It's Back To School time. What a lousy weather pattern for this. Hot, humid, dreadful days, tough to get through, to feel productive at home, no less in a hot, stuffy school building. Is it me or has the climate changed so drastically since my school days? I remember so well, the first days of the new year as a big fashion occasion. We shed our shorts and traded them in for knee socks, corduroy jumpers, plaid skirts and Peter Pan collared blouses. High school years found us back in our uniforms, a lighter weight version that we were to wear until the cooler days of late Fall arrived. But, back to school shopping was an annual event to which we looked forward. I'm sure this brought tears of joy to the eyes of our parents who welcomed the return of the big yellow bus. We had grown bored, tired of the lack of structure, and we were accidents about to happen. Then, magically, we were transformed into obedient school children who went off, thinking that Seventeen magazine had nothing on us, and all of the creativity that we used in entertaining ourselves during July and August, got stripped away into what we learned most during our school days......conformity.
I detested school. Hated every minute. Dreaded the first day. Dreamed about the very last day of the very last year of my education. I remember that so well. It wasn't until I reached high school that I had acquired a bit of tolerance for the whole thing and that had so much to do with the friends who I knew would be there, greeting each other on that first day and tearfully hugging each other, clinging to the last vestiges of our school years, our days of innocence, as we seized our diplomas and made our way onto the bigger picture.
I met my best friend in high school. When we were fifteen. On a bus. Together, we made those four years into the finest of our lives. And, creativity? Well, I became president of my freshman class, a Student Council member, and a delegate to a special meeting of high school students at the United Nations. The new idea that we brainstormed......."Pacem in Terris", the Papal encyclical of the sixties. I also captured the prize for "Religion" that year. It's one that I am most proud of. I didn't get it because I knew the Bible or the Catechism so well. I didn't get it because I was pious or "holy" or leafing through "Do You Have a Vocation?" brochures.
I got it because I was bold and outspoken, ready to defend the rights of all people. I was creative and I stuck to my guns, never one to hide behind the cloak of my faith. My rewards were many and still are, to this day. I still have my faith, I've passed it on to others, I still consider myself to be creative and I still have my best friend backing me up whenever I doubt any of the above.
And that woman in Kentucky, the one who works at the Registry Office? Back to school woman!!
I detested school. Hated every minute. Dreaded the first day. Dreamed about the very last day of the very last year of my education. I remember that so well. It wasn't until I reached high school that I had acquired a bit of tolerance for the whole thing and that had so much to do with the friends who I knew would be there, greeting each other on that first day and tearfully hugging each other, clinging to the last vestiges of our school years, our days of innocence, as we seized our diplomas and made our way onto the bigger picture.
I met my best friend in high school. When we were fifteen. On a bus. Together, we made those four years into the finest of our lives. And, creativity? Well, I became president of my freshman class, a Student Council member, and a delegate to a special meeting of high school students at the United Nations. The new idea that we brainstormed......."Pacem in Terris", the Papal encyclical of the sixties. I also captured the prize for "Religion" that year. It's one that I am most proud of. I didn't get it because I knew the Bible or the Catechism so well. I didn't get it because I was pious or "holy" or leafing through "Do You Have a Vocation?" brochures.
I got it because I was bold and outspoken, ready to defend the rights of all people. I was creative and I stuck to my guns, never one to hide behind the cloak of my faith. My rewards were many and still are, to this day. I still have my faith, I've passed it on to others, I still consider myself to be creative and I still have my best friend backing me up whenever I doubt any of the above.
And that woman in Kentucky, the one who works at the Registry Office? Back to school woman!!
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