Let's start with an introduction. My name is Grace. I was born on September 19th of 2005. I have a sister who’s younger, her name is lily. I have a dog named Goose along with a cat named Jake. My parents divorced when I was around seven years old and I don't really talk to my father anymore. I live with my mom in Springfield, where I lived all my life, and I'm very eager to go and live somewhere else besides here. Like in Maine, or Texas with my boyfriend Evan. I've wanted to get away from Ohio for so long, there's so many places I'd go.

My sister Lily was born July 23rd of 2009 which makes me around four years older than she is. Lily is definitely a character, but she's my sister so I'll try and be nice. I was the one who helped her walk, talk, and ride a bike. I helped her with her math, which I still do now, spelling, the whole nine yards. My parents were busy most of the time and my father was always “at work”, I'll get to that later. When lily got older she started to play the same sports that i used to play when i was younger. Soccer, basketball, softball, cheerleading, and dance. The only thing she hasn't done yet is volleyball. I personally don't think she will play volleyball because her hand eye coordination is horrible.

I could almost write a book about my sister but I won't because she won't appreciate all the embarrassing things I would put in it. Anyways, let's talk about my mother. Her name is Genny or as the cashier at Walgreens calls her, Geneva. She works at the pharmacy at Meijers as a Pharmacy technician which means I never get away with skipping school for being “sick.” As far as I know my mom worked at Lee’s, at some point she was a bartender, and now she works at Meijer. My mom works a lot to keep things moving steady. She is a good mom though so I'm not complaining about anything, besides her cooking. Sometimes it's great, and others not so much. That's why I try to cook most of the time, or when I have the chance.

These will be my final introductions for a while and one of them is going to be my father. My dad isn't exactly the best person in the world, that's for sure. I have to go to his house every other weekend because he still has visitation. Even if my mom took my sister and I away for good he would throw a temper tantrum. He has bipolar disorder and he doesn't take his medication or take care of himself for that matter. He also has PKD, or polycystic kidney disease, which puts cysts on his kidneys. My father had one and a half of his kidneys removed and he told everyone that he was dying so that he could get attention from it. It's honestly embarrassing. He also dresses like a toddler, he has these softball jerseys that he wears all the time. They are very colourful and have too much going on on them. 

Let's talk about his girlfriends now. The one he has now stole a bunch of clothes out of my room when I was at my mom's house. The one before that was really nice. I loved being around her and her kids were so nice, but my dad wasn't so nice to her so she got an apartment and left. The one before that one was also nice. Her family was fun to be around, in fact I still talk and hang out with them now. I go to their Ohio state parties and cookouts. Finally the other one, this one broke up his and my moms marriage. I'm convinced that she was satan. She was nice to me but so mean to my sister Lily. One time she was sweeping and she hit Lily with the vacuum cleaner. Then my father didn‘t believe Lily when she told him about it. So many other awful things happened but this story isn’t about her.

Let’s get back on track. If you know me then you know that I am a fairly quiet person. I rarely raise my hand in class or talk in public. However, when I was younger I would talk all the time. You know how kids are right? Well I guess I was a little too loud. I would get yelled at for talking too much, I was told I was a “chatty Cathy'' which looking back I understand but you don't tell a kid to stop talking constantly. It is what it is, I guess.

You know how your parents say they don't have favorites but they obviously do? Lily was my dad’s favorite because he can manipulate her into believing his lies. He doesn’t like me because I dont put up with it. I’m my mom’s favorite most of the time because now that I am older I have become more independent so I cook, clean, do laundry, all that jazz. Every now and then Lily sneaks her way on to my moms favorite board but it doesn’t happen as often as me. It doesn’t really bother me anymore if I'm the favorite or not. 

Every summer break or spring break my mother takes Lily and I to see our Grandpa and his wife Linda. At first they lived in Florida, then New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and finally Utah. They say this is going to be their last time moving but I bet they’re going to move to Tennessee next so that they can be closer to us but still see the mountains. In 2121 for Christmas we were in Florida with my grandparents and my aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was awful. Linda never stopped talking and she's very loud. In Fact she's so loud that my grandpa refuses to wear his hearing aids. I honestly don't know how he has so much patience.

