My Education

I came across this meme here. I think the idea is to compile memorable thoughts on the impact over the year of the schools and teachers. Anyway, that's what I'm doing.

Kindergarten: The kindergarten at my grade school was it's own separate building next to the main school building. [It's not in this photo.] My main memories of the year consist of a luau (fresh coconut! fresh pineapple! lovely warm spring weather!), tripping over a door latch and skinning hands, knees, elbows...and my pride, reading to the class, getting my tongue frozen to an orange-creamsicle (still can't eat those things!), and picking "Indian" names when we did that unit. Mrs. Morton was my teacher, and Laura D#v0re was my best friend.

Elementary School: I was a problem: always at least a year ahead of the kids in terms of academics, always behind on the socio-emotional scale. I was a terrified child, afraid of everything, nervous, shy, and picked on unmercifully. Still, I had good friends in elementary school, lots of them from the grade above me: M@ry C@h!ll, K@thy B0n0m!. I also hung out with L@ur@ M00re, and K!rst!e B0ne. I don't remember all the teachers' names, but I do remember Mrs. R@m@d@n for the clear reason that she made me cry in front of a whole class of second graders when I was in first grade.

Junior High: Not my favorite time of my life. I started playing the flute here, and consolidated a tight group of friends, primarily 'band friends.' I never recognized it for cool, but my father went to high school in the same building 45 years before I went to junior high school there. I looked out the same windows in boredom in the '70s that he stared out of in the '30s. Good teachers: Mr. G!lchr!st, Ms. Arr@j, Mr. C0dy, Mrs. Sch#llnut, Mrs. Wh!te, Mr. Shup#. Some of them remembered my brother, fewer remembered my sisters. Even at the worst moments, I felt at home here, without knowing it. Best friends: L@ur@ M00re, T#r! Wh!te, @nn!e W@kimur@, Al!c!a Br0wn.

High School: I loved high school. The learning, the teachers, the fact that I was carrying on a tradition, number 6 in the line of EHS graduates in my family. On the other hand, I didn't like a lot of the kids, and I was anxious to move on to college and get out of my house where I felt my parents were axphysiating me. Band was the center of my universe, and AP-level courses. Best teachers: Ms. Ph!llip!, Dr. G#r@rd!, Mr. Gr@#bn#r, Miss F!tzg#r@ld, Mr. H^ff. Best friends: L@ur@ M00re, T#r! Wh!te, B#th B#nn#tt, M!ch#ll# Gy^ure, Ann B#nn#tt. And yes, the hallway looked just like this when I was there! I think the names were painted on sometime during my tenure. That hallway was always hotter'n hell since it faced south and was all windows. The sun shines a lot in Colorado.

College: I went, intentionally, as far away from home as I could for college. Not being entirely stupid, I also picked a place where I'd have a soft landing: one of my sisters was 45 minutes away from my campus. But I was 1000 miles from home. It sounded great till the month before classes started: then I got terrified. After that first semester, though, college completely and totally rocked! I was a DJ at the radio station, I got to go to Russia/China/Europe for 5 weeks, I found out I didn't have to be shy and retiring and everyone's little sister, and I found out that vomiting up alcohol is not very fun. Neither is blacking out. Most importantly, I found my Beast. Best teachers: J@ck D^kes, P@ul R#mp#, B#cky Sh#rr!ck, and Dr. St#v#ns. Best friends: J#nny, Sh#rr!, M!ch#ll#, and Kr!s.

Grad School: The summer after graduating with my bachelor's degree, I got married. We moved into a tiny one-bedroom apartment about 7 blocks from the nearest university with a Library & Information Science school and I commenced graduate school. After 4 years at a private college, 3 semesters of grad work at a public university was pretty much a slam dunk. That's not to say there wasn't plenty of work, but my most memorable moment there was Beast rocketing into the study room in the department and telling me my dad was in the hospital and we needed to get there NOW! There were some interesting "characters" who taught, and I made a few friends--M@rth@, @nne--and somehow coerced my college roommate to follow in my footsteps (she's now a children's librarian in Texas, and loves it!).

So there you have it. My educational memories, at least those that floated to the surface tonight. Had I done this another day, I'm sure the take would have been entirely different. Oh, well.