Ben Wilson

Hello fellow humans of the planet Earth, or at least I’m guessing that is. So I am the illustrious, amazing, outstanding Benjamin Wilson, whose grace is overcoming to anyone who meets me!.... Or in reality none of that is true but you gotta add some spice to these things or they are just boring to read. Speaking of boring to read, time to write about myself. You know my name so now I suppose I will have to actually talk about myself. Trust me I find no pleasure in doing this but it’s for this assignment so, fine.

 Unlike most people who live here, I was not born in Washington state. I was in fact born in Utah, Salt Lake city, but I only lived there I think one year... or even less. I can’t really remember the details but I do remember some things, no need to talk about them. Then I moved or was moved to Arkansas, the hottest place I have ever lived. I remember we had a black grey wagon i don’t quite recall the cars name but it was for sure a “wagon” anyway it had no air conditioning and Arkansas gets up to the 100s normally so every road trip even to the store you felt like you would die. I lived in a small cul de sac that was tight off of a main road in this cul de sac were 6 to 7 small houses with 6 families and one old man in the seventh house, again I do not remember everything but i do remember liking the place 3 distinct memories fill my head of that place one was a fellow kid giving my a motorcycle toy I really liked the other was laying down on the cement and looking at the stars unlike here the whole night sky was filled to the brim with stars it was beautiful i even knew this at that young of a age the last memory was my brother breaking his arm while trying to skateboard… my parents never let me learn how to skateboard after that and I still don’t know how.

 

Then I moved again somewhere I think it was Oregon but imagine a ocean of white houses grey sky and picket fences and as a kid who is stuck in his own world in his head I have no idea where I lived really. That’s where I grew up a lot as a person I perhaps didn’t live there long but I developed a lot as a human being I suppose well it’s where I learned that I like plants and animals and nature I was maybe 1 years old at that point my dad and mom were still together and I think I was happy.

I’ll speed the moving thing up cause then I moved to marysville and then to woodenville then to granite probably forgot some places but how can I remember them all i’ve moved so many times, Granite is were I grew up to this present point

Oh and I guess I have to actually write about myself so

I like plants I like the science around them and the medical and cooking uses derived from them

I like animals for many reasons like anybody but I also like the biological factor of animals it fascinates me, My favorite color is green AND yellow and my favorite food is squid of all things yes I know that’s weird BUT IT TASTES AMAZING I swear just give it a try. I would say I’m sort of a daredevil always wanting to do crazy things but the thing is I never really do and when I have the chance it takes a whole lot of prodding to get me to do it so in reality I’m quite cautious and worried about doing crazy stuff I instead just think about it. Nature is wonderful and I shall do all in my grasp to protect it, you can say I’m a “tree hugger” and I guess in a way yes but I also use nature as a tool I just see the importance in protecting it, besides all that jibber jabber I guess to summarize myself I’m a nice guy who just wants to see people happy and make people laugh…boring I know haha

Mal Byron

Life of Mal Byron

I am Malerie Kaeann Byron, & I  have lived here in Granite my entire life. I grew up here with my class of 2018! I have been kickin’ it with everyone since grade K or Middle School. I grew up in a wealthy family, we were always out at the motocross races, racing in Bellingham or Goldendale. Up until my dad had a heart attack, we were livin’ the life.

If you don’t know me, you probably don’t know that i’m a very outgoing, loud person. A very peaceful people person. I love getting to know new people and catching up with old friends. Most of all, I love laughing! My laughs are on shuffle constantly, there is a WIDE variety. I like looking passed things that bother me, or stress me out. I love being happy, and happy is how I will live.  

My passion involves cooking delicious food. I love spending my time in the kitchen, or even out waiting tables. I love it all! I found out I wanted to cook for my career around the age of 7 years old. I had been cooking since I could walk, & been making up recipes along the way. I have many of my own recipes, but have yet to get them all down on paper. I’m a very traditional cook, I usually never measure anything.. Which will probably be a problem in the future.

