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The Life of RaeannBy: Raeann Rich

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For Morgan Weber, an awesome art student.

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Table of Contents

............................................................................................................................My Neighborhood 5

.........................................................................................................................Beloved Belongings 6

..........................................................................................................................................My Name 7

...............................................................................................................A Special Family Member 8

........................................................................................................................Maggie Has Puppies 9

......................................................................................................................The Semifinal Game 10

.....................................................................................................................Labor Day Weekends 11

..............................................................................................................Erica and I Get in Trouble 12

...................................................................................................................My Fifteenth Birthday 13

...........................................................................................................................Life in Wisconsin 14

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My Neighborhood

I live out in the country, so I don’t live in the standard neighborhood everyone thinks of right away. What I consider my neighborhood consists of my family and three others. There is Merlin and Sandy, an older couple, who live across the street. I can always hear the clank-clank of the tools Merlin is working with. He is retired, and now he builds trailers year round that he sells. They normally keep to themselves, but occasionally come and talk to us. Then the family we are closest to lives right to the right of us. This is the Kiesling family. When my parents moved into our house,] thirteen years ago, our families became instant friends; even our dogs are best friends. They have three sons. The oldest, Kolton, graduated a few years ago, and now attends Platteville University. The middle child, Ethan, graduated last year, and is training to get into the National Guard. Lastly, the youngest one, Austin, who I am the closest to is a sophomore here at West Salem High School. I have grown up with these boys and I can still remember how we used to play on the playground our parents built together, and us running around barefoot playing tag in the summer. We always get together on special occasions like New Years, or big football games to hang out and have fun. The last family I consider as part of my neighborhood are the Williams. They live to the right of the Kieslings. The moved in a few years ago when the husbands dad was selling the house because they were moving. They have four kids in all, one girl and three boys. The girl, Haley, is the oldest and she is only in 7th grade so the boys are quite a handful. The three boys are, from oldest to youngest, Skylar, Maxwell, and Sam, who are always going around yelling like lunatics. We are not as close to this family as were are to the Kieslings, but we often hang out with their kids in the summer. There are other families somewhat near us out here in the country, but I don’t associate with them as much as I do with the families I mentioned.

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Beloved Belongings

When I was a young child I had a totally different personality than I do now. I was a total girly girl. I played with dolls, wore girly clothes, and all that icky girly stuff. My favorite toys had to be my dolls and my favorite games were Candy Land and memory games. I also had a blanket that I carried everywhere. The one doll that was my favorite was made of plastic, and dressed in a green with white stripes onesie and hat. My favorite feature about the doll was probably the eyes with eyelashes that blinked when you tipped the doll every which way. I carried this doll everywhere. We were inseparable. I played games like house and baby, as I called them, endlessly throughout the day. I would watch movies and T.V. with it and I would even sleep with it. I loved playing games with my sisters and my parents. My favorite game was Candy Land. It was my favorite because it was about candy and the game board was littered with all the colors of the rainbow. I still remember a specific game we played. It was my mom, Justine, and I that were playing. I ended up winning,and Justine started crying and ran to her room. The other game I loved playing was a memory game that had cards based on my favorite T.V. show at the time, Stanley. It had a bunch of animals from the show that we would have to match. I think we still have the cards up in the closet waiting to be played with again. The last favorite thing from my childhood was my blanket. It was originally my dads from when he was a little kid, but I liked it so it became mine. I always took it everywhere, until one day. My sister, Erica, decided to play tug-of-war with my dog using my beloved blankie. The blanket ended up with a huge whole in the corner. It wasn’t very useful after that, so my mom washed it and put it away somewhere. That was the last I saw of my blankie. The doll, blanket, Candy Land, and the memory game were all my favorite things from my childhood, but now I have grown apart from them. I will never forget them though.

