That Select Satisfying School Subject

Yes, I’ve been reduced to answering Jetpack app prompts for blog post ideas that aren’t video game related. Don’t judge me! I wanna write about other things… I just don’t know what to babble about most of the time. Whatever and anyway, today’s prompt is: What was your favorite subject in school? Here we go!

School sucks

To be blunt, I hated every second of public school. The bullying was relentless and I spent most of my break times hiding alone in the library. I was the quiet kid few people understood. I didn’t know how to interact with the masses who enjoyed showing how much they hated me. The few friends I did make almost always moved away, leaving me behind with the wolves. Oh! That must have been the root cause of my intense fear of abandonment. Cool.

Despite all my social problems, I did decently in the actual academic learning part of school. My brain doesn’t like playing nice with numbers so math was always a struggle. Science was interesting and I only took French class up until the grade required by Canadian law. I kinda wish I would have continued, but the constantly being forced to speak in front of the other cruel students part was a nightmare for young me.

What I loved most was English classes. Specifically, the creative writing aspect that was a large part of those courses. My teachers almost always responded positively to the random (and often satirical) stories I created. Huh. I guess that love of writing is why old me keeps this blog thing on the internet!

The best assignment ever

I have very fond memories of one particular assignment in a high school English class long ago. We were tasked with writing a creative story of some length I can’t remember, and then reading it to the class.

At the time, my high school had just been taken over by the worst principal in history. She was the typical tyrannical bureaucrat changing everything for the sake of change; actually making everything worse. She treated us teenagers like we were toddlers (always a bad idea), and the teachers even worse. I remember her yelling at one of my teachers in front of us. Wow.

So yes, the students and teachers both despised this witch greatly. I decided to make my story for the assignment a parody about her with the teachers getting wholesome revenge at the end. I changed all the names subtly enough to not get in trouble, but it was very obvious who every character was based on.

On presentation day, I remember having the usual level of terror associated with imminent forced public speaking. I was one of the last to go which didn’t help my nerves at all. And ugh. Most of the stories were so boring and soulless. I remember the popular mean girl almost put everyone to sleep with hers, and she barely got a clap in response.

When my turn finally came up, I was quite shaky with the words, but noticed every eye in the class lit up and intently focused on me when I said the parody name for the witch principal. With all the positive energy, I was able to bellow out the rest of my tale about the awful witch getting served justice. It was a delight to see my classmates grinning and laughing with me for once!

At the end, I got a standing ovation with roaring applause from everyone in the class, including my English teacher. It was the most positive feeling I’d ever gotten from a crowd, and I’ll never forget how awesome that moment felt. I mean, that was 20+ years ago now and I still remember it!

I never did get that assignment back, just the grade (95%). My dad’s theory is that it was likely posted up in the teachers’ lounge. 🤔

Original header photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash