Last Day of School Celebration

My freshman year came to an official end on June 6th, 2013 at noon. I meandered out of my classroom where I had just finished a grueling two-hour history final. To say the least I was in shock. That was it. That was my whole freshmen year. My first year of high school was over and all I felt in the pit of my stomach was a gnawing sense that I had just wasted a pivotal year in my life by worrying about tests and grades, instead of focusing on myself. Isn’t there more to life than the marks you get in school? Was the anxiety really worth it? The answer is no. No, it was not worth it and I most definitely regret some of the choices I made this year. But that’s life and you live and you learn. And I guess you’re always going to have some form of regret.But don’t worry I made sure not to start my summer in a cloud of despair. In fact I did the opposite and had myself a little party of three. And in eight hours, with the help of my friends, I managed to complete four bucket list items.

#86. Spontaneous photo shoot with friends.

After a quick lunch of pizza and a stop at the frozen yogurt shop my two friends and I arrived at my house. We quickly changed into our bathing suits and headed for the nearest pool. A look at the deserted parking lot and instantly we knew something was up. The pool was closed but we still had hope that another pool would be open. Stop two and we realized it’s a pool for those fifty and older. With sinking hearts we pulled into the parking lot of pool #3. With baited breath we ran to the gate and saw that lifeguards appeared to be setting the pool up. A look at the schedule posted and we saw that the pool was scheduled to open in a half hour. So what did we decided to do for  thirty minutes? Have a spontaneous photo shoot on a playground of course. The pictures scattered around this post are a sampling of the many photos taken. The quality is sub par as they were taken on an iPhone, but nonetheless we all had fun.

   

#40. Have a burning party.

After a half hour was up we walked back to the pool expecting the gates to be wide open. Alas they were not and even worse there was no sign of the lifeguards! With a feeling of dread I realized there was only one more pool we could possibly go to. With our fingers crossed we headed to the last pool and were met with the glorious sight of opened gates. Success! We swam for a few hours in the freezing cold water and then it was back to my house for a burning party. If you aren’t familiar with the concept, a burning party is not a disturbing ritual involving the sacrifice of baby animals but rather a chance for elated students to burn all their school papers at the end of the year. I suppose it’s similar the book burnings of the second World War, however instead of burning classic literature to suppress the population from gaining too much knowledge we simply burned useless notes, failed tests, and boring worksheets. What’s interesting is that all our hard work and effort was put into those assignments and we were willing, even happy, to burn them without a second thought.  To ashes, to ashes indeed.

#96. Fluffy Bunny /#99. Make s’mores.

Once again if you’re not familiar with the term, Fluffy Bunny is a “challenge” where you stuff as many marshmallows into your mouth as you can. After each marshmallow you have to say “fluffy bunny.” I’m not sure the point of the game, but I will admit I was intrigued as to how well I would do. Before starting I guessed that with my chipmunk cheeks I could probably hold up to ten marshmallows, however by the time I had three in my mouth I was seriously doubting my ability to hold four much less ten. The marshmallows quickly became a gooey mass in my mouth and sticky saliva dripped down my chin. I hit my limit at six, when my gag reflex kicked in and I heaved the mess of marshmallows up. The sticky lump fell in my hand and I quickly threw it into the fire. Next my friends tried and the results were as followed: 6, 6, 4. After that experience none of us were thrilled at the idea of s’mores, however five minutes later we had forgotten our ordeal and were roasting marshmallows. Let’s just say s’mores are much better than the Fluffy Bunny challenge.

All in all it was the perfect way to kick off the summer!

May the summer be ever in your favor,

Meagan