Last 9th Grade check In letter

May 31, 2010

Dear Ms. Priester,
There is so much to talk about but I can’t find the words to say it. So I am going to talk about Graduation. I can’t wait for it to come I promised myself not to cry but everyday I think about Chelsea and Calvin saying goodbye. I have known Chelsea since the fifth grade. My very first foster home I went to she was there and we became like sisters. Then I moved away to live with my cousin and haven’t seen her since then I moved here and we were reconnected she is like my big sister I never had but always wanted. Then there is Calvin at first I never liked him but then I warmed up to him, and he has always been there for me when I needed someone to talk to, but now they are leaving and I will be alone, I hoped and wished that this day would never come. I feel that my sophomore year will be the hardest. I feel I might fall back because right now they are the only reason I keep on trying. I feel like I have lost so much to keep losing more. I knew the day would come that they would walk out the door. I would tell them to don’t look back and to keep moving forward. I would tell them to do it for me if not anything else because even thought they are both leaving they are all I have left. (Words 249)

But on to a different topic I am really excited about my sophomore year. I feel I am no longer at the bottom of the food chain but I am just one above it. I feel I am closer to my senior year closer to moving forward. Soon I will be graduating myself. It makes me happy to think about when that time will come, because I will be one of the few of my family to go to college. It makes me happy to think about the day when I will walk across the stage, of even give a speech to the people who have helped me on my journey I am just begging to take. My favorite thing to think about is San Diego State. My colleges switched so many times but I think that I have finally made up my mind. I want to make something of myself. I don’t want to struggle like my mom and dad did. I want my parents to be proud of their last kid, to help them when they need it because without them I wouldn’t be here. I didn’t want for this to happen bit its all part of the plan to become more than I am.(Words 207)

The thing that hurts the most as I look around I see all these kids who have potential, but they throw it away on smoking, I don’t know why people smoke, for pain, heart ach, stress, and struggle, everyone goes through pain but not everyone goes to smoking. People look at me, and they see my mask I feel no one really sees me, they see what I put on they see my play. Once they do see the heart ach and pain they walk away as if they don’t care. I feel alone most of the time. My real family live so far away I barely get to see them. I have a few people on campus that I call family like Chelsea, Calvin, Jabreil, Kristiana, and m other half Shaurice. Shaurice is like my little sister I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to her, people look at us and see that we were meant to be. The only girl that knows almost everything about be. There is only one person on this whole campus who knows everything about me and that Broderick. He is the only guy that knows why I am here, my past, everything. Shaurice and Broderick together know everything about me they know my whole life story. It hurts me when I see them hurt I feel there pain. When the cry I feel like dieing inside. They mean that much to me that if anything happened to them I would go crazy. (Words 253)
Total words: 709

Sincerely,
Tierra Andrews