The last time I was home my mom informed me that she’s going to start The Great Purge soon – cleaning out my old room. In my defense, it’s not just my old stuff in that room…there’s a lot of stuff that’s been dumped stored in there since I moved out six years ago. In an effort to help (and protect my privacy!), I brought home two large containers and started to go through them. In my biz, that’s called Records Management – determining what’s permanent or temporary, what can be “retained” or “pitched” into the garbage. In real life, it’s called tossing out all the crap you probably should’ve gotten rid of when you moved out in the first place. Now, since I’m a borderline hoarder, there’s a lot that I’ll be retaining permanently. The jury’s still out on the Barbies and the Cabbage Patch Kids though.
Over the next few weeks, I thought I’d share a few of the more interesting “records” from my personal archives. The first thing I’m going to share is my values essay from 5th Grade. I was 11 years old, and in Middle School – a time of huge transition for me; it was a new school where I changed classes, rode a bus, had a locker instead of a cubby, and had classmates with names like Liza and Ellyn. Fancy, right?
I didn’t know it then, but looking back now, I can honestly say that 5th Grade was the last year that I was spunky, fearless Denise. It was the last year that I didn’t care that I didn’t look exactly like everyone else…or it was the last year that I wasn’t fully aware that people thought of me as being “different”. Those stories are for another day. Right now, I present “Two Values and A NOT.”
In light of my previous post, it is apparent that my proofreading skills were not yet developed!
I know what you’re thinking –
“Reading is similar to a library with pages” – wowsers, stop with the kickass symbolism!
“If you didn’t have a family, you might feel abandoned” – does this girl have abandonment issues?! Um, yeah, I do. But it’s all my mom’s fault – note to parents, it’s always a good idea to have TWO emergency contacts for your child, just in case you decide to go out with your child’s (only) emergency contact and on that particular day, the school decides to lose electricity leaving your hearing-impaired second-grader unable to reach anyone to take her home. Seriously, I’m fine. That day no longer haunts me. Honestly. Please don’t leave me anywhere though, okay? ‘Cause I will freak the hell out.
“I try to draw but never succeed” – ho-hum, what a Debbie Downer! Actually, that still holds true – I can’t draw to save my life! Don’t ever ask me to play a game of Pictionary. I suck at it. My classmates’ NOT values were things like drugs, bullying, prejudice; my NOT value was art. I had my priorities straight, didn’t I? Of course, it’s not as bad as Jason M.’s NOT – he didn’t value when girls dumped him. He hated it because it made him really mad and he got angry and started punching or kicking things. Gosh, I sure hope he outgrew that. (By the way, he was 11…who the heck was he dating at 11?! Did people date when they were 11?!)
Stay tuned! There's more to come!
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On a more serious note, you will notice that my essay is on Page 22. The essay on Page 32 was written by Alex Fattal, the older brother of Josh Fattal, one of the hikers who remains in an Iranian prison with his friend Shane Bauer. They have been detained for over 660 days. To learn more please visit: http://freethehikers.org/
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