Graduation Speech

           Hello parents, teachers, family and the Class of 2016. I am honored to be here today on behalf of the GMS Class of 2016. I can't believe we are leaving Golf Middle School already. It felt like just yesterday we were the tiny excited fifth graders walking down the hall by ourselves without having to be lead by a teacher. We were scared of the big eighth graders who we thought were skyscrapers compared to us. But now we ARE those eighth graders.
           As all of you know Golf Middle School is not the biggest school. Being in a small school is not as bad as everyone thinks. Going to a small school is an actually advantage because you know all of your classmates. Even though some of us aren't the closest friends, we all have that special bond between us. I've known most of my classmates since kindergarten, while in other huge school they don't know that some people even exist. Size doesn't matter when it comes to schools, it matters about the people who work there and the students who go there and what we learn.

           We have gone from being the youngest kids in the school to the oldest kids in the school  multiple times. It's like a pattern. In kindergarten we all felt like little bugs compared to the giant fourth graders, but once we got to fourth grade we felt like the leaders of the school. Same thing happened when we first entered fifth grade, we went from being leaders to the little bugs again. We were all scared of the eighth graders who we thought would trample over us in the hallway. But with all the good memories and fun we had through fifth, sixth, and seventh grade we zoomed to being the leaders of the school again as eighth graders. Now that we are going to be freshman in high school we are going to go back to being the youngest in the school again. The circle continues, but we know and feel prepared to face anything that comes our way and become the leaders again as we have been taught by our outstanding staff here at Golf Middle School. I also have learned that time flies and that in a blink of an eye we will be graduating high school and going off to college. I know that the circle will continue in life and ... we may start small, go through our share of struggles, but will find a way to shine through as a leader that we may want to be.
             Going through Golf for the last four years has been a heck of a ride. In fifth grade we went to Robert Crown, which was probably the most awkward field trip we have ever gone on. In sixth grade we went to Medieval Times. Seventh grade was where the fun started because we were old enough to be on the sports team. We ended up in second place for soccer and fifth for basketball. But even though we didn't win the championship, we learned to work as a team and do our best to achieve goals and had a lot of fun. Also we went to Camp Maclean which was the best field trip of all time. I will never forget when we were about to leave and we all rolled down that huge hill and felt like throwing up on the bus even though we had a soccer game right when we got back. This year in eighth grade we went to Feed My Starving Children, where we made meals for starving kids around the world.
             The last four years wouldn't have been the same without our Golf staff. They make Golf the amazing school that it is. Without our staff none of us would be here right now. They always went out of their ways to either grade our papers, or respond to our late night emails when we were confused on our homework. They pushed us to try our hardest so that we could be the people that we are right now going into high school. They understood and adjusted themselves if someone was having a rough day and wasn't feeling well. I want to thank all of the Golf staff for everything they have done for us, big or small, it has made us the people we are today.
              I would also like to thank all of my classmates that have been there for me when I needed them. Without them I wouldn't look forward to going to school everyday. They did a lot for me over the last four years. From telling me what our homework was to standing up for me when I got into an argument with someone. We have had so many memories that I will never forget and I hope we make many more through high school. All those laughs we had in class and at the lunch table were all worth getting yelled at to keep it down. You guys helped me if I was confused on homework or a worksheet we did in class. I am really going to miss all of you and I hope we stay in touch as we move on in high school.
              “Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” Is a famous quote from J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan. I will never forget Golf Middle School or the staff that works there. I will miss you all so much and I want to thank you once again for everything you have done for me. Good luck and best wishes to the Class of 2016 as we start a new chapter in our lives!

Testing (Sarcastic)

To prepare for a big test you need to get the least amount of sleep you can, it helps your brain function better and it keeps you awake. You also shouldn't eat a good breakfast because it is the most important meal of the day and it's important to skip it on the day of a big test. It helps you feel really hungry and makes your stomach hurt in the middle of the test, which helps you get a better score. When your testing make sure you skip as many questions as you can and also don't take your time. You will get a higher score if you skip a lot of questions and speed through the test, trust me it helps. You should always try to look at other peoples papers if you don't know the answer to a question, also make sure your teacher catches you cheating that way you get a bad grade and you get in trouble. If you follow all these instructions and tips you will definitely pass all your tests and your teacher will think you are a genius.  

