Week 2

1992, Afghanistans communist government was overthrown. The Free Trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. is signed. The largest shopping mall in America opens it's doors. Hillary Nicole White-Craig is born.

I clutch the chains holding the swing as my Papa pushes me higher and higher. As I'm being launched into the air, so are astronauts in the shuttle Discovery. My hair whips my face but not in a painful way, the air is fresh as I breathe it in through my nose. Unaware of how lucky I am to being in such a safe place to live. Bombs exploded in North-Iraq, Assam India, Algiers and Israel when I was only three years old.

Turning five was a big turning point in my life, it was now time to go to school. My first day at kindergarden, I cried and cried to go home. The room seemed fifty times bigger than me and the kids were making me nervous, too afraid to make new friends. I simply sat in the corner waiting to be told it was time to board the bus and leave. Vaguely remembering, my first bus ride, the driver forgot to stop at my house. Peering out the window as my house swept by in a mere instant. Tears flowed from my face, afraid I would never make it home. Too shy to say anything to the driver, I sat and cried. What seems like a lifetime later, the bus driver got a message on his radio telling him he forgot to drop a little girl off, me. He soon turned the bus around, apologizing to my mother and me, letting me off at our little yellow house. I grabbed my little pony backpack and lunchbox from the seat and ran off the bus as quickly as I could.
Being only five years old at the time, things were going on that would affect me in the future. During 1997, a law was passed that only allowed people 18 years or older to by cigarettes, they were also proven to be addictive within the same year. Even in the television industry, things changed that would affect me in the future. The travel channel was bought for $20 million, as I slowly got over it would start to become one of my favorite channels.

Time went on, I proceeded through first, second and third grade. The summer after third grade my mom met a man named Roger, soon after falling in love with him. She informed me we would be moving to Brewer into a bigger house for all three of us. I was more than devastated and did not know how to react. I would have to make new friends, at a new school where I knew no one at all. Summer eventually ended and all our things were moved into the new house, my new school was about five houses away from mine. The first day of school my mom and Roger walked me there where it felt like kindergarden all over again. I knew no one, all the kids were already friends and playing tag or flag football. I was introduced to my new teacher Mrs. Geaghan, who still holds a place in my heart and always will. I soon met new friends, one Nicole, who has always been in my life since then. Not soon after the new year began, 9/11 took place. I remember coming in from recess and seeing Mrs. Geaghan behind her desk crying, none of us understood why or what was going on. Teachers were walking and running all over the hallways talking to each other. Some classes were allowed to go back out and play, soon ours was allowed as well. I however, along with three other students were told to stay inside. What us four students had in common was one, if not both of our parents were in the military. We were told what happened and that if we had any worries to voice them within the group. My mother never did have to go over seas to fight in the war, which I am thankful for everyday. Although my mom did not have to go, a father of a boy in my class was deployed. I remember holding my mothers hand one day while she walked me to school, so thankful I had her right there with me.
On April first same sex marriage was approved by the Netherlands, the first country ever to allow it. The dispute is never ending about whether same sex marriage should be allowed all over the world. Since then, within America there have been a few countries to allow it: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Washington D.C.


Homosexual was a word I had never heard until I was about thirteen years old. I lucidly remember the first boy I met who was gay when I became a big bad middle schooler, ready to take on the world. Middle school came and went without any issues. I made some of my best friends those three years and the memories are bittersweet. Every month, we would look forward to the dances. Getting dressed up, putting on make up and doing our hair was the highlight of the week, sometimes even the month. Walking into the girl bathroom finding girls crying because a boy would not dance with them or their boyfriend wanted to be with someone else. Such silly dating games seemed so real at the time, like the boy who you wanted to date was your prince who was going to be with you forever. No one who dated in middle school is still together now, goes to show how time changes everything. My eighth grade year I met a boy who probably changed my life forever. We were together until last summer, still the pain resides, I lost my best friend when we broke up. If I could go back in time, I would have never even said hello to him. My hands felt every single tear I wiped away because of him.

Every year I got older I also got a little more aware of the world around me. I started understanding the news and that my life was not the most important thing in the world. I would go home and get my daily update of what was going on from CNN and the local news.

During my senior year in high school I took a class named Current World Problems. I have to admit, it widened my eyes and perspective on the world around me. China is a major threat to America due to the dependent relationship we have that is almost only one sided. Sitting in class and being told other countries around us are rising up to a challenge to level out the superpower country, America. Also, kids in other countries are becoming far more educated than the ones here and testing in America has much lower scores.