Transitory

Our town had three elementary schools so from kindergarten through fifth grade I knew everyone in my grade level and most everyone in the school. Then we were all mixed together in sixth grade. My main teacher was for home room, math, and social studies. We went next door for English with Mrs Johnson and her students sat at our desks for math. She taught us to write a succinct paragraph. It could have five, six, or seven sentences. She must have given us topics and by the end of the year I had become pretty good at writing. Seventh and eighth grade were when we changed classrooms for every subject and had a locker for our books. Cliques and popularity became far more important than academics. In eighth grade, I came to school one Monday and discovered that Debbie hosted a huge Saturday night slumber party for her birthday and I was not invited. We used to meet at her house in sixth grade and walk to school each morning. By eighth grade she had moved to a much larger home as her parents moved up in their careers. Needless to say, I was devastated. Debbie was very smart and popular in high school. I believe she was voted most likely to succeed. But none of her classmates know of any success as she has not returned for any class reunions. Maybe she’ll be at the 50th which is scheduled for June 2023. Our reunions have become so fun and I usually make new friends with people I barely knew in high school. Our class had around 300 students and I knew my place in the hierarchy. Thank goodness high school was not a permanent place and I could spend the next fifty years finding my true spot in the world.

— KathyV