the closet in the elementary school classroom
Last week, I attended J1's writer's workshop. Each 5th grader sat at his desk, displaying a short autobiographical story for sharing. Forty-five minutes late, I briskly sat down on the other side of J1's desk, who immediately sprouted up eager to get me a cup of coffee. I don't generally drink coffee and was more than happy with the sugary finger food he'd already prepared for me, but obliged him nonetheless. My fingers froze an inch above the small paper plate, as I read the first few lines:
"This is about my trip up north. The setting in this is when we were just about to leave. I was at my mom's girlfriend's house, Candace's. She's a little crazy considering she throws cake at all my birthday parties. Plus she's very demanding for nice pictures. One of the other people coming was Kevin a very nice kid, who loves to crack jokes, and strangely loves to throw things. And the last one coming was my mom the one who puts sense into Kim, yet she was demanding for pictures, too. Alright! Now that the prologues over. Let's begin." [sic]
This was followed by a series of jaw-dropping events where J1 heroically saved his kid brother whom he was able to carry on his shoulders, bleeding nose and all, back to the campsite where Candace and I were neglectfully sleeping. Yeah, he was a little fast and loose with the truth. Several adults patted my back as I was reading, saying how much they enjoyed his story and character descriptions. One boy kept encouraging others to "Read Jonny's" (and after reading another kid's, I could see he was definitely one of the better writers in the classroom.) I guess if J1 isn't, I should not be horrified. For whatever reason, the fact that he would willingly share my sexual preference with his classroom took me by surprise. However, in his story, he was happy, courageous, and playful. I guess he was all the things he wanted to be, and even though he changed a lot of details to make his story more interesting, I'm really glad that he didn't feel the need to change me.
"This is about my trip up north. The setting in this is when we were just about to leave. I was at my mom's girlfriend's house, Candace's. She's a little crazy considering she throws cake at all my birthday parties. Plus she's very demanding for nice pictures. One of the other people coming was Kevin a very nice kid, who loves to crack jokes, and strangely loves to throw things. And the last one coming was my mom the one who puts sense into Kim, yet she was demanding for pictures, too. Alright! Now that the prologues over. Let's begin." [sic]
This was followed by a series of jaw-dropping events where J1 heroically saved his kid brother whom he was able to carry on his shoulders, bleeding nose and all, back to the campsite where Candace and I were neglectfully sleeping. Yeah, he was a little fast and loose with the truth. Several adults patted my back as I was reading, saying how much they enjoyed his story and character descriptions. One boy kept encouraging others to "Read Jonny's" (and after reading another kid's, I could see he was definitely one of the better writers in the classroom.) I guess if J1 isn't, I should not be horrified. For whatever reason, the fact that he would willingly share my sexual preference with his classroom took me by surprise. However, in his story, he was happy, courageous, and playful. I guess he was all the things he wanted to be, and even though he changed a lot of details to make his story more interesting, I'm really glad that he didn't feel the need to change me.