My life started out attending Catholic Schools. Grades 1 - 3, I attended St. Patricks School. It was only a few blocks from where I lived. I remember walking with my brothers. Not too many memories to grab a hold of for these grades.

As I advanced, grades 4 - 6 was at St. Malachis. It was a extension of St. Patricks. It was a little further. In the mornings, I would walk to St. Patricks then get on a school bus and off to school I went. After school, I got on the same bus, back to St. Patricks and then walk home. These years of school was when I got home, I had to call my mom at work to let her know I was home. Attending the same school as my siblings before me, and having the same teachers, I was always labeled as "your so & so’s little sister". School was pretty cool. The teachers were great and I really liked it there. Sister Donna taught Social Studies. I remember the big world map that covered half of the chalk board. Sister Patricia Ann taught english. Her room was cool. You got a choice of different activities everyday, so it didn’t get boring. I remember the lists of words we had to look up in the dictionary, then we had to write down the definition and then use that word into a sentence. Sister Mary of the Cross as cranky as she seemed to be, she was my favorite. She taught Math and economics. Her math teachings were fun. You would get a packet of problems to solve, you turn it in and then go to the play area until she corrected it. When she called you up, either you had to go back to your desk and correct some mistakes or you got to sit down with her. She would go through a pack of flash cards of multiplcation. If you got through all of the cards without a mistake, you got to go to the play area for the rest of the day. She made learning addition, subrtraction, division and multiplication so much fun. She would never let you get discouraged if you got stumped on problems, she always took the time to teach you. She also taught home economics. One year it was crocheting. That was pretty cool because prior to this class, my mom taught me how to crochet. So I already knew how to make a granny square. So I stuck with the class anyway and made a project. The last year, we had cooking. We were able to go over to the convent (where the Nuns lived) and we used to make cookies and stuff. That was alot of fun. I can remember the kitchen being so neat and tidy. The house itself was quiet. But when I tried a few recipes out at home, they never came out. I tried though. There also was Mr. DeFranseco, he taught science. I wasn’t much into science so I don’t have too many memories of that class. I know we had music too, I was in the chorus. I don’t remember who taught that class. During these years, midway through the day, we got to have lunch. They served some pretty good lunches. After we ate, we got to go outside to play. Even in the winter time. As cold as it was being really close to the Lake, Us girls would huddle together on the steps that led down to the basement of the school building, We were still cold, but at least we were out of the wind.  I had alot of friends during these years. To name a few..There was Chrissy, Lisa Lacey, Colleen, Tina Tillman, Randy Hightower (a elementary crush) Rebecca Clay. I can see other faces, but the names are lost. If I should recover some of the names, I’ll come back and edit.

Leaving St. Malachi’s after 6th grade, we got to go back to St. Patricks for 7th grade. I didn’t stay there very long for 7th grade because of my Step fathers death and my mom decided to move.

There are no recollections of 7th grade. I know I attended Thomas Jefferson School, which was a public school. It was located on W. 46th and Clark Ave. But I have no memories of any classes or even lunch. The memories are just not there. I guess with the loss of my Step Father and the move to a new neighborhood was enough to make me forget. I do remember bits and pieces of this time. I remember my older brother driving around the neighborhood, trying to find this school and help get me signed up. I know I walked to and from school. We lived then on W. 61st. It wasn’t that far. After school I remember stopping in at the corner store on W. 54th and played pinball. And days that I had money, I would stop in the corner store that was on W. 56th and buy a jar of hot peppers, a bag of cheese puffs and a pepsi. I would go home and watch TV. This was also the year I made friends with our neighbors, Mary and Robin. They had an older friend named Jennifer. Jennifer was the one who pierced my ears with a needle and an ice cube.  This was the year of my purple pants. I remember slitting the sides of the pants and putting in a wedge of red material to make the bells bigger. The year of playing Easy Money with my brother Joe. The year of my first boyfriend, Tim. My first kiss too. The year my life was falling apart. the year my mom decided to drink, the year my Grandfather had to make a decision to place me with someone, while my mom got help again.

