Two Thirds!

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.

Grade. Number. 8.

I was now an 8th Grader.

In my school system, that made me the "King Of The Hill" once again.

This would be my last year as a "middle schooler".

Two thirds of my school career would officially be in the books by year's end.

In all honesty, I was excited about the end of the year more than anything else.

Not because I wanted 8th Grade to be over so badly or anything, but we'll get to that.

This was my second year on the Garnet Team.

Two thirds of my grade were on different teams.

I mean sure, we were all still in the same SCHOOL, but still, we were separated.

I only saw them in passing.

They were basically becoming strangers.

But then again, Garnet Team was the best team.

So the rest of my grade on the other two teams were basically the opposition.

At least that's how I viewed them in my mind.

We were all still learning the same thing.

But as I said before, since I was on the Garnet Team, then that makes my team more better.

As far as the academic year went, Algebra was being slowly introduced in Math Class.

I was excited, for about a whole minute.

It's not that I don't like Math.

Actually, that's exactly it.

I hated Math.

I mean, I like numbers just fine.

I like letters too.

But they don't need to be mixed with each other.

2y + 5x = 4z

No.

I'm all set.

I'm sure they serve a purpose for someone who has a job that actually needs that.

But that's not me.

I would have rather had a class that taught about how taxes work.

You know, something that actually applies to EVERYONE.

What a crazy concept!

A little later on in the year, The Geography Bee came around once again.....

I couldn't bring myself to be a part of it.

I was still reeling over the question that got me eliminated the year before.

It still haunts me to this day, so it was better to just sit that one out this time around.

Outside of school, I was playing floor hockey in my Recreation Center League.

This was my second year on the Avalanche.

But the year didn't really start off very well for me.

We had a practice before the season started, and one of our Assistant Coaches must have had a bad bowl of Wheaties or something, because he was being an absolute, well, let's just say "not a very nice person" to everyone.

It was totally out of character for him, he was usually a nice guy.

He was flipping out over every single thing.

It was starting to piss everyone off, including me.

After the practice was over, I told myself "I don't need to deal with this, I don't need to deal with him this season, I'm done."

And I quit the team.

My Head Coach wasn't at that practice.

I told him over the phone that I just didn't want to play anymore, but I didn't tell him why.

He told me "Well if you change your mind, we'll still have your spot open for you."

I kept that in mind.

I went to the first two games of the season, as a spectator.

The team won both games.

We also had one of the key players that I thought wasn't even on the team anymore.

So, in what could have only been perceived as the biggest cherry picking move ever, I called my coach and said that I had changed my mind.

Did the team getting off to a 2-0 have something to do with it?

Of course it did!

Then in my first game back, we lost.

It felt like everyone was looking at me afterward.

But then I realized it was because it was my turn to buy the team soda's after the game.

So I wasn't paranoid after all!

In my league, the Top 4 teams make the playoffs.

We had missed the playoffs buy one game the previous year, ending in 5th Place.

This year, it just so happened that our final game of the regular season would determine which team would make the playoffs in 4th Place, and which team would be watching from the sidelines.

My team, The Avalanche, was 8-5.

Our opponents, The Devils, were also 8-5.

For us, we had to win.

If the game ended in a tie, The Devils would get in, because the first tiebreaker for our league would be which team had scored more goals in the regular season, and The Devils had us beaten there.

We had to win, there was no other way.

The game stayed at a 0-0 tie going into the 3rd Period.

Then, we scored.

The adrenaline was at an all time high.

Could we hold on?

Then we got a golden opportunity to double our lead.

We had a Face Off in their zone, and I was right in the middle, ready and waiting for the pass if we win that Face Off.....

We did.

The pass came straight to me.

I shot it as quickly as I could.

Top left corner.

I SCORED!

All of a sudden, we were up 2-0, with two minutes left!

We ended up holding on, and we headed into the playoffs to face the 1st Place team.

The Mighty Ducks.

No, not the ones from the movie.