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My Name

The meaning of my name doesn’t seem to fit me at all. In Hebrew, the first part of my name, Rae, means “ewe”, a lamb. The definition of lamb is a sweet, mild-mannered person who can be easily deceived. First of all I am not a sweet, mild-mannered person at all. Ask any of my friends. I might seem cool and collected in formal situations, but anywhere else I am crazy. Honestly, my only comment to the easily deceived part is I agree. I am very easily deceived. The second part of my name, ‘Ann’ which my mom derived from ‘Anne’, means grace or favor, and I guess that fits my personality. There is no real background story to how I got my name. My mother just wanted me, as well as my siblings, to have a more uncommon name. She also didn’t spell it the usual way, which is Rayanne, because she just had to make things difficult. My name is as unique as a sunrise, no two sunrises look alike. I like the fact that I have an uncommon name because it makes me unique and I embrace my uniqueness. I also like my name because of the many nicknames. My favorite nicknames are Sugar Rae, and Cheater Rae, both I received from basketball. I have also received unusual ones, like Do Rae Mi, and Raesin. Then there are the ones that doesn’t relate to my name at all, Debra or Debbie. There is a problem with my name though. No one seems to get it right the first time they say or spell it. Almost every new teacher I have encountered in my life pronounces it wrong the first time they say it. Then when it comes to the spelling. Let’s just say this, my own uncle/godfather can’t even spell it right. All in all, I love my name. A name completes us, I think, even though the literal meaning of my name might not suit me. I couldn’t imagine being called anything different.

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A Special Family Member

GrandpaCheerful Charitable

Caring Loving Helping The only one I have left

Irreplaceable

Mommy Gentle Witty

Shopping Loving Laughing Mother knows best

Incomparable

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Maggie Has Puppies

One of my favorite childhood memories was when my uncle’s dog, Maggie, had puppies. I was five or six when we made the trip up north to my grandparent's cabin. We were all excited to see the little balls of fur, but we had to wait until the morning for when my uncle would come over with all of them. I did not know what to expect, but it was better than I imagined. When my uncle finally came, we all rushed outside. There were twelve puppies in all. They were so cute, and were as soft as a cloud. We held them and ran around the huge yard with them. My favorite part of the day though was when the puppies attacked my younger sister. My sister went stumbling, because she was only three or four at the time, down the lawn. The puppies must have thought it was a game because they went racing after Justine. My parents were not concerned at first so they let it continue. When the puppies finally caught up to her though, they tackled her to the ground and started to pull her pants off. By this time my mom was sprinting down the yard towards Justine and saved her. A few weeks later all the puppies were sold, except one that died for a reason I do not remember. My uncle ended up keeping one of the puppies, Tamarack, and she is still alive today. Sadly though, Maggie has recently died, but she will never be forgotten.

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The Semifinal Game

All four years I was on the Neshonoc Lakers team we got invited to the state tournament. In fifth grade we ended up placing tenth place in our division, which was really good for us since we were the second to last team to get invited. Since we did good in fifth grade we were invited back in 6th grade. We ended up placing tenth again. In seventh grade we went back, fought hard, and placed fifth place. Eighth grade year was the best though. Again we were invited back to the state tournament, and the whole team was excited. We practiced and trained for an extra month and a half or so. Every one of the ten girls that went were all determined to win this year. Our first game was a nail biter. We were neck and neck the whole game, and with only a few seconds left in the fourth we were down by two, so our team took a time out and set up a play. Sydney ended up getting the ball and shot a side ways three pointer that soared through the air and ended up swishing through the hoop. We all jumped up out of our seats and rushed the court while the fans went ecstatic. Since we only won the game by a lucky shot all the other teams underestimated us the rest of the tournament. We went on to win every game up until the semifinals. We had never gotten this far in the state tourney, and the team was excited but still nervous. We were scheduled to play Xavier. They had heard about our first game and thought this was going to be an easy win for them. We were down by eight at the end of the first quarter, but that all changed. At the start of the second quarter he put in a good team of five players. Anna ended up scoring three three pointers in a row along with others scoring a few other baskets. We had the lead and it got the other team down. We kept the lead and won the game. The team started screaming and crying because we were so happy after all the years of playing for this. We were off to the championship game. We had to play Marshall, which was no surprise since they had been in the championship every year since fifth grade. We were all tired and we fought hard, but we did lose. We were proud of the way we played and our second place title. This tournament is one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

