Well the essay below is about my life it explains a lot about me here are other details that i have to write about, but all this is the best of my life i can say:)

Who would ever imagine for a baby boy born on Jan. 28, 1987 grow up to be so much for people in time to come? A boy with a constant smile on its face, always thriving for hugs and attention; as a baby boy his parents never knew what he was going to do next. This boy had a very unexpected character in him. He was nothing compared to his older brother, he was all smiles and laughs compared to his brother that was 2 years older than he was serious and frowns. The baby boy would always be crawling around everywhere like if he had batteries that kept him going and going. This baby was names Arnaldo Ritchie, and that baby right now is me.

My life, I can say it never really got started until the point I stepped out my house, which was always my environment. The environment, which I had learned all my basic life skills such as having manners and to respect others was my house. Life, for me got a full-blown start, when I first stepped the school grounds of E.C.C. I started to attend Pre-K around the age of five. People say that many of our problems start home, well; I believe many of our problems as children or young adults they start at school and we take them to home. My first childish love sparked from a classmate who was also a neighbor of two blocks away my house, her name was Roxana Cobarubias. We would always hang around also with her neighbor which was two years younger than us, I can say he was my first “friend” his name is Tony Farias. We really never got in touch with each other for many more years to come when we all had passed to our next school grade level. That was the point were I first started to feel lonely because I wasn’t anymore with my friends I was always with.

I got another taste of life, but this time it was sweet and sour during my elementary school years when I started to attend Graves Elementary, which was one block away from my house. I would never imagine for my first school year there that was going to be full of surprises to me it was very unexpected. “Hey Arnold!” gosh how can I forget that was the year when they started to call me a lot by my nickname frequently more than what I expected, it annoyed me but I liked it. I noticed with my nickname I was gaining popularity from a young age and grade level compared to everyone else. I was very naïve and smart but I had a minor problem with dyslexia, which caused me to have difficulty with reading, which now it’s a passion. I was used to be in Special Ed student when I was in 1^st grade basically of my awful reading skills that brought me down in other things such as math anything that I needed to read to understand. The other passion I had arose when I met a classmate in 1^st grade her name was Sonia Neave, we used to talk every single day, but the next school year came to be. I didn’t get to see her nor anyone else that were with me in my 1^st grade class because my parents went to talk with the principal with me on their side giving them reasons why I shouldn’t be given the reason to not advance to second grade, they wanted to retain me. I recall their reasons were because I had grades lower than seventies and if I passed with those grades it was going to be really difficult for me in second grade. So here I go one more year to 1^st grade. I really didn’t want to pass to say the truth the people I had as classmates they treated me really bad they named called me and always played pranks to me. I still remember I had room 104 miss Ivone Garcia, she was an all around teacher I am not trying to say she was chubby but she was kind of. Well, she was nice, obedient, fun, and strict. From my first day I noticed it was going to be a totally different school year because a girl names Dora Valdes came up to me and said “hi!” we have been really good friends since then. She was my first best friend, which was a girl. That school year I remember attending GT classes, I always aced all my tests, I was ahead of everyone else because I had already done all the work. People would always copy from me that is why I always got into trouble but it was fun. My 1995-1996 was the year I in 1^st grade that I got all year honor roll, I was really proud of my self. In second grade I was with Eileen Neave Sonia’s sister I would always annoy her without wanting because I liked her. I also met a girl named Sussel Peralta we all three would always be together I felt wanted again and I liked how it felt. I started to like the feeling that people knew who I was that year I ran for Mr. Haloween and I won 1^st place for 2 years straight. That year I was in Special Ed Classes once more I was receiving help with my reading skills, which I knew was really good, but I was still in it. My year in 3^rd grade it was an all around class it was full of drama I met many friends such as Dora Valdes, Sussel Peralta, Jackie Besa, Jose Coronado, Rio Ibarra, James, Lisa all these people and the rest got the class fired up and crazy I remember we always won class competitions we had. This was my last elementary level, which I was again in GT classes. I was the worst in every sport I was never athletically coordinated except for in track I was one of the fastest in the school. I felt really dumb because I was really tall compared to everyone else.