We would have had a better chance against that team.

The Mighty Ducks in my league were a "Super Team".

They went undefeated for the entire Regular Season.

And.....

Well.....

We didn't beat them.

I'm not even sure if we scored on them.

They beat us rather swiftly.

But they did that to every team, so I didn't feel as bad.

I still got a trophy for 4th Place.

At the time, I didn't realize that 4th Place got a trophy.

I thought that only went to 1st and 2nd Place.

I was wrong.

It wasn't until the first game of the next season, where I was too old to play in the league anymore, that my coach gave me the 4th Place trophy for the year before.

Apparently there was an awards banquet that I missed too!

Oh well, I loved the two years that I played.

My only regret was not playing sooner, as I started when I was 13, and the league was for anyone ages 11-14, so I could have played for four years, but instead I only played for two.

Either way, it was an awesome two years.

Now going back to the academic side of things, as the year was coming to a close, I started to fixate on the one thing I had been waiting for all year.....

What I was talking about at the beginning of this post.....

It was almost time for HIGH MEADOWS AGAIN!!!

That's right, the year end field trip was back to that magical place for the second year in a row!

This time I was determined to EXPLORE this place a little more than the "pool, food, pool, food, pool, food" routine that I had done the year before.

And I did.

I added Basketball to the rotation.

So I would swim, eat, play basketball, and then start the cycle all over again.

It was more better than the year before!

I still wish I could back to that place to this day.

Then I started to hear rumblings that I would get to go back as a Senior for the High School class trip!

Now all I had to do was make it through the next four years, but we'll get to that soon, one year at a time!

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!

ANOTHER ONE!

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.

Grade.

Number.

SIX.

Out of all of my years in school, Grade 6 is definitely the most "foggy".

Maybe that's not the best way to put it.

It's just that nothing really "eventful" happened for me that year.

I do remember that this was the first time I would actually go to different classes for my school subjects.

Up until then, it was always one teacher who taught us everything.

Math, Science, History, English (Which my school called "Language Arts" until I was a Freshman in High School, no one could ever tell me why they called it that). 

It was always at the discretion of the teacher.

She would just decide to stop teaching one subject, and just start teaching another one.

Not this time around.

Each subject had its own dedicated teacher.

What a concept!

History was definitely my favorite subject out of the four.

I didn't mind Math, but I hated having to "show my work".

There's only one right answer to the math problem.

And I have the correct answer.

So I don't get what the problem is.

"Well, I need to SEE how you got that answer".

Alright, then you can WATCH ME press these buttons on the calculator.

I always loved how they tried to feed us the same lies over and over again.

"When you grow up, you're not going to be able to just use a calculator to get the answer"

Wrong.

"When you grow up, you need to be able to write in cursive"

Wrong Again.

"When you grow up, you're going to have bills to pay"

......

They were right about that one.

Science was always fun when we got to do the "hands on" stuff.

I didn't care much for English.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the English language.

In fact, I use it every single day!

I'm using it right now!

I didn't care for English for one specific reason....

Essays.

I HATED WRITING ESSAYS.

I hated it with a passion.

The font HAD to be "Times New Roman".

The font size HAD to be 12.

It HAD to be Double Spaced (or Single Spaced if the teacher decided to be extra cruel).

The margins HAD to be "Aligned Left".

Because we all know that without these parameters, it's impossible to convey a thought.

Let alone get a point across.

That's why I do my blog like this.

It's spite.

Pure spite.

Subject?

Predicate?

If I sometimes maybe feel like it.

Maybe. 

No promises.

I always hated seeing the red pen all over my essay.

"You should start a paragraph like that".

"That's a run-on sentence".

"You needed to use a semicolon here".

Don't even get me STARTED on semicolons.

What purpose do they ACTUALLY serve?!

None. 

They serve no purpose.

Like mosquitoes.

They are just there to annoy you.

I could write an entire post about semicolons and mosquitoes.

I just might do that.

Anyway, let's move on.

