The Cheating Begins:

9th grade is when I probably got my start in my big-time cheating schemes. It became my sole dependency in some classes and it helped me make the grade in most cases. However I would later realize how much it killed me because I lacked the background knowledge that my future classes would build upon. I believe in started in geometry. I had it 1st period with Mr. Thompson. That man is most likely one of the best teachers at Quince Orchard. As long as I listened, even half-heartedly, I picked up the material. ONTOP OF THAT, if I ever forgot something, I luckily sat behind one of the top students in my entire Freshman class. Her name is Joanna. She also happened to be one of the prettier girls in my grade, but I never really got to know her well enough to feel attracted to her. Eh, that¡¯s besides the point. At least to my knowledge, she had no idea I was cheating off of her on tests and what not. So, basically I would just copy them all down while she did her work. Second semester I sat right by this other smart kid, Joel Wilcher. Now, everyone made a little fun of this guy, because he wasn¡¯t afraid to stick out. Of course I feel rather bad for joking on him behind his back now, but it¡¯s all in the past and I havn¡¯t been able to talk to him recently. I admire him now for not being afraid to truly be himself. Anyhow calculator games was a big thing at the time. We¡¯d all be punching away at our TI¡¯s playing tetris and what not. Hehe and I got joel HOOKED on my calculator tetris. In fact, he¡¯d let me copy most of his work if I just let him use my calc for the period. The things we do as freshman hehe. Well these were the beginnings of what would become a lucrative cheating habit in high school. Eventually it would catch up to me later that year though. I was caught cheating on a Spanish test that I was making up on the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. One of the dumber things I¡¯ve done for sure. Didn¡¯t matter, regardless my grade for that class still suffered.

Grace Jundo:

Church wise, 9th grade marked a time for a new Jundosanim. The one prior to this new one was Sunny Jundosanim. She was a great woman, with remarkable ambition. Unfortunately, she tried to delegate all the responsibilities to only herself and ended up carrying the burdens that should have been shared among the entire youth group. At this point our youth congregation had started to experience a slow, but steady increase in size. The new Jundo to replace Sunny would be a lady all the way from Oregon who decided to attend seminary at Wesley in DC. Her name was Grace. The thing about Grace was, from the beginning, it was some what apparent that she wasn¡¯t quite¡¦ I cant say cut out, rather, wasn¡¯t really prepared to be a Jundo just yet. Luckily, she made quite a few friends from Wesley, who would help her out whenever she needed. Such as driving the big church vans or in helping lead some of our activities. Grace was prone to give the short and sweet type of testimonies. Although, I didn¡¯t really grow spiritually all too much during this time period, and at this point I was probably going to church more for the fellowship aspect then the worshiping god aspect, I¡¯m still thankful we had Grace there. Oddly enough, the retreats we had with grace were some of the best or at least most memorable. We went to some NICE accommodations. I¡¯ll talk about the retreats in another entry but the places were very very sweet. Grace did have some good ideas for the youth as well. She set up a summer school program, which I never attended, but I think that was a very nice thing to do. She also tried to set up sandwich drives and what not for the homeless. She definitely seemed to have her heart in the right place. Well, as I said earlier, she wasn¡¯t really prepared just yet, and unfortunately later on in the year she would leave rather unexpectedly, leaving our youth without a jundo for about a half year.

Girls:

Well, in case you havnt noticed so far, there has been little to zero mention about females in my life. I mean in terms of crushes and what not that is. This is because at this point and time. I could have cared less. Sometimes I miss those days. Although feeling for someone or someones makes life interesting, it also can put you through a lot of bull. Well anyhow, enough about that. I didn¡¯t really sweat any girl at this point and time. That¡¯s that.