#memorablemomentsineducation #21:
I skipped school just one time in my life. I was a junior in high school, my friends (Laura and Amanda) and I had gotten up extra early to serve breakfast at a local elementary school as part of our National Honor Society hours, and we decided in an instant that we wanted to be rebellious that day. I couldn’t tell you whose idea it was, but all three of us knew we could hang at Amanda’s house because both her parents worked. We’d call ourselves in “sick” to the main office, and then we’d spend the day doing what lame honors students do–we’d eat pie at Tippin’s and wander the stacks at Border’s. We thought we were so clever by having each other call in after 15-minute intervals, convinced no one would catch on. And the day went off without a hiccup! I was so arrogant to believe I’d gotten away with successfully skipping school that I stopped by in the afternoon to drop off a copy of my oratory with my coach Ms. Smith.
For a good twelve hours, we were home free, and I’m sure I wondered why we hadn’t ever done this before! That is until a note showed up in Mr. Albee’s first period pre-calc class, sending me to the office. When I walked in to see Laura and Amanda already waiting, I knew we’d been caught. But the most humiliating part wasn’t getting caught–it was the fact my assistant principal Mr. Taylor, who’d known me and my family for my entire life, started trolling me after asking how I spent my day off. He said, “You went to a bookstore?! Really, you didn’t even get drunk like all the other kids do?” No, sadly, I’d wasted my skip day driving around Johnson County while listening to R.E.M and U2, paging through books I’d never have time to read, and eating a delicious slice of Dixie pie a la mode. God, we were lame…and ahead of our time by about 25 years since I’d give anything to ditch work today and do the same!
Our official consequence was one day of Saturday School, and it looked nothing like The Breakfast Club. But my real punishment was listening to my favorite biology teacher Mr. Barnes (a man who deserves a whole host of memorable moments) give me grief for the next decade of my life about my interest in “moldy books” and teaching English. And to top it all off, we figured out it was our most amazing English teacher Mrs. Cohagan, the woman who regularly reminded us there’s more to life than our GPAs, had been the one to turn us in! The good news is, she was right–it’s okay to forget the rules every once in a while because the only person who cares what you do in high school is you.