8th Grade, I attended St. Bartholomew in Middleburg Heights. (back into the catholic shool system)The year I was placed with my Uncle Ray and Aunt Laura.  We had to wear uniforms. I didn’t care for school much. I missed my home, and my mom. I guess I had the usual classes. English, science and history. I don’t remember the teachers to much except for one. Sister Frances. She made me feel happy, like she knew my story and she was so nice. School was manageable as long as I knew she was there. However, that fateful day came, Sister Frances transfered to anther school. The day of tears that would not stop. The year I gave up on everything. I didn’t care about my school work, I seldom did my homework. I couldn’t concentrate to study and I failed my tests anyway. I finished with straight D’s. I’m sure it was straight F’s and they just passed me because of my situation. 8th grade commencements, the joyful day. Confirmation, since it was a catholic school. I knew after the services, I would be leaving my Aunt and Uncle because my mom was in the audience. I would be going home again, with her. I didn’t look back either. I was with my mom and that is all that mattered.

9th grade was going to be better. I was back home, where I wanted to be. My mom enrolled me in Erieview Catholic school. It was an all girls school. I wore a uniform at this school as well. It was a navy blue skirt, whtie blouse and a vest. It was pretty far from home, it was located on E. 18th and Superior.  My mom arranged it to where she could drop me off in the morning on her way to work. After school, I had to take the bus. 2 to be exact. I had to catch the number 3 bus in front of the school and take it down town to the square, then transfer onto the number 22 bus to take me one block from my house. Some days, I would just stay on the number 3 bus, it would go right past where my mom worked, I would get off and hang with her at work until 5pm, then I would go home with her. I had the normal 9th grade classes. Biology, English, History, PE and I took spanish for extra points. It was a good year. I made friends with a girl named Soaad. We were like inseperatable. She was cool. She was Arabic, but I didn’t care. We were close buds. Somehow, somewhere in this time line, my mom must of started drinking again, cause I can remember living with my sister during the summer. And bad news hit, that Soaad was going back to her home land. I was very upset, my sister tried to console me. But again, I was loosing someone and for what?

10th grade, I was still attending Erieview. Had some old friends still, but made some new ones. There was Sandy, Mary and her sister, and a few others. School was as usual, History, science, English, Spanish 2, typing, and art. I remember in English class, we were all assigned a book to read and do a report on it. Well, the book that was assigned was not in the language I wish to read. There were alot of swear words. I expressed to the teacher that I didn’t want to read this book, and may I pick a different one. I had to get a note from home. I think at this time, I was still bouncing from home to home. I can recall living with my older brother at the time. So I think he wrote me the note. I remember being with my brother, he had an old Gremlin and sometimes he would have to take a hammer to it, to get it started in the mornings. He would drive me to school some mornings, if his schedule allowed it. Other times I would have to take the bus. It was a bit further than it was when I was home, so I had to get up extra early and catch an earlier bus. After school, back on the bus. Art class was pottery. I made a chess set for my older brother. My favorite part of school that year was lunch. I couldn’t wait to get that bagel out of that machine. Thats what all of girls ate for lunch, bagels. Smothered in butter. 30 seconds in the microwave. We were bummed when they ran out. This is the same year I got into my first fight. We were all sitting in the lunch room and this one girl, a table over from us, was fussing over a pimple on her nose. It made me mad. I had severe acne at that time. All over my face and shoulders. Sometimes it was very uncomfortable and painful. There were days where I would have to where a T-shirt under my blouse in case one decided to break. This girl just kept fussing, she looked over at me and said something, I don’t remember her words. but they made me very angry. I jumped over my table, over her table and just pounced on her. My friends grabbed a hold of me and told me to go cool off, that it wasn’t worth getting suspended for. I think after that, my acne never bothered me anymore. Yes I had it, if you didn’t like it, then look away!  I think by the end of the school year, I was back home with my Mom.

