Memoria

I understand what authors mean now when they say that when they read their own books, they don't experience what their readers will feel. I couldn't help but start getting OCD and turning into a grammar Nazi flipping through the pages of my yearbook.

Seeing everyone's comment on Facebook and Twitter about the yearbook made me so happy knowing that all our hard work is being appreciated by the grade. Especially seeing the "tough" guys of the grade get sad and nostalgic over the yearbook. It made me feel like we've done our job. (Someone even confessed to going to bed with it.)

A year of dramas, late nights, hassling and ruining our eyesights for this yearbook. It was all worth it.

Recordatio

TODAY MADE ME RE-REALISE HOW MUCH I LOVE SCHOOL, MY TEACHERS AND FRIENDS. I WANT TO BE A STUDENT FOREVER WITH THE SAME GROUP OF PEOPLE AND NEVER GROW UP LIKE PETER PAN.

The past three days has been the most nerve racking of my life. The night before our HSC individual subjects' marks were released, my friends and I were freaking out so much that we decided to go on our first Macca's run to calm down. Honestly, I think it was one of the best nights of my life. Amy, Jellee, Jenna, Stephanie and I all camped out in Amy's car in front of a stranger's house next to Jenna's place. Five teenagers in a car at 1 in the morning is not shifty behaviour at all. We only had coffee kicks from Macca's. Not like it was drugs or anything. I'm surprised half the neighbourhood didn't wake up because we stayed there till 2am ranting about everything and laughing at things we shouldn't be laughing about. (What do you a Lebanese person between two buildings? Ali.)

A few of us threw an all nighter then at 5:30am, we all started obsessively trying to log in to check our results. I was thrilled at first, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought about how much I could've done better.

Headed out with my Rebecca-hasn't-sleep-in-24-hours face and had a dish full of ice cream and all was okay for a while.

We dropped by Jordano's place after and had a heated argument on the trampoline on whether we want to know the cause of our death or the date of it. I don't know how we got onto this topic but Preston recited this limerick to us and I don't know why I remember it:

There was once a girl named Mabel
Whose menstrual cycle was stable
By the light of the moon
She got out a spoon
And drank herself under the table.

Um, yeah. I'm just good at reciting quotes, books and movies.

Today I went back to school for the year 12 BBQ, which is actually just a day where the school secretly lures us in with free food and the handing out of our yearbooks in exchange for our HSC results.

But it turned out to be a really good day seeing most of the grade together again and some of the teachers. Most of the time was spent exchanging yearbooks. It really tells you what impact you've left on their lives or the kind of person you are to them. Whoops, and I've been dumping a drawing of an elephant on nearly everyone's yearbook instead of writing a proper message. My felt tip was abused to its tip in the process. Success!

I'll miss everyone and this whole crazy year stressing out with everyone for a number.

Expletus

Yes! Someone else who does not want to embrace the thought of coming of age! I said I'd go on an adventure to find the Fountain of Youth for Christine after she kept exclaiming GIVE ME MY YOUTH BACK since it's her birthday. Out of curiosity, I googled it and lo and behold! THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH ACTUALLY EXISTS! Well, in legends it does anyway. For a moment I thought I was a genius for making something up that sounds so exciting, sigh. So now I have two goals for when I go Florida one day:

1. Go Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
2. Find the Fountain of Youth then throw myself in it.

I went back to school today to help add the finishing touches to our yearbooks. I was actually really excited to go school because of my imagination. Since half the yearbook committee does either absolutely nothing or nearly nothing, I thought it'd be okay to bring a cane to school. For the few people who actually does something, we'd sit back and watch the others manually do the labour intensive work of gluing the CD sleeves into 170 books. If we catch any of them slacking off, BAM. I'll remind you that this is how I saw it in my head so it was very exciting for me. So of course I was kind of disappointed when I had to help too. We got it all done faster than expected at least! I think the yearbook looks amazing and I just hope the grade does too!

I like how our school decides to have Christmas spirit AFTER we've finish school, even if it's a neglected looking tree with tinsel that looks like it's been halfheartedly thrown on.

I also finally officially signed out of school. Mission accomplished! The last time I tried to sign out, it was Let's-Stay-A-Fifty-Metres-Radius-Away-From-Rebecca Day so I could not find half my teachers to return my textbooks to. That day was also Let's-Watch-Rebecca-Feebly-Struggle-Against-A-Tree Day. I honestly will never forget my experience of getting tangled in a tree. Then the day after my mum and I walked passed that exact same tree and she commented on how pretty the flowers looked in that tree. LOOKS ARE DECEIVING.

Amy, Annie, David, Peter and I went to McDonald's to eat afterwards as a way to "celebrate" the end of our yearbook-ing days. What can be more celebratory than a Happy Meal? I spent more time than I should have trying to solve puzzles on the damn box. In my defence, I still haven't slept yet because I unnecessarily had another all nighter. I had a really nice time catching up with them all!

I've officially finished the yearbook. I've officially signed out. So I'm officially free. DOBBY IS A FREE ELF!

We're Done

I am an official graduate of class of 2011. I already feel incomplete without my whole grade and being a part of something in this sort of close environment. The last time we'll ever be together is when we all sit in the hall for our HSC exams but somehow that thought is almost worth dropping out of school for (if it's possible since we've graduated) even after coming this far. Almost.

