It was three weeks into my first year at Cannon falls. One of my friends named Ariel invited me to a football game and a sleepover afterwards at her house, another girl named suraya was also invited. It was the first thing that my friends had invited me to so I was super excited to hangout with them outside of school. When we got to the game it was freezing out and we walked around for most of the game while listening to music and eating food from concessions. I remember what we were eating, it was popcorn and hot chocolate. After the football game ended and everyone started packing up and leaving we walked to Ariel's house. I had never been there before so I wasn’t sure how far of a walk it would be but they kept saying “we are almost there.”  It was really dark out but when we got there I remember playing with slime and then Ariel invited me to her birthday party. Later we watched a movie, the movie that we watched was coralline. Then in the morning we made pancakes and we put green food dye in them but after they cooked the color wasn't very noticeable. But it was fun anyways. Before going to this sleepover I was super nervous because I hardly knew them and I planned to spend the night at their house.

Before going to Cannon Falls I went to Randolph. I went there from preschool until the end of seventh grade. It wasn't that bad but it was hard to make friends there because everyone was in a clique where they were only friends with the people they have always been friends with since elementary. At the beginning of seventh grade I had about four friends but by the end of it I only had two. One of the two was in another grade so I never really saw her. In sixth grade I joined track at cannon falls but It was canceled after two weeks because of covid. But when it was track season again in seventh grade I decided to join the sport. After making some friends and just really liking the sport I realized I wanted to switch schools. I waited until around the middle of summer and then I talked to my parents about wanting to switch schools. When I told them that I wanted to switch school to Cannon they asked why. After giving a few reasons to them they said yes as long as I was in activities and always trying new things. Which is definitely something I wanted so I said yes.

On my way to my first day of eighth grade I was very nervous because I didn't know anyone from my grade and when lunch time came I had no one to sit with. But my friend from track Helena told me to talk to the group of girls I am friends with now. Helena switched to Randolph the same year that I switched to Cannon Falls. I wasn't sure what Helena's friends' names were either so I wasn't sure how I was going to find them. After learning a math lesson my new special education teacher took me and a girl out of the room and she introduced me. Then said how she put our entire schedule together so that we could walk to classes together and stuff. Later in the day I was in science class and there were two girls looking at me with a phone glancing at it and then me a few times and after a while I heard one say “Do you think that that is Ivy?” Eventually they came up to me and asked my name. It felt really awkward but then later in gym one of those two girls and the girl from math class had a pretty good conversation with me. The girl from math is Suraya and the two from science are Ariel and Madi. They are all three Helaena’s friends. After the first week of school went by I was sitting at lunch with the three girls and did pretty much everything with them. I even sat next to them in some of my classes and had a few group projects with them. Now that I had a few people to talk to I was definitely starting to feel better about my decision of switching schools.

 It took until around christmas to get close to them and past the awkward stage and I don't think that any of us did anything specific to get closer it just happened over time. For Christmas we had a sleepover at another girl's house. We all got each other gifts, we went sledding, watched a movie, and made cookies. That was probably the best sleepover we've had. Now that we are close I have sleepovers with them all the time over the weekends and it's so much fun. On our sleepovers we always go to Family Fare and buy a bunch of junk food and stay up until like three or four in the morning laughing at absolutely nothing. On half days we always go to cannon belles for ice cream and then walk around town. In the summer we go to the pool a lot and once Ariel and I swam in the river. I never did anything like this with my friends at my old school so it's really fun that I get to do this type of stuff now. 

I was definitely very hesitant and scared of switching schools at first because I would not know anyone and I had to join new things with people I of course didn't know. But after some time of adjusting to the school and making some friends I realized that it was a really good change that I decided to switch schools. A few of the reasons that I'm glad I switched is because I met lots of new people and I made new friends that I never would have met if I didn’t switch schools. I also joined new things that Randolph doesn't provide so I would never have done them if I didn't switch. I joined cross country, track, and robotics. I plan to eventually do something with a play or musical too. So after switching schools and trying new things I have learned that it is important to try new things even if there is a small reason holding you back.