I expressed to my mom, that I didn’t want to go back to Erieview for my Junior year. I wanted to try the public school. She agreed that I could attend West Technical HIgh School. But if I started screwing up or my education wasn’t being met, I would be back at Erieview. I gave it my best. My classes were cool. I had an awesome history teacher. Since I already taken 2 years of Algebra, I signed up for Geometry. I had English and science. And for extra credit, I took drafting. It was a good year. I was bringing in A’s and I was happy. Made some friends. Jamie was one of them. I met her in my English class. She thought I was stuck up and I thought I wasn’t good enough to be her friend. But we hit it off and were best friends. Our English class was pretty cool, we got to sit and watch movies. But the catch of it was, just before the ending of the movie, the teacher would turn it off. We had to come up with the ending of the movie and that is how we got our points. We got big points if we got the ending right. I seldom did, but I got a good grade in that class anyway. Drafting was a pretty good class, we got to draw the plans for a house. Learning and drawing at the same time took up most of the time. I got an A on mine. 11th grade was awesome. I remember walking to school. And there was a small deli near 73rd and Clark, if I had the money I would stop in and get one of their awesome sub sandwiches.

12th grade from Hell! Coming off a bad summer. I spent it with my older brother who moved down to West Virginia, cause my mom was drinking again. I started 12th grade on a bad note, bad break-up, and I just didn’t care. I was shifted to live with someone else, because my brother didn’t think transfering me in my 12th year would be a good idea. So, apart from being miserable from not being at home. I got to go home partially into my 12th year, but home life was not there. I had no support. I was basically on my own to do what I wanted. My school work was failing because of it. My classes were tougher. I had History, English, Trig and I signed up for Drafting 2. My boyfriend was in that class, but he was much more serious about his work than I. I had Jamie, she kept me on a even keel to see me through some of my days. We didn’t have any classes together and school wasn’t fun anymore. I cut classes, some days I would come in late. I just didn’t care. I even walked out of a class once. I was late getting to my Trig class because I had a sever pimple that broke and I had to deal with it. I tried to explain to the teacher that is why, but he wouldn’t hear any of it and since I didn’t have a note, he was sending me down to the principles office. I left his class room, walked right past the office and right out the door. I  had a sweet boyfriend at the time. Only to screw that up too. Normal people go to Prom with their boyfriend/girlfriends. I wasn’t normal. With limited memory of that time, I went with one of his best friends. He was a brother of one of my oldest brothers friend. I thought how cool to go to prom with Morris’s brother. I didn’t give any thought to my boyfriend and I regret that to this day.  I screwed up. He broke up with me. I guess at the time, it didn’t bother me as bad, my life sucked anyway, so what is one more loss. I try to figure that time frame out in my head, and I just can’t. My life was going in every direction and I just didn’t have a solid back up to lead me in the right one. And commencements were coming up and I knew for a fact that I had enough of credits to graduate. But hanging in the office was the list of non graduating students, my name was on it. I was floored. Like no way. I went over and over all the credits I needed, I had them all. And getting into my guidence counselar was like a dead end because she was so busy with other students. I did get to talk with her briefly, and she scanned my credits and she kept telling me I was a half credit short for graduation. In my head I was like NO way! Its not right, I have them all. But so much time went by, I didn’t have a chance. So with cap and gown in hand. I went home and said the hell with it. A notice came in the mail stating that I was enrolled in summer school. Not a good thing to tell me. I was determined at that time to fight for my diploma. So by myself, I went down to the school and demanded to talk with someone. We disected my credits one by one. The paper read that I only had half year of Trig. That was my half of credit. I looked at the lady and said "how could I have just half of year of trig, when my report card says I have a full year. She looked it over and apparently that sweet Trig Teacher that sent me down to the office that one day, made a typo. He only marked me down for half a year, but turned in my grades for a full year. And it just got mixed up in the rush of things. So the lady I spoke with granted my diploma, I took it in my hand and walked out of that school. Never to look back at the injustice that I dealt with.