1. My Friends

2. Anne Xie
Anne Xie was the first friend I made when I was
adopted and moved to New Jersey. We’ve been
friends since preschool . Although I now live down
here in North Carolina, she still lives in New Jersey
with our other friends. Both of her parents are
Asian, she’s not adopted and she is fluent in both
Mandarin and Cantonese. She falls into the
stereotypical idea of “Asian,” she always makes
A’s, she plays the piano, her grandparents from her
father’s side live with them, and she goes to Chinese
school to maintain her fluency in Mandarin along with
her regular school. Both of her parents are doctors
and they both grew up in China. Anne however was
actually born here in the States. We still talk and
keep in touch but we haven’t seen each other since
the last I visited the Adironacks in New York. She
plans on going to college to be a lawyer. But
she, unlike me, actually wants to have children later
in her life.

3. Mio Medin
Mio Medin is one of my friends I have had since I
lived in New Jersey. Like me, she is also adopted.
Our families, along with many others, would meet
every summer in the Adirondacks of upstate New
York. It was some group called Families with Children
from China, FCC for short. We haven’t hung out in
years either, it gets pretty difficult to see my old
friends up north often. She lives in
Boston, Massachusetts with her adoptive parents and
her biological older sister who’s now in college. Mio
is one year younger than me so she is now a junior in
High school. She still isn’t sure what she wants to do
with her life. She is not a stereotypical Asian like
Anne, she’s a bit more like me except she parties
more. Mio along with our friend Julia is one of the few
people that I still keep in touch with from the FCC
group.

4. Aimee Lamb
Aimee Lamb is actually one of my god-siblings.
Her family lives in Connecticut. Her family has
sixteen children, fourteen of which are adopted
from various places in Asia. Perhaps this is why
she chose to teach English in Taiwan. She has
been teaching there for the past four years and
she loves it, she loves traveling, meeting new
people, and learning about different cultures.
When I was younger she actually used to babysit
me in the summer when we went to the
Adirondacks-her family, the giant Lamb
family, was also part of the FCC. She has always
been the “good child” in her family and probably
the most responsible of them all. She was there
when I was learning to read, add and
subtract, and write cursive. Needless to say, she
was a big part of my childhood even though I
haven’t seen her in years, mostly due to the fact
that she has been living in Taiwan for the past five

5. Matthew Ellis
Matt is one of my newer friends, I met him over this
past summer at the National Environmental Summit
at Catawba College. He was the only guy in our
group and he was also the only junior-poor guy. But
he’s probably one of the smartest people I know, he
now is attending the School of Math and Science in
Durham because his school ran out of math courses
to give him. He is currently taking Calculus III as a
junior in high school. He has traveled all over the
world with his family so his view on the world is very
wide, which I think is a great trait to have at such a
young age. He wants to be a biotechnological
engineer after college, he just seems to have it all
planned out. He is kind of a dork which made it easy
for all of us senior girls at the summit joke around
with him. Luckily, he isn’t easily offended.

6. Amy Yu
Amy Yu has been one of my friends since the
fifth grade. We actually started off as being
enemies for some reason that I don’t even
remember. Her family is also Asian, she lives
with her parents and her sister. She would be
considered a stereotypical Asian. She has
always had the best grades and she is also
fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese like Anne.
Amy lives here in Concord, North Carolina
and I actually see her from time to time -
when she is not studying. She has a strange
sense of humor which often offends people
but I still find it amusing. She lets the entire
world know she is atheist and given the fact
that we live in the “bible belt,” that usually
doesn’t go over well. However, I like that she
is that bluntly honest, It is one of the things
that she and I have in common. We have a
love-hate sisterly friendship.

7. Abigail Lamb
Abigail Cathleen Lamb, she and I have been
friends since the fifth grade at Carolina
International School. She has, for the most
part, been a constant in my life for the past
seven years. We went to China together, got
in our first car accident together…with a
deer, almost die together almost every time
we drive, dealt with each other’s messed up
boy drama. We’ve been through a lot
together. We’re an odd two people but it
works for us. We have a sisterly relationship
though, too much of each other and we get
annoyed. That’s just the way it works with
us. She has always been the school-focused
one of us though. She cried the first time she
got a C but I really didn’t feel that bad for her
because I knew it wouldn’t effect her grade
much at all. She has traveled a lot since
high school and that’s really all she wants to

8. Abigail Ferrell
Abby Ferrell has bee one of my friends since
freshman year here at Gray Stone, one of the
smartest of my friends. Her grades amaze
me, she’s a know-it-all but doesn’t act like one. I
think she cold get into any school she wanted
and continue to succeed. She works hard for her
grades and loves reading. Her parents are
some of the nicest people I have met and her
house is adorable. I love it when she makes tie
dye cupcakes, they’re delicious and pretty. Her
obsession with Harry Potter is probably one of
my favourite things about her, she knows
everything in Harry Potter forwards and
backwards. Abby is one of the nicest people I
know and she always tries to help others. We
recently went to the zoo with Abby (Lamb) and
Abby’s (Ferrell) dad for our much procrastinated
AP biology scavenger hunt, that was fun and
filled with amusing pictures of all of us.

