Anyway, in honor of school starting, I thought I'd share a list of school memories... some nice, some funny, some weird! And in no particular order.
- While I don't remember a whole lot about Pre-K, one incident sticks out clearly in my mind. I even remember the names of my classmates, but I won't share them here.
One school day, we were all sitting at our tables, working diligently, when there was a commotion! At a table across the room, a girl suddenly stood up, her awesome sneakers lighting up and flashing red as she moved. She was clearly addressing a boy sitting at her same table, but she was speaking loudly so the whole room could hear. She hoisted one arm high above her head and used her other hand to point.
"THIS!!" she squawked, "This is your armpit!" There were murmurs.
You never know what you'll learn at school! - Back in 2nd grade, I developed a passion for collecting... lead! Pencil lead! And everybody knew it. Whenever a kid in my class would sharpen their pencils too far and the top bit of pencil lead would pop off, they would bring it to me! Same with mechanical pencil lead that was too short to use. I had a grubby little tin that I kept it all in. What can I say? It was a hobby. I'm sure in the end it got thrown out by people more practical than myself, but it was really nice while it lasted. People selflessly donating their lead... just plain nice.
- 6th grade was the first time we got to choose electives, and it was kind of exciting. I'm a reader so when I saw "Mythology" as a course I could take, I was excited to do so. It ended up being sort of traumatic, honestly. I was one of a few 6th graders in that class, the majority being older boys who, well, just weren't that into Mythology, if you can believe it! They were loud and mouthy and I was just a shy wimp. The boys liked to argue with the teacher, and when she left the room, they liked to throw books at each other. Books. Like, hard-cover textbooks.
- In 3rd grade (and I'm not trying to brag!) I was significantly ahead of some of my classmates, so I had a fair bit of free time I used to read. I'm really not sure why exactly, but I picked up a copy of "Where the Red Fern Grows" to read. BIG mistake. If you're not familiar with it, it is about a boy and his two hunting dogs. I am, of course, an animal lover, not to mention a pretty emotional person, and I will tell you: EVERY TIME I read the end of that book, I end up sobbing. Like, tears streaming down my face and my nose running and just boo-hooing, because (spoiler alert!!) the dogs die horribly. But that first time, I was in a class full of students! I couldn't just break down! So I compensated by reading a paragraph of the ending at a time, then getting up to do something, like sharpen my pencil for no reason, or getting a drink of water. It took forever that way, but I managed to avoid most of the overwhelming response.
- In my sophomore science class, we talked a lot about nature and the environment and ecosystems and the like. One day in class our teacher was talking about deer, and how bucks sometimes die because their antlers get locked together when they fight, how one will eventually die, and end up hauling the other buck around until it dies. Heavy stuff! We all got kind of quiet, until I broke the silence:
"Talk about your dead weight!"
The whole class laughed, except one of my guy friends, who was sitting next to me with a totally blank expression. I looked at him, and he blinked.
"That was the corniest thing I've ever heard you say."
I couldn't argue! - This same friend caused me some grief way back in 8th grade. We were HUUUUUUGE Children of Bodom fans and we practiced writing their name in their chosen font. One day while I was at my locker, he whipped out a Sharpie and wrote the logo right on the inside of my locker door, the black marker in screaming contrast with the bright yellow of the locker. I spent the rest of the year paranoid a teacher would see and I'd be in big trouble. Finally, on the last day of Midschool, I wheedled a couple of alcohol wipes from the school nurse and managed to wipe it (mostly) off.
- As we all know, sometimes movies are shown in class. Usually instructive, or of a book we as a class have just read, or sometimes just a kids movie for a day off. Like I said, "usually." In Freshman year, our English teacher had all of her classes watch her favorite movie! Bet you can't guess it...
BRAVEHEART!!
Like, bloody, awesomely awful BRAVHEART. I was in her advanced class so we wrote about it, but some of the teacher's other classes had the assignment of drawing a scene from the movie. She later hung these drawings up in the back of her classroom. There were some interesting ones.. - In my 5th grade year, I was given for Christmas a nice digital watch that showed the seconds, and at school, I quickly figured out exactly where my watch was compared to the school's clocks. So I knew exactly when the bells would ring! Other kids found out about this magical talent of mine, and it was popular. They could ask me, "How long 'til the bell?" And I could tell them exactly: "Two minutes, 14 seconds!"
I specifically remember one day in our classroom; we were all lined up at the door, waiting for the lunch bell. I started counting down out loud.
"15, 14, 13, 12..."
A couple other kids joined in.
"11, 10, 9, 8..."
Almost the whole class started.
"7, 6, 5, 4..."
Even the teacher started!
"3, 2, 1, BING!!!"
It was sort of that epic thing that you only see in movies. It has stayed with me all this time. - For some reason, I specifically remember several happenings in my Senior English class.
One, I remember the class debating on the proper way to write "MySpace," which shows how long ago this was. Our teacher knocked some points off for how one of my classmates wrote it: myspace? MySpace" Myspace?
Two, we were reading "Macbeth" aloud, and our teacher was assigning parts to people, he muttered, "Oh! Lord!" and we all looked at him, puzzled. He laughed a little..
"No, I need some people to play the part of "Lords", not Lord like Jesus."
Three, one day I was sitting in class, and I got this crazy craving for Ramen noodles. I have craved them ever since. - In 8th grade Math, along with homework and tests, a small percentage of our grade was neatness and cleanliness of our Math binders. The teacher collected them every Month or two to grade. One such grading period, I didn't get my binder back! I was about to ask, when she started class. She held up a binder. It was dirty as dirty could be, the back cover was almost ripped off, and it was covered in band names. It was mine, and she was using it in EACH and EVERY class as an example of "What a binder should NOT look like." To this day, I'm not sure if I'm embarrassed, or proud.
Forgive me for how long this is, I kept thinking of more! Plus, I haven't blogged in a while, and I owe it to you!
Happy School, everyone!
Sarah
