The Woodlands

The Woodlands, official, The Woodlands Senior Public School, was my high school. It was an interesting time of my life, and I look back upon it mostly with fond memories. I am sure it didn't seem so at the time, but most of the bad has faded away, leaving only good memories of the fun times with Drama club, my friends, and my Teachers.
Unlike some, I actually liked many, if not most of my Teachers. This has actually been the case going back to grade school, where my academic career was saved by a kind hearted teacher. The truth is I was unable to read until the end of grade 2, and even then it was kind of sketchy. I don't blame my grade one teacher, it was her first year, and I have a little bit of a learning disability, she just didn't have the experience to recognize that, or if she did, she didn't have the experience to handle it. I don't begrudge her that, mostly because it turned out ok for me in the end, but in part I was in grade one, I was really young, and if she did try and handle it for the life of me I can't remember (I'm getting a little senile here in my twenties.) By the beginning of grade 2, I had moved schools and houses, so I was a little out of place, and a little behind, and so with the help of Mrs. Kowel, over a three year period, I took my poor English skills and forged them into the work you see now. English remained a struggle for me for much of my academic career, but it would have been a disaster if not for her. So to this day I am grateful, but I do feel guilty when I let grammar mistakes fly all willy nilly on my blog.
So as I was saying high school teachers, my high school experience was different from most, as I was in the enhanced learning class. I don't want to brag, but we had more fun. I think it helps being a nerd amongst nerds, then being the nerd amongst jocks, so just the proximity of so many like minded individuals really created an environment conducive to making learning fun. Add to that open ended expectations, and teachers who are happy to be in a class of people who want to learn, and you get something great. We would debate world issue, discuss tangents in great depth, and generally be intellectual about the whole education process. From that one forms actual relations with teachers. No longer to they dictate from on high, but they get right down into the discussion with you, challenging you to back up your views, and sometimes making you realize how infantile they are. Just being able to discuss things with your teachers make you able to talk to them like real people as well. By the time I reached OAC there were a number of teachers with whom I could just spend some time and talk. So when I left high school, or really any school, I would often return to visit my teachers. Just let them know how things are going, and talk about things. It always made them happy to have students who were successful. So last night, it was parent teacher interview night, and now that my younger brother goes to the same high school that myself, and all my older siblings went to, I decided to drop in too.
I had a nice long chat with a bunch of teachers, all of which are really excited for Erin and I, its rare these days that high school sweet hearts get together, even rarer if they go to different University's. We did, and I know why, Erin is just so wonderful I would be crazy crazy not to make it work, and she is all the more wonderful because she sees something in little old me. Okay I will stop making you all nauseous. The point here was that I went back to school, chatted up my teachers, and had a good time. Now what did strike me as hilarious, was how young people look, and if you ask "How young were they?" I would say that they all look five years younger then some one in that grade should. I know they are not, I just remember feeling mature and old at that age, but clearly not. Now that I am getting married, and buying a house, once more I feel mature and old, and yet just recently my dentist insisted that I'm still a kid. So I figure as long as there is always someone older then me, I can remain a kid until the day I die. Which is good because crammed in hear is this super youthful spirit, and I have no intention of crushing that ever.