I was lucky as a ninth grader. My school decided to offer a drama class that year for the first time ever, and I got to be in it. We did various acting exercises, improvisational skits, and even plays. We would break up into groups and take turns performing for the class. It was the most fun I ever had that year. One day, our teacher had us prepare some mimed skits that we could perform for the entire school…
Football season has started, and so has the school year. *sigh* Back when I was in middle school, the year in phys. ed. would begin with flag football. Our P.E. class was coed, so it seemed ideal—no tackling, no injuries, no worries. The girls never had to fear being dragged across the field trying to stop a male receiver from making a touchdown; all we had to do was pull a flag from the receiver’s waist, and it was equivalent…
Eighth grade Algebra was a breeze. I was often the first one in class to complete a pop quiz. One day, I finished so far ahead of everyone else, I jumped right up to turn my paper in. I didn’t even bother to check my work; I’d been looking forward to spending the rest of the class sneaking looks at my biggest crush from across the room. So there I stood with my paper in hand. I slid my pencil…
Seventh grade was scary. It was bad enough that I had to go to school at an entirely different campus and that I had to have six teachers instead of one. Worse, they threw in kids from other grade schools and neighborhoods, and everyone else was bigger than me. The worst yet, P.E. (physical education) was a required class on which I actually had to be graded, which took the fun out of all the sports. To top it off?…