Alexandria

My name is Alexandria Constance Ridlon. I was born at U Mass Memorial hospital in Worcester Ma on September 26, 1998. I grew up in Lancaster, Massachusetts. I went to Marry Rowlandson Elementary school. I lived in a big yellow house until the time I was 8. In second grade I moved to Leominster and went to Northwest. For the last 6 years of my life I have lived here.

Birthday

My families birthdays work in a very strange way. Almost all of us were born on the same date. My dad was born on February 26th. I was born on September, 26th. My mom was born on March, 14th. My brother Donovan and my brother Tyler’s mom Amy were born on June 14th. So simply put, my dad and I were born on the 26th and my mom, my brother , and my brother Tyler’s mom were all born on the 14th.

ConcertI went to my first concert September 3, 2012 at 1:30 pm. I went to the

Rise Above Fest that supported suicide prevention. The bands Seether, Buckcherry, Puddle of Mudd, and Otherwise played. It was a fun concert and by the end of it my feet were killing me. I was tired and very happy. That was the best weekend ever!

DonovanI have three brothers, the second oldest name is Donovan. My brother

Donovan is 16 years olds and is 5’ 10” tall. He has dark brown hair that is pretty long. He takes after my mom in the fact that he has a gray stripe. It sits in the front of his hair and annoys him. My brother is not loud but he's also not quiet. He plays sports during the spring and sometimes during the fall too. My brother played football for 6 years and is out lately, because he spiral fractured his humorous bone. He had a plate and 8 screws in his arm for a little over a year. This year they took it out and he is able to use that arm again. My brother Donovan is a pain , though I love him all the same.

Elephant RidesWhen I was little my family

spent one summer trying to go to every zoo in New England. At each zoo we would role a penny in the penny presses and save a map of the zoo. At one of the zoos we went to they had an elephant exhibit. At first we didn’t realize why the elephants were walking in a circle over and over again. Then we saw why….They were giving rides! My dad asked me if I wanted to ride an elephant and at first I said yes. Until we got to the place where you sat one them then I said…no! They were so big and it really scared me how high they were.

Family

My family doesn’t have too many traditions. They only traditions we keep in play are on Christmas and the Super Bowl. On Christmas every year my grandfather and now my dad buy anywhere from 18-22 lobsters and half a bushel of steamers. Then all of my family comes to my house, and we eat it together. The whole house smells like seafood for a week. Yum!

Grandma Ridlon

My grandma on my dad’s side is very special to me. She taught me many things. She taught me how to play cribbage, play crazy eights, and even to play the piano. We would watch old movies together. My grandma taught me skills that I will carry for the rest of my life and I cherish the time I spent with her.

Halloween

Every Halloween I go trick-or-treating usually with my youngest brother, Ashton, but this year his dad wouldn’t let him go. So I went with my best friends. Meagan, Hannah, and I went trick –or-treating around the center of Leominster. Meagan went as a bunny, Hannah went as a Black Veil Bride. An I went as a girl version of Charlie Scene from Hollywood Undead.

Ice SkatingThe first time I ever went ice skating was with my dad. We went down to Play It Again

Sports and rented ice skates. Then we drove down to Barrett Park. We got metal chairs out of our trunk. We walked down to the ice. We laced up our skates and walked onto the ice. My brother Donovan kept falling but I found my rhythm. We spent 2 hours skating until we walked, shivering up to the car and went home.

July 4thWhen I was little my family used to have a big celebration on the 4th of July. We

would go to New Hampshire and buy fireworks. We would set them off at my meme’s house. Sometimes we’d even go with my Grandma Sandy to the display fireworks in Ayer. We would make food, and play games. We bought glow in the dark everything! They’d play music and we’d dance around. The 4th of July was always a happy memory with my family.

Kitten!

I have a kitten. She’s old enough to be called a cat but I still call her a kitten. My kitten’s name is Mischievous. She has grey and black with stripes, on her face but her back is bangle. My cat is a hunter, she takes birds out of the sky, squirrels out of trees, and comes home every night. She sleeps on the foot of my bed like a dog and stands by the doors when she wants to go out. She is a strange kitten, but I love her all the same.

