School Daze

This week’s assignment (a reminder) is

1. What memories do you have of your school years at any stage of your education?

2. Did you keep in touch with your friends who were there with you in your formative years, or perhaps you lost touch as I did and are finding them again? Tell us about some of your school friends.

You don’t have to go into detail, you can if you want to add as much detail as you’re comfortable with, photos are optional but you know most of us love photos

I’m a couple of days late posting, I’m sorry…I’m having issues with carpal tunnel syndrome so it’s making it hard typing, so what I’m doing is leaving a gap…I will add my stuff a little later after a rest of the hands/wrists and in the meantime you can follow the links of who is playing this week. Make sure you pop back to see this edited version a little later.

I enjoyed school, here we only have two levels of school before we consider either college or university – Primary school and then High School. I had some absolutely fantastic friends. but  I will answer the two questions separately.

1. The memories of my school years are mixed, the friends were great but right throughout my schooling I was subjected to bullying! In High School in particular this had a profound effect on my education because to avoid getting bullied I’d skip classes and because of that I’d get behind in school work, so I’d skip more classes so I didn’t have to explain why homework was late etc… it was a vicious cycle. I didn’t finish high school, I left just before the end of my final year – amazingly the years I did complete I always passed! This really put a damper on my schooling though. I eventually did some college years later though which was a much better experience.

2. I’ve always been blessed in finding good friends, those who helped shape me during the school years were the best! In Primary school I had one best friend but had others that we both mingled with. I was never part of the “in crowd” as such in either school but usually got along with most of them anyway. High school was even better for friends though, those years when you really need close friends to grow with into adulthood. They’re the ones you’re constantly testing life with.

As I’d come from a primary school where not many of my peers had come from, I feel a bit isolated to begin with and didn’t seem to fit in anywhere until I was ‘adopted’ by these amazing girls who I came to think of as the core group. We were the mainstays of the group. We had more interests in common so spent a lot of time together during and after school. The others in the photos would come and go as they pleased as did others, we were friendly with just about everyone, especially others who didn’t fit in anywhere. The whole group were the type of people who never judged others due to style, intellect, religious beliefs etc. One of the things that I loved about this whole group is that it was a really multicultural one and I enjoyed learning so much about their languages at home and the home cooking from many different countries.

By the age of about 21 I’d lost touch with them all, so after the final one had gone, I never saw them again, not even around the area, it’s almost like they’d all vanished from the face of the earth. Over the years I’ve been using the internet I’d occasionally google them to see if I could find them and of course then I moved interstate. Recently both schools had set up Facebook pages and slowly but surely I started to find familiar faces. Some who I only knew through the School Band (yes, I was a band geek), others I knew but were more of acquaintances, and then finally one of the core group. We’ve been catching up in a huge way, so many years have passed and we immediately dropped back into best friend mode as if nothing had changed. We have reminisced about so much, and shared the triumphs and tragedies of recent years. Through her, I was able to find out a little more about the other two of the core group and hopefully will get in touch with them soon.

Then I found some of the others from the group, they’re on my FB friends now, and I will be able to start catching up with them too, I can’t wait! One of the band members too it seems lives fairly local to me and we will catch up for a coffee one of these days and talk about old times…you know “this one time, in band camp….” (If you haven’t seen American Pie you won’t get that!

I love and loathe my school memories, my friends and some of the classes were brilliant, some of the male teachers…ooh la la! But the bullying really destroyed what little self-esteem I had left. Never mind, live and learn!

Just as a side note, I found two teachers from Primary School on Facebook, well, the first one found me after seeing my school photos, he was my teacher when I was around 10 or 11 years old, we’re friends now which is great! He even gave me some homework to do recently for him.

Visit the others playing this week:

1. count me in ty(Joangee)
2. Gattina
3. Sayre
4. Church Lady
5. Murfomurf
6. faye
7. Life According to Jan and Jer
8. Life is Not Bubble Wrapped

Remember to visit Gattina at Writer’s Cramps who will be doing next week (March 8) so keep an eye out this week for her assignment for us all.

Tags: Friends, fun monday, memories, school