People start to annoy me really badly when I was in 4^th grade no one would want to talk to me by that time my family was already complete it was already a family of 6 members. I had one older brother and 2 younger brothers. My dad was the only income of the family, so not so much money was entering the house, he was self employed in need of customers he was a mechanic-technician. In 4^th grade I didn’t really have a style, I only put on what I had of clothes; it wasn’t really much many times I knew I looked like a messy dog. I would cut my hair every two months or so, people would treat me badly because of that. The only time I would get new clothes was during X-Mas or holidays. It always made me sad when I thought about all that. I have always lived in the same house which 1 or more of my dad’s generations of his family have lived here in 1991 Hillcrest, it’s a small house with only two decent sized rooms. One of them is of my older brother and me but we would always get in fights that I would always sleep in the sofa or my room or vise-versa. I have always been a very sensitive person every time my parents would get in a fight I would always get involved I never wanted nothing to happen nothing to my mom I didn’t care if I was the one getting hurt.

In fifth grade the only important things that come to my mind are meeting Vanessa and my annual birthday party I had at the age of 14. I had invited all my class well, almost everyone came it was a night to remember, I was with all my friends I will never forget it. The grade level that always brings me back tears is 6^th grade its were my friends started to only talk to me because I had something they wanted or they needed a favor from me. I would see my friend Dora Valdes my friend of many years in shcool but we wouldn't talk to each other it made me sad. Elias Campos and Isela Anahi Triana which i called by Anahi, they were other good friends i got closer to in 6th grade. When the Christmas vacations ended and the second part of the year came my class got a new student his name was Victor Garcia I am never going to forget him, he was a true friend that didn’t care of how people were from the outside he looked more at the inside. He was the first person I got an argument with and that I got to stay in his house to sleep. With him I lived and learned even though I knew him for only a couple of months he had to move away to San Antonio weeks before school had started in J.R. High. My elementary years brought me trophies, certificates, happiness, joy, tears but nothing greater than the chance of making friends that will last a lifetime and will always be with me in my mind and memories forever.

Sweet dreams are made in heaven, I never imagine attending EPJ to give me lots of sweet dreams. Every day was a new experience to live by on. I was in the mighty eagle band I was a drummer, track, and I was enrolled in advanced classes I felt really smart. In 8^th grade I got out of band to take Spanish one I was already thinking of my future and got in the UTSA talent search program. I was also part of the Science and Spanish club, which I ran in prom night and won 4^th place representing the Spanish club. Those two school years I met many people and I met my 1^st girl friend Tanya Guzman that she was from Memorial J.R. High I met her in my church. Me and her had a relationship that lasted about 5 months, we continued being really good friends until we were in 10^th grade rumors and comments that people made of me about her changed the way she thought of me, and she didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore. The one who made all this happen was my best friend Jesus Cedillo, who suddenly started to hate me. My sophomore year I had completely lost 2 of my best friends for reasons that were unknown to me. I suddenly started to have heart pronblems which i had never noticed i had. My heart would beat more than 100 beats per minutes i had tachycardia. In December around that time i got recomended to a cardiologist cause of my complications. I started to think over how i gained this, and this problem came when i was worrying too much of my friends that i cared about. I even had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hour in school. My HSTE teacher used me as a living example why someone my age should take care of themselves and ha she gave me extra points in a test grade. While in the other hand I met many friends that were really true to me. I was a HSTE student, that is were I met my favorite teacher Mrs. Mello-Lopez she thought us many life while experiences in the two years I had her as a teacher. In my freshman year i also met my world geography teacher whio i only had for 3weeks and then in my sophomore year she was my 2nd pd teacher. Her name was well, we her students called her by Miss Guarnero, many people didn't like her but she was a cool teacher taht i won't forget. In my freshman year I had made the mistake of asking out a best friend of mine Soraida Wheeler, we were going out for one week but we never got to cross a work to each other. My high school years were very interesting I met many new people I never expected to meet such as Matilde Hurtado, Ricardo Perez, Corine Perez, and Erika Figueroa. I am so gald i met Matilde Hurtado we have been really close friends she is a best friend of mine that i don't wanna loose. Those school years of 9-10th I started to talk more to my friend Edith Villalpando and got annoyed many times by Karissa which i am so sorry of what happned to her older brother.