LEOMINSTER

For three years I played for Leominster Pop-Warner. The second year I played, my brother Donovan was playing too. He played on the midget team, and I played on the junior midget team. Every one of my practices ended a half an hour before his. So every day when practice ended I would have to wait a half an hour in my sweaty football stuff for my brother’s practice to be over. Then we would go home an I would have to wait for my brother to shower first. I loved going out on the field and representing Leominster. This year I didn’t play and I missed it very much, but it was also nice not to have practice 90 degree weather.

MoneyMy grandma travels a lot and the 2 things she brings me back are

coins from wherever they went, and a license plate that says Alexandria, because they’re very hard to find. I have coins from Bermuda and Greece from her, and money from Belize from my dad. The foreign money is all very colorful and it makes me wish ours was. The money they gave me was legal money but it means so much I doubt I could ever use it. All of the money I’ve collected is displayed in my glass front hutch, beautify.

North CarolinaA few years ago my dad’s side of my family went on

a vacation to Virginia beach. While there his cousin Michael's friend Marry offered to take us blue crabbing . We all piled into her truck and drove to a small dock in North Carolina. Once we were there we all got on to her boat. My cousin Anthony, my dad, my brother Donovan, my brother Tyler and I all sat at the front of the boat while we road out to sea. When we got to the first of her buoys she pulled out the trap quickly and there we tons of crab in it! We were taught how to pick up crab when we were little and Marry taught us another way. If you grab the knuckle of its swimmers the crab thinks an animals has it, and goes limp. Blue crabs are incredibly aggressive and we were dangling a glove above them to watch them jump into the air to attack it. A couple of days later Michael bought 90 crab. It was southern style spiced and very delicious, but blue crab has spikes on the side of their heads and while Tyler and I cleaned the crab we bought got quite a few cuts. I still have the scars!

Ostaszewski OThis summer my family and I went up

lake Winnipesaukee to stay at the condominium. While we were there my brother Donovan’s arm was still broken. He was in a cast and sling for the entire weekend. He swam with one arm! The next time we went though he had, had the second surgery and got the plate out of his arm. So this time we went tubing! We were on the boat when my dad’s girlfriend’s brother Kiel, told us about something called the Ostaszewski O. What he does is he spins the boat around quickly so that the tube goes over the wake the boat makes and most of the time….he flips you. My brother went on the tube and he did an involuntary back flip! It was hilarious but he was grinning hugely.

Plowing

When I was little my dad used to plow during the winter. He would leave home early in the morning then go to work, sometimes I wouldn’t even see him at all for the day. I would miss him lots. I loved getting to spend the entire day with mum though. It was nice to get to bond with her during the day and with my dad when she went to work at night.

Quotes and Poems

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Charles Causley’s “I Am The Song”

I am the song that sings the bird,I am the leaf that grows the land,I am the tide that moves the moon,I am the stream that halts the sand,I am the cloud that drives the storm,I am the earth that lights the sun,I am the fire that strikes the stone,I am the clay that shapes the hand,I am the word that speaks the man.

This is my all time favorite quote. I’m not sure why I like it but I do. I read it in the book “Ink Death” by Cornelia Funke , at the beginning of a chapter and it just stuck with me. I also found a poem I liked in that book. It was “ I am the song” by Charles Causley.

ROTC

My brother Donovan wants to ROTC. Meaning he wants to be part of the air force's Reserve Officer Training Corps. He will go to school through the air force and while his schooling is going on he will be put through physical training . In the end he hopesto be a pilot. I wish him lots of luck in following his dreams.

Stories My entire life I’ve always loved

stories. By the time I was 7 I was reading chapter books, picture books were always fun, but now I prefer novels in series. The last book I read was Heather Brewer’s “twelfth grade kills” in the Vladimir Todd series. I really liked the book, but my favorite character dies in the previous one. Some other books I like are “Host” by Stephanie Meyer, and “the warrior heir” series by Cinda Williams Chima. One of my all time favorite books though I “Tuck Everlasting” by Natalie Babbitt. Like I said I Like book and I will be reading for the rest of my life.

