Why Stop Now?!

Just as a disclaimer, please don't expect proper grammar and punctuation in this blog post, or any other future blog posts. I'll do my best with the spelling, but everything else is up in the air. Run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, numbered lists, and bullet points are all very good friends of mine, you will meet all of them very soon.

7th Grade.

For the next two years, my grade would be divided into thirds.

Three teams.

Garnet Team.

Crimson Team.

Red Team.

I was on the Garnet Team.

So naturally, that was the best team.

The battle lines were drawn!

My team was also located upstairs.

That was a big deal to me.

Why?

Because out of all three of my schools, only the middle school had an upstairs.

Even then, it was only a single upstairs hallway, as opposed to an entire floor.

My team was in that upstairs hallway.

The Crimson Team was too, but we don't count that half of the hallway.

It's a matter of principle.

This was also the first time I shared a classroom with people a grade ahead of me.

English and History had both 7th and 8th graders in their classes, while Math and Science had separate classes for each grade.

This was also the year that I actually started to LIKE Science class.

That was due in large part to my new Science teacher for the next two years.

He was more passionate about the subject than any teacher I had ever had up until then (and also afterwards, but let's not get ahead of ourselves).

We actually did SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS.

We made our own ice cream.

We got to use Dry Ice and Liquid Nitrogen.

It. Was. Awesome.

It was from that class that I discovered that when you bite into Wintergreen Lifesavers, they emit a flash of light in your mouth!

I'm not kidding, try it for yourself!

Make sure you do it in a dark room so you can see it!

English class really started to introduce a lot of "new vocabulary words".

The thing was, it wasn't until I heard any of these "new words" in an actual conversation that I actually understood them in context.

I mean sure, all of the new words had plenty of "sample sentences" to try and show them in context, but they never "stuck".

History and Math class were still pretty straight forward.

I heard rumblings about learning Algebra, but they turned out to be false.

History class only meant one thing to me this year.

Another shot at the Geography Bee.

I was still reeling from not advancing past the "class level" the year before.

That wasn't going to happen again this year.

Then it came.

And I made it past the class level.

Then I made it past the grade level.

I was once again at the school level.

In the gym.

In front of the entire school.

I had already done this two years prior.

I got 3rd Place in 5th Grade.

This time around?

.........

I got 5th Place.

I still remember the question that knocked me out.

"What U.S. Capital is the farthest West?"

It should have been a piece of cake.

But in that moment, I made a critical error.

I was only thinking about the CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES.

I frantically said "Salem Oregon?"

Then there was a pause.

I knew my mistake before she even said it.

"The correct answer is Honolulu."

I knew that.

But it was too late.

I was out.

I still think about that moment to this day.

It still stings!

  

But what was done was done, nothing I could do about it, not until next year.

As the year started to come to a close, our annual "class trip" was on the horizon.

It was to a place that I still wish I could go back to.

Two words.

High Meadows.

It's a kid's dream.

A gigantic pool with a diving board.

Every kind of food a kid wants.

Cheeseburgers, Hot Dogs, French Fries, Nachos, Ice Cream.

Fountain Soda everywhere.

As much as you wanted.

All day.

Every sport you could think of.

There were AT LEAST 10 other school there besides ours.

It was unbelievable.

I already couldn't wait to go back the next year!

I also officially had a new crush by the end of that day, but we'll get to that on the next one!