It’s was hard saying good bye to my teacher’s to now get in the road to be a Junior I a totally new environment. I started to work before summer had started in Sonic Drive thru it was the worst 3 month I had in my life many complications came over because all the pressure I had. People treated me badly by the 3 week of my job. I was always named called they treated me like a rag dool with no feelings. I was always busy with many things in my mind even though i liked beeing under pressure I was getting lots of it. This is one of the reasons i stopped eating i didn't have time i would get to my house tired and go to sleep or do my homework. I started to getting used to that I would only mainly drink lots of free drinks that i got or just eat the leftovers in work but it was just a little. Later my parents saw that i had that problem so they got worried and made doctors appointments to know what was wrong with me. I knew it was something in my mind telling me to to eat cuz i was never hungry it was more of a mental problem that a physical problem. I even had to get an operation made in the summer because I didn’t eat as much. Many friends and people started to care of me I felt special. The people in band who didn't even know me woul always tell me to eat and give me advise i felt so lucky having friends like them.I started to like a girl I met two weeks after I applied her name is Magali Gonzalez she was one year 7 days older than me she was a senior who just graduated when we both started to go out. We were together around 3 months she came one day to my house crying that she wanted to brake up because I joined Color Guard that is part of band and that she had now extra hours of works per week so we couldn’t see each other. She was the nicest girl I ever met she was pure of heart. Friday July 16,2004 I met my best friend online it was something really unexpected to happen. Since then, him and me have been really close friends; his name is Abdon Horta he is the only person from all my life I can consider my best friend now. I wish I had met him during my high school years or even during while i was in elementary or while i was in EPJ he is the greatest person I have met.I would cry a river if anything would of to happen to him. Many things would have been different if I had met him earlier in my life. Why wouldn’t I want to have a friend like him, he is all what a perfect friendship is made up” trust”, and all my trust is with him.

Each and every single day I wonder what is going to happen today. I know no one can answer me this question of mine correctly, we may plan things to do or have things planned ahead of time for today but we never know what will happen today. I am writing this today 09-7-04 because of one reason, the reason is you! You, yeah you my best friend Abdon, ja its so cool when we hangout ha you know ja J Nombre, ja I never imagined meeting someone like you, you have all the qualities of a best friend. Right now I am so sleepy but I wanna keep on writing and writing I like expressing how I feel in writing I really do, and expressing my emotions and feelings to people. Why should I lie how I really feel for someone? Why shouldn’t I not tell someone when they are annoying me or when they shouldn’t get a brake and to stop following me around like someone I know and others know. But, hey Abdon you haven’t annoyed me nor anything you have been so cool and perfect friend with me. You don’t go thru the problems go thru as a period and go all wacko- psycho with me. J THANK GOD1 ja you are a perfect friend which I like the way you are no other person has been like this with me. You are what I call a true friends THANKS for everything. Today we got wet but it was all-cool I got to be with my best friend which is you!

Ha today remembered me a lot of the song:

COME CLEAN

Let's go back

Back to the beginning

Back to when the earth, the sun, the stars all aligned

'Cause perfect didn't feel so perfect

Trying to fit a square into a circle

Was no life

I defy

CHORUS:

Let the rain fall down

And wake my dreams

Let it wash away

My sanity

'Cause I wanna feel the thunder

I wanna scream

Let the rain fall down

I'm coming clean, I'm coming clean

I'm shedding

Shedding every color

Trying to find a pigment of truth

Beneath my skin

'Cause different

Doesn't feel so different

And going out is better

Than always staying in

Feel the wind

Chorus

I'm coming clean

Let the rain fall

Let the rain fall

I'm coming clean

Chorus

Let's go back

Back to the beginning

Hey Well, Abdon

I’ll talk to you later hey ja J well, everyday is a new experience that I gladly live with you thanks for everything J I wish to say more but I’ll tell you later ja bye….