Formal was pretty much everything I could ask for, except the food was pretty bad. If there was a dog under the table I'd happily scrape it all on the floor.

Everyone looked so different and lovely on the night. Made me feel underdressed because of the unfortunate series of events that happened to me while getting ready for formal, which stresses me out thinking about it, even though it's already happened already and everything turned out okay. To name a couple, I dropped my last pair of contacts down the sink and my formal dress still had that black tag thing on it and a whole bunch of deadly looking tools were used in an attempt to get it off. Why is my life always so dramatic before important events of my life? A confetti of bad luck is always thrown at me.

I must've brought my bad luck along with me when Jordano, Fiona, Quan and I kind of got lost on our way to formal. It was stressful, but at the same time I couldn't help thinking throughout the ride, "OMG THIS IS SO LIKE ONE OF THOSE MOVIES WHERE YOU ROCK UP TO FORMAL IN A (NON) LIMO WITH YOUR FRIENDS OMG I'M ACTUALLY GOING FORMAL AND I'M ACTUALLY EXCITED EVEN THOUGH I HATE FANCY EVENTS AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON WOW GUYS I'M GROWING UP FAST IT FEELS LIKE AN ETERNITY JUST PASSED DID I REALLY JUST GRADUATE A FEW HOURS AGO?"

The night consisted of awkwardly being dragged off to dance, and by dancing I mean jumping up and down on the spot, taking photos with as much people as I could and watching half the grade go wild when Find Yourself by John O'Callaghan was blasted. It was one crazy night with so many mixed feelings.

SINCE WHEN DO SQUEAL WORTHY THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN MOVIES AND BOOKS OCCUR IN REAL LIFE? AND SINCE WHEN DO THEY ACTUALLY HAPPEN TO ME? NOW YOU MAKE ME FEEL AWKWARD THINKING ABOUT HOW ADORABLY NICE YOU ARE.

Amicitia

My last school picnic ever. Ever. It was kind of ridiculous because we spent three hours travelling there and back so only three hours were spent at the beach. It felt way too short. If only the location was closer then we could've spent more time attacking one another with buckets of water and sneakily lining up over and over for more seconds, thirds and forths of the sausage bbq.

We may not be an incredibly close grade, but for the past year we did get more fond of each other compared to before when we did not bother socialising with anyone out of our cliques.

In case you haven't put on your English analytical hat yet, the photos down the right is supposed to say "Goodbye Class of 2011" and "You're screwed, Rebecca. Formal is tomorrow night and you've only bought your dress? Good job for unnecessarily procrastinating once again." I will honestly miss this bunch of people! CLASS OF 2011 ♥

Fidelis

I don't know why I'm doing this to myself but I'm purposely making myself reminisce, nostalgic and emotional by listening to Graduation (Friends Forever) by Vitamin C and We're Done by Wiz Khalifa. We're Done is going to be my grade's song for when we graduate and walk out of our school hall for the very last time as a grade. It's sad thinking about it and the next time I'm walking out of there is for my HSC exams. I'm sure that won't be a happy experience for me either.

My canteen groups! There are two distinct groups because of past dramas that I still don't really understand, but regardless, they're all wonderful people in one way or another. At times like these I kind of wish we could go back to the days where we'd sit in a group of 30 and get bumble gum stuck in our hair because of a dare and all.

Whenever there is a camera around, for some reason everyone in the group goes high.

Gaudium

I was tasked to take profile photos for my yearbook. I got to skip about 20 minutes of my classes before lunch to set the background up. I probably did the least work because of all the muck up photos I took, but at least it was fun! I didn't even notice the annoyed looks other yearbook committee members were giving me for getting distracted and not doing what was tasked.

WARNING: Before proceeding to scroll down, I must warn you of minor nudity and inappropriate behaviour. Make sure your parents aren't looking over your shower to avoid awkward questions.

Instead of being departed with a "THANKS REBECCA WOW YOU REALLY CAPTURE ME INNER BEAUTY" I get "Can you photoshop out my pimples and eyebags?" and "OH GOD I HAVE A DOUBLE CHIN. RETAKE, RETAKE."

Splendor

I brought Cedric to school the other day to take photos for the Year 12 yearbook so on my walk home, I decided to be a creep and take photos of flowers in other people’s front yards. Imagine how awkward it’d be if the owner of the house caught me.

I literally spent over 15 minutes chasing bees trying to get a nice photo. I still haven’t learnt my lesson after getting stung twice in my life by these creatures when I was little. I also got stung by a wasp too. And here I am still alive to tell the tale of my non dramatic adventures of a muggle.

There's a strike for all public schools so I get the whole day off tomorrow. Right now the angel and devil on my shoulders are having a very heated argument. I should really study but I haven't gotten anything for formal. I am so over thinking about it that I'm not bothered for both. I should really discipline myself and get my act together.

Just 10 school days left till I graduate. Just 10 school days left till my Year 12 formal. I’m starting to feel really scared. It’s like I’ve been a caged up, pampered and spoon fed zoo animal and I’m suddenly being released into the wild expected to fend for myself. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to manage. I think reality finally sunk in that my life will be drastically different within a few months.