2006 Memoirs

(click on photo to read memoir)

Thanks to Gabe Wolf for taking many of the photos .

Jereme Altenberg		Born and raised in the Bay Area, J.T. Altenberg has always been a fan reggae music. It’s no wonder his family bought a hippy painted school bus and went on a road trip in it. Jereme agrees with Bob Marley: “Don’t worry, be happy.” Next year he hopes to attend UCSC or University of Colorado Boulder.
Jill Anderson		Born and raised in Berkeley, Jill lives with her father, mother, and 16 year old brother, in the house next door to the house she was born into. When it comes to college, not wanting to leave the magnificent ocean, she is determined to continue on with her interest in both nutrition and Spanish somewhere along the coast of California.
Lizzy Arnason		Lizzy Arnason has lived in Berkeley her entire life. She currently lives with her mom, her dad and her cat, she has one sister who is away at college but calls a little too often. Lizzy loves shopping, sewing and fashion design, and she believes that one should always dress up for any occasion. Lizzy plans to attend a university in a metropolitan area next year.
Mariel Austin		Mariel has lived in Berkeley long enough to vote for what happens to her beloved city. As much as she adores Berkeley, Mariel looks forward to going to Northridge to study music and fashion. Mariel believes that only the fittest can really survive in this world. She hopes you enjoy her story of deceit, discordance, and unruly trombone players.
Maggie Bond		Maggie was born in Oakland, but now resides in Berkeley. Her house is populated by giants, and she spends the majority of her time there standing on chairs to reach things. When she isn’t protecting her grandmother from evil nursing homes and the lipstick lady, she is dreaming of college campuses with weather. She has always believed in snow, but in her young life has not yet found it.
Leanne Brotsky		Leanne was born and raised in Berkeley. When she’s not dancing, she likes to read, watch TV, and drive around with friends listening to ’90s pop. Next year she hopes to be on the East Coast studying psychology. Leanne follows the advice of a very wise woman who said, “Tis a far far better thing doing stuff for other people.”
Nadia Brunner-Valesquez		Nadia has lived in Berkeley her whole life. She grew up in a multicultural home. Her mother is German, which explains why Nadia and her sister, Eva, were raised to show so much love for one another, for they were punished if they showed refusal! “Consider any day as lost in which you have not danced at least once,” is how Nadia sees it. She hopes to lead a happy, adventure-packed life, “because we only live this life once, you know.”
Bobbie Burgos		Bobbie has lived in Richmond most of her life, but has gone to Berkeley schools all of her life. She is the eldest of her father's 2 children and the middle child to her mother. Bobbie plans to attend either Humboldt State University or CSU Monterey Bay to major in psychology and sociology. Bobbie Hopes that her story of her great grandfather will impact your life as much as it has hers.
Kristina Chan		With two English teachers for parents, Kristina often feels pressure to write brilliant stories and inspired essays. Next year, she plans to attend some college and study something.
Laura Cornwall		Between her baker mother and environmental planner father, Laura always has a good balance in her life. Or, she used to. She lived in a bell jar last year, but promises not to abandon you in there. In the words of Anne Carson, “Reality is a sound, you have to tune in to it not just keep yelling.” She’s tuning in.
Eileen Cullen		Eileen lives with her mom, and luckily, just five houses away from her older brother and his family (which includes her five month old nephew). She loves all music and her friends are the most cherished things in her life. She loves kids and plans to be a second grade teacher when she gets older.
Felicia Evans		Felicia has lived in Berkeley all her life. She's the oldest sibling in her family and she adores writing poetry and short stories Felicia wants to attend Merrit College for two years to study journalism or criminal justice.
Rose Fadem-Johnston		Rose Fadem-Johnston has all ways lived in Berkeley. Because of this her childhood was filled with strange politics, and equally strange family excursions. She believes strongly in smiling at the awkward moments in life, and hopes these moments continue to provide amusement for years to come. She fully plans on riding off into the sunset when all is said and done.
Natalie Gaber		Natalie, a second generation Berkeleyan whose large extended family still lives in the Bay Area, hopes that you will enjoy reading this dog tail—err, tale—as much as she enjoyed writing it. As Bob Barker said, “A person who has never owned a dog has missed a wonderful part of life.” Natalie hopes to continue her wonderful life at Northwestern University.
Megan Gaebler		A born and raised Berkeleyite, Megan hopes that you don't find her thoroughly seventh-grade memoir too angsty. Her memoir is so seventh-grade, in fact, that it bears the creative title "Seventh Grade." Next year, Megan hopes to attend a liberal arts school and minor in music with an undecided major.
