a bio of jewel -- by alley
jewel -- first off, jewel is a great person. everyone has faults, but when it comes right down to it, jewel is a great person. she has lived up the street from me for six years, but we only first met when i was in the sixth grade and she was in the fifth. it was at a bowling party. we named our bowling balls and made up a tragic romance story about them. to this day, we still remember that story and the day we met.
jewel and i were alike from the start. we both write. we have the same tastes in movies and music, and, of course, tv shows. granted, i am a little older. jewel and i are not "best friends". but for five years, we've been goofing off together and when i go away, jewel is definitely one of the people i will miss the most.
i am proud to say that i was the one who hooked jewel on newsies. yes, i, alley, virtually unheard of in the newsie realm, am responsible for one of the most loved and respected newsie fans out there. in fact, she and i have never been able to keep quiet about our fanaticism. "all that changed", our first website, was another fansite to newsies, one of hundreds. but before newsies, we did bowling balls and beanie babies, and even outer space travel on her backyard swingset. and although our interests have changed, jewel and i are always ready to start a project together - like home videotapes of "the magic pot", "traci's kitchen", and "the show where we talk about old stuff". we started a music group together, formed the newsie nickname agency, and now, as our last project together, project roundhouse.
but this is supposed to be about jewel, not both of us. jewel was always the brains of our projects. jewel was the one who worked the camera, took the pictures, or learned the html. and she was the one who always wanted to keep going when i wanted to quit. jewel is the critic to all my crazy, half-finished fanfics and she is the one to keep me in line or to tell me the truth when i don't want to hear it. jewel is the name that makes "alley" special, she is the gateway to a better place for a girl who never though she'd amount to anything. jewel is the one who inspires flocks of worshipping followers and jewel is the one in whose shadow i will perpetually be living. and no matter how far away i move, i will always hear jewel's voice in my head telling me that there's a bigger world out there and showing me how to make my way in it.
but the best part about jewel is that she is one of those people, like the 12, who has changed the world merely by living in it. remember her name. i promise, you will hear it again.
"the cheese-its are hungry."
