Snow Day

This happened overnight, we had no snow yesterday.

Dragged my ass to work today only to get sent home after two hours.

I went to go see my high school history teacher, something I've been meaning to do for a while now but just haven't had time. It was a good day to do it since all of the kids called their own snow day and the school was empty, giving us time to have a good chat that put some things back into perspective for me.

Sometimes I miss high school quite a bit. My senior year was a time when things were much simpler. Class, as far as I was concerned, was a great place to hang out and actual school work was more or less optional. At the beginning of the year I had decided that I was just going focusing more on friendships than school itself and I have to say the plan was an absolute success, my grade twelve year being the best grade school year of my life, and much class skipping and ridiculous antics ensued.

As the editor of my school newspaper, the year hit its pinnacle with the distribution of the last issue at the end of the year, an issue that almost never was. The absolute deadline for the paper was the same morning as my provincial math exam and I was up all night finishing off the paper and proceeded to sleep through most of my exam and receive a mark worthy of being compared to a plane crash where everyone was killed. My pre-cal teacher was furious, but I couldn't have cared less. I was going into the exam with a decent mark and didn't need the exam to pass, and passing was all I really cared about.

My partner in crime was my grade twelve AP English teacher, an eccentric man with a look very similar to that of Hagrid, giant beard, hunch and all. We printed the paper without running it by the office first, a supposed cardinal sin, since the office likes to sensor out whatever they feel doesn't promote the school.

I was at home when the copies came in, a day early, and Mr. Clark called my house telling me to get to school as fast as I could. When I got there I hit the office with a giant smile on my face, ecstatic that all my slaving away was finally in print. I explained that I was the editor and would like to see the copies and the ladies in the office gave me a scowl so dark that it would have knocked any lesser being off it's feet. They told me to leave.

I found Mr. Clark in the staff lounge. Again, I got scowls for being in a place absolutely forbidden to students at all times. The two of us marched down to office and met a fuming principal. The both of us got an earful as she started tearing the paper apart article by article, claiming it was far to controversial. Highlights included my front page article which was a parody I had written sometime during that last night of hurried preparation, which mentioned marijuana on school grounds, along with a number of other incidents both real and imaginary, including rampant theft and a possible terrorist network. On page three was a scathing, yet hilarious and very well written rant by a younger student on what he hates about high school. On page seven, an article put together by the band teacher and a student on lack of funding. Page ten featured two articles with some extreme political leanings. All of this was unacceptable, she said. All I remember is having a giant smile on my face. I produced something that had pissed off the powers that be.

As the principal took a phone call and stormed back into her office, Mr. Clark and I stood staring at the stacks of papers sitting on a cart in front of us.

"Go," he said.

"What? Where?"

"Anywhere, just grab the cart and let's get out of here."

Before we could receive any more flack we fled the office and started handing out the papers to kids in the hall and distributing them to class rooms. Before long, I was receiving feedback from kids and teachers that it was the best paper ever produced in the history of our school, because it actually had articles that said something, rather than the same blundering rabble produced year after year.

Whenever I think of that paper, and of that year, my From the Editor article always comes to mind, especially the second last paragraph. It really sums up what I wanted from my year and what I thought about high school. Again, I got great feedback for this piece and ridicule from the office folk. Apparently, I can't say what I want in my own editorial in my own paper.

. . . Over the past school year I've discovered that learning is everything but school isn't. Don't me wrong, I believe that strong education breeds a strong individual, but therein lies the key: individuality. Marks aren't everything. Yes, they will get you into university and yes they will get you scholarships and that's enough right there to strive for good grades, but the same time you have to sit and look at what you're really doing and realize when you're just running yourself in circles and when you're actually learning. Teach yourself, live your life, try new things and meet new people. Keep your friends close but take time for yourself too. Keep positive relationships and affect the people around you in a positive way, because really if you can't do that, then what's life about anyway . . .