my very first roommate

in my family i'm the oldest child. i have a younger brother and sister so i pretty much shared a room my entire life. so having a roommate at boarding school was not a huge thing for me. in fact i loved it. my first roommate was suzanne vanderaa.

we lived in the first room on the left down the girl's hall in berea dorm. it was the room with purple curtains and purple and white striped bedding. i remember that in berea we got to rearrange our rooms once a tri so suzi and i planned forever trying to figure that out. we used to have this routine every night that we would say when the lights went off and we laid in bed. we would stare up at he glow-in-the dark stars that were shaped like different constellations. we would go back and forth picking out the different ones we knew. and we would do this every single night.

suzi was an awesome first roommate. like most first roommates we became the best of friends and hated living together at the same time. she would tell you the same. as great of friends as we were, it was better if we didn't live together. but our friendship started as roommates and we had an amazing friendship from their on out. she taught me so much. she was the youngest of 4 who had all been to ICA before so she knew everything already. suzi, i'm so thankful for you and all that you shared with me that first tri.

7th grade study hall

i always LOVED study hall. i hated homework and never did any so study hall was always time to chat with friends and daydream. i remember lots of study halls in 7th grade. miss jenny johnson was our "monitor". i guess that is what you would call her. i don't recall her being in the classroom much. in fact i have a few pictures somewhere of her putting david and nate in charge (don't know what made her decide those were the most responsible students in the class). i also remember that alot of times we would watch movies. i believe her favorite movie to show was "chariots of fire". gosh, i hated that movie. i loved going into the air conditioned av room and watching a movie but i'm pretty sure i fell asleep every time. the only part of the movie i can remember were those really short shorts and the guys running on the beach.

while sitting in study hall i used to watch the high school girls have p.e. at upper court. i remember watching once and the girls were playing field hockey and one girl got smashed in the leg pretty bad. i have no idea who it was but it looked like it hurt really REALLY badly. so sorry, my friend. but study hall was never the same again after 7th grade. there was too much work to do to have fun and watch movies. thanks, miss jenny, for the fun times!

work credit

do any of you remember what your first work credit was? mine was the worst. i can still remember going through the forever long list of work credit jobs as a 7th grader up in the library. of course everything good was already taken. so my first work credit was... putting away the leftovers after supper in the dining hall. YUCK!!!! it was so gross. i remember pushing that giant silver cart that held the salad bar and all those dressings smelled so bad.

and then you had to take everything into that nasty fridge. the nasty meat sitting next to the open milk. just thinking about it makes me want to gag. i'm sure there were worse work credit jobs but i really hated it. i guess i would have also hated washing dining hall windows or something.

i remember this one night when i was putting food away and i dropped this pile of stuff on the floor. one of the guys dorms was wiping tables and they all clapped. you know that stupid claps that lets you know everyone saw what you did and you just want to climb into a hole. i think i dropped some dishes or something because i remember a REALLY loud noise. well as i tried to pick everything up i remember sebby and josh howard coming to help me pick it all up. i remember how awesome it felt to have these 2 high school guys not make fun of you but help. good job, guys!

morning wake up calls in berea

every morning in berea dorm where i spent my 7th and 8th grade years uncle brian bliss used really loud music to wake us up. it was normally something like newsboys, dc talk, or some other really loud music.

of course on their day off aunt aileen would choose the music. aunt aileen, i think you're awesome but classical music doesn't really wake a middle schooler up at 6:30 in the morning. i'm pretty sure i slept till i heard the bell for breakfast on those mornings. thank goodness for the other girls down the hall who would wake me up in time. because of course we had to be at the dining hall in time for breakfast at 7am. i missed waking up to music when i got into high school. alarm clock stinks. bring on the newsboys!

my first day

i remember going to ICA with my mom. i remember walking into berea, down the hall, the first room on the left. it was the one with purple curtains and purple bedspreads. my roommate was suzanne vanderaa. i remember she had so much more stuff than i did. it was her first day too. we were both so excited to meet each other. i remember the two of us and our moms just unpacking away. i remember being met by aunt cathy bliss and aunt aileen. another thing i remember is how good the dorm smelled, like homemade cookies or something.

i don't remember much else about the day except at night when my mom left. i remember LOTS of crying. she cried. i cried. it was so hard. i remember thinking why in the world did we decide this boarding school thing was a good idea. i remember laying in my bed that night looking up at those glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. i think suzi and i stayed up talking for a long time.

i remember the first day of school we had chapel and my mom was there again. i remember having to say goodbye to her all over again as i started the trek from the chapel up to the classrooms. what a horrible way to say goodbye to a 7th grader on their first day. i know i fought back tears all day at school. but i do remember tirza and kara being so friendly to me. i think they were the first 2 people in my class that i got to know. i was so thankful for them. and after that i was fine. thank you suzi, tirza and kara for making my first 24 hours of ICA good enough to make me want to stay for the next 6 years.

what is this blog

i've been having so many memories of ICA lately that i need a place to write them all down. it's almost been 10 years since i graduate and i'm afraid if i don't right all these random thoughts down i won't remember them at all. most people won't care to read any of this but a few might find it interesting.

i will preface this by saying that these are my memories and some may be completely biased but again, they are mine. i'm excited to share them with you. and if you have a great memory that you want to share we can totally do a guest post or something. just let me know.