Misha Gates		Misha has lived in Berkeley her whole life. Adopted before she was born, Misha has a different point of view of the world. She hopes that her memior is not to sad for her reader. To make sence of writing she goes by "Writing is not just the mind, but from the heart as well. She hopes to study pre-med at DVC.
Emily Gee		Emily Gee has lived in Berkeley all of her life, besides the three years she spent in Lawrence Kansas. She’s always enjoyed English as a subject in school, and was excited at the idea of a class concentrating on creative writing rather than the classic essay. Aside from school, Emily’s true passion is music. Music defines her in a way neither writing nor talking can seem to do. In summer of 2006, she ventured to a music camp where her, and her cello Eleanor, had an experience they’ll never forget.
Ian Gill		Ian moved to Berkeley from San Francisco at age five. The title of his memoir is slightly misleading; pirates are only mentioned in passing. He hopes that the reader will overlook this small detail and still enjoy his writing. Ian is an absurdist who enjoys thinking and reading things by Albert Camus. He hopes to study philosophy in college.
Anthony Granados		Anthony Granados was born in Wales in 1960. He lived there for 12 years before moving to California to complete his education. Attending Harvey Mudd College in 1981, he met his future wife Arya in a basket weaving seminar. He returned to his home is Wales in 1989 where he now lives with his wife and two sons, Daxius and Alessan.
Rebecca Hardin		Rebecca has lived in Berkeley her whole life. Her family on both sides has recently immigrated to the U.S. She hopes her story doesn't gross her teachers out too much, as musicians can be very odd. She hopes to study either business or biochemistry at Cal. next year.
Evan Hughes		Evan Hughes resides in the North Side of Berkeley, where he spends his days practicing drums and writing memoirs. He lives with his parents, his younger brother, and his identical twin cats. As a writer, he has been praised for his style and creative ability (at least by his parents). Evan hopes to attend a university next year and pursue both academics and music.
Noah Isaacs		Noah Isaacs has lived in Berkeley all of his life. Noah comes from a long line of teachers, but so far has much to learn, and little to teach. Noah’s one passion in life is creativity, whether it is writing stories, making pottery, or composing music.
Tessaly Jen		Tessaly, a lifelong Berkeleyan believes, like Forest, that “life is like a box of chocolates”. One summer, in Costa Rica, she learned that one box of chocolates can contain a variety of flavors…some delicious, and some rather revolting. She also learned that if she weren’t afraid of sharks, she would probably want to be a sea turtle.
Judith Joy		Judith Joy lives in Berkeley, California with her mom. She lost her childhood hero when she was ten years old but hopes to someday find her again. Next year Judith plans to go to college and succeed.
Lucien Kahn		Lucien Kahn was born in Berkeley, California. He loves it in Berkeley but would like to go to a small liberal arts college on the East Coast next year. Lucien’s guiding philosophy is Mayonnaise in Moderation. He really likes alliteration and explaining his motto to curious and eager listeners.
Ariel Krizack		Ariel is a Berkeley native, born and raised. She lives with a small family of mom, dad, and dog. She hopes you find her memoir about her relatives relatable to your own. Ariel believes you should live your life with the sun on your face and the wind at your back. After high school Ariel plans to either stay in California at a UC, or migrate to Oregon at the University of Oregon.
Anna McDowell		Anna McDowell was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved to California at the ripe age of 3. Her father was born in Belfast, giving her dual citizenship and more freckles than she can count. She enjoys traveling, and hopes you will enjoy the journey you will take in her memoir. She plans to one day live in France.
Sophie Meryash		Sophie Meryash was born in Santa Monica, but moved to Berkeley at a tender age of three. Her mother is a Berkeley native and attended the University of Santa Barbara; Sophie aspires to follow in her footsteps. Like Andrew WK, she believes that we should all “party hard,” along with her own life philosophy of working hard. Sophie hopes you will find her memoir both interesting and relatable.
Adam Miller		Adam Miller was born at Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley, CA, and has lived in the same house ever since. He has one older brother, and two great parents. The memoir written here deals with great experiences gone bad, and what good can come out of it. He feels you cannot take life too seriously, or it could slip by you in a fit of worry. He hopes to attend Pratt Institute in New York to study industrial design next fall
Alex Mokhtari-Fox		Alex was born and raised in Berkeley. His story deals with him losing a loved one and becoming a man in the process. He believes you shouldn't think too much and just let your hands and heart do the writing.
