Sophomore Adventures: highschool edition

When I was a freshman in highschool I attended a catholic private school. I didn’t really fit in because everyone came from a wealthy family and I was there on scholarship. The summer after freshman year my dad was deported and my mom had to figure out how to take care of everything on her own. I couldn’t go to my private school anymore because it was too much for my mom to work two jobs and drive me an hour away to get to school. Instead I went to public school. Well more like back to public school because I went to a public elementary school. Right away I loved it. There were more people like me and I made friends easily without worrying that I had to be someone else. I met a boy…. Yes there seems to always be a boy. He was a terrible guy but he started my craving for adventure that I still have today. His name was George and he convinced me to live life to the fullest with no regards for the consequences. I started sneaking out with him and his friends and it was amazing. The rush of sneaking out of the house without your family knowing and leading on a life that was unknown to them was thrilling. It also made me realize how much I love night time. I loved when I would sneak out around 1 in the morning and it seemed like the whole world would be asleep. Nothing would be happening under the stars and moonlight. You could walk in the middle of the street with no worries. It seemed like you could do everything while the world was away resting. There was nothing to worry about. I could live in the moment. Im 19 now and for most of the year I live away at college, so there is no need to sneak out and most college campuses are always awake late at night. It's just not the same, but I like to think back to some of those adventurous nights and reminisce.

Now don’t misunderstand me. My fun was not because of that boy. I actually hate that boy now but that's another story. I just happened to adventure with him and his friends for sophomore year and the summer before junior year. So let me share one of these stories with you. It was as if my life was a movie…

It was a summer night, right before junior year. It was hot and really quiet. I had just moved to a new house and found out that the only way to sneak out of the house was through the downstairs window. My friends had called me out for a late night swim at a pool in an apartment complex not too far from my neighborhood. I went through my sneak-out-routine. I always did this before sneaking out. It consisted of making it look like I was in bed but not too obvious that I made a pillow decoy, just in case my mom came to check on me. I made sure the door was unlocked so that I could come in easily if there was some emergency. I made sure that a fan was on to muffle noise upstairs and sometimes I would even turn the tv on low. I always wore my Mother Mary necklace and said a little prayer asking that God would let me have a safe and secret adventure. Then I opened the window and listened. I listened for any sign of life in the house. If I didn’t hear anything but my moms snoring, I was good to go. Id slip out of the window head first onto the grass. Then I’d leave the window cracked so that I could easily come back in. Finally I’d say another prayer and I’d be off on my adventure. George was there waiting for me and we met up with the others at the entrance of my neighborhood. Everyone was so excited. We started walking and George said I could get on his skateboard with him. He took me to the middle of the road and I was honestly a little scared. I got on the front and he got on the back and held my waist. We skated all the way to the apartment complex like this. It was extraordinary. Not because it was him but because it felt so nice to soar down the road, no worries, just staring up at the stars. I felt like I was flying. I felt free. We finally made it to the pool and it felt so nice to sit there in the cold blue water under the moonlight. I stayed on one side of the pool to myself where I could just enjoy the moment. The boys were on the other side and began to play fight. I told them to be quiet but they wouldn’t. Next thing I know a man comes out onto his balcony and yells at us that he just called the cops. We ran immediately, everyone going in different directions and I went with George. We hid behind some stairs at first, then we quickly ran through each set of apartments until we came to a big field. We saw the cop and he had just caught a few of the other boys. We quickly ran across the field and through some more apartments until we reached the end of the complex. We jumped the fence and headed straight through the woods to a neighborhood. I looked at my phone and it was getting early. I knew my mom would be up soon to get ready for work and I started to get scared. I kept telling George I had to get home. He claimed he didn’t know where we were and took my phone so I couldn’t look up anything on maps. Soon enough, after walking through so many neighborhoods we magically ended up near my neighborhood. He then told me he knew where he was going all along and I was so mad. I made it inside, threw on some new clothes and hid my old ones. I got into bed and pretended to be asleep. Right when I did this my mom opened my door to check on me. She had just woken up to get ready for work, like I said. It was so close. I don’t know how I did it.

I think I learned a few lessons from that adventure. Boys are stupid and ruin everything. Don’t worry too much and live in the moment. Life isn’t about the destination but the journey (unless that journey is with a terrible boy).