In my previous post, I mentioned that I had to leave the Choral Festival early because I was set to go on the school's academic trip. I'm going to go into a lot more detail about that today.
In grades six through nine, the schools held assemblies at the end of the year and gave out academic awards. Whoever got the highest grade in each individual subject got the award. I never got any of the academic awards. I only got the "Certificates of Excellence." Those just got handed out in class and not in the ceremony. The only award I ever got during the presentations was for Perfect Attendance in the sixth grade, along with about 30 other students. My braces kept me from getting that award for grades seven through nine.
This is part of the explanation of why we have the annual academic trip in high school. Some time ago, the school used to have the year-end awards assembly. However, as evidenced by my experience pre-high school, it was just a few select students who kept getting all the awards, while there were a lot of really smart students who never got any. A general assembly was held, but it wasn't mandatory, so a lot of students who knew they were not going to get awards did not show up. After awhile, the students who did get the awards weren't showing up, either. (They knew they would get them later.) The school decided to honor all the top students with an academic trip and stop with the awards assembly.
To qualify for the trip, you had to have a straight A average for the fall semester, with at least four of your classes being solid credits. Our grading periods were broken up into 9-week segments, so while I didn't get straight A's for either period, everything averaged out to a 4.0 for the semester. It was the English and Math classes for which I transposed grades.
I wasn't aware until later that I had qualified for the trip. It didn't occur to me that I had gotten straight A's for the semester (nor was I aware that our GPA's were determined by the semester averages and not the quarterly periods). I got the word to come to a meeting for the trip through a teacher who told me that I was supposed to go to the classroom of the faculty member in charge of the Student Council.
I got in the classroom and there were about 30 students who had qualified for the trip. This is out of about 750 students in the entire school. I found out later there were other students who qualified and actually chose not to go on the trip, one of which was the top student from the junior class.
Basically, the trip involved going to Albuquerque and visiting a few educational locations. We would get three days off from school. It's funny. If you're one of the top students, three days off from school was not going to affect your grade in the least. If you're a C student, those three days could result in you getting a D.
There were two other Chorus students who qualified for the trip. They were both girls and seniors. The plan was for us to leave the Festival right after we finished singing. The parent of one of them (who happened to be the sister of the girl who had a crush on me in fifth grade) drove the three of us from Hobbs. We made a quick stop at her house on the way to school. The father was the principal of Roselawn Elementary. Altogether, there were five kids, each born a year apart. (Every year I was in high school, there was a member of this family in each class.) They did not live in a very nice house, so I thought. It wasn't bad, but it just seemed cluttered for some reason.
We got to the school. Classes were still in session for the last period, so we had to wait for it to be over before the teacher in charge of Student Council could drive us to Albuquerque. It was a dull trip. That teacher was not much fun to be around. I'm glad I never had him for any classes (and I'm also glad he wasn't still in charge of the Student Council the next year. He was likely the reason there was so much turnaround.)
We arrived and ate dinner at the hotel. It was just the four of us. A dull dinner. Everyone else was out ice skating. We caught up to them. I had tried ice skating during All-State. It wasn't any more difficult than rollerskating. Unfortunately, my problem (both times) was that the skates I was wearing fit my left foot perfectly, but were loose on the right foot. Yes, my left foot was larger than my right foot. It still is. I wound up with a blister on my right foot. I decided never to try to ice skate again.
We went back to the hotel. I was told I would be staying in the room with two other students. I went to the room and went inside. They told me I was supposed to be with these other students in another room. I grabbed my stuff and went to the other room. They opened the door and I told them what my "roommates" said. They told me they were wrong. I was supposed to be in there. They came out and came to the other room and knocked on the door. I said, "I don't know why they sent me over to you. I'm going to be sleeping on the couch."
One of the students' eyes widened and he asked, "You have a couch?" Just then, one of the "roommates" opened the door and everyone went inside. They were surprised at how large the room was. They had to sleep two to a bed, but in our room, two of us got a bed and I got the couch. There was also a lot more space than the other rooms. The teacher and the school's Vice Principal (who came as a chaparone) heard the ruckus outside and came into the room. One of them said, "Oh, we picked the wrong room."
It didn't seem like academics really came into play on this trip. More on Monday.
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