Charlie Huepel

Hi my name is Charlie! I’ve moved around a little bit but I’ve been in Granite Falls for a little over a year now. I live with my mom Olivia, my step dad Darren, my partner Kota, and my friend Vail. I also have several pets. I have two wonderful huskies named Halo and Tesla, they’re the sweetest things you’ve ever met. I also have a rat named Chris Ratt (yes his name is a pun of Chris Pratt’s name). Lastly I have an albino hedgehog named Todd. He’s old and grumpy but when you get to know him he’s a sweetheart.  

These are my dogs! Halo (left) and Tesla (right). It’s kind of an old picture but it’s impossible to get them to sit long enough to get them in the picture.

My tiny little family is very important me because most of my family doesn’t talk to me anymore and my patched together family loves and supports each other in ways I’ve never experienced before. We might not be a traditional family and we’ve only lived together for a little over two years but I’ve appreciated everything they have done for me a whole lot.

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My partner Kota (left) and me (right) over the summer.

In my spare time I love to make art and play music. I suffer from several mental illnesses and art and music are a good, healthy outlet for me. Channeling all my emotions though these things helps me get out the things in my head in a constructive way rather than destructively.

I am a very caring person and I have love in my heart for every living creature, human or not. I am a Buddhist and I believe that every living thing has equal value to each other and that all life should be protected, which happens to be why I am a vegetarian. Some people think that since I am a vegetarian that means I’m judgemental but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I believe that every person has the right to decide what happens to their body and what the consume, I just choose not to eat meat.

Overall my life isn’t perfect. Things are hard but I’m doing the best I can. I struggle daily but as long as I have the supportive people and love that I currently have I’ll do alright.

Vail Bates

Heya, my name is Vail! I’m 18 years old and a senior. I am a primarily creative based person. I love finding new  ways or routes to do things, and art is my favorite subject. Ever since I could shakily hold a crayon I’ve been doodling on whatever surface I could find. Some of those surfaces were cardboard and old envelopes, haha.

Nowadays, I find joy in a plethora of mediums. I like to paint, sculpt, draw, and design, it's my greatest joy in life. My goal is to become an animator or designer, it would be amazing to make a living off of what I love to do. As well as art, I also enjoy reading and writing, sometimes it's nice to just get sucked into another world. Others, it's nice to create one, and tell a new story.

         As for where I’m from? Well I consider myself as being ‘from’ Washington, but I was born in Reno Nevada. Growing up in washington has been an amazing opportunity, and I don’t think I would appreciate nature like I do if I had grown up in the state I was born in, which is renowned for its deserts arid environment.

         Growing up, my family didn’t have a lot of money, so we didn't do things that cost a lot. Instead, we would go on hikes and explore nature regularly, which was just as good as going to the theatres or anywhere else in my young mind.

         Nowadays, I live with some of my best friends. It's been a real gift, living with them. We support each other and it's a wonderful environment. They have a lot of pets as well, my personal favorite being Alice, the cat. Shes fluffy and small and likes to yowl until someone answers her. She also sits on my shoulder like a parrot, which is pretty entertaining.

         Anyways, thats me, toodles.

Kaylee Kolodzi

I am a student at Crossroads Intermediate High School. I have lived here in lake stevens for almost two years. Crossroads is my third High School. Sultan High, Lake Stevens High , and now Crossroads.

My home town is Sultan, Washington.  I was born in Kentucky, I didn’t really experience it there. I was only 6 months when I made my way across the country. We moved here because my family was over here. Luckily I moved to Sultan, I love that town. I made so many memories there and also learned a lot. I experienced more than any child / teenager would. Sultan was dysfunctional, surrounded by drugs and homeless people I really did learn the effects it has on people. I saw police break into houses and arrest many people. I matured a lot quicker than anyone should.

I made many sacrifices for my family and myself. My childhood being one of them.

Yet here I am, stronger than ever. I am sure some of my classmates and other crossroads students know how it is to have a rough past.