The Geography Bee came around once again, and this time.......

.........I didn't make it out of the "class level".

Bummer.

BUT.

There was always next year for that.

As far as "special subjects" went, gym class was still my favorite.

When you love playing sports as much as I do, gym class is usually your favorite.

Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, Football, Dodgeball, Capture The Flag, Kickball.

I could go on forever.

I loved them all.

I mean I still liked other classes too.

Home Economics.

I get to cook food and eat it.

And get graded for it.

Sign me up.

"Tech Ed."

Better known as "Wood Shop".

I get to make things.

I get to use a hot glue gun.

Sign me up.

Art Class.

I can't draw to save my life.

Luckily the grade was only based on "effort" and not "quality of drawing".

Stick Figures and Sailboats for life!

As the year was coming to a close, I was getting excited for our "class trip".

In 5th Grade the previous year, our "class trip" was to our "Town Beach".

....

Not very eventful.

But THIS year, we were going to Mt. Tom!

I had heard such wonderful things about this magical place.

Waterslides.

Food.

Other awesome rides.

Sounds great right?

One small problem.

Apparently, the grade ahead of me decided to get into a fight with Agawam at Mt. Tom the year before, and Southwick and Agawam were both asked not to come back.........

.........ever again.

Awesome.

Scrap that idea.

The consolation prize?

We were now going to Riverside Park instead!

Now known as "Six Flags New England".

Long story short, it was a very nice consolation prize!

Summer break followed, which meant lots of swimming, video games, and sleepovers.

My three favorite things.

Doesn't get much better than that!

That was, until 7th Grade came around, but we'll get to that in my next post!

Let's Get To It!

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.

Fifth. Grade.

Powder Mill Middle School.

I had heard all of the stories.

"You can only write in cursive there."

"They don't have recess every day."

Alright, so maybe those were just misinformed thoughts that I had my my head.

But still.

I was going back to the "bottom of the food chain", just after getting used to being at the top.

In my school system, Elementary School was grades K-4, Middle School was grades 5-8, and High School was grades 9-12. That has since changed, but back when I was going to school, this is how it was.

All three schools are right next to each other.

I thought that's how it was everywhere.

I was wrong.

Apparently other towns and cities like to disperse their schools as far away from each other as possible.

It looks like I lucked out in that aspect.

The schools are right down the street from me.

Literally.

I can get to any of the schools in under a minute.

However, now that I was in Middle School, I could no longer take the bus.

Why?

Because I lived too close.

I took riding the bus too and from school for granted!

School buses all have their own routes, and since I lived so close, I was always one of the last ones to be picked up on the way to school.

On the flip side, it also meant that I always ended up being one of the last ones dropped off after school.

But no longer, now I was left to my own devices.

In the beginning, I would walk to school with a few of my neighbors who were a few grades older than me.

Then I decided to "kick things up a notch".

That's right, I started to ride my bike to school.

It was a "Dyno VFR", all chrome (and rust), with handle bars that were well on their way to being fully "stripped".

At that age, having a bike was like having a car.

I loved that bike. 

My morning routine was pretty much the same every day.

Wake up at like 7:15, shower, eat, brush my teeth, play some Nintendo 64, then head off to school for 8:15.

I'd say it took me a full month or so to get used to everything that Power Mill Middle School had to offer.

Everything just seemed "bigger" there.

The classrooms, the gym, the auditorium, the cafeteria, everything.

This was the first time I had experienced things like the "Taco Bar" or "Potato Bar".

It was incredible.

I was actually able to walk to a classroom BY MYSELF, instead of having to walk as an entire class in single file, always on the right side of the hallway, to go from one class to the next.

It really is the "little things" sometimes.

Four Square had been added to the Middle School, (due to its popularity during my 3rd and 4th Grade years) so I knew EXACTLY where my time would be spent during recess.

However, this time I was going up against 7th and 8th graders.

They were ruthless.

But that didn't stop me.

It just meant I couldn't take a day off, and that was just fine with me.

