BEACH & FRIENDS & LAST DAY OF HIGH SCHOOL

Loves, it's been too long!! 

(Pardon me as I freak out at being scheduled to work the night of graduation... ok, email sent... hopefully a crisis averted... I'm back)

Lol this really has become like a journal. Which reminds me, I should write in my journal because it's been over a week, which never happens ever.

HEY!! These past few weeks have been absolutely insane but so so so fun. They've been full of friends and adventures and the beginnings of my new job (which consists of me going around Portland working at different farmers markets and selling strawberries!) which I love. 

Where to begin with this random update & thoughts about my life? 

Well, the weekend after me coming home from Las Vegas was the week of the training for my new job, and that weekend Roseburg's choir was singing at State in Newburg. If ya didn't know, Newburg is super close to Forest Grove, so I had to go and visit my pals. 

I only got a picture with a few, but here are two of my favorites. I love them. 

The Friday after my visit in Newburg, I hiked saddle mountain with three pretty awesome people. If you don't know Saddle Mountain, it's a pretty popular spot around here. It's on the way to Seaside, and is a pretty hard hike! Maybe that's just me though. I'm out of shape. 

Becca, Ryan, and Logan were all hiking like it was nothing, while I'm behind them wheezing and dying needless to say, it was embarrassing. But they are such amazing people and it was so much fun that it all worked out. (( Besides when we were on the way down and I slipped on rocks and fell on my butt)) Plus out dinner at Camp 18 afterward was totally bomb. 

The weekends since then has been filled with work, work, and more work. The week days have been filled with school and baseball games. 

This Sunday, because I worked in the morning and couldn't attend church, I went to the LDS Portland Temple after I got off of work and had my good friend Brittany meet me there. 

The Temple is one of my favorite places to go, even though we didn't go inside. We just took a few laps around it, taking pictures and then sitting on the marble and catching up. (yes, we did get in trouble for sitting on the marble by a guy who looked like a security guard) It was awesome and it was followed by a super yummy dinner and strawberry lemonade. 

After that I was able to see my bff for the last four years because he was up in Portland visiting family. If you're reading this and ever come to Portland hit my uppppp because chances are I can totally come see you if I'm not working.

This Monday was my first day to sleep in in what feels like months, and my mom woke me up at nine. What the heck... anyway, we went shopping for some summer clothes and I made Irish bread and cookies for my class on Tuesday. 

Tuesday night, last night, Lauren and I took a rode trip to Canon Beach!! She met Whitney at EFY (church summer camp) two years ago and has kept in touch ever sense. I met Whtiney through Lauren and we became fast friends and pen pals. Anyway, her family was in canon beach and to our surprise, our parents said it was okay if we went to visit!! We blasted Rascal Flats on the way there, basically losing our voices, and spent a good two hours with Whitney on the beach, then got Dutch Bros, and then headed home. 

((That last one is me and Lauren's relationship in a picture))

FINALLY, today was my last day of High School, I repeat LAST DAY!! It was full of food, card games, water pong, and pictures. 

I'm so incredibly grateful to have these girls in my life. 

It's so weird to think I'm finally done. No more assignments or classes or essays or math problems. I mean, of course I'm headed off to college in September and will be back in schooling, but it's so different from high school. It's weird to be closing a chapter in my life. Banks High School, with all it's crazy people, awesome (and some horrible) teachers, and it's ugly yellow lockers, has been my home for the last two years. I've learned more about myself from moving the summer going into Junior year than I have during the rest of my life. I've realized what kind of people I want to associate myself with, that some things that are stressing me out now won't matter in a year, and that true friends stick with you and love you no matter what. 

Dang, that was sappy, but all true. 

Banks, and the surrounding Portland area, houses some of my favorite places and memories and people. 

I go back to school tomorrow, for Graduation practice, and then on Friday for Graduation, then I never have to go back ever again. I'm very very ready to leave it all behind, work all summer while spending as much time with friends as possible, and head off to Eastern Oregon University in the fall. 

I'm so excited to see what the future holds for me, and all the new people I'm going to meet that will touch my life as much as the people in Banks did. 

If you're one of those people, thank you. 

If you're not, well, thank you for reading this. Truly. 

Signing off until next time, 

Ella Frances Waite

P.S If you want to attend my Graduation or Graduation Party (do it do it do it do it do it) Then here's the information for that: 

Graduation @ 7pm at Bank High School on June 3rd

Graduation party at 10am-12pm at the LDS Leon Church Building in Forest Grove on June 4th