Tyler Cucchi I have three brothers. The oldest one’s name is Tyler he does not have the same last name as me , but he’s still my brother. He goes to school full time, and works full time at “Bomaco “in Fitchburg, Ma. He’s 22 years old and has blonde hair and blue eyes. He was born December 18, 1990 at ‘health alliance hospital “in Leominster Ma. He’s my oldest brother and for a long time was my favorite. Though I can’t say that anymore because now I have a younger brother named Ashton.

Uncle Seany

My Uncle Sean was the best. He had very short blonde hair and blue eyes. He wasn’t fat but he wasn’t slight either, he had muscles from working in landscaping. He was about 6 feet tall and almost always smiling. He had an amazingly well designed tattoo that covered his back, and his eyebrow was pierced. He was my best friend, he was only 22 when he died. I never got to go to his funeral and say goodbye like everyone else. I miss him deeply, and sometimes when I hear the song “You Found Me” by the Fray it makes me think of him. I have nothing but happy memories of my Uncle Seany, and I cherish them everyday.

Virginia Beach A couple of years ago my dad’s side of my family went on our first real vacation. We packed the car full, and filled the car with gas. We called up my oldest brother Tyler and he came too! It was just the four of us my dad, my brother Donovan, my brother Tyler, and I. We drove the GPS estimated 10 hours and 34 minutes, to Virginia beach. Somehow managing to get pulled over once, and asked to not park in front of the “government building” we never realized was there. Both of these times I was unconscious. When we finally arrived at my dad’s cousin Michael's house we said hello and unpacked. We were all very tired but the thought of the famous “Virginia Beach” just a five minutes walk away had us hurrying into our bathing suits. It was about 12:00 pm when we got there but driving made us restless. We got and the car and raced to the beach. Running across the scorching hot sand, physically burned our feet but we didn’t care as long as we got to the ocean. We had a great time in Virginia , specifically Virginia beach, and maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to go back.

WaterMy favorite thing to do

in the world is swim! If I get into the water people have a hard time of getting me out. I’ve gone swimming when the pool was 47 degrees. I stayed in long after my dad and my brother Donovan got out. I swam and swam and swam until my lips were blue and I couldn’t feel my toes. In the spring when all the snow melts, the brook in my back yard overflows. We jumped off the bridge and into the surprisingly warm water. We swam for hours . If I could do one thing for the rest of my life would be swim.

X-RAYSAs most people can tell I’m very

uncoordinated. I can’t walk over a flat surface without finding something to trip over. So in my life I’ve both caused and received a surprising amount of x-rays. With everything from regular back pain to having fingers broken by doors, cleats, and 8 year olds. I’ve sustained a fair amount of broken bones ranging from fingers and toes, to my arm. I’ve been x-rayed to the point where it surprises me I don’t glow in the dark. Though I’m sure those won’t be the last times I’m x-rayed. Unless somehow I magically gain the ability to not be an accident prone Ridlon. My dad’s biggest joke is with all of the broken bones in the family, on day they’ll build a Ridlon wing to the hospital.

YOLO

YOLO is an acronym that “cool” people use. It stands for , You Only Live Once. Which I find pretty funny because it’s obvious everyone only get one life. Many musical artists/bands have wrote songs titled YOLO. From Drake, a rapper who isn’t my favorite, to Suicide Silence, a band I like very much. Even so YOLO is just another acronym, our generation will use and the next will make fun of. Just another meaningless phrase like groovy, rad, chill , and last but certainly not the least annoying …swag.

ZOO

My family spent one summer trying to go to every zoo in New England. We saw the Okapi at the Bronx Zoo in New York, the dog show at Southwick, and foxes at the Ecotarium. Some of the other zoos we went to were Rodger Williams Zoo in Boston, and the Franklin Park Zoo. We saved maps and rolled pennies but most of all we saved memories. I always loved going to zoos when I was little and every time I go now I feel like a six year old again.