Mari Monosoff-Richards		Mari has lived in Berkeley for all but three months of her life. Those months were spent in San Francisco (California), New Milford (Connecticut), and Cambridge (England). She is considering becoming a doctor when she grows up. If that fails, she wants to be a fairy princess, reside in a castle, and live happily ever after. The end.
Andrea Morris		Andrea has lived in Oakland all of her life, but she goes to Berkeley legally, so don’t even try to sue her. She loves cooking and attempting to speak French, but has found out that she cannot do them simultaneously. Actually, it’s kind of amazing that she doesn’t run screaming from kitchens, especially those with electric stovetops. Found out why.
Caitlin Morrissey		Caitlin Morrissey was born in San Francisco but moved to Berkeley when she was 2. She spent nine long years at the School of the Madeleine, a private Catholic school, where she learned more about Jesus than she ever needed to know. She hopes you enjoy her memoir, and apologizes to the strong Catholics whom she may offend.
Sara Nazeer		Sara moved to Berkeley five years ago. Her family is from Pakistan. She hopes that her memoir is grammatically right because English is not her first language. Sara believes, "Live life for a person and let the reason be love." Sara plans to return to Pakistan next year.
James Nolting		James lived in Las Vegas for half his life and had a very large pool, but he likes Berkeley better. He has no ambitions or goals in life yet, so he should probably get started on that. In his memoir, he talks about a llama dying, so if you really like llamas, you probably shouldn't read it.
Caitlin O'Donnell		Caitlin was born and raised in Berkeley. Her mother is an author and Caitlin has followed in her mother’s footsteps with her love of writing. Caitlin believes: “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get.” Caitlin hopes you get something out of reading her memoir about the loss of a friend.
Sam Pardee		Sam Pardee has lived in Berkeley all his life. He’s heard every joke about his name so don’t even bother. In fact, he doesn’t like boring family vacations, though it’s possible his memoir would lead you to believe he does.
Mary Pinto		Mary has lived in Berkeley her entire life. Her dream is to attend the prestigious and fictional Pennbrook College. After graduating, she plans to move to Queensland, Australia. Ideally, Mary wants to start a kangaroo and koala farm and fine-tune her Aussie accent.
Lindsay Rotblatt		Born and raised in Berkeley, CA, for pleasure, Lindsay enjoys sipping frothy lattés and reading the New York Times or Washington Post. She revels in good political discussion and frequents Los Angeles when Berkeley begins to give her headaches. She studied french this summer in Nice, France and hopes to study Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California or some other school with good weather.
Ben Rubin		Born in Summit Hospital in Oakland, Ben has lived in Berkeley his whole life. He has always had an interest in science, and last year he did an internship in Singapore (the setting for his memoir). Next year, he hopes to attend a small liberal arts school on the east coast.
Jacob Rubin		Jacob Rubin has lived in three places, more than half of which are in the Bay Area. His family has been described as "literate" and "adjusted" by popular news sources. Jacob's story might be the greatest thing you've ever read. He's cocky about that sort of thing. He aspires to be a 40-year-old art student.
Ada Ruzer		Ada aspires to be just as fabulous as the four ladies of Sex and the City. Like Carrie and the girls, she comes from a grand cosmopolitan city: Moscow, Russia. Ada believes that “life is what you make of it.” Ada hopes to be admitted to Diablo Valley College early decision, but will settle for not as fashion forward Yale.
Alina Schnake-Mahl		Alina lives in North Berkeley with her parents and twin brother. If you call her “Gabe’s sister” she will probably never talk to you again. However, at one time she wanted to be exactly like him. Read her memoir to find out how she used to copy her brother. She hopes to have hit it out of the park.
Sebastian Schwelm		Sebastian was born in San Francisco and moved to Berkeley in 2002. He swears he isn’t clumsy or accident prone, but he does admit to making haphazard decisions every once in a while. Accordingly, Sebastian has a very “let-it-happen” mentality that probably gives fate too much credit. He hopes to study music in college, and avoid the obvious temptation of dropping out and becoming a ski bum.
Reddy Seelam		Reddy is a dot dot Indian, form a distant city called Milpitas. He spent most of his life in India and came back in 2002 to be with is parents after 6 years of separateness. he likes the guitar, but when he tried to play it, it broke. so he just listens to the music, but never dared go near it again. he likes books, computers and cars. But now he is going back again to India to do medicine for another 5 years. "damn my life sucks."
Jacob Shandling		Jacob was born in Oakland, California at Children’s Hospital, and has lived in Berkeley for his entire life. He has always had a fondness for the outdoors, music, and other forms of art. He has had many crazy and wonderful experiences in his life, such as breaking the rules with his counselors at Camp Ramah in Ojai, California. He tries to hold highly the idea that it is of the utmost importance to keep the important things in life at the center of it.
