The Worst Ideas That Had Constructed One Man’s Hell: 1. The Good Years

The first seven years of my school career were good, but not really memorable. I took my first preschool at age three, then, went to a different one a year later. I don’t remember anything about those years, but without them, I would be so confused on why I was considered for Special Education all the way until middle school.

Kindergarden was great, as I was that guy. You know, the guy that was extremely nice to absolutely anyone. That was me. That carried out through all of my years at elementary schools. I loved it. Everyone was just so nice and pleasant, in S**********, Virginia.Had a few friends like Devon, Bryan, and few other ones that are somewhat fuzzy. Also had a rather nice teacher, Mrs. W*******, she was extremely nice. She always had a smile and just enjoyed everything about us.

First grade was more memorable than Kindergarten. I had met some new students like Alyssa C., Alyssa S., and other miscellaneous kids. Had a teacher I really liked, Mrs. M*****, and her daughter was also good, as she was in the same grade. The last time I had seen Mrs. M***** was after first grade, I don’t specifically remember the year, but we last ran into each other at a  BlockBuster, so, you know, a long time ago.

Second grade was also good. I had some new friends, but none that I can clearly remember. Yet, I do remember the teacher, Ms. S******. This was also my “trouble” year. This year was when my grades plummeted, and my “disadvantages” began to show. I had almost universal Unsatisfactory’s in every subject. Which is the equivalent to the modern day C or D. This was showing my kind of , difficulties with school. This was also the final year at this school. I didn’t know that until it was too late. I had no warning and I had no way to contact my friends and established relationships, so those kind of disappeared.

I was transferred schools after second grade, because the school I was supposed to go was still under construction until the end of second grad. The new school  was still good. Third grade was good. Met some new friends, mainly Aiden and Dylan. They were cool. Had another teacher that I liked, Ms. Bar***. She was also nice. Nothing of interest happened this year.

I still had friends and still was nice to everyone. I liked fourth grade as well, just not as much. Had met some friends like Kaleb, the only person from any of these schools that I am still in contact with, Pedro and Teresa, the only other person that was ginger that I had a great relationship with. Had some friends and met new people I would never forget. If only I realised that it was all downhill from here.

2. It’s Not Rock Bottom Yet, But… It’s Still Horrible

That was the last time I had enjoyed school, for a long time. My parents got separated during the summer after fourth grade. I was somewhat struggling to understand to what was going on. I really didn’t know what to make of the situation at the time. Yet, I had worst things to worry about. One of the worst things that ever happened in my life was right around the corner. The fifth grade was one of the worst school years, no, one of the worst years of  my life.

I had moved from S********, Virginia to M*******, Virginia. It was fifth grade, I had just moved, and I hated it. My classes, the students, almost all of it I hated. There was a total of five students in my class that were not jerks to me. There was Kenneth, one of the nicest people I have ever met, and one of the only ones that never wronged me. There was Armando, the flatout nicest person I know, he had also never wronged me. Avalon, one of the most calm people I have ever met, even when he would practically yell insults at someone’s face. There was a student I liked even though I barely remembered them. Yet, there was one kid I will never forget.
That kid was Ryan B. Ryan B. is one of the best people I have ever met. He was a smarter , nerdier and stronger version of me. He is one of the only people that I truly trust. He is one of my best friends and has been with me through the years of torture I call school.

We met on the sixth day of school that year. The reason it was the sixth day was due to the fact that I was put in one of the regular classes, and my mom wanted me to be in G.T., like when I was in fourth grade. It was time for lunch. So, the class went to lunch, and I got myself lunch. Back then, the lunchroom was divided by class. Maybe twenty tables per two classes. I remember looking around that room, and seeing the set of tables we were supposed to sit in. I looked over there, and I see two students. Just two students, at a table, not five or eight, simply two. I was one of the last kids in my class to get lunch, so most of the people in my classes had already sat at their established friend group. So, when I see that it’s just these two students, I immediately knew something was up. I could tell that they were the “outcasts”  of our classes. So, I think to myself, that these kids also lack friends. I should join them. That was how I met Ryan B. and Daniel. Both have been great to me my entire life, I could call them family at this point. The best part was that they were also really interested in the things I loved. Video games, film, you name it. So, that was the start of a beautiful nerd trio.

One of the other things I remember about that year, other than most of the students being complete, well, to put it extremely likely, jerks. I remember the teacher, Ms. B****. She was amazing. She was fun, she was memorable, she was understanding. She was great. Although, her parrot was, different.

The African Grey Parrot named Boingo,  was fun when she was brought to class, but she had a little bit of a major profanity mouth. The parrot was known to curse in class including phrases containing the F-word. The parrot would talk normally, then you would just hear a random curse from a bird. I do not care who you are, you will be confused when you first hear vulgarity from the direction of a parrot, especially when you were in the front of the room. It was always a shocker when she said it. It was for some reason really funny. Then again, if you don’t see the humour of a parrot cursing during class, you are probably dead inside.

I also met a friend,about a month into that year, I was really close to until a few year back. His name was Matthew. I am not going to go into details as to why I am not that close with him any more, it would probably take too long. The weird thing was that we became friends over one of the most childish books possible. He was the first friend I actually hung out with outside of school. I did so almost every day after school for about 3 years. Even though I hate to admit it, he had changed me a lot positively in that aspect. Then again, he impacted me extremely negatively, as he had later ruined my life. Yet, again, no details.

