Lister Academy Costa Rica Class - Kristine: November 2010

Welcome

My name is Kristine Tirone. My goal is to do something I never thought I'd be able to do. Meaning, I never thought I'd even get close to having the opportunity to leave the country, or be involved with a class in this way. Setting standards for myself and working towards something is a new thing for me. I'm writing this blog to raise money to send my class to Costa Rica. Our class, as a whole, is trying to fundraise over $15,000. This will fund everything from our food, a place to stay, to our flight.

I'm getting a new understanding of what it's like to deserve what you work for. Before, I would sit back and let everyone do the work and I would take the credit. My personal struggles got in the way of my everyday functioning. My focus on education was lost to my other struggles. Not only was I not understanding the work, but I had an increasingly low work ethic. This all started to change over the summer of 2010. Bryan, my teacher, makes it known that he has an extremely low tolerance for slackers. I didn't want to disappoint him, and this motivation was new to me.

I realize as my interactions with people started to change, I started to as well. Bryan always expected nothing but good things from me, and I've given him nothing but that. I suppose if you feel a certain way or act a certain way, you become a certain way. From there it's history, ever since I've excelled in my school work and always do what I say I will. You're only as good as your word.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Thanksgiving

On November 18Th at RJLA we had are annual Thanksgiving dinner. It was a success. We had about 150 to 200 people come and enjoy the fun and of coarse the food! All the classes had there own little exhibit about what they've been working on throughout the year. For the Costa Rica class we had out a few lap tops with our websites for our blogs and for the leaf busters. We also had out a poster with pretty much everything we're about on it.

A lot of different types of people came to the Thanksgiving dinner. Friends and family, friends of the school, people that work for the community like firer fighters and policemen, children, the school board members, supporters of the school, and complete strangers. We all joined together and enjoyed a meal prepared by mostly the students and organized my guidance consular Erika. It was great. we had all the traditional Thanksgiving food you could imagine. I sat with Erika and her husband Jason with her daughter Camy that is only 8 months old. Shes just the cutest! They made me feel welcome to sit with them.

This has been one of the nicest Thanksgivings I've had in a while. To see all those people at the school because they believed in all of the kids there was very touching. I am so thankful for that day, my family, my health, and the Robert J. Lister Academy.

Look out for our posts, and articles in the newspapers. Thursday January 20Th we are going to have a fundraiser at the Heritage Commons - 2800 Lafayette Rd. Portsmouth NH. at the Papa Gino's. Come with your certificate and 20 % of any sale will go to the Costa Rica class. Id like to thank you to everyone for there support, and for helping make my dreams and the dreams of others come true. =] Thank You!