Ruby Shapiro		Ruby Shapiro has lived in Richmond ever since she was two. She is the fourth member of her family to attend Berkeley High School in the last twenty two years. Even though Ruby is allergic to dust, dirt, and grass she has played softball her entire life. She is not happy about getting older but is excited about a new college setting.
Joe Shemuel		Joe is proud to have lived in Berkeley all his life. An only child, he spends his time with headphones on his head, a pen in his hand, and sandals on his feet. He hopes you’ll find his memoir about Florence interessante. Like Doctorow, Joe thinks “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” He hopes to attend Georgetown University.
Eunjie Song		Eunjie, better known as Angie, was born and raised in Korea for the first thirteen years of her life before she relocated herself in Bay Area three years ago. Although the plane ride she had to endure during the process of moving wasn’t very pleasant, she thinks living in Berkeley was worth all the pain. She still likes to complain about it so much that she even wrote a whole memoir dedicated to explain its horribleness. She hopes to become a surgeon or a CSI in the future so she can have fun dissecting people.
Amelia Starr		Amelia Starr divides her time between Berkeley and Moraga. She loves pie and highlighting. Amelia often feels that she might as well sleep at JLAC because she is there so often for crew practice. She is partial to green M&M’s. Amelia loves Berkeley, but wants to go to college somewhere that has seasons.
Megan Stimpson		Megan has lived in Berkeley, California her whole life. She believes that, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” As a result, she has spent the majority of the summers of her life at her family’s cabin in the mountains with flaming toilets and dive bombing fish.
Maddy Trumble		Maddy has lived in Berkeley all her life and absolutely loves it. She enjoys dancing and singing, and on occasion, doing them both at the same time. Maddy lives with her mom and little sister. Her big brother resides in New York City, where he is currently studying how to become famous. Maddy hopes to learn how to do the same thing herself, by studying Musical Theater in college.
Kyle Tuominen		Kyle has moved from place to place and is in continuous change. He enjoys writing for the newspaper, tennis debate, and his beloved red sox. He lives with his Dad who has taught him the ways of Red Sox nation. Kyle plans to attend Ohio University and become a writer for the Boston Globe.
Ari Usher		Arielle Usher has wandered in a haze of questions since her first waking moment. She finds herself now, in her final moments of high school, no less confused than when she started out. But that is just fine for the time being, as she plans to spend the rest of her life dispelling said confusion.
Kiara Vaughn		Kiara has lived in Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and Fresno at some point in her life. Each city has given her an experience to add to her list of events that she plans to put in her autobiography sometime in the future. She plans to attend Holy Names College in the fall of 2007 and study forensic psychology.
Sterling Weaver		Sterling has grown up in Berkeley most of his. At sixteen years old, He is an aspiring firefighter and, hopes to attend Florida A&M University, in Fall of 2007, where he will major in either criminal justice, or fire science.
Melissa Wee		Melissa wishes she were as eccentric as her hometown, Berkeley. That’s why she made the movie A Conversation Between Two Miserable People in Dr. Tourin’s Waiting Room, which is only eccentric because it has a really, really long title. In fact, the title took up 11 of the 60 words in this biography, that’s more than 1/6. Read her memoir.
Theo Wilson		Theodore August Wilson was born August Ford Wilson, but changed his name when he was three weeks old. He lived in San Francisco in an old house with large bay windows, until he was three, when his family moved across the bay to Oakland. He then spent his childhood in the Crocker Highlands District, before moving to Berkeley in eighth grade. Theo is currently a senior at Berkeley High School. He hopes retire by the age of thirty and travel the world, saving animals. He would like everyone to know that he does NOT smoke as much weed as might be suggested by his memoir (in fact, he’s almost straight edge!—almost). And if anyone from the Yale Admissions Office is reading this, please note that the events, people, and actions in Theo’s ‘memoir’ are completely fictional, and should not be held, in any way, against Theo’s application. Enjoy!
Gabe Wolf		Gabe has lived in Berkeley all his life, and is a 5^th generation Bay Area native. He enjoys traveling, and spends his spare time playing ice hockey, hanging out with friends or generally having fun. If Gabe was an ice cream flavor, he would be mint chocolate chip.
David Yu		David Yu was born in San Francisco. He has resided in Boston, Maryland, San Mateo, and Berkeley. David feels a strong connection to his family and friends. He enjoys reflecting on his past and analyzing the moment, a true Apollonian. David hopes to attend Harvard next year.