Working Toward Leaving

Well, I spent most of today getting ready for college. A couple hours of shopping at Wally World (Wal-Mart), going through my closet, opening all of the things I purchased at walmart, and other random things that I needed to do before leaving. Right now our biggest problem is if everything is going to fit in the back of our car for the drive down. I have confidence in our extreme packing skills, but my mother is already making plans to ship me a box of clothes I won't need in the first week.

I just took a brief break from writing to try on some long lost PJ's. So right now, between my light blue robe, matching slippers, and my "new" PJ's, I look like some well dressed 7th grader at a slumber party.

I realized last night that when I head off to college I"m really going to miss tutoring. I spent the last two years tutoring a number of different students in math and science, and now that I will be at school I will really miss my math/science challenged middle school and high school students. I'm not sure why I like tutoring, but I really do enjoy it. There were a lot of hard things, those days when nothing went right or when I thought I student had understood something only to learn to late they hadn't. Though, it has led to some very embarrassing situations for me.

Two years ago when I was at Western, I was tutoring a girl in math and biology. Her main problem (in science) was that she didn't have good study skills. Bio. has lots of memorization and if you can't come up with ways to memorize stuff you can really struggle. So I was frequently in the library after school trying to come up with goofy little sayings and phrases to help her remember that various parts of what ever bio organism she was memorizing at the time. But when that didn't work I was left with acting out the part to hopefully cement a hand motion in her head. Needless to say, in my Senior year, not only was I classified as I geek, but I also received many funny looks in the library after school.

You maybe wondering, why if with all of these difficult times I like and will miss tutoring. perhaps another story will explain.

The same year, I was also tutoring a 6th grade girl. She most likely had ADHD and/or dyslexia, but hadn't been tested yet. She was frequently getting picked on at school and was failing both math and english. All of this had been going on for most of the year, and not surprisingly her self-esteem was suffering. So I can't even begin to describe the look on her face when she would finally get something right, or when I would tell her she wasn't stupid. She was so proud that she was getting tutored by a senior that she told the whole middle school about me. Though, it was odd being known by the middle school as "Blank's tutor", it did give this little girl some needed bragging rights. The expressions of the other middle schoolers when I would sit next to this girl on the bus or tell off one of the 8th graders for picking on her were priceless. I will really miss tutoring next year.


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.


Amendment 1: I get to try on my ball dress tomorrow.

Amendment 2: Only three more days until the ball, and five days until I leave for school.

Amendment 3: I am now on HSA.