The Great Eight

Day 62

I'm in braces again [sigh].

Last week I posted about my ‘unique’ school year - seventh grade. This week we pick up with one of my better years in school - eighth grade (1987-1988). It truly was a great year for me, for so many different reasons.

The best reason? I was fully recovered from my accident, no longer needing a walker or crutches. I felt like myself again. And the novelty of my accident had worn off, so I was no longer constantly answering questions about the accident or volunteering to talk about it. Even I realized that this was wearing thin and it was time to be less egocentric!

In eighth grade I no longer had to take a bus out to Roberts in order to attend school; instead, I was able to attend good ol’ Rigby Junior High, so I wouldn’t have to deal with a transfer bus.

Another reason why the eighth grade was such a great year for me was that I made some very good, close friends. I was taking a Ceramics class and for the first quarter I was terribly shy and withdrawn. I wouldn’t even go out into the shop area to work on the Ceramics projects; consequently I received an F (!) for the first quarter. Oh crap, I’m in trouble now!!

Then a miracle happened: I forced myself to participate in the class, forced myself to sit at a table full of strangers and slowly began to open up. I did my assignments and found that I loved working with clay, with molds, using the potter’s wheel, waiting for my creations to be fired up in the kiln and ready to be glazed. What was even more fun was that I sat with a great group of people and I became fast friends with all of them. Ceramics became my favorite class that year (I’ll have to write a separate post about this class). Even after this class I remained friends with this group and stayed in touch with many of them over the years! (Side note: I earned A’s in Ceramics from that time forth!)

Another one of my favorite classes in eighth grade was English; I had a really sweet, kind teacher named Mrs. Tebbs and she introduced me to my favorite book of all time: To Kill A Mockingbird; in her class we watched the movie, which became one of my all time favorite movies! Mrs. Tebbs was very supportive and attentive and praised my writing abilities. In the ninth grade I was fortunate to have her as my Literature teacher.

In the seventh grade I earned straight A’s because of my fantastic tutor Mrs. Twitchell. In the eighth grade I was on my own, but I somehow managed to earn some decent grades; in fact, I made the Honor Roll! It was my first (and sadly, last) time during my junior high/high school years, that is until my college days.

Another reason why I loved the eighth grade was because I was able to attend some of the school dances. After missing out on this experience in the previous school year I was anxious to find out all about it. In the spring of ‘88 I attended my first dance, which was held during the last hours of school (it was either go to the dance or go to the library and study!) I remember being in the gym, seeing my school mates dressed in Sunday clothes and feeling like an adult. And the music…loud, awesome ‘80s music, like “Pump Up The Volume”, Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It”, etc. Oh, I distinctly remember slow dancing with a cute eighth grader girl to George Michael’s “One More Try.” Awww…

At the end of the school year I got my yearbook and was finally able to have people sign it (I missed out on this experience in seventh grade). I got such a kick out of the things written in my yearbook (some are rather private, so I won’t be sharing them in this blog - sorry!) It was a great way to wrap up a great year!