Reflections 1

"You know how time flies, only yesterday was the time of our lives."
- Adele, Someone Like You

I just finished reading a book called Th1rteen R3asons. It is a narrative told by two characters: Hannah, a teenager who killed herself and left behind audiotapes explaining why, and Clay, a boy who was named on the tapes as one of her reasons. I highly recommend it as a book to read all in one sitting. I started it this morning and finished it about twenty minutes ago, and all the time I wasn't reading it (because I was getting my flu shot, walking in the rain, working, or talking to a former classmate on the bus) I really just wanted to drop everything and go back to it. I don't have any other thoughts about this book that I care to express here, but one sentence did remind me of a moment in the tenth grade that I remember very fondly, and so I think I'll post it here.

One day in Sciences Humaines (Social Studies, for those of you who took your classes in English), the teacher was giving us an overview of what we would be learning in our unit about Africa. A boy I'd known long but not well - Eevee's cousin, actually - was sitting a row or two behind me. He's the class clown-type. I don't know what snack he was eating, but he had brought it in a tupperware container. Midway through the class, and while the teacher was in the middle of a sentence, he knocked it off his desk. It bounced around and he tried to pick it up but he knocked it out of his own reach and then kicked it back closer to him, and made noise for about a full minute. I couldn't imagine being in his shoes right then. I could think of nothing more humiliating that could happen during a quiet class. I may have even started to blush thinking about how mortified I would be if that had been me. But evidently, he was unfazed. The teacher looked over, scowling, but tried to make a joke by saying, "it sounds like someone is playing the drums over there!" And he, without missing a beat, not even blushing, said "I'm just getting into the spirit of Africa!"

I remember that from time to time and still laugh out loud. Eevee was there, and I think Jewel was still in French Immersion at that point as well. I believe I was sitting beside her that day. But all I really remember was the look on the teacher's face, and laughing about the incident, which I later referred to in my journals as "X and the Spirit of Africa". It wasn't an important memory. But it was a good one. And because of things both internal and external, I really don't have a lot of good memories from the tenth grade.

That sounds like a good jumping off point for some reflections, but I actually had something very specific in mind to reflect on tonight. I have had four major relationships - well OK, I've had four relationships and each are kind of important for different reasons to me, though only one is really considered my Significant Ex, and that is by a far margin - and along with my relationship with the boy (or man, as the case may be. Some weren't [aren't?] mature enough for that word yet), I had a relationship with their family. I've been thinking a lot about each relationship and what my relationship to their family signified, then or now, I don't know. So this is a five part entry, because I really don't like writing one long post. This way, if I so choose, I can stop writing after one entry and do another tomorrow afternoon or Saturday or just whenever. And I know that the list will then be backwards - from entry 5 to entry 1 - but that makes it feel like a countdown, and that is something else that I like about doing separate posts for each entry. My only problem here will be finding a different song for each entry. Unless I choose a song for each person, instead...