As most of you know, my name is Julia.

I’ve been here at this amazing lutheran school

ever since preschool. I’m going to start a new chapter in my life next year, so I’d like to share a

few stories that I’ve had at this place! I’ll start off in preschool, I was in Mrs. Tams’s class and

we made spider webs with paper plates, yarn, and then we added a plastic spider to it. I had a few

crushes in preschool just like most people. I was being a little naughty, obviously, and I was

running around the classroom with some boys and they all got time out but I didn’t.

Next comes kindergarten! In kindergarten I had Mrs. Noble as my teacher. In previous

years I had a babysitter and she came in and helped out Mrs. Noble teach. I lost my tooth while

eating applesauce at the beginning of lunch. At the beginning of the school day Mrs. Noble

would have us say our parents phone numbers, our addresses, and things for us to memorize that

is important to know.

Next comes first grade with my teacher as Mrs. Hoyme! During this year Mrs. Hoyme

would read to us, Boxcar Children. Whenever somebody lost a tooth we would get a necklace to

put our tooth in it. One day it was snack time and I forgot my snack so I asked Aubrey if I can

have a fruit snack. She of course said yes because she was my friend. I don’t remember why she

walked away, but she did. I ate the rest of her fruit snacks because I was hungry and then I got in

trouble for it.

Second grade with Mrs. Herther! In second grade we read The Magic Treehouse. We

would have a memory verse on the chalkboard and at the end of the week she would erase a few

words and then eventually the whole verse was gone! If you weren’t feeling the best Mrs.

Herther let you lay down and rest with a pillow; one kid even fell asleep. There was a new kid

who had joined at the beginning of the year and broke her foot, so I offered to take her up the

elevator and… I accidentally left her in there.

 Third grade with Mrs. Mlnarik! Quite a few girls from second grade left, which means

we were stuck with The Boys. We had a state and president report and since I was going to

Tennessee that year, I got Tennessee. I also got George W. Bush as my president. The day of the

presentation I brought a mask of George W. Bush and wore it out to recess to pretend that I was

the president. Mrs. Mlnarik would give everyone a little “bank” and we had to earn our coins.

One time I had to take out a dime and I was really sad.

Next comes fourth grade with Mrs. Noble, again, and Mrs. Bridges! We had a court

session and the trial was about boys throwing rocks into my house window and broke it. This is

the year that we traveled to DeSmit and went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum. Mrs. Noble

taught in the morning and when she was leaving for art Mrs. Bridges would come in and play

National Geographic videos. We learned about Pompeii, how it got destroyed by a volcano and

that archaeologists are digging up the city after it was covered in ashes.

Now, it’s fifth grade with Mr. Pin! This was the year of rubix cubes! Mr. Pin would teach

us how to solve rubix cubes. Mr. Pin would go onto the TruMoo website and we would play

games and learn our fifty states. This was Mr. Raaen’s first year at Sioux Falls Lutheran and he

would teach us when Mr. Pin taught the sixth graders. We read the books The Chronicles of

Narnia as a class and we were able to choose where to sit and sometimes I would get the little

“camping” spot.

Sixth grade with Mr. Raaen! Our first year in middle school! We were late for class quite

a few times because it was a change that we eventually mastered. I would only study the vocab

words’s parts of speech and never the definition. If you’re wondering… I don’t recommend it.

We, sixth graders (at that time), were given the chance to go to Inspiration Hills and work or
focus on our teamwork (it was a bit of a disaster). My older brother, Isaac, was in eighth grade

and I was able to watch him and his classmates graduate.

Next comes seventh grade with Miss O! This year we were given the opportunity to

travel to the Black Hills for about a school week long! We slept in tents, that was very cold at

night, which was along a lake that was beautiful! We were able to hike up Black Elk Peak.

Storytime: When we got to Black Elk Peak we realized that Nathan had crocks on, so he had to

go back to the campsite and put on different shoes. The girls were lucky with the tent

arrangements because we’re all friends.

