My story begins in the small town of Faith, South Dakota. I was born on April 4th, 1985. I don't remember much of my infancy, but I do remember quite a bit from age 3 and up. The very first thing I remember when I think back on my childhood is Christmas. Why? Because of all the wonderful Christmas home videos my parents have at my house. Christmas was always great, I usually asked for robots and stuff like that, but what I got was great, I was certainly never disappointed, that's for sure. The most prominent Christmas memories occur at my Grandma Norma's house, on Christmas Eve. This is my mom's side of the family, so her sister, Janice, and her husband, Ross, always come, too. Each year it seems like they have a new child and she is pregnant. They are Catholic, that's all I have to say. We usually go sometime in the morning, have a wonderful dinner, Turkey and all that jazz. And then at night, we all cram into a vehicle and go Santa hunting. We never actually get to see Santa, but when we get back, Grandma always tells us that he showed up, and our presents are all there. So then we open presents and that is fun, and we go home. I usually sleep in the vehicle and dream about all the fun stuff I just got, and how much fun it's going to be.
The very second thing I think about when I think back on my childhood is Laina. Laina and I were inseparable. We were together all the time. Every morning I would show up knocking at her door at promptly 6AM. She was asleep every morning, and her mom told me to go away, so I would go play in my sandbox or whatever until she finally woke up. When she would come over, we would do all sorts of things. Play stupid games that we had made up, write on things with pens we found, play with our dogs; her dog was Missy, and mine was George. We did all kinds of fun and crazy stuff. Laina practically lived at my house. Then, at about sunset, Laina would announce that she had to go home. This did not make me very happy. I wanted to play with my best friend forever and ever. But she wanted to go home. So, like the small child I was, I would get angry at her and call her names that I do not care to repeat, but I will, for your enjoyment: poopyface, butthead, stupidhead, and meanie, just to name a few. I know, I know how terrible of me it was to say these things, and Laina is probably still damaged to this day, but she called me names back, so I guess we're even.
I had a very vivid imagination. At the age of three or so, if you would have given me a couple of Sesame Street figurines (I had like, 80) and put me in a completely empty room, I could have lived my entire life in that room and been as happy as I could be, as long as you fed me once in a while. I was constantly making up little stories in my head, and playing out little plays with my toys. I am so fond of my imagination, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Then came school, and with it, bundles of new friends. Mrs. Sletten was my kindergarten teacher, and although everyone probably says this about their own kindergarten teacher, a better kindergarten teacher, you will never find. We were always doing fun things, coloring, making stuff, and watching SESAME STREET! It was the greatest. Our class really bonded, I have a very close class, we only had 18 or so kids then, and we were so close. It was a little before Kindergarten that I met Amanda Dutton, but school allowed me to talk to her a lot more. We were exactly the same kid, just separated into two separate bodies, we liked the same things, we had the same vivid imagination, we were alike, but I'll save most of the details of the relationship between Amanda and I for her Biography.
My kindergarten year flew by, it seemed like in no time, I was going to get my report card, along with a popsicle, oh yes, I remember the popsicle, it was one of those Icee pop things that are in plastic and you freeze them and eat them. Well, I was an impatient child, so I tore mine open and sucked the juice out on the way back to the car. A summer went by, during which I went to the pool probably every day with Amanda, where our friendship blossomed even more.
Then, first grade. And who is our teacher? Mrs. Dutton, Amanda's mom! I loved first grade, I hated math, but spelling was so great, I beat Amanda at the spelling bee that year. She spelled nest wrong, stupid idiot. It went something like this: Amanda "Nest, N-I-S-T, Nest" Me, inside my head, <YES!! SHE SPELLED IT WRONG, IT'S N-E-S-T!! I'LL WIN!!> and of course, I did. I don't remember what the word after nest was, but obviously I got it, because I won. And then, the day of the regional spelling bee comes, and I wake up with itchy bumps all over my skin. It was CHICKEN POX, on MY DAY, chicken pox, not fair!!! Amanda got to go, even though she spelled nest wrong. I couldn't believe it! With first grade came a few new classmates, Terry Berndt, Beau Butts, and last but definitely not least, Kalub Hahne. Kalub was adopted into Amanda and I's friendship. He was quite a bit like us, and so it was only natural for him to join us. A lot of my fondest memories occurred during elementary school recess, where Kalub and Amanda and I would dominate the swings and make some of the most original, but also some of the dumbest songs you have ever heard. Yes, such classics as "Daddy Couchy," and "If I Could Get My Hands Around Your Neck."
