Here Goes Nothing

Prologue

Hey, my names Gracie Holden. I suppose I should say a bit about me. I was born on the 18th of February 1998, my parents and I are from Adelaide but I have no recall of living there because we left for Melbourne when I was only 8 months old… I have swam and loved being in the water ever since I can remember. I have never known what I want to do with my life and never known where I’m placed in this world. I am starting this in the summer holidays, where I have had a lot of time to think about myself and how this year 2013 could possibly be the biggest year of my life so far, but I don’t know yet… 

From the beginning? I guess… I don’t know… As I said I’m from Adelaide, I don’t remember living there or leaving there, I just know that’s where ALL my relatives are. Only being able to visit them a limited amount in the year makes me realize every time I’m over there to respect the time I have with them. I adore my all my grandparents, I have always had the best relationship with my Poppa, but in 2012 he had a stroke and can’t speak very well. He is in a retirement home now and I wouldn’t give anything to sing a song with him or for him to tell me one of his jokes that he got out of the newspaper or one of the Christmas crackers one last time. His wife and my Nanna and I have always been very close, I’m her sausage, I love her voice, it’s so soothing… I love the way she use to stroke my back with her long finger nails and say “close your little peepers”.

My Nonno is a special character I tell you and my Nonna is the biggest cutie/sweetheart and everything else nice in world.

2002, I got a dog named Zoey, we saved her from the R.S.P.C.A when she was around, her estimated age of 3.  I had a really bad sleeping problems when I was younger, so, parents got Zoey because they thought that if the dog went to sleep, Gracie went to sleep. But that didn’t work since she piddled all over our carpet… She is a quiet dog, doesn’t bark, fetch. Nothing. Zilch. But of course I still love her. She doesn’t look like any other dog, with a very unique personality and appearance. My Little Bambii, as I call her because of the bold eyes she has.

I started primary school in 2003, a year younger than everybody else, I don’t really feel different, and to be honest, I probably have the most knowledge and common sense out of them all, thanks to my ever so intelligent parents. I’m an only child, so I have their full undivided attention.

In my first year of primary I met my best friend! Emma Smith! We were always together and everything was “Emma and Gracie”. Emma was an only child too, and our parents became really good friends. Which made Emma and I’s friendship even stronger. We have always seen each other as “sisters” and I have always seen Anna (her mother) as my second mother haha.

In 2004, Daniel Green and I were “Grade 1 Dance” partners, and through that our parents became friends. Daniel has a younger brother, Matthew, by 2 years, and an older sister, Becca, also by 2 years. Now all of us are “Family Friends”, and I absolutely love being around them. In the past 4 years, Becca and I have become great friends. Even though the massive age difference, we always have the best time together. She is the best older Sister ever.

In 2009 it was the end of primary school. I was really sad because I had never been the most out spoken person, I was really shy during my primary years and without Emma I wouldn’t have made any friends. Emma was going to an all-girl Catholic College and I was going to a co-ed government school. I was going to have to suck it up and be confident in myself.

High School began and year 7 was a horrible year, I suppose you could say, my first set of high school friends were horrible and made me really self-conscious. They were all in my year 7 class, which meant no escaping them. So, I became friends with the other set of girls in my class and moved on to my second set of high school friends. I survived the rest of year 7.

In Year 8 I was still with my second set of high school friends, but we weren’t in the same class, and they treated me like a piece of dirt. I do admit, I didn’t join in with conversations, but when I did I would be shut down by this awful girl, karmas going to eat your arse one day.

I basically just followed them. They would try and walk away from me and tell me to stop following them. After a while I did. I know it’s not their fault but I wish they just asked me what was wrong, I didn’t even know what was wrong. At this stage I just knew I wanted to leave the schoool, and I felt that if I left no one would even notice.

In the same year I moved on to my third set of high school friends, and slowly came across my fourth set by the end of year 8. A girl named Hannah took me under her wing, for all I know she could of thought I was the biggest weirdo in the world, but she was nice to me, and I started to gain confidence again. Even though we don’t talk anymore, thanks Hannah, what you did was amazing, and I can’t imagine anyone else in our year level doing what you did for me.

Then year 9 started, and boy, it was a big year. I didn’t know what hit me.