8th Grade Trip: Washington D.C./New York City

8th Grade Trip: Washington D.C./New York City

Back in 8th grade, our middle school was hosting a trip to visit Washington D.C. and New York City for about a week or so, and I was one of the thirty students that attended the trip. The trip was scheduled to be in mid-May, so it was still school time, and I was pretty happy since I also got to skip a few classes that I didn’t like. It was my first time traveling to another state without my family, so I was a bit nervous about what to expect, but a lot of my friends were also going to the trip too so I thought that it wouldn’t be too bad. I had my suitcase packed up, with clothes, my toothbrush and stuff, and also a little booklet we had to fill out. The booklet had questions we could answer while we were on our trip, but even our chaperone, Mr. Carter, was the realest and said that we didn’t have to complete it or even turn it in, so that made the trip less boring. We start boarding and it was pretty boring our first flight, and our first stop was Washington D.C. It’s been a few years since the trip, so I remember partial of it, but I do remember how fun it was, such as seeing all the landmarks, tourist places, and the fancy hotels we stayed at overnight. While in Washington D.C., I got to see the Lincoln Memorial, which was much bigger than I’ve expected, as well as saw the famous typo. It was also rainy during that time, so all of us were huddling in the Memorial until we had to get onto our next bus. We also took a group panorama in front of the Capitol, and also saw a the White House, but didn’t actually end up going in. Eventually we stayed a hotel, and in the morning, they were serving the best breakfast, and I was pretty hungry so I got like two pancakes, 3 slices of bacon, some scrambled eggs, and some orange juice. We boarded onto our next plane, and we stopped by New York City, where we toured around and saw the World Trade Center Memorial, which were two large fountains incorporated where the towers were, as well as the Survivor Tree that was saved from the attacks and replanted. We saw the New Year’s Eve ball, which was inactive during our view, and stopped by the Empire State building, and viewed the city all the way at the top. It was pretty high, and windy too, so I was legit scared of falling off or tripping. We ended up on our last plane back to Patterson, which I sat next to this one girl who would bash my head on the window for some reason, and it was kinda funny at first then I was legit about to make her catch these hands. We arrived at 2 A.M., and everybody was clearly tired, and I was too, but I knew I had fun, spending time with my friends, and learned a few things about my trip.

At the Capitol (Me in the middle)

Journey to Getting a Dog

When I was younger, I am often dreamed about having a dog and what it would be like. I’ve always wanted a pet before and was interested in owning one one day. I was mostly interested in getting a dog around the same time I lived in an older house here in Patterson, around elementary school times, where I would play with my neighbor who else had a dog named Kiki. It was a medium sized dog, roughly half my height, and it was pretty rambunctious. I knew having an energetic dog would be fun, as I was also energetic (at that particular time). I've had some funny moments with that dog, like one time he saw a cat while I was holding his leash and he was stronger than my little ole tiny body, so I ended up being dragged while also knocking into my neighbor. What was worse was there were these two girls in the car and their dad was getting their mail, which the mailbox happened to be in front of my house, so they saw the whole thing, which was super embarrassing. A few years later, we tried looking for a good dog that would be good for us, and eventually my dad was able to find a dog for us, which he was able to get via my uncle, since he had a litter of pups, and he gave one to my dad for free. His name was Rockee, which we named based after our other neighbors dog, Lucky, who was a fully-black Cardigan Welsh Corgi. He is a Pitbull/Labrador mix, so he was expected to get pretty big after a few months. He was also very playful, trying to climb up on basically anyone that would come play with him, but my mom usually couldn't let him climb on her otherwise she'd get shoved to the floor, and she had to be cautious because she has a bit of a bad back. Whenever we’d take him out for walks, he would always have this alert position while walking, and scout and sniff the sidewalks all around, always marking his territory on literally everything inanimate, like a mobile sprinkler. We occasionally take him out for walks, but usually avoid walking him out in the summer due to the hot weather. I enjoy having him as company, and he is one of the best things to happen in our life.

The Road to Obtaining My Driver's License

I have always been worried about driving, because of the all the laws and consequences you can get if you don't obey the laws. I basically saw it like an advanced version of Go-Karting, except you can actually kill people, and also go to jail, but I wasn't about that life. For my experience of pre-driving, it was a bit complex. First, I had took first watch through this grueling 8-hour online session about rules and and laws on driving, and it was super boring. I also had to read the handbook a bunch of times so that I knew more on the  rules, laws, speed limits, etc. The day I had to take the online written test, I was pretty confident because I had plenty of time to study.  I ended up failing because some questions were awkwardly worded. So then about a few weeks later, I retook it and finally passed, I felt like it was finally over but nope now that I had my permit, it's time for the real thing. I was enrolled in this driving program called Precision Driving, which was pretty helpful, and I had some very insightful and friendly instructors. I also had to drive a total of 50 hours, with 40 during the day and 10 during the night so I can get used to what it was like driving. My parents were always pressuring me to make sure I would learn how to drive before the school year started. After all that, it was time to take my actual driving test. Honestly, the only thing I was worried about was having a strict instructor, but she was pretty chill so I was pretty chill too. I'm the end, I passed on my first try, with only 5 errors, one being I mistook the windshield wipers stick with the turn signal stick, and my cousin laughed so hard when I told him. But, hey, at least I have my driver's license, and some of my friends don't even have their driver's license yet and they're already 18, so I'm getting there. I'm still in need of my own car, though. 🤔

My First Experience of College

My family would always ask my what are you going to do after High School, and every single time, I would say ‘College, I guess”. I had always been a bit nervous about graduating from middle school to high school because it was a completely new experience for me, and being a pretty small kid, I was always a bit shy of the other kids in the higher grades. As I progressed through high school, though, it was pretty easy to make new friends and get familiar with my classes, and I seemed to make more friends easily. My attitude has changed though, as I graduated from high school, I was really excited to attending my first college. My first time stepping onto the campus the first time was during the Student Orientation back in June, so being the complete scrub I was, I had a confident face people would have thought, ‘Dang, that kid looks like he knows what he’s doing’, but also could have thought why there was some elementary school kid wandering around a college campus. The only difference between high school and college, I would have to say is the classes, because there is more free time in between some classes, and it’s pretty cool taking a two hour break between two classes, but it gets awkward when you do not have anyone else you know that’s out the same time as you. Overall, I’ve felt more comfortable attending school now then I was back then, and plan to expand my range of friends not just from Patterson, but from others across the area. Now the only thing I have to worry about is getting my own car to drive all the way from Patterson.

Me Surviving the First Day