epilogue

spokompton. spokaloo. spocane. however spelled, however said, spokane has been my home for the past 10 years. but this book has finally reached its epilogue... in less than 20 minutes i leave for italy to live for 3 months. after that, cannon beach will be my home for the summer. my parents are moving to a city outside Portland area [but still in WA; i'll always call this corner state home]. so i guess that leaves me homeless. but i've always known i wasn't meant to live here forever, to keep watching the re-runs of my life this past decade. yet this is a place i'll always call home, will definitely visit, & and will remember in my heart no matter where else i plant my roots. 

Big Lots opened right around the time we moved here back in 2001. We went there almost everyday that summer because 1] it was cheap 2] we didn't know anyone 3] why not?
I swear we still get a shout out every time my mom shops there 

My 6th grade classroom/cubicle. What a year...
Rocket launches, my teacher's wedding, first year of basketball.  The worst part of that year was probably [or definitely?] that my favorite outfit was a denim skirt with a jean jacket. 

Ah, junior high. The years when being popular really counts [not really], when life is the hardest [oh the DRAMA...], & when you dream of being an all star athlete. Also, if you didn't have at least 15 inside jokes with each person, you were automatically a loser.
I still remember Mrs Hopson's lasagna song from home ec, have all my art projects from Mr Dod's class, & even miss Mr Hayek's seemingly pointless lectures on grammar. Yes, folks, there really is a difference between 'to' & 'too'.

Just down the way from our house is a beautiful country drive. This was also the road I grudgingly took when I worked at Great Harvest. I hated that job except for the fact that I got to sample everything & get paid for it. There's just something so satisfactory about charging a person $6.25 for a loaf of bread but getting to take it home for free at the end of a shift.

Oh, tennis. hahaha where do I even begin? I actually miss those days... racing to get to practice by 3:30 [but always being late by at least 4 minutes], travelling on the busses, & of course, enduring the unbearably long practices by making jokes with friends & singing Family Force 5.

The Wake-Up Call. Emily's & my weekly meetings kept my sanity in tact during senior year of high school. Their overflowing mint bowl wasn't bad either. "Three to four times?!"....

Berean Bible Church. I spent so much time here & met a lot of great people who changed my life. I went to Costa Rica with some of them, helped in AWANA with others, & even had school here once a week. Let's just say I practically lived here for a time... most of my favorite memories are inside this building.

Berean's parking lot aka the hang out. Many a night we stood here in the freezing cold, the blazing hot & everything in between being typical teenagers & prolonging the rides back to our houses. Goodbyes always took at least 20 minutes.

The mall. Can't say I'll miss this place, having worked at Forever 21 for what seemed like an eternity. But there are good things about this place, too that I'll always remember. 

Downtown is the best part of Spokane. Johnny Depp even thought so--he filmed a movie here once. So old and beautiful yet original & hipster all at the same time. [yes, i just said hipster. shame on me...]

The street where it started [and ended]
What a road it's been... Starlight you've been faithful & true since i was 10. Thanks for putting up with all my bike rides, obsessive checkups on snail mail [i was a dedicated pen pal back in the day] & loud music when playing basketball on the driveway.

thanks for it all, spokane... signing out.