Many people look forward to turning thirteen. It kind of symbolizes that you are no longer a little kid but someone who is growing into becoming a mature person. For me, turning thirteen meant I would finally be viewed as not a little kid any more. Since I could remember, I have always been one of the youngest people in my grade (I’m going to be a freshman at 13 years old!).

I used to be bullied and mistreated as a person simply for my age. To me, that seemed… unfair. I’m originally from Suffolk, England, born and raised there for the majority of my life. It wasn’t until we moved for the first time to America that I realized that the school systems aren’t exactly the same. I took a placement test at my first school here in America and I passed with flying colors! I was placed into the 4th grade instead of 3rd where I was supposed to be. 

For the first couple of weeks I had to adjust to this new and weird environment. The teachers didn’t really help me to understand everything so my parents helped me instead along with my own individual studying. That was kind of a bummer. I had to learn really quickly how to spell things, say things, and even pronounce things so I wouldn’t be “that one weird kid.” I adjusted pretty well and so far since then I have been really successful in everything I have done and what I have put my effort in to.

Just recently (4/25), was my birthday! And it was my thirteenth one too! I have been looking forward to that day since forever. Since we all have to quarantine due to COVID-19, we couldn’t really go out and properly celebrate. That was OK for me, every year I usually spend my birthday with my family if it doesn’t land on a week day so this was fairly normal for me. 

I decided what we would have and do in and around the house to celebrate. For cake, we got an all ice cream cake ( I LOVE ice cream) topped with cut strawberries we put on ourselves. Our lunch would be pho from 3 Pho Bowl 09 and dinner would be Hawaiian poké from Ginza’s ramen and poké. I highly recommend these places! 

The best part was in the afternoon. My mom told me that she had a package for me arriving at the house at 1pm. I was very excited! Down the street there was a black SUV honking their horn and was covered in streamers and behind them was a long line of cars. One by one they pulled up to my house and lo and behold, it was all my friends in their cars! I (no joke) started crying, it was amazing, one of the cars had a giant speaker playing the happy birthday song and there were posters and balloons and I loved it so much! I got cards and presents and I cried harder because after not seeing my friends for two whole months,  it was awesome to see them all here just for me! So THIS was my “package”! 

It turns out my friend Bryn and my mom along with all my awesome friends had been planning this for awhile and I never knew!! My all time favorite gift was a rosewood conductor’s baton with a matching case! It’s beautiful, it was one step closer to being a band teacher/ conductor!

To all of those who wished me a happy birthday, THANK YOU! I appreciate it a lot and to those who were in the parade, THANK YOU for taking time out of your day to come visit me!

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I got a new bike with a basket!!