Number 16
16 is how many years old my dog will be before she passes on. My dog is my best friend and I love her very much. She is almost 11 years old which means I don’t have a lot of time with her. I will make every second count. She is the most important “16”.
When I was a little girl, I couldn’t wait for my sweet 16. I wanted a HUGE party with everyone I know to be there and a bunch of decorations all over the house/backyard. I planned it for years. I dreamt of being 16 so bad, everything I had come in quantities of 16. For example, I would eat 16 crackers at lunch or have 16 pencils in my pencil-case. When I eventually turned 16, my party wasn’t my huge dream party, but I invited 15 people so I could be the 16th person there, had 16 birthday balloons, served 16 ice cream sandwiches (I’m not a huge cake person), and put 16 lawn chairs around the fire pit. Plus I got 16 presents in total. Since I was born in 2000, the year was 2016 when I turned 16. It was the best year for my favorite number.
My half-sister is also 16 years older than me. She comes from my dad’s side of the family. We don’t get to see her very often, but it’s a 16 hour round trip to visit her where she lives in Baltimore, and it’s definitely worth long road trip with plenty of scenic stops. 
There were 16 girls on the cheerleading team at my high school including myself. I was one of the 3 captains (all seniors get to be captains as long as they can show they earned the position). I had no control over how many girls were accepted to be on the team, but it made me happy to be a captain of the cheer team with 15 girls by my side on the sideline.
I turned 16 when I met my best friend. I was at choir camp one year and I didn’t really have any friends at the camp. We had a dance as the night activity one night and I stepped out of my comfort zone. I ran up to her and started having conversation with her. She sat a few chairs down from me in class the school year before, but we never truly talked at all. She was friends with one of my ex close friends which made her not want to speak to me, but once she learned my side of the story, she learned how everything was turned around to make me look bad. I never knew she would become one my biggest support systems and my best friend. I am so grateful to have her in my life. 
I started talking to my boyfriend on August 16th. He has been one of my biggest support systems and has helped me with everything going on in my life whether it’s personal or school related. He makes me the happiest I have ever been. He is my best friend. We both had crushes on each other for over a year and NEVER told each other until recently. He sat behind me in math class and I always turned around and caught him staring at me. I’m very happy we took the time to tell each other how we felt. Everyone in my family really likes him and always include him in our family events. I love him more than anything in the entire world. I hope he stays in my life forever.
Number 4
4 is my family number. Most of the people in my life live in a family of 4. My best friend lives with her mom, dad, and younger sister. My brothers best friend lives with his mom, dad, and older sister. It’s a very common coincidence, but it’s something that has stood out to me. I technically live in a family of 5, but since I didn’t grow up with her, I consider my immediate family as a family of 4. I live with my mom and my dad right now, and my brother just moved into his own apartment near campus. I talk to my brother as much as I can and I go to his apartment sometimes after class. The number 4 has always been known as a family number to me.
My math teacher was my teacher for my 4 years in high school. She always made me laugh or smile no matter what else was going on in my day. I love her with all of my heart and I consider her as a part of my family. I went through a lot in high school and she was there to help me through it all. She was there for college applications, the death of my father’s parents, and a break-up with a verbally abusive boyfriend. I don’t know where I would be without her. I visit her as often as I can to tell her how college is going and just to be around her. She is my favorite person and I’ll always love her.
Number 20
20 is the day I was born in June of 2000. 20 is significant because every time I took a standardized test, the format of the birth day (20) and year (00) came out to be 2000. As a perfectionist, it made me feel better to have the day and the year come out to be the full year of when I was born.
This year, I met a girl named Autumn. I thought we would have nothing in common, but it turns out, we have lived almost the same life. She was a cheerleader in high school, she had a boyfriend who played video games instead of getting a job for 1 year and 4 months, she is 5’4″, she has natural dirty blonde hair, has her nose pierced on the left side, and she was born on June 20th, 2000. Autumn is one of the nicest people i’ve ever met and I’m so glad to be friends with her. Some other strange things with 20 and Autumn is she lives 20 miles away from me and the last time I saw her was on September 20th.
Kat Chat 