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Labor Day Weekends

Labor Day weekend is one of the weekends I look forward to during the year. We get together with my parent’s college friends and their kids, and have a big get together at a lake house. I can’t remember when we started this tradition, but it has been happening for a long time. I absolutely love this weekend, because of the people and activities. I have made several friends from this weekend. My parent’s college friends all have kids, so we all hang out all weekend. The kids I usually hang out with are Bennett, Nick, and my sister Erica. Then the younger kids usually hang together. I also love the lake. Depending on the weather, the kids go tubing, wake boarding and kneeboarding. We have been tubing for a long time. Last year’s tubing was the best though, because the wind had already made the waves on the lake as big as the waves in the ocean. The other big water sport we do is kneeboarding. We only got into this a few years ago, but we all fell in love with it, especially Erica. Then there’s wake boarding. I have tried this before, but I am not good at all. Bennett is the best at kneeboarding and wake boarding, because his family owns the lake house and a boat so he gets to practice all the time. One of my favorite memories though, is playing Daddy Monster Tag at night. All the kids would dress up in their darkest clothes and run outside. The two dads that were gonna play would tell them to hide and wait. We would all find our hiding spot, and waited for the dads to find us. If they got to close you would get up and run away before they could point the flashlight towards you and call out your name. If you got caught you had to go sit at the “jail”. To get free from jail though, you had to depend on one of the other kids to come kick the can in front of the jail to free you. Labor Day weekend is one of the funnest weekends of the year, and I still love going every year.

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Erica and I Get In Trouble

My older sister, Erica, and I have never gotten along. One night it got pretty bad though. Erica had been in the bathroom for what seemed like forever and I was tired of waiting for her to get out. I asked her kindly to get out, but of course she couldn’t have it the easy way and listen to me. She said “No” and said I should get out, so naturally I pushed her towards the door. She didn’t like that so she started pushing back, and suddenly we were in a “cat fight.” She claims that she was aiming to punch me in the shoulder, but instead her fist collided with my face. I started bleeding instantly and filled up a sink with blood. The funny thing is that Erica felt so bad that she started crying and ran to her room when I, the one that got punched in the face, wasn’t even hurt. My parent’s logical reasoning to this was to punish both of us by taking our iPods away. I understood why Erica got punished, but seriously isn’t getting punched in the face punishment enough for me. I had a fat lip and a slightly bruised and swollen nose for a few days. There was no convincing my parents otherwise though. The weird thing about this experience though is I believe it actually brought me and Erica closer. Being mature I had told both of my parents that the situation was all my fault because I had started the fight, and Erica had no part in it. While I said that, Erica told my parents that the whole situation was her fault because she didn’t have to fight back with her fists she could've used her words. In the end though we were both punished, but we were given our iPods back before our parents said they would. My sister and I still do not get along well, but we probably will when we grow older and begin to miss spending so much time with each other.

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My Fifteenth Birthday

I remember this clearly, because it happened less than a month ago. It wasn’t the typical birthday one would think of. I didn’t have a big party or a sleepover. I spent this birthday playing in a President’s Day volleyball tournament with my Club Shock team. Our team was playing in Rochester at a middle school. Right when I got there my team greeted me with a big “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Someone even gave me a McDonald’s toy. You couldn’t even imagine how special I felt. I handed out cupcakes and we got ready to play. We played three games on Saturday. We lost two and won one. After the pool play on Saturday the team went out to eat before heading to the hotel for the night. Since the restaurant did not do anything to celebrate birthdays, my team and their parents ended up singing the happy birthday song to me by themselves. This was a absolutely humiliating experience for me. Almost as humiliating as the time I fell in public. When we finished diner and went back to the hotel we all hung out. The second day of the tournament went way better than the first. We got seeded into another pool for the first three games of the day. We won two out of the three games, but there was a three way tie for first place. The staff had to turn to rating us by how many points or matches we won by, and we got placed third. Then we got to go and play in a bracket. We kept on winning and ended up in the championship game for our bracket. We ended up losing in the third game by only two. We had played hard but we were all tired. We received second place medals too. Although it wasn’t the typical birthday, it was a really fun one. I got to bond with my team and spend the weekend playing a sport I love. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday.

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Life in Wisconsin

Freezing winter daysShoveling the snow that fellNose so stuffed can’t smell

Magnificent bluffsTowering like giantsWatching over everything

Crisp autumn morningsFrost covering changing leavesLeaves leaping of trees

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