9. Katherine Hanson
Kate Hanson has been a friend since freshman year.
We bonded in Mr. Walter’s World History class with
Mr. Walter’s liberal jokes. Kate is one of those
protective friends who sticks up for people who don’t
usually stick up for themselves. That’s one thing I
really admire about her, her “Mama bear instincts.”
We went to a concert with Abby our freshman year.
That was a lot of fun, even though we got stuck in a
mosh pit and had to ask security to guard us. How
people mosh to The Secret Handshake or The
Academy Is…is beyond me. Her liberal sense of
humor is always funny to listen to and her rants are
biased in an amusing way. She is one of those girls
who seems to be a kind of rocker chick while still
being classy and it works for her.

10. Rachael Bronander
Rachael Bronander has been one of my
friends since before the fifth grade. Our
parents worked together at the school that
we went to and we just became friends. We
still hang out when we can, I spent a week
with her this past summer and we spend it
catching up on what has happened
throughout the course of the year. She has
always been the girl who dates everyone, I
don’t approve but I’m not her mother. Her
older sisters Laura and Jesse have both
grown up and are far along in their lives.
Laura, the oldest, has been married for the
past three years and Jesse, who has two of
the cutest kids ever, is getting married in a
week. Rachael now lives in Rock Hill, South
Carolina so I still get to see her. She is
going to college to be a forensic
scientist, she probably got this idea from her

11. Mary Conley
Mary Conley has been one of my friends
since sophomore year here at Gray Stone.
However, I seem to always think that she
has been here since freshman year. She is
one of the sweetest people I know and tries
to make others happy. We always have the
strangest conversations about random
things and then randomly start laughing.
She’s my PreCal buddy this year, math isn’t
really either of out strong subjects so we try
to figure out what Mrs. Dassler is talking
about together. Her mother is so nice and
welcoming, I think it’s cool that she has a
fireplace at her house that actually uses
wood instead of gas. I absolutely love her
room. It’s all green which is why I am doing
her slide in green, it’s bother of our favourite
colours. We bond over small talks and our
confusion of math along with a love of
making brownies-for no apparent reason.

12. Diane Rose
Diane Rose is one of my friends that I’ve had since
freshman year. We had Greek and Roman
Mythology together first period when neither of us
were really awake and we also had PE together.
We bonded over music freshman year and
became really good friends. We’ve been through
quite a bit together and it’s never boring when we
hang out. She likes my room because the ceiling is
low so we don’t feel so short. Unfortunately, this
year we haven’t had any classes together but we
still talk about the classes that we both have-such
as Mr. Hodges’ AP English class which comes with
the massive responsibility of procrastinated
journals. We went to the Renaissance Festival
together once and got henna tattoos, of course we
both forgot half way through that we had them and
smeared them. They ended up looking like a mess
and a half. She plans on going to Pfeiffer
University for nursing and I know she will do well.

13. Ali Cramer
Ali, or Aliboo, is my cousin. She lives in
Richmond, Virginia with her younger brother Jack
(JackJack) and her younger sister Isabelle (Bella) and
her mother Jackie. I have known Ali since I was
adopted, she was only two at the time though and I
don’t even remember us meeting really. But we used to
have fun at my aunt Mommu’s old big blue house in
Richmond before she moved to Colorado. Ali recently
got her nose pierced, I think it’s a little strange but she
likes it. She is incredibly smart and she also sings in
her school choir. Her parents are divorced and her dad
has a girlfriend and a dog. Ali has always been
somewhat of a wild child, she had over a hundred
people at her fifteenth birthday party which consisted of
swimming pool at a hotel, a cake fight, and a dance
floor for partying. She also does swim team at her high
school. She doesn’t know what she wants to do after
college but that’s not surprising since she’s only a
freshman in high school.

14. Adam Mathieu
Adam Mathieu has been one of my friends
since kindergarten at Steven’s Cooperative
School, a private school in New Jersey. He
and his family moved from Germany to
Hoboken, New Jersey so he is fluent in
German. That’s probably one of my
favourite things about that school, its
diversity because there were people from
all over who attended that school. His
mother actually taught the art class at the
school. Adam moved to New York and now
attends Packer Collegiate Institute. He’s
always been a good science and math
person and yet he also does theatre. His
two best friends, Cyrus and Orson, are the
twins that we used to go to school with. He
doesn’t seem as wimpy as he did in
kindergarten. He used to want to be a
baseball player, not sure if that’s still his

15. Ashley Lambert
I’ve known Ashley since Freshman year
here at Gray Stone, though I didn’t really
get to know her until about sophomore
year. This year we’re taking AP
Chemistry and AP English IV together.
She always seems to get all her work
done two weeks early and I’m pretty much
the exact opposite. Her mother is so nice
and she think Ashley maybe should not
worry so much. Ashley is such a great
student but should probably have more
fun. She teaches children at her
church, which I think is adorable, even
though I do not like children, at all. She is
really good at math so she’s always the
person I ask when I need help with
precalculus. She wants to major in
biochemistry, like me. I think it’s a good
field to go into because the sciences are
growing and research is always being

16. Peyton Hamilton
Peyton is actually one of my ex boyfriends but
we’re still friends. Most of his friends call him
Mac because of his middle name. He’s pretty
much a walking skyscraper. Peyton does
boxing and running. He is planning to go to
school at the University of South Carolina and
he wants to major in Marine Biology. He plans
on moving out to California or somewhere out
of the country once he is done with college. He
pretty much just wants to travel but you have
to have money to travel so that’s why he has
chosen Marine Biology for his future career.
He’s ridiculously smart and is already taking
Calculus II. Since he already took AP biology
last year, he helps me with it this year since it’s
probably my hardest course. He is a habitual
procrastinator like me so he won’t judge me for
my all nighters due to English Journals.