Monday, 09/20/04 - 9:56 pm.
I went to school this morning. I saw Fidel, and I gave him a copy of my dad's book. He said: I got you an iguana, and so I'll meet him tomorrow, to receive the iguana. It's one of the strangest presents I've ever received, but it's reminded me of how special and odd Fidel is.
A dumb kid, 6th grader, 7th at the most, kept harrasing me at school. Well, he yelled at me: dude, nice wristband...HEY, YOU, THE ONE IN BLACK PANTS!. I suppose I could've turned around and say thank you or something, but I do not need nor take compliments from strangers. I never saw his face, as a matter of fact. I walked by him and he wouldn't take his eyes off of me, placing himself in my horizon. I insist, I never looked at him. He stood by the library door, and I looked through the library door, to the inside. My eyes never met his.
Before I left we ran into each other again. I noticed a shadow playing with a football (soccer) and then I heard a "he-llooo". I yawned and I just didn't stop walking. Usually I'm easily upset by guys, strangers, who tell me things, but this one I didn't even bother to feel a thing about. He was just a dumb kid, and yawning and pretending I wasn't listening was priceless.
I met the 2nd grader we'll be working with (for an assignment of one of my subjects at the university). I liked him. He was very receptive, and very smart. Later I had the thought that perhaps he was just pretending to be nice, and that he considered us a bunch of losers...but I could be wrong: he seemed very nice. We set up an "agreement" with him, and it was cute when Irene said to him: and if you have 6 tokens by the end of the week, we'll take you for ice cream. The face of the kid literally illuminated. I hope we'll make a good difference in this kid's academic life.
I hung around school for about two hours (I arrived at 10 and we were supposed to meet with the kid at 12:10). I was surprised at not being as nostalgic as I once thought I'd be. It must be because, as I realized, things just aren't the same. All those faces were unknown to me. The magic was gone because the people I grew up with was gone. There was no Art and Cel, no Obese Girl, no Vic, no one. That place, those hallways in which I cried in my high school years, were filled with "new generations": kids I inevitably saw growing up from afar, as they were coming behind me, and now have taken my place.
I saw a few kids I once had some contact with. There was this girl that I used to play with when she was a baby and I was a swimmer. Two kids I used to ride the school bus with; one even mumbled my name, when I thought he wouldn't even recognize me (he looked like Eminem, and for a little while -in junior high- I had a crush on him).
It's strange, to know I don't belong to my school anymore. It's not bad, really. It might seem bad when I get nostalgic and melancholy once in a while, but today was not the case. It was me looking at a place of my past from a different perspective: I wasn't wearing a uniform anymore. However, teachers still said hi to me. My science teacher, