10 on the 10th on the 9th in August

Tomorrow is the 10th which means it's nearly time for 10 on the 10th with Marsha. This is one of my favorite link ups each month. This month we're talking about 10 Things Liked or Disliked About School. I never know what theme or questions or whatever Marsha will ask of us but it's always fun! 

I struggled just a bit with this prompt because I feel like my memory for life events isn't as good as it should be! Funny because I had a great memory for learning. I did awesome in school and didn't feel like I had to put in nearly as much effort as everyone else... so for the most part I enjoyed it. And as I began writing up the post one memory would lead to the next and I ended up sharing BOTH 10 things I Liked and 10 things I Disliked. 

10 Things I Liked About School:

1. The friends I made! Sadly, I've lost touch with just about everyone but there were only 100 or so students in my grade so at one point or another I felt like I was friends with nearly all of them since my friend group often changed based on the year, the classes we took, how our personalities changed and meshed. 

8th grade graduation; I'm in the back on the right

senior prom-- I'm second from the left in the middle row

2. My teachers-- I had some really, really fantastic teachers. My high school art teacher even bought me a frame for one of my paintings! I'll never forget when I was in the 4th grade and had a broken leg-- the elevator broke down and my teacher carried me up and down the stairs that day! Talk about going above and beyond! One year (I'm going to say 5th grade?) we watched Alex the Life of a Child and I broke down sobbing at the end having just had my newest baby brother die and my teacher knew (because again I lived in a small town!) and she hugged me so fiercely that day. I still remember that hug! 

My 4th grade teacher and class-- teacher is the one with the mustache and I'm wearing a blue plaid vest with pink shirt in the middle

3. Group projects-- Okay, sometimes I really hated these but when I could pick my groupmates it was wonderful. Most of my best friends were in the same class as me so we often worked together and it worked great because I would do most of the behind the scenes work and they would do most of the presentations. I suffered a lot with social anxiety from 5th grade on and they were great at supporting me. 

somewhere in middle school (maybe 6th grade?) I'm on the left in the pink & white

4. Class trips! Probably my favorite trip ever had to be the trip to France that a good handful of my French classmates and I took. My best friend was on that trip too and good thing or else I might not have made it. I was so sick with nerves driving to the airport with my family but oh I am SO SO glad I went! We also had a really fun class trip to a local amusement park that has since closed down.

5. Extra curriculars & school dances-- I was involved in a lot of extra curricular activities at our school. I enjoyed chorus-- I even tried out for made the select chorus and a few solos here and there. I was treasurer of our yearbook and had the best time helping design and take photos for it. I joined photography club, the prom committees, cheerleading (both in elementary and in high school), softball (only in elementary school and mostly because we got ice cream after every game!). 

select chorus-- Me on the far right

elementary school Halloween party in a crayon costume my mom made

6. Learning-- I love learning new things so I found so many things fun and fascinating. That 4th grade teacher that carried me up and down the stairs loved science and I still remember so many of the fun science experiments we did. My 8th grade teacher saw that I was hugely advanced in math and let me work as far ahead in our pre-algebra book as I wanted which meant by mid-way through the school year I was doing full on algebra.

High school--chemistry perhaps? I loved chemistry!

7. Our building-- I know that's a weird one but hear me out; our elementary/middle school building was the coolest. In the elementary wing they recruited a bunch of us students to paint murals all up and down the hallway and I remember getting my turn to paint! Then in middle school nearly every classroom had a wall that had a door to the class next to it and I remember in 6th grade my best friend was in the class next door and our teachers (who also were great friends) would open the door to talk to one another often enough that I can remember me and my best friend sitting on opposite sides of the opening talking, working, and learning together at our teachers' feet. 

8. Art-- My grandmother was an amazing artist and signed me up for private art lessons starting at age 5 or 6 so when it came time to put art projects together in school I really shined. So much so that I often got selected for extra programs. One summer I had an art and theater camp I attended at our local school by invitation! By my senior year of high school I had a good 4 classes in the art room-- several of them independent studies my art teacher and I worked to coordinate.    

My high school art teacher

My artwork with the frame she bought me (It still hangs in our dining room)

9. Presentations and "fun"-- We often had an ice cream/ popsicle day at the end of the school year, we had field day, we had lots of fun presentations from authors and singing groups, and even a laser light/music show one year. Our school hosted an egg drop each year and not only did my egg survive but I won an award because I hand painted my entire shoebox to look like a brilliant sunset. 

