School days

This is a purely self indulgent post but since it is my blog, I can do that. Chick was looking through my high school yearbook the other day and I got flooded with memories. Most of them pretty decent. I was one student in like 375 of my graduating class. I didn't really fit in anywhere but then again I didn't try either, I thought high school was a waste of my time. I was bored with almost all my classes and didn't really have too many tight friends. I often wonder if an adult had shown any interest in me and my schoolwork what would have happened. I am weak and need that attention. My mothers only interest was that I wasn't pregnant or arrested, other then that..... for example, she got a phone call from the school one day my sophmore year saying I was skipping school. I was, I freely admitted to it. All she said was don't get caught. Yep that is some stellar parenting. I admit I was never what you would call highly motivated, I wanted/needed someone (almost anyone) to say hey nice job/ you need to work on this/apply yourself. Left to my own devices, I showed up when I wanted and left when I wanted. It didn't start until the last half of 10th grade. I remember skipping that first class and being scared senseless. I had been told forever that if you skipped, you would fail and be a loser the rest of your life. It was worth the risk to me to see if anyone noticed. And guess what? NO ONE did. It was an open campus (meaning it spread over three city blocks and you literally had to cross the streets to get to various classes) and I would go to this class but skip this one. It got worse as junior and senior years came and went. I kept my grades up to average but I was missing over half the class time. As another example, I failed softball my junior year. How in the hell do you fail softball? You never go to class. Out of 45 days, my report card said I missed 42. My mom was mad that I failed the class. I was too, they said I had been there 3 days and that wasn't true, I had never been there. I didn't even know who the teacher was. This continued till 2 weeks before graduation. That was when the powers that be in my high school recognized that I was missing a lot of classes. And you wanna know why they noticed? I was short 7 hours of PE. They called me in the office and sat me down and told me I wasn't going to graduate without them so I would have to make them up. and no more skipping. Yeah ok, I made up 5 hours and didn't skip a class for a week. I sat through my graduation ceremony just waiting for them to say my name and go "oh nevermind, she's missing 2 hours of Pe credits". Looking back, I think the school was embarrassed at the number of classes I missed. I mean, c'mon, I was missing 12-20 days per class for 2 and a half years. So I guess this whole speil is kinda pointless except to illustrate why I love smaller schools, the teachers care about their students. I can not imagine one of my kids getting away with skipping one class. Perfect example of do as I say, not as I do, aye?