9-7-04 Tuesday night

right now I am here in my room in the phone with ariz I fell so bad. Today my day started really wrong – I woke up early to go to school knowing and believing that I was going to go in the bus cuz my parents wanted for me to go on it. I miss the bus my dad gets really mad at me he starts insulting me and making a big deal of everything. He makes me feel really bad in my inside of me L he starts to get really mad he kicks the refrigerator, he kicks the table he knocks out a chair. I get scared really scared he goes really mad to his room slamming the door and I hear that he is hitting things down I hear he goes to my room I get all worried cuz I imagine that he is breaking my stuff L he goes back to his room and slams the door really hard its like 8:30 am already school had already started I wanted to be there in school with my friends with Ariz, Mati, and Abdon I wanted to be away from my house. I didn’t want to relive any of my past moments in life which things were going wrong to me and my family. I was so scared today in the morning I was feeling many feelings in me I just wanted to brake and yell from my inside. When my dad went to his room he called my mom and told her to come she was working with the next-door neighbor she came cuz my dad screamed at her telling her to hurry up. She came to the house I was in the living room in the sofa all scared asking my self why all this was happening. We started to argue – it was all basically of the same thing my dad was just making a big escandalo my mom see the chair in the floor I tell her wat happened she was all worried. Well, my dad finishes telling my mom of me and tells her to go. My mom leaves my dad is there telling me off and telling me things making me feel bad but the more he told me I felt “BRAVE” I would confront him and ask him why he is telling me all this WHY??? He would get more mad at me. He waited aproposito to see if the bus passed by well, it never did it was already 8:44 am I was even planning of running away that moment of my house I was feeling really mad I got emotional I can say. At 8:50 my dad decides to take me to school all the way to school he is just making me madder he insults me more I can’t stand it no longer. He goes down to school with me and goes to the office and tells them that the bus never came for me. He is all mad telling them well; he calms down I was J when I saw that he did. He leaves and I got to my 1^st pd. Class all during the day I was just thinking about it so much I just had it in my mind. After school, no tenia ganas de ir a practice my contacts were bothering me, I was thinking of my home problems a lot and me aguite when I saw the color guard had the saber I was thinking “NO , NO NO NO FOR SURE ITS GOING TO BE ANOTHER INSTRUMENT THAT I AM GOING TO BE NOT GOOD AT!” I was just thinking of that cuz me sacaron de riffles again and again I am good but not good enough. Me aguite and I didn’t want to be part of today’s practice. I told Maria and miss G. they understood I was cool that I was going to rest of today’s practice I was “YAY!” I felt bad cuz I wasn’t going to be there I was only thinking in soraida. But my mind was only in my problems and thoughts. Before practice starter me and Jazmin and Abdon we had a time that we were all of 3 together, it was interesting we got to know a bit of each other JAbdon he is a cool friend that I trust a lot that is why he is my best friend and well, Jazmin she is also a cool friend of mine that has her trust in me. We all 3 went to the truck stop and also with Cynthia another friend of us. They 3 had skipped band practiced. I was all aguitado and it was nice that I was in company of my friends. We had fun in the truck stop. It was an unforgettable day. We took pictures goofed around we were there like for more than 1 hour. We had fun. Well, I never imagined that minutes later that we left at 8 something that something was going to happen to me L. Well, Abdon, Cynthia, and Cynthia they were skipping practice but I wasn’t I had told them I wasn’t goint to go, so I knew I wasn’t going to get in so much trouble if I was seen. So I run all the way to the Texas ball room I was running the fast I could with my shoes I was feeling really tired but I kept on running I wanted to find a shortcut for them so they can get faster to school. I call them with my cell phone but Cynthia doesn’t answer, and so I call Abdon. I was really tired I was barely able to catch