As far as academics went, my favorite subject was definitely........gym class!

Alright fine, I guess it was History.

Only because that was what came the closest to Geography.

Speaking of Geography, this was also the first time I took part in the "Geography Bee".

I had no idea what it was going in.

It started off at the "classroom level".

Basically, my teacher would ask each person in my class a different Geography question.

If you got it right, you made it into the next round.

If you got it wrong, you had one strike.

Unlike baseball, you only got two strikes before you were "out".

Now initially, I thought this was just some "game" that the school had made up.

I was wrong.

This was NATIONAL.

This was going on all over the country at the same time.

Every teacher had a copy of the same book, with the same questions.

Once every classroom had only one person left, those winners would then compete against each other at the "grade level".

I was the only person left for my classroom.

I was moving on to the "grade level" against 5 other classroom winners for my grade.

The winner would then move on to the "school level".

10 students would compete in the "school level"

Each grade would get a certain number of "representatives" to compete at the "school level".

8th Grade = 3 students.

7th Grade = 3 students.

6th Grade = 3 students.

5th Grade = 1 STUDENT.

Yeah, my grade got the shaft that year.

The day then came for the "grade level" competition.

Fun fact, I won that one too!

I was now moving on to the "school level" competition.

That day came, and all 10 students met in the gym, where they had 10 chairs for us to all sit in.

The teacher that was going to be asking us the questions was sitting at a table in front of us.

I found it a bit "odd" that we weren't just doing this in an empty classroom, since there was only 10 of us........

..........That's when they handed each of us a microphone.......

........Then the doors opened at the far end of the gym, and people just kept POURING IN.

They neglected to tell us that the "school level" was going to happen IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE SCHOOL.

My heart started racing.

I got goosebumps all over.

So yeah, I guess I was just a "bit" nervous.

We all know what it feels like when you're in front of a bunch of people and you have to speak.

All eyes are on you.

At least it feels that way.

Every breath.

Every blink.

Every thought.

It feels like they can see it all.

More specifically, it felt like SHE could see it all.

Nothing worse than falling flat on your face when you know your crush for the last three years is watching your every move.

Oh, to be that young again......

Anyway, the rules were the same as the previous rounds.

Two strikes, and you're out.

No pressure.

Except for the fact that I was carrying the hopes of AN ENTIRE GRADE on my shoulders.

No big deal right?

Long story short, I got 3rd Place.

I'd say that was pretty respectable.

An 8th grader got 1st Place, a 7th grader got 2nd Place, and I got 3rd.

I lasted longer than all three of the 6th Grade representatives, and two reps from both 7th AND 8th Grade.

That's a "win" in my book. 

It also made me that much more determined to do better the following year, but we'll get to that soon......

Let's Keep This Going!

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.

Fourth. Grade.

My final year at Woodland Elementary School.

I had Mrs. Jones.

I needed to make the final year at this school a good one.

And that's exactly what I did.

I came into the school year with a new sense of "purpose".

I had a lot of things going for me!

I was about to turn 10.

I had a killer flat top haircut.

But most importantly?

I had a Four Square Championship to defend.

My friends and I had been playing Four Square all summer long.

We used a crack in the middle of the road as one of our dividing lines.

Then we took rocks and scraped them on the pavement as our own "chalk" to make the squares.

The squares we made were AT LEAST twice the size of a regulation square.

Why you ask?

Simple.

If you can handle a square that's twice as big, then a regular square won't be a problem.

It worked.

By the time school had started, I thought they had made the squares even smaller than the year before.

That's what using squares twice as big all summer will do to you!

Everything else on the playground didn't even exist to me anymore.

Not the Seesaw.

Not the Merry-Go-Round.

Not the Swings.

Not even The Playscape (which is still the best playground I've ever been on to this day).

For me, it was all Four Square, all the time.

The game had become so popular that some of the TEACHERS were starting to play.

Maybe they thought I was going to cut them some slack.

I did no such thing.