A few months ago I found a lump on my chest. Last time I checked lumps weren't supposed to be there. It was the size of a golf ball and it caused me pain and along with that it was swollen. I told my mom and she said it would go away on its own eventually, but it never did. Finally after two months of waiting my mom made an appointment at the gynecologist to get it checked out, because she thought it was unnecessary to go to the hospital. While I was in there they told me that it's probably just a cyst and it should go away. Well it never did. Then I missed my time of the month, or TOM for short. It’s been around three months and still nothing has happened. I took a pregnancy test just to make sure and it was negative, thank God. I went back to the gynecologist and it turns out I have cysts on my ovaries which are causing me to skip. I'm not going to lie, I'm enjoying my time off, but when those cysts burst they are going to be really painful.

For my next rollercoaster paragraph we are going to talk about my boyfriend Evan. He is nineteen days older than me and he makes sure I know it. I have known him ever since 3rd or 4th grade and we never really hung out until around 2020. I had liked him for a while, but he would always come to me with his girl problems so I thought he didn’t feel the same way towards me. Around a year later he breaks up with his girlfriend, who still has his things and won't give them back, and he asks me out. Our first date was really awkward and cringy. We went to see “Bill and Ted” at the cinema. I absolutely hated that movie but there was nothing else to watch at the time. I remember Evan getting nervous and rushing to the bathroom, so like a good person I waited to make sure he was okay before leaving the movie theater. Turns out he was expecting me to leave and not talk to him again but here we are now, together for almost two years in August. His family is super nice and his four cats are by far my favorite. They're so cuddly and so is his bearded dragon.

Since covid is a big deal nowadays I think it's only right to add it in. I have had covid and it's awful. It hit me hard, so hard that my body did not want to move at all. I lost my taste, smell, I was running a fever, my body ached like I just did an intense workout the night before. In fact, I still have trouble tasting or smelling things. Ever since covid I haven't liked peanuts, doritos, milk chocolate, and pickles. All the things I used to eat on a regular basis taste awful to me, and don't get me started on the smell of peanut butter, bleh. As of now my sister has covid and I ended up testing negative, thank god. I got to test Lily and she kept complaining on how I put the testing stick or swab thing up her nose so far that her brain was getting scratched. I've been trying to stay away from her but it's hard. Is it bad that I wear a mask in the house now? I mean it's only because Lily’s sick with the rona. Now my mom has it and I feel like I’m next. This new variant is horrible.

A little update on that last paragraph, I got covid. I've been in bed for three days and I feel useless. I have so many things I need to do but I don’t have the energy to do any of them. I'm behind in almost all of my classes and I can't even see my friends because I don’t want to get them sick. I have a pounding headache that's making my ears ring and my vision blurred. My throat is so sore I can't even swallow water or eat the soup Evan brought me. Lets not forget the body aches, it hurts to walk and everytime I get up I feel dizzy and almost fall over. I just want this all to be over. I really hope I don't lose my taste or smell again, I can’t do that again.

Okay so we’re getting a little off track but I have a story. One time I was at Tara’s house, I've known her since 6th grade so we’re pretty close. I decided it was a good idea to let her cut my hair. It was definitely not a good idea. My hair was so jagged and uneven, I had to get my haircut to my shoulders. To top it all off we were going to Kings Island the next day which is an amusement park.  Also that night we were throwing bean bags at each other, you know the ones you play cornhole with. I had welts all over my legs and back, Tara’s a pitcher for softball so you know it hurt bad. I have fun at her house. Her mom is very nice along with her dogs.

In sixth grade I switched schools for the first time. I was not ready to go from a private school to a public one that's for sure. At my private school we had to wear uniforms and go to chapel every wednesday. However at public school you could wear anything you wanted as long as your pants didn't have holes and your shirts didn't go off the shoulder. I learned the shirt thing the hard way. Most of the friends I have now I met at public school. The people I was close to in private school went off to other private schools or just didn't talk to me, so I don't talk to them.

My dog Goose, or Lucy since that's the name she came with, was a stray. She was found by a dumpster and she had just had puppies. The humane society took her in but sadly couldn't find her babies. There were four dogs at pet smart that were there to get adopted and Goose stood out to me. My sister Lily and I begged my mom to get her but she said she'll have to think about it. We decided to go to Steak and Shake and think it over. Lily and I cried, I'm not going to lie. We just lost our two chihuahuas a few months ago so it was odd not having a dog in the house. Finally my mom gave in and she said yes. We drove back to pet smart and they were putting the dogs back into the van. I stopped the guy getting ready to grab Goose and I said that we were going to adopt her, he said “alright then” and left her cage in the store for us. Her adoption fee was 200 dollars and I pitched in my allowance to help. She is a beagle mix and she is the best dog anyone could ask for.

And that's the end of this roller coaster. If you made it this far thank you for getting to know a little about me. There are many other things that I could talk about but I feel like you know enough for now.