My name is Marrisa, and I am fifteen years old. I have blonde hair and blue eyes, and my friends tell me that I'm short. I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the United States of America. I am in the tenth grade at Chapel Hill High School. I live with my mom and my dad, and we have two pets. I follow pretty much the same routine every day; school takes up the majority of my life.
      When I get up in the morning, it's about 6:30 AM. I hate waking up early, but I have to because I have an early class that I have to get to. Sometimes I wake up even earlier if I still have homework that I have to do. The first thing I do is go downstairs to eat breakfast. I eat a bowl of cereal alone; I will wake my dad up later, when I need a ride to school. After breakfast I brush my teeth and wash my face. I use a cream on my face that's supposed to prevent acne; I'm glad whenever it seems to work, but I still get zits occasionally, which I hate. The last step is to get dressed for the day. Sometimes it takes me a while to pick out my clothes, because I don't know what the weather will be like. I also like to match my clothes with my mood; I use bright colors when I'm happy and darker colors when I'm not. Sometimes I dress up in a particular way for a particular person, if I'm trying to impress someone. I know it's silly, but I do it sometimes. I always wear the same earrings, ring, and watch. Finally, I make my lunch and put everything in my backpack, then rush out the door, dad following behind.
      My first class is Pre-Calculus, at 7:45. I don't like math, but taking one credit before school this year in addition to Statistics during the day will let me get it over with so that I don't have to take it all four years of high school. The rest of the school starts at 8:45, and I head off to Chemistry, which is also my homeroom. My other classes are, in order, AP World History, AP Statistics, Honors English 2, Honors French 3, and Honors Japanese 3. All of my classes are really far apart; I have to change buildings three times! My favorite classes are Japanese and English, but I don't really have a least favorite. I don't like my French class, but I still like the language. I find foreign languages fascinating, and wish that my school offered courses in Russian, Chinese, Arabic, and more. I have a lunch break between English and French. I am usually busy finishing up my homework for my afternoon classes, but sometimes I have time to talk and laugh with my friends. I usually go outside and sit in the amphitheater with a group of about eight people. Lunch is my favorite time of the day.
      School ends at 3:35. I can take my time, because I ride one of the last school buses; it comes at 4:00. Sometimes I can get a ride home with my best friends, Jonathan, because he is eighteen and has a car that he drives to school every day, like most juniors and seniors do. I love getting a ride home with him, because we listen to loud music and sing all the way home. When I get home I usually get on the computer and talk to friends for hours. I'm not that good at getting my homework done; I really need to work on that. My dad cooks dinner for us around 7:00, and I start my homework around 10:00, usually. I don't get much sleep because I have such bad time management skills. However, I usually get high scores in my classes anyway, so I'm not too worried yet.
      When I'm not at school or working on homework, my favorite thing to do is talk to my friends online. I also like to read books, write stories, draw, watch Japanese anime, listen to music, and sing. I love to sing, and I have lots of CDs, including some in Japanese. I also like to act. Right now I am working on the technical crew of the school musical. I was in the cast of the last play, but I didn't pass the auditions for this one. I'm sad, but I'm glad that I still get to work on it. Jonathan and some of my other friends are in the cast, so I mostly want to spend time with them. My school's plays are always excellent! My favorite one so far was last year, when the performance was of Jesus Christ Superstar, my favorite musical.
      My favorite hobby is Japan, and everything having to do with it. I love Japanese anime and have many videos and DVDs. I also have over 100 manga, more than half of which are in Japanese! I love the language, and listen to Japanese pop music a lot. I love bands like Puffy, Glay, and L'Arc En Ciel. I like one song by SMAP, too, and several other bands. Many of my friends also like anime and Japan, but most agree that I'm more obsessed than any one of them is. I love it! I enjoy sharing my enthusiasm with others, too; I like teaching people about the language, and I have even given a presentation about Japan at a local assisted living home.
      Most of my time is spent at school with friends, but I am usually alone when I am at home. When I'm not with friends, I prefer to spend my time doing individual things. I don't spend much time with either of my parents. I spend more time with my dad than with mom. He's very funny, and we understand each other. He's my friend as well as my father, and I can tell him about whatever is going on in my life. My mom and I don't get along as well on an everyday basis, but she's there for me when I need her the most, and I know she loves me.
      Neither of my parents is employed right now, so both are home during the day. I get to see them often, but it sometimes worries me that we don't have any income. I hope they'll be able to find soon. I also have an older sister. Her name is Jailyn, and she's twenty-three. She's in graduate school, though, and lives in Iowa, so I don't see her much. We're very good friends since our ages are so different; we've never really had to fight over anything like a lot of siblings do. I miss her, but I get to talk to her on the phone a lot, which makes it easier to live 1000 miles away from her.
