Monroe Tigers

I remember when I was into nostalgia...

...it was today. I don't do elementary school. I don't, I don't. But I haven't taken myself off the lists because I've been wanting to go back to my own, Monroe Elementary, and the day finally came!

Monroe Tigers ALWAYS WALK ON THAT DAMN LINE

It was creepy how normal it felt to be back there, like it hadn't been a day since I graduated 6th grade and being in that neighborhood, like I had gone back in time. But I parked in the parking lot (weird) and checked in at the office. And Mrs. Robinson was still there. And she remembered me!

I was in Room 18 in a 5th grade class. I never had that room myself, but they were all the same. I actually had Room 17 for 5th grade, so I was nearby. So much the same, like the library, and the bathrooms and the rooms, but all that change with the playground (no more US states map! and where is all the junkyard bare bars monkey bars and swingsets?!) and it was weird to be in the staff lounge, and see my 6th grade classroom that I was happy to go to every day, and my kindergarten classroom. I actually remember some of my first days being dropped off there in Room 3, sometimes crying because I didn't want my mom to leave. And my 2nd grade classroom Room 4, outside of which was the scene of where I met my best friend who forever changed my life, Alice.

The best mosaic in the world! This really represents Monroe to me

Room 4 with the open door

Room 22, my 6th grade class

The librizzle 

Room 3 at the very end, kindergarten!

The sad little playground, and there's only 2 pepper trees left!

As for the day, like I said, I don't do elementary school and I was wanting to pull my hair out before lunchtime (what else is new?), but we ended the day almost half an hour early to go to a kindergarten classroom for a Reading Buddies. It was cute to watch the 5th graders feel so big and important and interact with the kindergarteners. I had literally no interaction with the kinders. I helped watch the room, but anything I had to say I said to my 5th graders. And yet when the bell rang, I had kindergarteners crowding around me, hugging my legs and not letting me go anywhere, asking if I would be back next week. Uhhh wuuuut? They probably thought I "looked nice" (ha!) but I guess it means students like me better when I don't teach them, which is a relief because I haven't subbed for more classes than I have subbed for, so I guess the majority of the districts still love me. When I was packed up and leaving my classroom, the school was pretty empty and yet I heard a kid yelling down the hall "Excuse me! Are you the teacher who was in the Reading Buddies class?! Wait for me!" and he made me walk with him to the cafeteria and gave me a hug before he left. Haha!

And the kicker, my wood art project still proudly resides over the cafeteria doors! Man those colors have faded. But I'll never forget those! It was 6th grade and it was GATE project we would work on before school started with some artist man. I could rarely get to school on time let alone an hour early and was lucky to get there for the last 15 minutes. When it was the last week of working on them and mine wasn't done, I told the artist man and he actually berated me saying how could I expect to be done if I was never here and maybe if I were on time I would have something, but I won't have anything now. That set me off and I was determined to finish. We were only supposed to choose one word, and I ended up choosing "Friendship" and it was actually a make-up gesture to Alice, because we had been in a fight. What do 6th graders even fight about? I remember one when I got mad because she told me she was able to hack into my AOL account the night before, by guessing my password, which I vividly remember at the time was "sportyspice" which makes sense because in 6th grade, my entire life was gymnastics, cats and Spice Girls. Alice's, by the way, is in the bottom left corner, "Music is Universal".

1998 GATE project still around

Can you find the two cats by the setting sun??

Well that was my day and I thought I would finally be able to close the books on elementary school, but the office staff kept me forever, marveling about how I was a former student and making me relive stories and catch up, and then ended by asking for my number because they would love to have me back when something opened up. I didn't know how to say that I was only there for the novelty and didn't really want to come back, so I just gave them my number. It's probably what Tina from Bob's Burgers would have done.