It was autumn, the bright orange, deep red, and soft yellow leaves were just beginning to fall off of the trees, swept up by the chill of the breeze. Which had felt amazing on my superior Wisconsin bred skin, compared to the shivering milksop natives of Kentucky. The air was crisp and the sky was clear, with that luscious, fresh blue that all Autumn days seem to have.

Our music teacher was gone for the week, so he had us watching this film about music in the 1920's. We were given a question sheet to fill out as we watched, and after the movie was over we got an additional question that was something like, "What was the main way that people listened to music in the early 20th century?" I finished early and was bored so I began to look around, and the student behind me wrote, "iPod" After seeing this I said to myself, I'm going to be nice to this kid, and tell him that the 20th century means the 1900's, not 2000's.

Which is exactly what I did, and this b**** looks me dead in the eyes and says, "No, because a century is 100 years so 20 would be 2000. Which means we are living in the 20th century because it's 2014. And I said, "Well you're half right, a century is 100 years, but it's the 21st century because we've already concluded 20 centuries, so we are now in the 21st century." At this point, the whole class was telling me I was wrong. I remember one of them saying, "Then why is it '20th Century Fox' if we're living in the 21st century?" And I tried to explain that it's because it was founded in the 1900's.

Seeing that I was getting nowhere I turned to the substitute teacher, with eyes that just screamed, "You've gotta help me out here, I can't get through to them." This poor excuse for an adult has the audacity to say, "I'm pretty sure it's the 20th century…” and after a short pause as if to appease me, “... but I could be wrong.”

At this point, the whole class essentially said, "See Jarod, you're dumb." When I heard this I was overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the stupidity closing in around me, enraged, I thought, "Prepare to be crushed under the might of my intellectual superiority relative to the two brain cells you all share. You will rue the day you met me, you will leave here with your bodies broken, your spirits crushed, and your brains turned to ash. God himself won’t be abl-" But my thoughts were interrupted by the substitute before I could unleash my wrath, "Let's just get back to the lesson." At this, the black light protruding from my eyes faded, my head stopped spinning 360 degrees around, the cries of the damned souls screeching from my mouth resided, and my blood turned back to the normal green color.

I never received the vindication I so desperately sought. That day marked a turning point in my life at my middle school, with every mistake in the sea of ignorance of which I had to call my home, I would rush to light the brazier of knowledge to vanquish my enemies. This had an unexpected effect, I expected to become the one whom everyone had hated. Instead, my insults were taken as jokes, I became the funny kid, and the most popular person in eighth grade. (so cool)