My Top Ten (In no particular order)

1). Seeing Ms. Serensky on the highway during winter break of junior year. I thought, "Have mercy on me!"(Shakespeare, 92). I started freaking out because I thought that maybe I forgot to put my name on my paper and she was literally hunting me down for it, but as soon as I made eye contact with her, she simply burst out laughing.

2). Committing to Colgate University and receiving an athletic scholarship made me finally feel as if I were "in a state resembling happiness"(Currie, 196).

3). Spending two weeks in Cadiz, taking spanish classes and living in Charro Bastrecche's lovely home with the one and only Jilian Ertel in the summer of 2010. We had a few language-barrier mishaps along the way. For example, when attempted to tell her she felt embarrassed but instead said, "estoy embarazada" which means "I am pregnant". We knew we needed to get the dictionary out after seeing Charro's jaw drop to the floor. I'm sure she was thinking, "please stop trying to confuse me"(Currie, 131)

4). Getting an "A" on my Angela's Ashes paper. After all, it "[was] a tedious difficulty, I think"(Shakespeare, 71).

5). Performing the final project and authentic African dance for AP English 11 with Jillian, Lizzie and Jackie. I was very nervous before. " I hate crowds"(Wilde, 37).

6). Receiving all A's in my advanced-level spanish class through the Mundolengua program in Cadiz, Spain. After noting that this grade would not help my high school transcript in any way, my mother still proudly remarked, "[This] matters, too"(Currie, 299).

7). After sitting in a lower-level English class at the University of Richmond during my recruiting trip, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy this class seemed compared to AP English 12. I was also somewhat bored by their flat, non-energetic class discussion. I thought sarcastically to myself, "what a lesson!"(Wilde, 26).

8). The day I was forced to speak 24 hours of Spanish. I had a great deal of fun confusing my teachers and classmates all day long, even though at times I thought, "It is impossible to bear it out"(Shakespeare, 30).

9). The day we went to see the Othello play. Although it "is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth", I was truly pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it very much (Wilde, 40).

10). Switching seats with Jackie in Mr. Ricci's class. He failed to realize this until the bell rang, and our class started laughing and he replied something along the lines of, "I'm always willing to consider the possibility that I'm a fool"(Currie, 145).