Grade 12

Grade 12 was interesting. I think it was the most dramatic year of high school. lol.

< Warning, I may ramble extensively >

So, I had been up and down in my faith the last couple years and was still trying to figure out what it meant to me. Our pastor at some point said that he had a friend who went to church with his girlfriend, but the second they broke up he stopped going. Was I going because of her? That was a question I didn't want to let go by without trying to figure it out. So I think the summer before grade 12 she was gone doing ministry so I had time to think without her. I don't remember what I came to exactly. lol.

Grade 12 we pretty much did everything together. Honestly. I guess our classes started to differ, since I continued in sciences only and she only did Bio, but we were still all in the same bands (all of them) and hung out in the music basement at lunch, and went to youth group and church together, now we played on worship team together. I pretty much thought she was my girlfriend, well I knew she wasn't, but I wasn't going to change anything. I was too shy to just tel her I liked her, but I pretty much treated her as a girlfriend, of course there were obvious boundaries since we weren't though.

I tried out for the volleyball team, auditioned for the fall production, and was in Jazz Band. These all conflicted a lot. Jazz was an actual credit course now though, but if I didn't go to practice I wasn't allowed to play volleyball during the games. I had told my boss I would be very busy with the play because my friends said they had a big role for me. SW got it instead and I was probably about 1/10th of a role. lol... So I missed rehearsals a lot. I had three lines. But the times I did go were awesome! Some days our improv games were the most ridiculous amazing things in the world. From volleyball practices we had to do a lot of punishment, like serve practicing if you missed you had to do like 10 crunches or something, if your team lost the mini-match against the other half of the team you had to grab the towel-wrapped boards and clean the gym's floor back and forth (I was really bad at this until I finally understood how to do it). I was so close to having abs. lol. Jazz was always fun. We had a small band and I was lead trombone, so I actually had to play really high notes and be responsible for playing them well instead of hiding under NM as we all used to do (Rolling Thunder *cough*)

And then it turned out that all three had big things happening at the same time. Feeder band tour, OFSAA, and the performance were all within a couple days. I nearly made the decision to drop out of the play and go with the team to OFSAA (in a different city), but at a game later in the day after the tour (in Ottawa) we didn't win and so we didn't go to OFSAA. Oh well.

I think this was the year CR got serious about us memorizing music for Dixie band? Nah. He always did that for JazzFest, but I guess it was the year we had 'new music'. >.> Can't we just play "I Know What it MEans to Miss New Orleans" and "5'2" Eyes of Blue"? lol...

Now this is embarassing . . . >.> 24hr Music-a-thon. I didn't really sleep. I had pop-tarts. loll. I ended up passing out during a performance and one of my steel drums fell over making a huge deal (it was all streamed online live to make it worse. loll). >.> There was a mini praise concert from like 3-4 am. I don't understand this whole situation even now, but before AL went on stage we practiced together Italian run and then she went on alone and it may have been really awkward for me to sing from the audience. lol... / TS yelling 'Yeah! Jesus music!' or something like that. >.>. There was no Jazz Buffet that year.

Um. lol.

So, I went on a trip to Montreal for the third time I think? It was cool as always, but on the bus I texted (I had a phone now? When did I get my first one? Idk, but I had broken my new one in September and now have the one I had then) my buddy RL and told him a secret of the girl I liked.

She was not happy about this. Although it was also not important. It was about a band RL really liked that she would never admit openly that she liked. She said something along the lines of not being able to trust me.

It was winter.

Back in school in January and she has a boyfriend.

Even colder.

They had been dating for a little while now. I had no idea. She didn't tell me.

So now I had to deal with getting over my not-real-girlfriend breaking up with me by cheating on a guy who was also in everything we both were, and then dealing with not hating him as I ended up wanting to for liking the same girl as me and then dating her for the second time. >.>

So there was a whole lot of tension there for a couple months. They were way too close for my comfort, but if I hadn't said anything I can't blame them.

