Past, Present and Future The Exclusive Autobiography of Hanako Megumi

December 1st 1987 That beautiful date I was born. My parents were so excited to have their first child. ME! But you know, when I was born I had no hip sockets. The doctors said I would never walk. My parents were devastated. My parents took me to the church every Sunday to pray that God would give me brand new hip sockets. I'll tell you, the power of prayer is a scary thing. My next trip to the doctor would consist of X-rays. You know what they found? This small 4 month old baby who had no hip sockets, suddenly had perfectly formed hip sockets. My parents couldn't have been happier.

And thus began the life of me.

I grew up in a small town called Astoria, Oregon. It's a beautiful town it's really old fashioned and a typical tourist spot. It's only two hours from Portland and Three hours from my current hometown. Astoria was a great place to grow up. I had a lot of friends there and spent a lot of time in my ballet classes and plays. School was lots of fun, or at least it was as much fun as school could be. I was very good in History and Science, a straight A student. English was obviously an A+ class, the bad news? I was failing Math. Yeah, failing. Nobody knew what to do about it, when I received my thirteenth F I was sent back to 3rd grade math. I spent every afternoon with the third graders trying to get my math skills under control. But I still had trouble. My teacher, who taught the third grade math class, told me I was stupid and had no chance of graduating. I went home and told my parents after about the fifth time she'd said it to me. The result was a beginning fifth grader being taken out of school. My parents and my two best friend's parents decided home schooling was the best alternative. And wouldn't you know after three months of home schooling I was acing math. Yeah, passing math with an A average.

Soon after my parents joined a church and my dad became the Music leader for the church. My mother with her beautiful voice, became the head singer on the church's worship group. Along with two other women. Days and days of boring church passed, me and my brother Aaron found other ways of spending our time. Such as writing on the inside of the church pamphlet and talking very quietly. When we were too loud there was nobody to tell us to be quiet because our parents were on the stage. But being the older child I always kept our funny conversations to a low tone.

Eventually the thing with the church didn't work out. That's too long a story for this person to tell. I attended school once again hoping to be able to pass math now that I was better at it. But after the first two tests it was clear that I was once again falling down the ladder of success. By the end of my first month in the school I had a D in Math and A's in everything else. My teacher told my parents I just wasn't trying when I was really trying my hardest. It seemed everyone but my parents were against me. So, I was once again told to be put into second grade math and work my way up from there. I refused. I went back to Home Schooling. My mom hoped that it was just the pressure of being in a huge class and trying to strive to be better. When I got home my grades slowly improved, I was back up to an A+ again. It didn't make sense, why was it so hard for me to do well in school? It was easy back home. Well my mother just decided to keep me and my brother home schooled. My dad was busy teaching in seaside and was having to deal with his students.

My Grandma Swift came to visit us. She's my mom's mother. We spent our time walking around Astoria and seeing the sights. She stayed with us for about three weeks. When she went back home we were very sad, she lived a long ways from us and we only got to see her once or twice a year. I don't think it was more than a month when we suddenly heard that she had died.

January 24th 2000 my Grandmother passed away. It made me so sad and I spent a lot of time being sad. That was when my writing first took hold of me. I'd dived off the deep end and now I was expressing myself on paper. We took the trip to California for her funeral. She wanted to be buried in her hometown in California so we went. After the funeral we flew up to Arkansas to stay with my grandpa. He was alone now and we needed to help him with some things. We spent a month at my grandpa's house. And returned after Valentines Day. Life at home was distant, it took me and my whole family, a long time to adjust. But eventually we did.

In early spring of 2002 we found out my Dad's mother had been diognosed with cancer. My parents talked about moving down to Stayton where my grandparents lived. Aaron and I didn't want to leave. We were happy just where we were, but we also wanted to be with our Grandparents for as long as we could. So, the house went up for sale. I was really young so I don't know or remember how much it sold for. Enough for us to buy a Ranch house in a small town only fifteen minutes from Albany Oregon. Our little hometown is only 45 minutes from my Grandparents house. We bought our house in December of 2002. Our first Christmas in the house was bare. Because not all of our furniture was moved in yet. My parents wanted new furniture for the house. Mom was thinking BLUE. Dad took Aaron and I to the furniture store in Albany. There we found what was to be our dream couch. Believe it or not that couch has had many things happen on it. I cried on that couch, spent weary nights on that couch and my mother slept on that couch waiting for my brother to fall asleep.

Slowly our home became a place of comfort. For my sixteenth birthday my Grandpa bought me Roxy. She was my dream horse. Roxy is a Red Dun Overo Paint. She is bossy sometimes and wants her own way, but she's the love of my life. I think most of all through everything that's happened, Roxy has been my life line.

Shortly after we bought Roxy my other Grandpa bought me Rowdy who everyone has heard about. Rowdy was a sorrel quarter horse gelding and he was an inspiring horse. I cantered on him for the first time, cried with him and laid on him when I was sad. I would go out to the barn and to his stall and sit next to him. He wouldn't move a muscle. He'd just lay there looking at me. Rowdy and I truly had a connection, something me and Roxy didn't achieve till a year later.

In July of 2005 Rowdy died. I don't know what he died from but suddenly my best friend was gone. I spent a long time weeping over Rowdy and I didn't write anything for months. In January of 2006 I found Lexi who was to be, yet another, love of my life. Roxy became my riding buddy. Lexi was the horse I needed at the time when I bought her. I really didn't want another horse, but we needed another one. When I saw Lexi I knew she was the horse for me. Bought and sold, we took her home and settled her in.

The next year was full of OHSET meets and riding practices. Rivalries and Arguments, learning curves and cliffs to fall from. By the end of December 2006 I was a polished, Stone Rock of knowledge. I was an experienced, Advanced rider now.

In June of 2007 I discovered a unique website called Storywrite.com, and this sight truly changed my writing career. It has made me a better writer and helped me through all the things I was confused about.

Now, as we approach the end of 2007, I find myself looking back and seeing all the crazy things that have happened in my life. And I realized how lucky I am.

This is my life up until now, what happens after this? Well, who knows we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.