10. School plays-- starting in elementary school I took part in many school plays and while I had zero desire to act by middle or high school I still had lots of fun painting sets and seeing the productions with all this local talent it seemed like everyone kept hidden until school play night or our yearly talent shows (which were also a lot of fun to watch!). 4th grade my teacher wanted me to be Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz but I broke my leg and settled for Auntie Em instead. Weirdly I had zero social anxiety until the following year-- I often joke that breaking my leg broke all my confidence but honestly I just think it's more to do with how socially aware we become in American middle schools. 

I'm the one in read reading aloud from the paper; I think this might have been the 3rd grade class play

Me as Auntie Em sitting in the chair

10 Things I Disliked About School:

1. The food-- I HATED the cafeteria food and honestly ended up skipping lunch most days; even when my mom packed a lunch for me I often ended up throwing it away electing to eat once I got home from school. I struggled with anxiety which often made me feel sick and after actually throwing up at school a time or two I was literally afraid to eat so I mostly lived on tums and saltine crackers for much of 7th & 8th grade and branching out to soft pretzels for 50 cents from our school cafeteria in high school. 

2. Homework-- I hated working on homework, especially those sheets that seemed totally useless and more like busy work. In high school our district required that my advance classes give us a minimum of 30 minutes of homework a night-- I had advanced classes for all my core subjects plus French was also considered an advanced class so that meant several hours worth of work. BUT since I have never been a procrastinator I often worked quietly during class (while my teacher was teaching! and got a head start on my work) and during study halls so I often got the bulk of my work done before leaving school. 

3. Gym-- oh gosh unless it was parachute or scooter day in elementary school I HATED gym class so much; especially once we reached middle and high school and had to change for gym. I have never been super athletic or coordinated and gym class gave me such anxiety. 

4. The bullies/cliques/always trying to fit in and be like everyone else. I was pretty lucky that I was mostly popular and well liked in school but I was always terrified I was going to do the wrong thing or say the wrong thing and get picked on. I still remember a girl telling me my brand new dress made me look pregnant when I was a freshman in high school. I never wore that dress again and to this day I am hyper aware of my belly. I went from being this loud center of attention person in elementary school to never wanting anyone to notice me at all (unless it was the latest cute guy I had a crush on).

5. How Homogenous my school was-- I could probably list the names of the students in our entire school that weren't white/Caucasian on one or perhaps 2 hands (depending on if I was going by last names or first names). At the time I never thought much of it since that pretty much was the sampling of our entire town but as I got older I realized that I was at a real disadvantage not having been exposed to many other cultures or ethnicities. 

High school graduation- the whole class fit on the stage & me walking to get my diploma

6. Social anxiety-- I began throwing up every single morning before going to school somewhere around 5th/6th grade and while my parents signed me up to see the school psychologist and put the school nurse on high alert (to not send me home every time I got sick) we just weren't real great at dealing with anxiety back then. I'm thankful that I learned some coping skills/mechanisms but it made for some really rough years of school. 

7. The endless rules! I get that schools and classrooms need rules. I do. I've been a teacher myself and a big part of teaching, especially in the elementary years is all about behavior and keeping the literal peace in the classroom. But oh there are just so many rules; some of which don't even make much sense... I remember one of my 8th grade teachers not liking my outfit and telling me I couldn't come into her class unless I changed. My mom was livid having approved my outfit before I left. 

8. Fire Drills-- Again, I completely understand why we need fire drills but every single time they went off I felt like my heart jumped into my throat and they scared me. I'm still easily startled by loud noises.. 

9.Smoking in the bathroom-- so I hope it's obvious this was only a problem in high school but our bathrooms were so smoky that I actually refused to use them; there were 2 bathrooms in the entire building I'd go into. 1. The nurse's office had their own bathroom and she was super sweet. 2. Our band room/auditorium had one back stage and since our music teacher was always there no one smoked plus I was in chorus and loved our music teacher so it gave me a chance to visit with him. Both these bathrooms had the bonus of being a single use bathroom too so no stalls or worrying about running into anyone else. 

10. School picture day-- I never thought I looked good in school pictures and by middle school I started hiding the photos from my mom completely and refused to let her put them on the wall. She broke down and started taking me to a "real" photographer. Looking back; they honestly weren't that bad!

2nd or 3rd maybe?

Middle school- 6th perhaps or 7th?

Kindergarten

4th grade

Linking up with: Spread the Kindness,