Beginnings and Endings

There was 3 seconds left in the game and Old Orchard fouled me, we were in the bonus and I had two free throws. We were down by one points and I was shaking and extremely scared. I thought, "If I miss these free throws the whole team would be mad and blame the loss on me." I went by the free throw line and waited for he referee to come and give me the ball. It felt like an hour just standing there looking at the crowd and shaking nervously, then finally the referee blew the whistle and handed me the ball. I took three dribbles and spun the ball in my hands and shot it. It felt like the ball was moving in slow motion after it left my hands. I looked up and the ball went straight threw the basket, SWISH! The game was tied now and it was all up to me to make this free throw to put us into the lead. All my teammates came and gave me high fives after I made the first free throw, which made me feel good. The referee handed me the ball for my second shot and I was about to explode of tension. I did my usual routine and dribbled the ball 3 times and let the ball fly out of my hands in slow motion. The ball hit the back of the rim went into the air and fell into the basket. The referee blew the whistle and all my teammates came and jumped on me giving me high fives and hugs. We were up by 1 now with 3 seconds left in the game, Old Orchard threw the ball in and they took a half court shot and missed. WE WON!

Field Trip

One of my favorite field trips that I went on was Camp MacLean in 7th grade. We went for two days and one night but I still had the time of my life. When we first got there we took all of our belongings into our cabins and picked our beds. I liked my cabin because I had a lot of my friends in it and one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Gilman. We did a lot of activities while we were there, like archery, fishing, team activities and many more. We also played capture the flag at night with all the kids that came on the field trip. There were two teams orange and green, and we got our face painted the color of the team we were on. That was one of my favorite parts of the trip because everyone was scared because it was really dark and you didn't know where anyone was. But to top off the whole trip was the food we got, you could eat as much as you wanted and drank as much juice as you wanted. It was basically like a buffet, it was amazing. I really enjoyed our field trip to Camp MacLean and I can't wait to go back in May again this year. 

I'm Still Here

July, 17 2014

Dear Diary,

       Today I went swimming with dolphins, and on a slide that goes through a shark tank, while on vacation in Atlantis. I am with my cousins and family and we are having really a lot of fun so far. We had to wake up early today, around 7 A.M, which isn't really early it's just that we are on vacation and we usually woke up later. Our parents came into our room and started shaking us telling us to get ready because we are going to go swimming with dolphins. We all jumped out of bed, and got ready as fast as we could and ran downstairs from our room and went to the lobby so our parents could take us. 

      When we arrived at the dolphin cove, we had to put on a special suit and we had to go into a room so one of the workers could explain what the rules are and what we were going to be doing. After he was done explaining all the rules and what we were going to do, we went into a huge pool that had salt water and the dolphins were swimming around. We got these machines that helped us go underwater and swim with the dolphins without having to do any work. We got stay in the water and take pictures with them for an hour and it was really fun and everyone enjoyed it.

      Hopefully we do something as fun as what we did today for the rest of out trip. Good night.

Erika's Quotation Post

“We must live, and when this is all over, we must work to make the world a better place.  And if we die, we will die knowing that it was not our fault, that we did our best, and we can go to our deaths in dignity… I want you both to live…And to remember...You must choose love.  Always choose love.” 
This is actually a true story. My cousin got married to his beautiful wife in November of 2014, and my family and I went to Philadelphia for his wedding. We had so much fun and it was amazing, a few months after their wedding my family and I were at home and we were eating dinner. My dad's phone started ringing and he answered it and he told us that my cousin who just got married and his wife passed away while they were on the honeymoon. My cousin's wife was drowning, because she was sucked in by rip current at the beach, and so he went to try and save her and they never came back up out of the water. This directly relates to the quote because it says you must always choose love and thats what my cousin did.

Summer

Summer is my favorite time of the year, the weather is nice, you don't have to worry about shoveling your driveways. But what I like most about summer is that I hang out with my friends almost everyday. We all use our bikes and meet up at the park and we usually play soccer for a couple hours, then we will go eat somewhere, like Burger King or Subway. Somedays we will all go to somewhere fun like  Six Flags or the pool to hang out and have fun. The good thing is we do not have to worry about coming home early to do our homework or study for a test, because we don't have school. Also what I like about summer is I can wake up as late as I want, unless I have to go somewhere the next day with my family early in the morning. I hope summer comes fast because that's my favorite time of year and I really enjoy it.