*sigh*

I definitely knew I wasn't in church for her by this point. Instead of ditching the church, I turned closer to God. My real relationship with God was worth far more than my non-existant relationship with her.

Also that year was the Musical "Once Upon a Mattress" which is not a tragedy in anyway. Our drama teacher left for the fancy new school in Barrhaven. >.< I was almost offered a role as the mute King, but I wrote on my application that I did not want to be him since he couldn't sing. lol. So I ended up as Knight 3 after the originally cast person dropped out. Again this was awesome. I got to know NJ pretty well. I really admired her singing since her role in Urinetown, but now we were dance partners. The musical was awesome and we were back on stage at NAC, well, not all of us this time. We (collective) won a lot of awards and JC accepted one in a tiger costume. lol.

I was definitely committed to my faith and when God told me I needed to talk to BC about Him I did not want to. I ended up inviting him to Engage Your World (was that what it was called?) and got a little obsessed with Manic Drive. lol. I ended up asking a lot of my friends to go, but I never shared the gospel.

This year No Other Name was cool. This was the year I found out that there were Christians at MHS. lol KC, RM, MR, IP, HC, to name a few.

This was also the year that DS passed away. He got in a car accident, he wasn't driving, and it wasn't the driver's fault, it was the other car. This threw the whole school into a loop for a week or two. Students were gathered outside his locker with many pictures and tissues for days on end. Honestly, I didn't know him that well, but I was really shook up too. I skipped Physics class to go to the wake. We all walked from school to his church for the funeral service. In both places his family was not grieving, but full of hope. DS may not have said much out loud of his faith, but was firm and knew Christ as his saviour. When we left the service the sun poked through the clouds. I left work early to go to his youth group too.

I haven't even mentioned spares. lol. Cramming with AP every day. lol.

English class. lol. JS is the most hilarious teacher in existence. Ephemeral. Cakes. SC. I didn't read Hamlet. I focused on studying Gatsby symbolism for the exam and got the exact prompt we had all studied for.

I tried out for the baseball team between rehearsals for OUaM. SF.

Gotcha! I was so upset when MT tagged me! I was asking the refs a question about rules because my guy was sick. // I had backstabbed and betrayed so many people. I was going to win for sure. I knew everyone in the school (practically) and they all trusted me. >.<

I applied for Carleton last second. lol. I didn't really want to go to University.

Oh. Summer school with AP and BC / the CB IB kids. lol. Big 2.

Ummmm. I pretty much walked around like I owned the place. lol.

MM! I compleely forgot to mention him in Grade 11! I meant to. I met him in Japanese class! and then he ended up at my school!

Ummm. Oh, Musical rehearsals were on Saturdays in April so I couldn't go to Getaway (OCYM retreat), but KC our stage manager did! >.< Met JS.

lol.... Secret tennis match with my brother's girlfriend? lolllllllll

30 hour famine amazing race / all-star band (I missed my chance to talk about one day without shoes for grade 11. darn. NO! It was this year!!) / One day without shoes. lol. So, I don't care for shoes. So when I hear about this day to raise awareness for people who don't have shoes and this causes serious health problems and makes life difficult, ok, let's do this! So I swear to not wear shoes all day, but just in case, I brought them in my bag. All-Star band rehearsal was at a school like a 20min bus away or something and it is raining now. I wait at the stop by my house with my trombone and no shoes. Get on. He says, no shoes, no service. I say "I have them in my bag". He says, but you weren't wearing them before you got on. So he kicks me off barefoot into the mud puddle and I have to get to practice ASAP. So, I run. lol. When I get there people are like O.o?!!?!? LOL! Cause I am soaked through, muddy legs, with a trombone and no shoes, and a couple minutes late. lol. My music was slightly wet.

Ummm. I'll just stop here. But ya, so much of my time in school was not about school. lol. It's the people and stuff that happens that really counted.

Ttyl.

D.Fa