Lauren Schifer

Hello Everyone :)
 I'm Lauren Schifer.  My "fun fact" was that I'm an only child, I have three jobs, and I had a pet tarantula.  I work at Holliter Co, Bdubs, and I'm an optometric assistant. All three are fun.  I was born in Florida but moved to Ohio when I was four.  In my free time I like outdoors activities, taking naps, and going to concerts.  My major is Business Admin but I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

While writing my poem I took the time to look over some pictures and notes that my friend Amber and I had written back and forth.  I have an incredibly short attention span so I would write a few lines, then make a sandwich, write some more, then take a nap.  I took quite awhile for me to get it finished.  Some challeges were that I don't write poetry so I wasn't sure how it should sound and time has been an issue for me the past week.  I think my poem turned out okay, I seem to make slight changes every time I re-read it. 

18 years, 1 month, 19 days

Instant best friends at eight years old

Laying pool side at each other’s houses on hot summer days

I’d be eating pink popsicles and saving the blue one’s for you

After that summer we became more like sisters

Saying things like “I can’t wait to come home, and by home I mean your house”

At age twelve, watching scary movies and staying up all night

Eating cookie dough and planning out the rest of our lives

Graduating from school, marrying rock-stars, and having next door mansions

We would always be best friends, no matter what

Turning fourteen, we were sneaking out to meet the high school boys

Helping each other up the trellis and through the bedroom window

Back in bed by 4:00a.m. thinking our parents would never know we were gone

Angelic smile, petite frame, crystal blue eyes, and completely fearless

I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in crime

Sweet sixteen, cheerleading, shopping for prom dresses, and getting our hair done

Going out with our boyfriends to the old Bucyrus Movie Theater

Only two more years and we would be off to college together

Some birds can’t be caged was the motto you lived by

We couldn’t wait to go off on our own

Finally eighteen, no more curfew or rules to follow

Planning our trip to the Hershey Park the summer after graduation

Real life was finally starting with what seemed like a list of never ending possibilities

18 years, 1 month, and 19 days

Our future plans and our ten year friendship came to an end

Your final words still “hanging” in the air

“Only the Good Die Young”

You’ll always be remembered as my best friend.

 

My favorite passage in Holding On so far is Moreese Nickham, Prisoner. I thought it was a very heart breaking story that he was shot first and when he responded by killing two white officers he was then sentenced to life in prison.  There have always been flaws in our judicial system but the fact that the govenor kept ignoring his pardon to be released was ridiculous.  "See, we can't hurry the Lord= He got his own set time to dowhat he gonna do. I might be too old to walk, or might not be worth anything, but I'm goin' to get outta this. I been lookin' forward tothat day of a long time. I believe its gonna come. I hope so." That is my favorite passage becuase it shows what a dreamer Bickham is.  He had been in prison for the better part of his life, over 35 years. He's missed his children growing up and society changing but he was still hopeful that he was going to be free.  Eventually he got to spend his twilight years with his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.