I’m preparing to head home in a few days, back to my old grade school to share Kim & Jason with the students and help kick off a FUNdraising program. I can only speculate what it will be like, but I thought it would be fun to record my thoughts now, and then see how things actually pan out. One of the things I’m looking forward to is the smell. You know, grade schools have that distinct smell about them, and I’m curious to see if the place still smells the same. I’m sure I’ll be inundated with memories, and teachers and classmates will come to mind. I have this feeling that I’ll feel like a giant and completely out of place. I imagine tiny desks and tiny chairs, and pencil sharpeners that are fastened too low on the doorpost. I’m not sure if I’ll see any former teachers, but I figure I might. How will that go? Something out of a surrealists’ painting I’m sure. Now that we’re all adults, how exactly am I to address someone who taught me the names of the first thirteen colonies? I’m half afraid that if I call my seventh grade teacher Jim instead of Mr. Newland, I may get sent to the principal’s office… I haven’t even begun to imagine what’s changed. You kind of think that everything will be exactly as it was when you left, you know? I’ll have to be sure to hide my dismay if I’m to learn that they moved the library or repainted the stripe in the gym a different color. I’m not exactly expecting any kind of a hero’s welcome or anything. Probably most of the students and teachers have never heard of me. I mean, it’s not like I’ve invented a cure for some horrible disease or have become the next Charles Schulz…yet. In any case, it will be interesting. I‘d better get back to work preparing my presentations so that they won’t regret inviting me to come speak. And somewhere between now and then I’ll need to make a decision… Jim or Mr. Newland?
- - - | written by Jason on | - - -