Welcome to Paul's Blog

This is where I put down my thoughts occasionally.

Time Travel: Elementary Graduation

Okay, I just noticed that my graduation post didn't include the details of the graduation so I am going to recall the events of the graduation.

It's 10 something, and I am wearing special business-like clothes. We are in the classroom. It's weird seeing everyone in such special outfits. Mrs.Middleton comes in and says, "So, it's nice seeing everyone in these clothes," or something like that. We lineup just as practiced and march into the gym where our parents were waiting. We sit down in the chair we were assigned before, and our grade 7 teachers begin speaking. They read this picture book about a kid who was afraid of grabbing chances and flying off. Then we sit up and we line up all around the gym, and one by one, we get called up to get a medal and to shake hands with the teacher. I hug Mrs.M when it is my turn. Then a few moments later, we are done! We are now free to take photos in the gym or outside. There is a photo zone in the gym, as well as a word cloud posted around the gym for everyone graduating, that included words that other classmates used to describe you.

Vice Principal Mrs.Macdonald told my mom to come tomorrow as well, and we would find out why.

We had our graduation party later this evening.

The next day, with our normal clothes, with sharp but already distant memories of the grad party last evening, our class meet again and head off to the gym for the last grad ceremony. We congratulate sports teams and band teams, etc. and we get to the people who did the Gauss contest. The teachers call us up and we each get certificates for the gauss, and Mrs.M give certificates for people who participated in the Gauss contest, who got into the top 25%. I start to worry because I was just singled out. Now, Mrs.M calls me up and starts to give a lengthy speech, I can't focus to listen to the speech and I just look down. Later I start to focus. This is because I had stage fright. She told everyone that I got 24/25 because I ran out of time, and everyone went "awww..." (This isn't true because I went home, and tried solving the problem, and I couldn't and, when Mrs.M emailed me and said that if I had 10 minutes longer, I might have solved the last question, I didn't bother to tell her no) Mrs.M declares that this is the highest score any Titan (The mascot in my elementary school) has ever received, and everyone starts clapping, and some people stands up. I get a medal. After the ceremony, we go to our classes and we have a class discussion, by making a circle with the chairs and discuss topics, just as we did for many fridays before in Grade 6 and 7 in Mrs.M's class. We end the discussion and we are dismissed, people start to leave. For many of my classmates, this is the last I have ever seen of them. I see other classmates hugging Mrs.M, I tell her that I am not going to hug her because I already hugged her at the graduation ceremony. I wait for a while and leave with my friends. We decide to go to Petro, as we did occasionally. This is our biggest petro meetup yet, with all The Tribe members. (Now we are call our group, Kool Kids Klub) While on our way to Petro gas station, some kids recognize me and congratulate me. We get to the station and we buy some slushie. We go back to school and hang out.

I remember until then and kind of forgot what happened afterwards. I remember looking in the window and seeing Mrs.M. She waved to us. That's all I remember for now, and I will add more details when those memories flow back to me.