When I was just thirteen, my eighth-grade English teacher set us journal topics every day and devoted the first part of class to enforced writing. Great discipline sure, but also: comedy gold. I laughed, I cried, I left out eighty-seven thousand entries about how much I liked Doctor Who.
I was young and viscerally determined to be right about everything. I liked underlining things a whole lot and I dotted everything with stars. I had very definite ideas about people. And now I'll let myself speak for myself...
9-19-91
Overcoming Fear
If you're going to overcome a fear about something you have to face it, if it's something like public speaking, or be convinced or reassured somehow that what you are fearing isn't so bad. Most people are afraid of things that they don't understand, like ghosts or vampires - supernatural things. Or Martians - things from other planets. I kind of like them!
9-20-91
Living With Disappointment
If you ask my opinion, Disappointment is a very nasty roomate. She always leaves a huge mess of any room she's in, and she is always on dates which come in late at night (or early in the morning) and creates tons of noise banging around the apartment when she gets in. Her grades stink, so she always bugs me for help. Yecch!
9-23-91
My Biggest Gripe
Well, my biggest gripe is people who read my journal topics while I write them, ERIN, but (good, she turned around!) I'm going to write about how my biggest gripe is people who dring 3 bottles of Voxnik (a very potent alcoholic drink, "not exactly fruit juice") and then throw wild parties involving getting drunk on Ny-Quil and spitting tangoring seeds into matchboxes from 3 rooms away while laying rap music backwards at super-speed and waltzing.
OR, people who accuse me of being a FANATIC about a TV show, especially when I was GOING to write about 2 shows that I loved that were canceled, Free Spirit and Homeroom!
SO THERE! :)
10-7-91
I Wish Teachers Would
I wish teachers would pay us for coming to school, give us less homework, let us pick out TV shows to watch in class once a week, each person would get a turn and they could wach part of it everyday. It could be maybe 3 hours at most or anyway 2 1/2 hours, spend 1/2 of a few classes doing it, and or pick out a book each week that everyone had to read but not do homework on, eat in class if we cleaned up & it wasn't really messy or noisy, like chips are.
10-8-91
Parents
Parents can be really, really annoying sometimes. If they're nagging you or poking too closely into your life, or yelling, or making a big deal out of nothing, or embarassing you. Especially if you've got enough to deal with already. But alot of the time, they're really nice, and proud of you because you're doing so well in school, or in anything. The important thing to remember is that they always, always love you.
11-4-91
I Wish People Wouldn't
I wish people wouldn't make fun of me - Rosalba Chavez makes fun of me just beacuse I have glasses, can you believe it?! My favorite class is French, because I can be smart there and no-one will make fun of me.
Somtimes I wish more people would try me before rejecting me. I'm not usually really outgoing, so often they give up. That's not fair, because you wouldn't have to dig real deep to find enough of the "Real Me" to be happy with it! And that would be really nice.