Strange Day

Yesterday was such a strange day for me. It all started in the morning when the secretary from my school came and found me all the way down in my room during my conference period and said that the principal needed to talk to me.

I haven't had an impromptu one-on-one meeting with my principal since my first year. And lets just say those weren't pretty (but I've grown and the principals have changed).

And none of those started with the secretary walking to my room to get me (which is literally as far from the office as you possibly could be).

So as I walked with her I was trying not to freak out, but inside I was thinking about all the things I could possibly be getting in trouble for. The main thing I thought was the parent that had emailed me in a tirade last week because I gave her daughter a lunch detention for not finishing her work. The crazed mom works in the Human Resources department of another district and really knows how to lay into someone (even though I had every right for handing out that punishment to her daughter).

But I sat down and he actually didn't have bad news. He said he was thinking of changing my seventh period study hall (the bane of my existence) into an 8th grade science TAKS rescue class. This means I would give up the 27 students study hall students, that need constant reminders of what they are SUPPOSED to be doing and how they should do it, for about 5 students that need extra help with science in order to perform well on the TAKS test.

WHOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Yes. Yes. YES. And once again, Y.E.S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've wanted to help 8th graders with the TAKS ever since I moved to 6th grade from 8th. It's not official yet, he will have to get the counselors approval and what-not. But, it looks pretty promising.

He also told me not to tell anyone yet, so naturally I turn to the internet and tell everyone there.

On a much different note, and on a totally different tone: I walked out of that room and into the hallway to find one of the assistant principals very distraught, to say the least. I asked if she was okay and she told me about the shooting on the UT campus. She further told me that her son goes to UT, lives in the dorms across the street from the library and called her whispering and hiding under his bed. She said they got disconnected and 45 minutes had passed and she cannot get in touch with him.

I do not know her son, but it was almost as if I felt a little of her emotion at that moment and nearly broke down crying myself. At that moment it was thought there was a second shooter. I spent what time I could trying to make her feel better before I literally had to go to get to my class on time.

Obviously, her son came out fine. I am so thankful that no one else got hurt. It could have been so much worse than it was.

On another strange side note, the shooter on the UT campus went to the same high school as my roommate. That high school happens to be just a few miles from where we live. I feel like this latest shooting hit a little too close to home for me (in more ways than one).

I really wish we could go back to the days when no one would ever dare think about shootings in public places. And they wouldn't dare high-jack planes for reasons other than money. Or a parent wouldn't think twice about a teacher giving a punishment to their child for not doing their work.

What a strange world we live in now...