Shaped from Experience

You know, we're where we're at today from the experiences of youth. Though we can't continue to blame others for our choices today, they have made impacts on us. 

I was one of the "smart" kids in elementary school, though you would never know by the grades I got. I went to Hyde Jr. High in 6th grade to be in an accelerated learning program. I was small, real small, in 6th grade. The school seemed HUGE when I arrived. I was lucky enough to have my brother Carl and our friend William in 7th grade so we all would go to school together. I had wood shop with Mr. Tegley, a giant of a man, and, who I considered a real jerk. I'm sure I would be too if I had to be around junior high aged kids every day! He would freak out at the smallest things and I lived in complete terror of him. His hall pass was a giant rock with writing on it. One day I had to go to the office for something, so I grabbed the rock, struggling with it the whole way up to the office. After taking care of whatever business I had, I picked up the rock, again struggling to hold it, and set back to shop class when coming around a corner a girl bumped into me causing me to drop the rock only to see it shatter into a number of pieces! I stood there in a blind panic, my whole 11 years of life flashing and swirling before me! Do I just run home? Should I cry and throw up (that's what I wanted to do)? I picked up all the pieces of the broken pass, holding them in my stretched out shirt, and slunk back to class. Tegley was speaking to some students and I just stood there, waiting for him to see me with the shattered rock, then pound me into the ground with his enormous fist, like a nail into a board. The funny thing was he looks at me, as I stammer some inaudible wording of some one running into me, and just chuckles about "These things happen" and turns back to the other students! I don't know how I didn't soil myself with relief, but it was also so confusing; how could he get so angry at the dumbest things, yet breaking his precious rock meant nothing? 

I remember the end of Christmas break sitting in my parents room at around 5:00 PM, just when it's getting dark, and thinking there is no way in heaven or hell that I could go back to that class. My dad had to give me the pep talk to motivate me to actually go back to school. 

All this said, it was a learning experience back in 1977 to be persistent and move on, regardless of what you think and feel can happen to you.