I really don't know how to describe me, I am a person, a 17 year old. I can tell you how I quit doing hard drugs for a sport that really changed my life. But wouldn't that be boring? I am going to be honest. I have depression, I play basketball to cope. I look forward to greater things in life, like my future. I want to be a.. well I don't know yet. My mom says I should be an architect, but my hobby is photography. I love capturing emotion in a single photo, but what will I do, I have no idea.

So I guess this is the end of the article. This right here is only a tiny bit about my life. I hope you learned a bit about me and my life and enjoyed it.

Rhiannen Conrad

Hey y´all my name is Rhiannen and I'm currently seventeen about to turn eighteen on October 28th. I´m a little on the tall side with a big attitude but, I have the biggest heart, I accept everyone and anyone no matter our differences.

A little about me is that I´m a major animal lover. I currently own three snakes, one bearded dragon, two horses, one cat and last but not least one fish. I guess you can say I have a zoo. For fun and as a side job I work and train horses, doing that is my passion, like if you can't find me at home I'm probably at the barn getting dirty. I also love to go four wheelin. This weekend I went to Walker Valley Offroad Park and I flipped a Jeep Wrangler. My interest in life is extremely broad, kind of like my taste in music because let's be real I can go from Slipknot to Jason Aldean and not miss a beat.

I grew up in Granite Falls but I was born in Centralia. I’ve lived here for as long as I can remember, minus the time I moved away from home to go live in Arlington. When I moved away things weren't so good, I needed a change in my life, but moving away wasn't the answer I was looking for. I moved back home after five months.

I ended up here at Crossroads because I wasn't successful in a big classroom setting and I didn't like the way that the teachers taught because there were times I couldn't understand the lesson and they weren't available to teach me the way I needed to be taught. I’m much happier here at Crossroads. I like the fact that Crossroads is a big family and that everyone here accepts everyone. I love the fact that the teachers are available to teach me the way I need to be taught when I don't understand. I’m happy to say that i’m a student here.

Lexi Short

Lexi Short

My family is from Granite Falls. My first six years I lived in Marysville but moved to Granite Falls because that's where my parents grew up, also because our family was growing and we needed more room. I have two siblings, two dogs and three cats. I live in a big house in a neighborhood. I went to the high school in Granite Falls my freshmen year, then I started going to crossroads in Granite Falls my sophomore year. Crossroads is way better than the high school. The teachers are more helpful and nice. The hours are better and the people are welcoming. So I am still going here and it's my junior year. I found the daycare here and started volunteering my sophomore year in September and kept volunteering after school till they finally hired me in May. I am still working there and have worked there for almost 6 months and I love it. My senior year I am going to do running start to get some of my early childhood education degree. Then finish getting the degree when i graduate from high school. When I get my degree I want to travel around and be a nanny for rich people in like california and New York. Then someday open my own daycare with my mom.  Some other things about me is I love my cats Oreo and Sparkplug, my favorite flowers are sunflowers and, my favorite color is pink. I love watching T.V. and hanging out with friends, also I love to eat and sleep.

               

                      

              

Kai Agee

Hi, I’m Kai. Let me tell you what this is about. This is a short biography about me and the natural basics of my life. For example where I come from, where i’ve lived, my background, where I am currently at in life and some of my possible goals in the later future. So to start off I was born at swedish hospital in seattle on May, 20th 2001. When i was about 6 years old I moved to mexico to live with my biological father but that only lasted about 6 months or so, then I moved back to where I originally lived, in snoqualmie washington with my mom who was a single parent. When I was about 9 or 10 years old my mom met a guy online named Mike. I met Mike for the first time at a bowling alley where I found out he too had a son just about 3 years younger than me. I liked Mike. I didn’t know his son Justin yet, but Mike would have a huge impact on my life.