I had fun sending my gym teacher to the back of the line.

On her very first time in, she tried to get ME out.

Big mistake.

I made her look FOOLISH.

She deserved it.

The playground was like the prison yard, it was our time out there.

Everywhere else we had to walk in a single file line.

We had to sit at desks.

We had to raise our hands.

But not on the playground.

We could run.

We could jump.

We could PLAY.

In my case, that meant diving for ANY loose ball in Four Square.

On blacktop pavement.

No protective equipment.

I scraped my elbows and my knees more times than I could even count.

But I always got to the ball, and I always got someone else out doing it.

My reckless abandon was never in vain.

Sometimes I would get that "oohhhh" or "aahhhh" reaction from the crowd.

But it was never about that.

I wasn't trying to impress anyone.

Not even my crush, because once again, she could wait.

I was just doing what needed to be done!

When I wasn't playing Four Square at recess, I would spend almost every waking hour thinking about when I was going to pay it again.

I would pretty much daydream as often as I could during the "regular classes".

Math?

Social Studies?

Science?

English?

Sure.

Is it recess yet?

Lunch was always unpredictable.

I quickly figured out which lunches were going to be good, and which lunches were going to be.....well, bad.

American Chop Suey? Good!

Weird name, especially since it's elbow macaroni with meat sauce, and I've never heard it called that ANYWHERE but on the school lunch calendar.

Sloppy Joe's? BAD!

Let me clarify, I love Sloppy Joe's.

I make them all the time.

They are delicious, WHEN I MAKE THEM.

Now I don't know what "recipe" the school was using, but those were NOT SLOPPY JOE'S.

The buns were always toasted/stale, and the filling itself was......dreadful.

Friday was always Pizza Day.

However, all pizza's ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.

If it was the "Pizza Boat", it was delicious.

But if it was the "Soggy Brick", you'd be better off asking for an extra milk instead.

The desserts were just as "Hit or Miss" as the lunches they accompanied.

Warm Jell-O?

Not a fan.

Dry cake that's topped with a substance which was formerly known as frosting?

I'll pass.

But, there was one dessert that I'd go back to school to have right now.......

There were actually two variations of this dessert, and both of them were AMAZING.

Imagine a thick square of chocolate (or peanut butter) that's cold to the touch, but it starts melting in your hand almost immediately when you pick it up.

Inside these thick squares were two of my absolute favorite things, raisins and peanuts!

I've always wondered who came up with it, and to this day, I still want to try and replicate it!

As the year was coming to a close, the announcement I was waiting for all year was made...

The Four Square Tournament was going to happen right before Field Day!

All of the hard work in the summer.

All of the other games I could have played, but I avoided to play more Four Square instead.

It was all for this.

I was ready.

They actually made MORE Four Square courts for the Tournament, because it had become so popular!

This also allowed more people to actively be playing, instead of waiting in line, because in the tournament, every out counts, and you can't get any points for yourself while you're waiting in line, so I was all for it!

Then the day finally arrived, and the tournament had begun.

After my showing the previous year, I already knew what was going to happen going in...

I was a marked man.

I didn't care.

This is what I had waited all year for, and NO ONE was going to stop me.

I had go out out on top, there was no other option!

I got off to an even stronger start than I had the year before.

People were trying their hardest to get me out.

It was adorable.

Then in the blink of an eye, the tournament was over.

They announced the results at the end of the day.

I got 1st Place again.....but so did someone else!

It felt tainted.

It left a bad taste in my mouth.

A tie for 1st Place?

What happens now?

All of these thoughts ran through my head for a good 3-4 minutes before I had a Root Beer popsicle and got over it like all 10 year olds do.

The next day, the principal from the Middle School came to my class to ask myself and a few others about Four Square.

Apparently it was becoming so popular that the Middle School wanted to add a few courts of their own, and they wanted to know how the game worked!

I now had something to look forward to in 5th Grade already, but we'll get to that part in the near future!

Until next time!