Friday, April 6, 2012

Unencumbered by Stuff

Back, ages ago, when I was a high school student, I used to wish for a day when I wouldn't have to carry anything to school. No books. No pencils. No paper. Absolutely nothing.

I was never able to do this. Even my very last day of school was filled with finals, so I had to carry writing utensils. And I couldn't not bring my yearbook around for everyone to sign.

Nowadays, I can get some semblance of this when I am asked to cover an extra period. I will leave my school bag in the room I'm in for the day, and I'll walk around campus unencumbered by stuff. It's a free feeling, and I enjoy it immensely.

Thursday was the last day of the quarter, so it was a minimum day. I expected a class filled with random movie. Instead I was to administer the district-mandated quarterly benchmark exam.

I have done this sort of thing before, so I knew the drill. I was a bit surprised that the teacher hadn't left me any #2 pencils as many students forget to have one on hand, but there was nothing to be done at that point (I don't carry extras). I dove in and hoped for the best.

The first class trickled in, and everyone had their usual school stuff except for one girl. She was dressed in sweats, and she carried nothing with her. The other students asked where her backpack was. She told them she left it at home. It was the last day of the quarter; no one was doing anything.

Guess again.

As I had already passed out their answer sheets, they knew immediately what was on the agenda for the day. The girl had to scramble to find a pencil. She asked me, of course, and I told her what I told the other five students who asked before her. She did what those other students had done as well--she found a classmate to borrow from.

This is why I never went a day supply-less when I was in school. No matter how sure I was that we were doing nothing, I knew that one teacher would give us actual work. One always did.

Did you ever go to class supply-less? Did you ever wish to?

4 comments:

  1. I think you should have joined the AtoZ challenge. You blog almost every day and you could easily have worked all these posts into it. This one could have been F for fail to bring supplies.

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  2. Without supplies? No. That would be crazy, as your story indicates. Maybe in elementary school I could've gotten away with a backpack-less last day, but in middle and high school, there was always something I needed with me.

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  3. Nope, not even once! Although I do spend a lot of my time now complaining about the volume of stuff I tote around. :/

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  4. I can't go supply-less. Never could. Always carry a big bag. You never know.

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