To Ms Bagley

My name is Ava Maire Elizabeth Erickson. Maire is my grandmother who died before i was born in a car accident, and Elizabeth is my grandma who lives in wanaka and who i see regularly. The name Erickson comes from scandinavia and obviously means son of Erick. I like to think that Erick was a viking king but he was probably a manure shoveling present. My mum and dad split up when i was three. At the time we were living in Gisborne. My dad soon got remarried and when i was seven my sister Naia was born. She is such a diva and quite different to me. She is friends with everyone is extremely dramatic, where as i only have a few good friends and try to avoid drama. She is also very good at sports, a stark opposite to me.

When i was 8 my mum decided to move back to her hometown, wanaka. Two years later my little brother billy was born. The ten year age gap has done nothing to prevent the bikering of siblings and i am often told to ‘grow up’, but that little bugger needs to learn to respect his elders! I do love my siblings very much though.

Most of the time i live with my mum, Bridget, my step dad, David, my brother Billy, my dog Rasta, and my two fish whose names often change. In the holidays i go up to gisborne to see my dad Phil, my stepmom, Bec, and my Sister.

I have a boyfriend, Charlie Sharrate, he was in your class in year ten with me. We have been going out for almost six months now.

I enjoy rock climbing, playing the violin and reading fantasy novels.

I hope to get excellence in everything i attempt this year but don’t expect it for maths. Last year i didn’t do as well as i wanted in english. I’m not entirely sure where i went wrong which worries me a bit. I still got excellence on my speech which i thoroughly enjoyed, and significant connections. I achieved level one with excellence through which i am very happy about.

This year i am doing english, maths with stats, geography, art with painting, biology and classical studies through correspondence. I enjoy all of my subjects, even maths (to a degree) and i try my best in every assessment i do. This year i can assure you i will always put 150% into all the work in your class and i hope this will be enough to get me excellence.

What i want from you this year is to alert me of what i need to work on, and to help me develop my ideas so they don’t come out in a big jumble. I think a good way of doing this is to have a writer for some of the periods on my internals for i am entitled to one and i find saying my ideas out loud forces my writing to become more fluid. I really enjoyed your teaching in year ten and am very thankful to you for helping me realise i have a passion for writing. Can’t wait to start the year!

(Also, i like bright colours)

From Ava