because it was late and Molly and Cole had school the next day and no one had even ate dinner yet. So we loaded all my stuff in the car and went to village inn again for dinner. We talked about where I was going to high school next year and discussed online school which is what I ended up doing. Then we drove home and unloaded all my stuff.
    I looked in my bathroom mirror and felt so beautiful. I never wanted anything to change but it had to. So took off my heels, dress, and earrings and wiped off my makeup. Then put on a giant t-shirt and shorts, unpinned my hair, and hopped in bed. I cried myself to sleep that night.
    That day was very important to me for a lot of reasons. That day was I actually felt confident, strong, proud, and beautiful. That day symbolized something we had all accomplished and the fact that we had all grown up so much. Most importantly though it meant that it was the end. The end of bethel and the end of the best three years of my life. It also was the start to very scary and uncertain future. It’s been over 5 months since then and I still cry a lot. It’s hard to look at old pictures, listen to certain music, talk about it, or especially drive past bethel without tearing up. I miss my friends and teachers. I miss the fun we used to have. I miss the way things used to be. The future is still uncertain and scary. I’m trying though. I’m trying to move forward and be happy.  That’s been made harder by more recent challenges but I’m still trying. I try to live by the Dr. Seuss quote that I used in my speech “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”