my breath. I tell them to leave me here so they can get to school faster well, Cynthia and Jazmin leave and Abdon decides to stay here with me. I was barely able to walk my muscles in my legs were trembling, my hands I was barely able to keep a steady pace on walking. Abdon he would ask me if I was ok I would say no that I felt really tired. L I walked to over the right corner of the ball room there was 3 palm trees I got one of the branches and I holded my self up I felt really weak and fragile. I had never felt this way I was feeling really strange like if my body was loosing all its strength. Abdon was all the time next to me, he told me to sit I sat in the grass in the middle palm tree I felt my heart beating faster and faster. I was getting worried. My throat was feeling like if it was constricting its self I was barely able to breathe or talk. I felt really numb, the mosquitoes were just biting me but I wouldn’t feel the pain of the bites I barely had the strength to roll down my sleeves so they wouldn’t bite my arms Abdon was helping me in the way he was able to J I was lucky he was with me. I got his hand and placed it in my chest so he could feel my heart beet. I got him worried cuz it was beating really fast. From what I know it has been the fastest it was ever beaten. He would just ask me if I was ok, I would say “no” I wasn’t feeling ok. Suddenly I feel my heart go from beating really fast to beating slowly I got worried I couldn’t breath I felt so numb and motionless. Suddenly something bites me in my neck I feel the pain and I move I was happy cuz I was bale to move, that bite I got woke up my senses., I felt a bit better , my heart was running at a better pace and I was feeling slowly the pain of the mosquito bites I had received while I was in the floor. I slowly started to move up the floor I felt dizzy when I stood up with the help of Abdon. But I was feeling much better than what I was minutes before. Thanks for Abdon that was with me he would shake me when I was feeling motionless in the floor I was feeling so strange THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP J I WAS GETTING SCARED. We started to walk to school cuz they were coming for him I walked him all the way to the fence of the school property we walked through the monte and were they are constructing something. He left I said good-bye and thank you! J I headed back going to the place were you get your license my parents were going to pick me up there. The night had already fallen. I was barely able to see it was pitch black my right contact I had to take it off it had moved out of place, I was seeing everything blurry., I was freaking out. I was alone in the dark monte , I didn’t have a clue were I was going or what I was stepping on. I needed help really badly. I can say this was one of the 1^st times that I felt really scared but entertained with all that I was going through. It was a mix of emotion and feelings. I say panicking I wasn’t able to see nothing. I wanted to call someone really badly that I called Abdon’s cell phone.. I let it ring like 2 times I hanged up cuz I was freaking out more I wasn’t able to see nothing everything was too blurry for me so I decided to use my cell phone as a light to guide with, it was a really good Idea I was so scared I would see shadows and I didn’t know what they were, I got freaked out that I screamed out loud when I saw like 5 or more dark shadows move they were birds that were flying of the ground. I just jumped of the fright I had. I later saw a wired fence I followed it to the end it took me to were I started. When I found my place and I knew were I was I called Abdon – I was thinking of calling Mati really badly but I called Abdon cuz he was with me before I got lost. I felt assured when I talked to him. I walked from the ballroom to the place were we get our license I was waiting for my parents there. All the way ther ei was with Abdon in my cell telling him everything I went through while I was lost. -----I’ll write more of this later I have been writing of this non-stop for a while now I have to go to sleep to take my shower and go in the bus. Well, laterz people THANK YOU ABDON FOR BEING THERE WITH ME I DON’T KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAD HAPPENED TO ME.

------- THANKS J ITS ALRADY 12:40 AM 9-8-04 WEDNESDAY TOMMOROW IS A NEW DAY A NEW BEGINNING OF THE CONTINUATION OF THIS MARVELOUS LIFE I HAVE WHICH, I LIKE SHARING WITH MY FRIENDS J