Lena Williams:  

Hi! I'm here to update this "Your Story" section in order to have a chance at winning the $10,000 prize for doing so! Let's see... where should I start? OK, at the beginning... I was born on March 21, 1970 at a very early age. :)) We left my birthplace of Nebraska, while I was still in preschool (something about not wanting us to grow up and become "Corn Huskers" ... not that there's anything wrong with them, mind you.) An Air force "brat," we traveled around the globe before settling in Atwater, California where my father was stationed at Castle Air Force Base). ("Around the globe"... Nebraska to California is FAR!) There, I attended Preschool at a Montessori pre-school (Hi Miss Berry!), Kindergarten through the start of 3rd grade at Thomas Oleata, most of 3rd grade at Fremont Elementary (actually in Merced, CA) and 4th grade at Bellevue Elementary (after a 2-week beginning-of-the year stint at Shaffer elementary). It was after 4th grade that my mother drug my sisters and I kicking and screaming from small town Atwater-living to "big city" Sacramento-("ok, large cow-town)living. I'm glad she did! Here, I attended 5th grade at Oakdale Elementary and 6th grade at Frontier Elementary. (Mr. Lala and Mr. Starkey, respectively, were the best! Mr. Colby and Mr. Saunders were also great. How you'd get (all) three fantastic 6th grade teachers in one school is beyond me! While I'm on the subject, wasn't our 6th-grade trip to Dillon's Beach amazing and an incredibly creative way for our 3 individual teachers to get us to study Ornithology, Marine Biology, and Astronomy before we went?) Then it was on to 7th and 8th grades! Foothill Farms Jr. High was where I made lasting memories and friendships that would last until today. While there, thanks to my classmates, I was elected Class Representative in the 7th grade and school President in the 8th grade (Spring) (narrowly beating out incumbent James Sharpe - a formidable opponent and great guy. Hey, anyone know where he is now?) While at F.F.J.H.S., I enjoyed Cheerleading (where on earth are Kristy Livingston and Charlie Carlstroem??), playing on the 7th-grade Basketball Team (Thanks Kelly for the photo on Facebook), and Girls Intramural Flag Football. (Does anyone remember our game-winning plays: the old-school (NFL) "Statue of Liberty" and another: our offense saying "Wait, wait! Stop!" ...without calling "time" and so, the defense and everyone would stop yet our ball-carrier would run down field and into the end zone! Clever. ... of course it only worked until the other teams caught on.) In the 9th grade, I matriculated to Foothill High along w/ the gang and yet was ripped from my comfort-zone half-way through the year and dumped at Del Campo High in Carmichael! (Ok, dumped may be a stretch since, once I was told I had to find a school in my residential district (San Juan), I chose that school myself and went somewhat willingly (my, then, boyfriend was there so, it was actually an easy choice. Hi Alex!) I remained at Del Campo through my Sophomore year before having enough!... I was the only African American Sophomore girl and, while that would have been fine by me (the students were great), many of the TEACHERS held racist attitudes, made off-color remarks, and two even attempted to use their positions to make things difficult for me and even attempt to fail me! Thankfully I kept all of my GRADED homework (... "you never turned it in" my foot!) and with relief, stepped down from my head-cheerleader position (I didn't sell enough seat cushions - NOT a requirement yet Mrs. Shieble - that's right, you're on front-street now - tried to make my cheer life miserable! Ya thin...Expand for more