Now, it’s the last but not the least, eighth grade with Mr. Deeter! This year has been a

very memorable year, just by the little jokes in the classroom. This year we got more leeway than

we did in sixth grade. We won the coin wars and got a pizza party! Mr. Albers also taught us

history and at the beginning of class we always started off with some laughter from memes!

Since all of the grades are over I’d like to talk about sports, because I love sports and

have many memories from them. Let’s start off with volleyball! When I went to the open gym

for the first time I was a little nervous, so my mom walked in with me and I remember getting

too overwhelmed and teared up a little. Doloris and Carly were amazing coaches! I remember

ever since the second week of practice, if anyone cuts a corner or the ball drops everybody’s

running at least one more lap. I loved volleyball and would practice a lot in the off season and I

guess that work did pay off because in my eighth grade year I was the libero.

Basketball! My first year playing basketball my coaches were Miss. Holdorf and Mr.

Raaen. For the past three years Paul and Travis have been my coaches. Paul really helped me

with my three pointers and stepping into it. I gotta point out that I did make a few three’s these

past couple of years, and that half court shot in sixth grade. In practice Miah would ask a lot “can
we play thunderdome?” Many other people would ask if we could play the bruise game, we

would scream and yell at the coaches so that they would miss their free throws, at the end of

practices and before the games we would sing in the locker room and take many pictures!

I know that I did get injured this year, but I remember watching the rest of the team play

the last two games without me. I remember sitting on the bench being bummed out that I wasn’t

able to play and my teammates were bummed out too. Sitting on the bench made me realize how

far we’ve come as a team. From the first day not being able to pass right or dribble. To now,

winning quite a few games, playing some tuff teams, and especially encouraging others. That’s

why I love going to this school, we focus on teamwork, encouragement, and to build each other

up.

Let’s talk about track. I first did track when I was in sixth grade. I was a distance runner

and went to a couple of meets and placed. I don’t remember much because that was two years

ago and there was something called COVID last spring, so there was no track last year. I

remember the coaches ever since the first day of track to “be encouraging”, “lift each other up”. I

never whipped out on the pavement at Memorial while running, but I remember hearing stories

of that happening to a few kids. One thing that made me feel good was to be one of the youngest

and beat quite a few high schoolers in the warmup as an 800 or a half a mile.

Next comes powerlifting! Powerlifting isn’t just about how strong your body is, but how

strong your mind is. If you tell yourself that you can’t do it you probably won’t be able to lift the

weight. But, if you tell yourself that you can and then you hear other people saying “come on,

you got this” you’re probably going to get it and feel amazing afterward. I did get injured as I

said before, but I did get up and show up to the practices around six in the morning and cheer

everybody else on! Powerlifting can help with all of the sports that you play and I also
recommend it because it’s fun! I went to the first powerlifting meet against all high schoolers and

got first in my weight class; I did go to the state meet but wasn’t able to compete, and I

encouraged my teammates, too.

Now, I think that it’s time for thank-you’s because I couldn’t have these amazing

memories without thanking the people that helped me make these memories. Thank you Mrs.

Tams for teaching me the alphabet and learning how to count! Thank you Mrs. Congdon for

keeping me safe on the monkey bars in preschool because I tried to be sneaky and go on the

orange bars! Thank you Mrs. Noble for helping me learn my parents’s phone numbers and my

address! Thank you Mrs. Hoyme for reading the Boxcar Children to us! Thank you Mrs. Herther

for taking us to the fire station because your nephew is a firefighter there!

