My little sister is smarter than her peers, which isn't that big of an achievement, however, due to the fact that the school system generally doesn't accomodate the needs of smart kiddos, she is required to take one hour of 'gifted learning' a day. They call it 'gifted learning' so that the stupid kids won't get offended, because 'gifted learning' really means 'my kid is smarter than yours, suck it!'. It's AP for first graders.
Today, I left school early so that I could help her with a project for her 'gifted learning' class. I had to pretend to be Helen of Troy while she 'interviewed' me. As I read awkwardly from her badly typed script in front of the rest of her 'gifted learning' classmates, who goggled at me because apparently they'd never seen a real live teenager before, I couldn't help flashing back to my elementary school days, when I took 'gifted learning'.
After my little sister's presentation was done, I wandered around my old elementary school for little while, saying Hi to my old teachers and thinking that everything in the building was so much smaller than I'd remembered. I even tracked down my old 5th grade teacher, whom I'd kind of hated, and said Hello. Although it wasn't much of a hello, I just sort of stood in the doorway until he looked in that direction, caught his eye, smiled, waved, and walked away.
As I walked home from the school, several thoughts struck me at once.
1) Half my teachers didn't recognize me because of my hair. When I was younger, I had really dark brown hair that was always messy and pushed back from my face. I found the surprised "Oh my goodness, Hello! You've grown up!"s slightly humorous.
2) After hating my 5th grade teacher so fervently, why had I even bothered to track down his classroom if I couldn't bring myself to actually talk to him? I guess, even though I've grown up and really didn't hate him anymore, my habit of not speaking directly too him was still intact.
3) The school building is basically the only building I've ever been in where I've felt tall.
Yeah... I don't miss the school, but it definitly brought back memories of my childhood that I wasn't expecting, like the games I played at recess and the lunch ladies who thought my name was Rosie.
Anyway. Hope you've all had lovely Thrusdays.
Booop booop booooooop (the sound my school's bell makes, except it's not actually a bell, it's more of a beeper...)
Julia
Haha I love the feeling of being tall... I'm in reality, disgustingly short. Pisses me off to no end. Guess I'll have to make a trip of going back to my old primary school and walking through it to get some feeling of superiority over tiny people and (in some cases) tiny minds. Though I may get mistaken for, at best a madman, at worst, a terrorist. Might be good for a slow, rainy day.
ReplyDeleteI'd be mistaken as well I guess, I have changed a fair bit since those days. Would be amusing to see indeed.
I go to my primary school like every other month, but I don't really have a choice...
ReplyDeleteIf you want to feel taller, why not just grow taller? That's what I would do.
P.S. "The Pretender" is definitely my favourite song from the Foo Fighters. The music videos makes no sense, which is why it's so awesome.