Sometime during my first grade year, a little bundle of "joy" named Clay was delivered to my household. Hah, "joy," how could this ever be a joyous thing? For the rest of my childhood, I would get less attention than this small mass of flesh and bone. Up to this point, all of the presents under the tree were mine, my parents were mine, my toys were mine, and I didn't have to share anything, but this would soon change. I was so excited to have a little brother, I couldn't wait to teach him to talk, lead him in my evil ways and help him with my homework. This is not exactly how it worked out. I don't know how many of you have no older siblings and one sibling 6 years younger, but it is not a very good setup. We hardly ever got along, we always fought about everything. Sometimes, neither of us wanted what we were fighting over, but we couldn't allow the other to have it, either.
The rest of elementary school was quite eventful, but I do not want to bore you with details, basically, Kalub, Amanda, and I were the biggest losers in the world. Our sense of humor and odd imaginations caused us to be alienated somewhat by our classmates. We didn't get spit on or food thrown at us, but we were not the most popular kids. Through high school, however, this changed, and by our Senior year, we were the most esteemed "group" in our class. People would actually seek us out to talk to us, they would crowd around us as we made them nearly suffocate of laughter with our senses of humor and imaginations that had made us so unpopular before. And they would not only seek us out to make themselves laugh, but we would try to cheer people up, and quite a few times, they asked for our advice. High school was full of good memories and fun times.
When graduation time came around, I didn't know what I would do, I was so depressed, and I couldn't bear to even think of parting with my class. Also, I was planning to go to a school all by myself. For the first time in 12 years, I would be away from Kalub, and for the first time in 13 or so years, I would be away from Amanda. I just couldn't bring myself to think about it. I was sad all the time, I would listen to music that would make me cry, and I would look at pictures that would make me cry. Sometimes, I would just lie in my bed, and think of things that I would never be able to do again. I still can't think about those times without getting sad and shedding a couple tears. I'm crying right now, as I write this, the pain is still that strong. On graduation day, I was so out of tears that I couldn't even cry, I wanted to so bad, I wanted the tears to just stream down my face, but I couldn't do it, I suppose I had already done it so much in the weeks before. I brought Kleenex's with me and everything. The summer went by, Kalub went to Oklahoma to live with his sister and work at Wal-Mart, and I probably talked to him two or three times. Amanda and I spent a lot of time together, but not as much as I wish we would have.
When Kalub got back, he and I, and a different Amanda, went to a Goo Goo Dolls concert, which sucked majorly, by the way. And Kalub, Amanda and I tried to make as many memories as we could for the rest of the summer, doing all of the things that we knew we wouldn't be able to do for a long time.
Then, it was time to be off to school. I had to get something from Kalub's house the day before I left for school. I remember driving out to his house, not crying the whole way, and the instant I saw him, the tears just wouldn't stop coming, I got what I needed, we hugged, and I drove away, when I got to my house, I went straight to my room and called him. I told him that I felt like someone just shot my dog, and he said some things and tried to be comforting to me. The next day, we loaded all of my crap into mom's van and my car, and headed to Madison. It's quite a long drive (5 hours) so I had plenty of time to think about stuff. We stayed in a hotel room that smelled like smoke when we got here that night, and my brother, Clay wasted half of my bottle of Febreeze on the floor. The next day we moved all of my stuff in and went to Sioux Falls to buy some last minute things and visit some relatives. Then, when I got back the next day, my roommate, Corey was already moved in, and he was playing video games with his brother. We had talked a couple times on the internet over the summer, so it wasn't too awkward. Then, it was time for my family to go, and I had one more box in the van, so I went out with them, and I hugged everyone goodbye, and made fun of my mom, because she was crying. Then, I took my stuff up to my room, and just sat there for a while. Then I started getting out all of my stuff and showing Corey. I showed him pictures of my friends, my Crystal Ball, and all sorts of stuff. I think I sort of weirded him out. One thing we had in common was a strong liking for comedy, we watched comedy every night, it was great. Then, after a couple weeks or so, he broke his leg and moved to a different dorm. During this time, I completely clammed up, I hardly talked to anyone, my mom kept nagging me to try to meet people, but I didn't want to. I just wanted my internet so that I could talk to my friends on the internet. But I slowly came out of my shell, started socializing and talking to people. Some other stuff happened and now I'm here, lol.
This is by no means finished, I need to go back and add details and stuff, but I think this is enough for now.