Thank you Mrs. Mlnarik for letting me sit at your desk for a day! Thank you Mrs. Noble,

again, and Mrs. Bridges for the good memories from the DeSmit trip and the court trial! Thank

you Mr. Pin for teaching us how to solve rubix cubes! Thank you Mr. Raaen for looking very

intimidating and scary but you’re very kind; thank you for letting me know that your ears are

open and ready to listen when something’s up! Thank you Miss O for taking us on the Black

Hills trip! Thank you Mr. Deeter for telling us jokes and letting us have a trivia class instead of

doing math! Thank you Miss Hodorf for teaching me math for two years and letting us have Pie

Day Projects!

Thank you Mr. Albers for teaching me history and I will remember quite a few things!

Thank you Mr. Esser for letting me know that you’re ready to listen whenever I need to talk to

someone and I think that it’s a little crazy that I’ve known you for eleven years! Thank you Miki

for putting a bandage on my wound when someone pushed me in kindergarten! Thank you Mrs.

Devos for letting me know that you’re there when I need someone to talk to especially ever since
fifth grade! Thank you Mrs. Dooley for teaching me how to play the trumpet, piano, and music

in general! Thank you Mr. Christian for teaching us violin for a couple of years! Thank you Mrs.

Nelson for teaching us to be active and giving us pointers on work outs!

Thank you Mr. Lenz for being our principal this year! Thank you Mrs. Lou for teaching

us spanish in elementary! Thank you Mrs. Wood for teaching me spanish even though I rarely

paid attention! Thank you Mrs. Tipton for teaching me spanish and most of the time staying calm

while others were laughing! Thank you Mrs. Noble for teaching me art! Thank you Mrs.

Compton for teaching me art and teaching me what orthoganals are! Thank you to the staff and

faculty for cleaning this school so that this school is able to function!

Thank you Doloris and Carly for teaching me how to play volleyball and teaching me

how to be disciplined! Thank you Paul and Travis for teaching me how to play basketball and the

fun games that we play! Thank you Miss O, Mr. Pin, and Mrs. Johnson for giving me pointers

when running! Thank you Mr. Raaen, Katie, and Mrs Dot Raaen for coaching or giving me

pointers in Powerlifting!

Thank you Miah for being my friend, making many good memories with me, and

working on skits with me even though over half of the time was laughing and goofing off! Thank

you Aubrey for making many memories with me and for forgiving me in first grade after I ate all

of your snack! Thank you Kelsie for coming into our class and inviting me over to your house to

make many great memories! Thank you Dori for joining our class last year and for making great

memories with me! Thank you Luke for the great jokes and knowing ways to make me laugh!

Thank you Gabe for joining this class and helping me with math when I needed it! Thank you

Kaden for letting everyone pick on you a little and for giving us a good laugh when you yell

ecstasy!
 Thank you Elijah for being super smart and me not understanding a single word that

you’ve said! Thank you Nate for thinking of me on my birthday by giving me a few things that I

love and for the funny faces that you make! Thank you Charlie for making some good memories

in band! Thank you Nathan for your fast sarcastic answers! Thank you Jace for making everyone

laugh or at least make them smirk a little, and for pieing me in the face before the camera was

rolling! Thank you Braxton for giving everyone a good laugh when you spelled your name

wrong on your art project!

Thank you Amelya for putting me on your story after I was injured and always

encouraging! Thank you Melanie for saying good job and being funny! Thank you Kyana for

making me laugh and for the great memories! Thank you Sophia for making me laugh and the

weird things that you do to make me laugh! Thank you Elena for making me laugh at Kelsie’s

birthday party! Thank you Honesty for coming back to school so that we could see each other

again and interact! Thank you to everyone for everything that they’ve done to make me smile,

laugh, have a good time with, to teach me more about Christ and to have a better relationship

with Him!

And most of all I’d like to thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to go to this

amazing school! I am going to miss this amazing school very much. I’m going to miss the

amazing teachers and coaches. I’m going to miss these amazing friends that I’ve grown great

relationships with. If you’re wondering, I'm going to try to keep on doing sports. I’m definitely

staying in touch with all of my amazing friends here! I’m going to miss screwing off a lot and

mostly leaving my childhood.