Hello! My name is Justin and this is me with my parents when I was just a baby.

When I turned four years old I moved to the quiet little town of Azle, Texas approximately 15 miles Northwest of Ft. Worth, Texas.

At six years old I started Kindergarten in Azle and was very excited!

Shortly into my Kindergarten year I was moved to a new school closer to my house. I loved my new school and all my new friends! I also had a very nice teacher. I don't remember doing too much school work in Kindergarten, but I do remember taking naps after recess and how difficult it was to go to sleep.

During First grade I remember my wonderful teacher Mrs. Mosier and how nice she was to everyone. First grade wasn't all fun and games though. I remember having to stay inside during recess to work on my cursive handwriting. I wasn't very good at it and it took me a while to be proficient at it.

In Second Grade I met a new student, Joe who just moved to Azle. Joe was half Vietnamese and did not have any friends yet. I quickly started talking to Joe and we became best friends.

In Azle during the early 1980s the city and schools were comprised of mostly Caucasians. There were very few Hispanics and fewer African-Americans in Azle.

I remember in Fourth Grade a new student arrived at our school from London, England. I was so excited to talk with her and hear her accent. I really enjoyed hearing about her country and her culture. She was very nice, but also very shy. She said she didn't like everyone asking her to talk because it made her feel uncomfortable. I was sad for her and told her her accent was really neat and I liked it.

It was not until Fifth Grade that I became interested in girls. I fell in "love" with a tall blonde girl, Rebecca. I told my friends about my interest in Rebecca and they told her about the feelings I had for her. Unfortunately Rebecca did not feel the same for me and did not want to be my girlfriend. I was not upset though. We were friends and that was fine with me.

At the end of Fifth grade I remember crying on the last day of school as I drove away on the school bus. It was my last day attending that school and I would be attending a new school in town for Sixth Grade.

Later in the Summer I started to get excited about Sixth Grade and all the new friends I would meet.

My Sixth Grade year was spent in the oldest school in Azle. The year was 1986 and the school did not have air conditioning. As a young kid it didn't bother us about the air conditioning, but looking back I'm sure the teachers were miserable.

Sixth Grade was tough because the teachers said they were, "Preparing us for Junior High" and we needed to be ready. I think we were all nervous about Junior High.

It was on January 28, 1986 our teacher brought a T.V. into our classroom so we could watch the Space Shuttle Challenger take the first civilian school teacher into space. We were so excited and then we all became silent as we watched it explode shortly after take off. I remember not knowing what to feel because this was the first tragic thing in my life. We were all quiet and the teachers were so upset. That is one memory that will stay with me forever.

Sixth Grade was a fun time in my life as I remember gaining some independence at home and being allowed to spend the night at my friend's house and getting to play outside alone. I also remember more and more children at school getting into fights. Until Sixth Grade I never saw anyone involved in a fight. There were fights weekly involving both boys and girls. I remember this bothering me that people could not get along.

Junior High (7th and 8th Grade) was an exciting time and more different than anything I have ever experienced before. Junior High was the school all three Azle Elementary Schools funneled into. I met many new kids and each one of them seemed to of had a drastically different home life than I had. It was Seventh Grade I started riding skateboards with a group of friends and then became labeled a "skater" as almost every kid in school had a label of some sort.