Friday, February 19, 2010

Being thirteen: small fish in a small pond full of big, mean fish

This continues the stories of my life.  The twelfth instalment is here.  The rest can be found here.

In my last year of elementary school, I had to change schools.  No, I wasn't suspended or anything.  The year before, my father and the local parenting association had led a crusade to close down the little school I had attended since we moved to the big city. There were 75 people in the entire school at the time.  Each class was a split of some kind and the school was just too small.

I was told the reason the parents in the area wanted the school to be closed (or felt it was necessary) was so that the students would not have to suffer the shock of going from a small school to a huge high school.  So, I suffered the shock of being separated from all my friends, going to a school I'd never been to, being separated by my former classmates as the only "out of school" person in my split class, and being 13 years old.

Good plan, parental beings.  Good plan.

Now, I don't blame my father.  For this thing.  It turned out to be a good thing for my younger siblings and that was important.  However, my best friend decided to go to the local high school for Grade 8, my other friends were put into the bigger class without me, and I was alone.  Me, two new immigrants, two dweebie boys, a shy girl, and 4 of the meanest girls elementary school had ever seen.  Mix that with hormones of a pre-teen and a newly emerging attitude, the world was a miserable place indeedy.

I started the new school being the 3rd tallest girl instead of tallest.  I was sought out for the basket ball team and the volley ball team, but managed to only excel at running into other players and sacrificing my body for the game.  I was awkward, but had "heart".  That year I won the "Hustler" award.  I think they meant it as a compliment, but I had seen those magazines in the corner store and wanted no part of that.

For some reason, this year in my life is one of the clearest.  That may be because of the big changes it represented, or it may be that it was a year filled with taunting, teasing, and New Kids on The Block.  I remember conversations, crushes, mean comments (like the guy who wrote in my yearbook "You are the ugliest thing I have ever seen."  I still hope he went to jail.), and not fitting in with the cool girls.  I remember new friends, sleep overs, and babysitting courses.  I remember outdoor school, French class, graduation, and the joke that Colby told which got him detention.


How are priests like Christmas trees? Their balls are only for decoration.

4 comments:

  1. In grade 7, 2 guys turned to me in health class and asked me, "Hey - are you jealous of the wall?" I looked at them like, "huh?" Then they continued with "'Cause we're pretty sure it has a bigger chest than you do." and for the next 2.5yrs, my name was "jealous". NO JOKE. Then I moved & 6mos later was a "D". Great timing, I know. I still want to find them & be like, "jealous of WHAT, now?" or to find out they're in jail... I get it...

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  2. Every time I hear or read about that year book comment I want to find that guy and kick him in the face. Seriously.

    I also got the "are you jealous of the wall" question. Hilarious. It was right after Joey Jeramiah said it on Degrassi Junior High so I was almost sort of ready for it. I'm still waiting for the D though. Maybe tomorrow.

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  3. That yearbook thing is terrible. Yet another in a long list of reasons why I am so glad I was homeschooled. Brothers can be mean, but not THAT mean. Ugh.

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  4. We closed the school because there was another school 5 blocks away, because there were only 60 students K-8 for the next year and because the School Board was going to close it the year following anyhow.

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Crap monkies say "what?"