Thursday Thirteen #8

Since most of the 100 Things that I've already told you about myself are pretty wierd, I will skip the "13 Wierd Things About Me" from my list and instead, do some reminiscing about my school days.

13 School Memories

1. Kindergarten - I was always getting in trouble for talking in class, and having to sit "under the clock" at the back of the room, for time out (back before it was called time out).



2. First Grade - Every year, the first grade classes put on a "circus" for the whole school. We had these great costumes that were used year after year - elephants, tightrope walkers, trapeze artists, clowns, strongman, bareback riders, lion tamer - you name, it we had it. I think I was a trapeze artist. It was also the same script every year. By the time you were in sixth grade, you could practically recite it along with the Ring Master.



3. Second Grade - Our teacher would tell us stories about her pet monkey. Or, perhaps, our teacher made up a story about having a pet monkey.



4. Third Grade - I remember several of the books that the teacher read to us - Charlotte's Web, Old Yeller, The Incredible Egg, Johnny Texas, and more.



5. Fourth Grade - I remember the class being divided into groups to do research projects on different places for Social Studies. My group was studying Hawaii, and our presentation included some kind of (supposedly) Hawaiian food. Something with pineapple.



6. Fifth Grade - I remember stories circulating about the dramatic way in which one poor girl got her period for the first time. (It involved a classroom chair full of bloooood.) I kind of suspect there was some exaggeration involved, but true or not, I still feel bad for her.



7. Sixth Grade - I was captain of our school's team for Brain Battle, a local TV quiz show for sixth graders. It was a single-elimination tournament and we won four matches, but lost in the finals. My brother captained his team the next year, and they matched our performance, also losing in the finals. It was heartbreaking both years.
   


8. Seventh Grade - This is the year that I got my first boyfriend, and my first ex-boyfriend. The moment that we broke up he dumped me, I realized that all those traits I'd found so charming before were actually just annoying and assholic. We never did get along again, mostly because we were academic rivals.
   


9. Eighth Grade - Chanting, with my Algebra class: "In a right triangle / The square of the hypotenuse / Is equal to / The sumofthesquares / Oftheothertwosides.



10. Freshman Year - Another boyfriend, this one was a junior. With a car. I guess that's not really a school memory, but we hung out alot at school, too, of course, so it kind of is.



11. Sophomore Year - This memory is actually from the summer before my sophomore year, but close enough. My brother and I, along with a few other people we knew, took Health in summer school. Half the class was folks like us, getting the one-semester course out of the way, to make room in our schedules for "real classes," and the other half was kids who had failed Health during the school year. The teacher was a coach. You can imagine the dynamic.
    
    We had to do research papers on "any topic in the textbook." The teacher also approved topics that were tangential to any topic in the book. So, for example, if the book talked about "mental health," we could write on any mental health issue.
    
    One day, on the way home from school, my brother announced to my mom that, "I'm doing my research paper of the Oedipus Complex."
    
    Mom's reply: "Well, just leave me out of it!"
    


12. Junior Year - There were three high schools in our district. Each year, band students from all three schools tried out for the All City Band, which would rehearse together for a couple of days with some college band director from out of town, and then put on a concert. This was the only year that I made All City Band, but during the rehearsal, I got sick. And I mean sick.
    
    While we were playing, I came down with what I now know is a migraine and was very nauseated. I finally worked up the nerve to excuse myself and, let's just say that I should have done so about thirty seconds sooner. I made it into the bathroom, but not as far in as would would have hoped.
    
    After all that, I waited around another thirty minutes or an hour for the bus to take me back to my school, so I could drive myself home. To this day, I have no idea why I didn't just call my mom to come pick me up.
    
    I missed the concert the next night, but my boyfriend brought me a copy of the program (which was pretty sweet, for him) and, although you were technically required to actual perform in order to receive the All City Band patch for your letter jacket, the director was understanding enough to let me have one anyway.
    


13. Senior Year - Our AP Biology teacher was diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year (she died a few years later) and her substitute, for most of the spring semester, was a girl I'd gone to camp with, who was right out of college and only about four years older than us. We didn't learn as much as we should have, but we had a lot of fun.

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