5.22.2008

something i never aspired to

Tonight the local news featured a Senior that didn't miss a day of school since Kindergarten. She wanted to outdo her father who had not missed a day of school after starting junior high.

My goal as a child was to see how much school I could miss. I remember one year my parents told me that if I wanted to go to England I could only miss a certain number of school days. Being bribed not to fake sick in junior high... Wow, I was a winner. I also have a not so fond memory of drinking pickle juice mixed with raw egg and peanut butter in hopes it would induce vomit. My mother was rightly convinced that I was faking yet another day of school and I was trying to prove her wrong. I didn't throw up but the smell of pickle juice can still make my stomach turn. Moms win every time.

Sometimes it surprises me that being a chronic skipper of school actually had little correlation with my educational attendance post high school. Thank goodness or I'd never hold down a job.

What are your favourite or least favourite school memories?

6 comments:

T.Douglas Robbins Esq. said...

Least favorite (or one of):

In grade ten, a kid through a hacky sack at my face. It kind of knocked my glasses off, and then I kicked it down the hall and walked into my design class. What pricks, I never did anything to those kids.

T.Douglas Robbins Esq. said...

Hahaha... "threw" not "through" hahaha...

Liz said...

I had my share of fake sick days too- usually when I hadn't finished my homework or a paper that was due.

Anonymous said...

Gee I only have fond memories of school. I liked some classes so much I did them again.

I made great friends in the detention room, too.

Who'd want to skip school and miss any of that?

Anonymous said...

Hah! I drank vegetable oil hoping to induce vomit. Didn't work.

Somebody told me that if you rub soap under your arms and don't wash it off that it gives you a fever. I tried it multiple times and, wouldn't you know it, that didn't work either.

I think I missed waaaay more school than you did. I considered faking sick to be part of my training as an actor.

mskaz said...

I have blocked most school memories. Too painful, either on the side of being a loser or being cool but looking back, a loser! Ha. Teenage years are horrible.

I had math teacher that I hated with a passion. He could never pronounce my name, was hella boring and not a great teacher. I was so awful to him. It didn't help that I also hated math. It was kind of a rough school and he was a nerd and I'm sure took lots of worse abuse than my mean stares. In later years I saw he died in the obits and my first reaction was "good". Then I felt terrible. I mean, thinking it was good that a nerdy teacher died? Nice. Now looking back, I feel terribly guilty. What a thankless job teaching is and teenagers are the worst of the bunch. I'm sure that poor guy had dreams at one time and none of them likely involved being despised by students who didn't like him because he was a nerd, had b.o. and was boring. Argh. Poor dude.

Um, but in general, school was not my favourite. The one time I really remember faking being sick was the day the Challenger exploded. I felt ripped off because all the tv channels (all 10 of them... haha) were replaying it, so there was no Price Is Right, etc. I also felt awful for feeling ripped off when people died, including a teacher who's students and family were all excitedly watching.

Anyhow, yeah this post has made me feel all sorts of guilty. Thanks a lot, sis. I guess my school years remind me of what a selfish little twit I was.