      I also live with two pets. Our whole family owns the dog, Trixy, who is about eleven years old. She's getting old, but she's still sweet and very active. My cat is a black Manx, and he's almost four years old. His name is Random Chaos. I picked out the name before I got him, but it suits him! He loves to play with small balls of fluff; he bats them around and will even play fetch. Sometimes he starts running around the house for no reason; he really is random chaos!
      There are some things that I like about living in Chapel Hill, and some that I don't. My house is very big, and I live on two acres of land. I have a swimming pool, a hot tub, and a pretty back patio area. I have my own room, and we have spare bedrooms for when guests visit. I like having such a big house, and our yard is very pretty. We have lots of trees and flowers, and my dad tends a big vegetable garden. Unfortunately, this also means that there is a lot of work to be done. I don't like to do work outside; weeding is difficult and boring, and we have way too much grass to mow, in my opinion. I don't like doing chores inside, either. I would much rather spend my time having fun and talking to friends than dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing the bathtub, or cleaning my room. My mom is the one who really likes the open spaces; she loves living in nature, and loves gardening. It wasn't a problem when we first moved into the house, but now mom has developed a back problem, and she can't do anything strenuous or else she will be in a lot of pain. The doctors have told her not to garden, but sometimes she does anyway. I feel bad for not helping out more, but I really don't like to. My dad doesn't, either, which is really hard on my mom. I will keep my own house clean when I have one in the future, but for now I'd much rather have fun being a teenager.
      Unfortunately I don't spend much time outside at all. I'm not very athletic, although I do enjoy swimming in my pool and lifting weights. I am trying to introduce more exercise into my schedule and cut down on junk food. I used to play softball, and I felt really good when I did that. I also enjoy ice-skating and horseback riding, even though I don't have the opportunity to do either very frequently. I like having fun with my friends mostly; I have many, and I enjoy going over to their houses and seeing movies. I have met them all in various places. Most of them are in at least one of my classes, but there are a few that I have met other places; for example, I met Jonathan while acting in the school play.
      Jonathan is like me in that he loves to sing and act. I think he has a good voice, and I love to watch him act. He's always very funny, and I always have fun with him. Another thing I love about him is that he is always there for me to talk to him about anything, whether it's something that's bothering me or simply a funny joke I heard. He is also willing to give hugs, which is more than a lot of boys will do for a friend. I spend more time with him than anyone else, and I sort of have a crush on him, but I'm too scared to tell, for fear that it would ruin our friendship.
      My other best friend is Min-Xuan. She's Chinese, and she also loves the Japaense language. We met through our love of Japanese anime, and we spend a lot of time together. I feel closer to her than most people; I can tell her almost anything, and we enjoy many of the same hobbies. Sometimes she's a bit loud, but so am I, when I'm hyper. We make a good pair, and always have fun.
      I have a lot of other friends too, and they're very diverse. Jana is Czech, and she's really weird. She and I share a lot of jokes, and we can talk to each other about anything. Maria is Greek, and she's great at comforting me. Lindy is half-German and half-Japanese. She, my friend Mariel, and I have been friends the longest of any of my friends; I've known them both since sixth grade. All of them like anime, too.
      I used to move around a lot, so I never got to stay with the same friends for very long. Before Chapel Hill I lived in California, over 3000 miles away. I don't talk to many of my friends in California anymore, so I'm glad I have so many here in North Carolina.
      While I love North Carolina, I hope to live in Japan some day. I visited Tokyo last summer for three weeks, and loved it. I stayed with a host family. Haha was very kind, and spoke English fluently; she was very helpful, and I felt comfortable around her. Chichi was also very kind, and he was funny, too. I miss him the most, I think. I stayed up late into the mornings singing anime songs with him; he also likes to draw anime characters, and is very good at it. My host-sister, Hikaru, was sixteen, and we got along quite well. She also liked anime, and we were very similar. Although neither of us was very good at the other's language, we managed to develop a close friendship and have long conversations with a mix of English, Japanese, and hand motions.
      When I'm an adult I hope to be a teacher and continue to share my love of languages. This time, however, I hope to be teaching English to Japanese students. School has been a part of my life for so long that I can hardly imagine living without it; I think it's a permanent thing for me. I hope to marry and settle down somewhere with a loving husband and children. For now, though, I'm just living day to day and trying my best!