School Days

In honor of the impending school year, I have compiled my most memorable school moments from each year:

1. In Kindergarden, I got in trouble on the bus for standing up (I wasn't) and got sent to the principal's office. She tore up the slip and sent me back to class.

2. In First Grade, I participated in Invent America. My invention was a system for keeping track of library books and books that you have read. Surprising, right?

3. In Second Grade, my teacher, Mrs. Baxter taught us how to do math with M&Ms - wonderful teacher. I was also in a play that year in which I was required to eat a piece of cake at the very end - a tasty year of learning!

4. In Third Grade, our librarian read us the book, Snot Stew. I don't exactly remember what it was about, but apparently, the title really stuck with me.

5. In Fourth Grade, I wrote my first (and only) book. I was selected to have it published to take to some sort of convention for 4th graders who wrote books. Anyway, I also did the illustrations. The book was called, Adventures at Camp Yahoo - well before the company, Yahoo!, was formed, by the way. I still have copies.

6. In Fifth Grade, I participated in Odyssey of the Mind. We did a skit about Dr. Seuss. I was the Cat in the Hat. It was great. We made our way all the way to the state competition in Amarillo and got third place there.

7. In Sixth Grade, which was my first year in Middle School, I began taking Spanish classes. My Spanish name was Anna Maria. I don't know why it wasn't Raquel. I also took a French class that year and although I don't remember my French name, I do remember the alphabet, and numbers 1-10 in French.

8. In Seventh Grade, my English teacher, Mrs. Callaway, taught us memory techniques that I have used ever since and organized a class trip to Italy. My mom and I went and it was wonderful.

9. In Eighth Grade, we read a book called The Killer Angels, which really set the stage for our class trip to Gettysburg, VA at the end of the year as a part of our trip to Washington D.C. I started wearing my hair straight that year too - it used to be permed before that.

10. My Freshman year of high school, and my first year at TCA, we had to do a bug project. Forty different bugs, kill jars, bug pins, arranging insect legs, sorting and labeling by phylum, class, order, famliy, genus and species...the whole works. I was a little wary at first, but once I got into it...it was really fun. I can't half-do a project, so I threw myself into this one and obviously, it has remained one of my most memorable projects.

11. My Sophomore year of high school, in my History/English class (we studied those subjects together in one class - great idea, by the way) we did debates on different subjects. My debate stance was arguing for the validity/appropirateness of nudity in art. I won the debate.

12. My Junior year of high school, I took Physics. I hated it... and I was horrible at it. I'm sure those two facts are not related at all.

13. My Senior year of high school, among many other memorable things, I wrote my 20-page senior paper on Wuthering Heights. I read the book 3 times during my research for that paper. We each had to select a book at the beginning of the year and our paper was due near the end of the year. My research took me to the SMU Library for the first time, which was great, despite some anxiety over finding suitable guest parking.