I had dreaded school almost every day. I am surprised that I was actually okay with it at the time. Now I call it one of the worst years of my life. I guess one’s age does change your perspective on the past.

3. I’m Still Falling Towards Rock Bottom

Sixth Grade improved socially but horribly degraded in actual education related events. This year was similar to fifth grade. I had few friends and many enemies. Yet, this time, there was two things that were different.

One, that year I had met my best friend, Becca. It was similar to fifth grade in how I met her. It was lunch, and Ryan and I were trying to find a table. I had a gut feeling when I saw her at the table. She was alone, simply reading a book. I could just tell that she was “one of us”. I was basically thinking “Hey, you are a loner. We loners gotta stick together.” So, I sat at her table and my two friends joined me. She barely talked to us unless Ryan and Daniel were intentionally annoying her. When I had conversations with her, it was mainly small talk, nothing big. If you told that she would become my closest friend in few years time, I would probably think you were lying. She was quiet, rude and vulgar, and for some reason I kind of latched on to her. Even now, she claims that when I first met her, she was a massive b****. She does not even know why she was like that back then.

Two, I had arguably one of the worst teachers I have ever had. Mrs. E******* was a rude, angry, ill willed teacher. I have so many bad memories of her. She especially hated Ryan for some reason. He would always finish his work early, then, he would get out a novel and read. She hated that he did that, even though a majority of the time he would get A’s on most of that class work. She literally banned him from reading in her class. The worst part was that when she scolded him in class, she did it loud enough for everyone to hear her. Everyone knew why she scolded him, and it was just so ridiculous.

She scolded me exclusively for one thing. Yet, she did that scolding for me every day. I was not a very neat student at the time. I was a hoarder, and I had every paper from every day. I had this big binder full of about half a year’s worth of english and history work. She scolded me loud enough for the rest of the class to hear as well. She called it “Mount Trashmore”. So, one day, she forced me to clean my binder. I did so. Guess what. The very next day, half of the stuff she told me to throw away were needed for review. The teacher in that class didn’t let me ask Ryan for some of the notes, so I had to go in blind.

Also, Ryan and I got in trouble for the stupidest reason. So, as expected, she scolded us. At first, it seemed that we were in the wrong, if you looked at the bare basics. We were laughing during a test. I know it sounds bad but let me explain. We were taking our test seriously and we finished early. So, we were tired and bored. Then, something happened. I think Ryan accidentally made a funny face, and I lightly chuckled. My light chuckle caused him a harder chuckle. The laughs kept getting harder and harder in an endless loop. The worst part was, we were actually trying to stop the laughing. We tried everything to stop laughing but nothing worked. This went on for five minutes. Until, the teacher got angry at us and forced to go to the room adjoining the room between Ms. E and his. The fact that made that even worse is we couldn’t stop laughing when we were in the room for a while. The laughter in total lasted about fifteen minutes. Man, Ms. E really scolded us for that. We didn’t intend for it to go down like that, much less at all, but it did.

This year also has made me realize how horrible the education system in M******* is. I had gotten in trouble over here for some of the stupidest things over here, and in S**********, I had done worse but wasn’t nearly as punished over there as I am over here. I had done two “bad” things in S**********, and the punishments were way better than the ones in M*******. In kindergarten, I wanted to have fun at school, so I chose to bring a water gun to school. I got in trouble, but all that happened was that my teacher gave my Dad a call and that was it. I wasn’t punished for that, and even the phone call was pleasant. In fourth grade, I had done something rather stupid, yet I got a rather light punishment. I had punched a kid in the stomach, I think his name was Dequan, for simply touching a drawing book I owned. That was all he did and I punched him. I definitely got in trouble, don’t get me wrong, but I got a heartfelt lecture and a call to my mom, and that was it. They knew I felt bad for what I did and acted so accordingly. In sixth grade, they weren’t nearly as fair as they were back then. I got two punishments in sixth grade, for the stupidest things. One was, I hadn’t done three homework assignments in a single month. The school at the time had a new policy about disciplining students, so they did what they thought was best, which I believe is a stupid punishment for simply missing homework. I got after school detention. Not for fighting or substance abuse, or anything that was logical for that kind of action. I got detention, for missing homework. Later that year, Ms. E********** had chose to not follow those school rules. That was one of the only times she was actually reasonable that I can remember. The other time, I got in trouble for something even stupider, with an even harsher punishment. Ryan and I were going to lunch with the rest of the class. The class had to go together in a single line of students. Him and I were merely talking. We were being rather slow in the line. The girl behind us, got angry and asked for us to speed up. We didn’t speed up and she tried to cut us in the line. If you do not know, I always held the no cutting in line rule very seriously at the time. So, I stopped her from cutting by simply placing my arm in front of her. She walked into it, said I pushed her, and I got in trouble. I got a referral that day, or at least was threatened to have one, I don’t remember which. So, I got a referral for a girl walking into my arm. That should not be punished by a referral, much less punished at all. That shows how punishing the system is.