A few months later my mom, Mike, Justin, and I all moved into an apartment complex somewhere in Redmond. We were there for a while and I made lots of friends who lived all around the complex and hung out with them everyday. While we were there I never really looked at Mike as a father figure but I had no clue that he would have such a large impact on my life. Over the years he taught me how to shoot guns, archery, drive a stick shift, do constructions and learn other great skills that will be important to me for the rest of my life. But as time went on we ended up moving away from Redmond into a little town called Granite Falls where I would have some of the greatest yet worst experiences of my teen years.

I started to flunk school around the 7th grade and continued to until my sophomore year of high school. And I think that me flunking out had to do with me getting into fights, drugs, and not caring about school anymore. But soon through my sophomore year I realized I didn't wanna be just another high school dropout and told myself I can do whatever I want in life. My goal is to graduate on time and go to college for cannabis culture or photography and videography or even possibly both. Even if I don't graduate on time I don't care, I just wanna be able to say I did it, and walk away from high school with a diploma in hand with my name on it.

Terran Freeman

Hello, I am Terran Freeman. I am an individual of the people of our community. I came to Crossroads because of my grades and anxiety. I came because I had a choice to either go to college or this school that i’ve heard many good things about. It’s obvious what I chose because i’m here at crossroads. This school has been a great place for me to learn and be myself. Everything so much easier and accepting here.

 Music is my natural high. I play at least four different instruments which are guitar, piano, drums, and bass. They all came to me as easy, but hard. Each instrument is easy, but depends on how you want to play. I learned piano when I was four and at that same time I learned to compose music. With piano I learned how to sing and I joined choir in school at fourth grade. I’ve been in choir since then. When I turned 14 I asked for a guitar for Christmas and not much else. I got it and I started off fast. My dad started before me and in a few weeks in I was past him. The very next year my brother asked for a drum set and he got it, but he never used it. The drum set then became my possession. Every instrument I learned, I learned on my own. I’m self taught and I think I can do better, but I do not have the money to go to a professional even though lots of people think I don’t need it. I tend to think peer help is way better than being stuck and struggling all alone.

 My normal day is going to school, talking to friends, practicing music and playing games. My dad used to take his girlfriend, girlfriend’s son, my brother, and I on hikes to many places around Washington. No matter if it was raining or sunny we would hike that day. I used to be way into fitness and then a big depression hit me to where I just felt like sleeping all day. I let it consume me and my passions. That’s where my girlfriend showed up. She has helped me become the man I used to be and better. We’ve been together for ten months now and it hasn’t been perfect, but we love each other enough to stay.

 When I left Lake Stevens High School I got more interested in blacksmithing, woodworking and norse mythology. Each one of those things helps with creativity in a way. When I went camping I found a great stick and I debarked it. After I made it into a great staff with viking runes. I had read and studied a lot about runes to write them.

 In conclusion, I have come a long way to be who I am today. I know i’m not the best person, but surely I am one of them. I don’t do drugs, drink, etc.. I am a viking, a leader, an inspirationalist, and a follower of the people. Let me help you by just talking to me.

Jordan Trussell

In this article I’m gonna be introducing myself and telling small details about my life. I have a 23 year old brother named Alex, a 23 year old half-sister named Kylee, and a 28 year old half-sister named Victoria. My 2 half sisters and my dad live in Canada, in Vancouver and Victoria. I was born in Vancouver, B.C. and I lived there for 5 years before I moved to Washington with my mom and brother to be closer to my mom’s side of the family. When we first moved down here, we moved to Kirkland with my grandparents. I lived in Kirkland for quite a while, and in the end of 8th grade I moved to Monroe with my friend Hannah, moved back to Kirkland for a couple of months, and now I live in Lake Stevens with the same friend and her family.

I love any types of animals and i’ve had quite a few in the past few years. In Canada I have a bengal leopard cat, who is now 21 and still alive. When I still lived in Canada we got a few praying mantis’ and they were really cool, but they ended up mating a lot and we ended up with hundreds of them. Towards the end we had to separate them into different containers because they kept killing each other, and our cat always wanted to attack them. At my aunt’s house I have 3 cats, Seraphim is the mom, and her two kittens Jaquline and Milkshakes. At my house, we have 4 dogs, which gets super chaotic and annoying sometimes. We also have 2 cats, Charlie and Benson, and we lost our cat Ginger a few weeks ago.

