Hello friends, family, and strangers (I flatter myself)! I am a recently-graduated girl finding my way in the "real world" (apparently, I've been floating around the fake world for the past two decades). Many of my friends' "real world"s consist of cubicles, nine-to-fives, marriage, babies, and other such grown-up things. My real world looks a little different. Yes, I still get up and go to work every morning, same as they do. But instead of battling fax machines, computer programs, disgruntled spouses and dirty diapers, I arm myself against a legion of 14-year-old boys. Well, 83 of them to be exact. You see, I teach 8th-grade boys' Science in an inner-city, high-poverty school. What it is not: glamorous, prestigious, boring. What it is: humorous, heartbreaking, and the most challenging thing I will ever do.

The stories I tell and the people I describe are real; you can't make this stuff up. If you are new to my blog, I hope you'll start at the beginning and fall in love with its characters, just as I have.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Not Dead Yet

Last night, I received this text:
Hey.
*$Tario$*

I responded:
Is this...ONTARIO??

To which I got a:
Yes :)

I asked him how high school was. His answer:
Good. Way different then middle. Imma come by an see u sumtime. There was a rumor you died in a car accident. Hold up imma call u from another phone.

Died in a car accident? I racked my brain. Nope, not even a fender-bender. I'm pretty sure I would remember if I'd died in a car accident. My phone rang, and I picked it up. "Hello?"

"Whew I'm glad to hear yo voice! Kh'daius be tellin' everybody you died in a car wreck. I was sad!"

I laughed. "Umm, nope. Still teaching at Ranson. Same room. All boys again."

"Man I hope they be treatin' you right! Another one of your former students is on the phone too. The light-skinned boy with the big head!"

James laughed. "Yeahh, Ms. M. We only texted you to test an' see if you was alive. When you said hey back, we thought it was yo sister. That's why we had to call an' check fo real."

"I saw Ananias at the gym the other day!" Ontario offered. "He still be pumpin' waay too much iron. He be benchin' over 100!"

"You worked out with Ananias?" I asked. Ananias' nickname was "Steriods." Ontario is 4'11" and probably weighs 70 pounds.

"Yeahh. I be scrawny but you know I be pressin' a lil' sumthin-sumthin too!"

How my death rumor got started I don't know. But I'll tell you with conviction that I'm happy to be alive on this beautiful Sunday, happy to have a job where I'm challenged daily and most definitely happy to hear from the boys I taught last year.
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2 comments:

  1. Lindsey SmithSeptember 7, 2010 at 8:27 AM

    kiley, that is hilarious!!!!!!! hahahaha. they just love you so much.

    changing lives.

    i saw your grandparents this past weekend! cannot wait for you to get here!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A fly on the wallSeptember 8, 2010 at 6:45 AM

    bahahahhaa! I seriously just BUSTED out laughing!!! Oh my gosh, these stories seriously MAKE my day!! Love you and miss you!!

    ReplyDelete

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