Last year I started high school at Juanita High School in Kirkland, but I only stayed there for  the 1st semester before I switched to online school. I didn’t like the high school for a handful of reasons. The teachers I didn’t not get along with but I just didn’t like the majority of them and the way they teached. I just didn’t like public school in general and I thought online school would be a better choice for me. When I started online school I was doing good with keeping up to date with all my work and even doing work for the next day, but in March my mom went into the hospital for a month and in that month I stopped doing my work because I was constantly stressed and worried about her and going to visit her.

Kaytlin Morgan

My name is Kaytlin and this is all about me. I started out in Everett and bounced from there to Darrington, Concrete, Mount Vernon, Stanwood and now Granite Falls.  I came to Crossroads last year from the other high school because I was falling behind due to lack of energy. I didn't have anybody to sit with at lunch or walk through the halls with, I felt alone even in a sea of people. I switched because if I had stayed there I would not have graduated on time and I would've felt worse and worse. At Crossroads I feel like I have a place and I’m comfortable, I’ve got the chance to meet some amazing people, great teachers, and I’m doing better than ever.

There isn't really much to me, I don’t really have any hobbies cause I work in my free time or I hang out with my boyfriend. I work at the Blazing Onion in marysville, if you haven't been there then you should go. The food is great. I am a dog mom, I have a 1 year old dachshund named Abel, she is my whole world. My favorite tv show is Rich and morty, it’s honestly become a religion to me. My favorite rapper is Logic, I just love the way he talks about real problems and it’s almost like the songs can relate to everybody in some way or another. Music has saved me numerous times and it’s where I go when I know I need a little escape. That's really all there is to me.

 My future plans, I want to own my own Cafe someday, so until then I plan on finishing High School, going to Bellingham Technical college and earning my degree. Then I’m going to live the best life I possibly can.

Byranna Daves

I’ve had a very rough life. I was born in Tacoma Washington on February 10th, 2001. I was physically and emotionally abused when I was younger and have gone back and forth between my mom and dad. I was also kidnapped and brainwashed. I participated in counseling for seven years from age seven to fourteen because of abuse. I didn't think that I was worth anything and I didn't want to be here anymore. My dad eventually got custody of me when I was about seven and a half years old I did not really remember what was happening or what was going on. I thought that what happened to me when I was little was normal so I just wanted my mom because honestly what seven year old doesn´t? I thought that I WAS THE PROBLEM! the truth is that I was not the problem and my parents were. I thought I was worthless all the way up until freshman year of highschool, I had depression and severe anxiety my entire life up until I met someone who completely changed my life!

I now am happier than can be and honestly if the things that happened to me didn’t happen when I was little I wouldn't be the same person that I am today. I have grown, I am strong, I am a mom of a two and a half month old. Being a teen mom has made me so strong and now that I have my own little family I have something to focus on and a mini me to take care of. I wouldn't take her back for the world, Every single time that she looks at me and smiles or just coos at me makes my entire day SOOO much better. My baby girl, Karsin Ava Lea Lynn Simpson has changed my life as soon as she entered this world at 7:25Pm on July 2, 2017.

I love being a mom and Karsin has made me so much stronger. I am still going to school full time, I have a scholarship for college, and i'm still going to do what I want and just because I have a daughter doesn´t mean that it’s impossible. It just means that it might take me a little bit longer to reach my goal. The reason i’m telling all of you guys this is because people do change and you shouldn't let your past dictate your entire life or limit you from what you want to do.

I´ve forgiven both of my parents for my childhood and I have moved on because life is just so much worse being angry all of the time. Me and my mom have a very good relationship today and i’m very happy for it. Just letting go sometimes is better than holding grudges and hating people. It’s so much more uplifting.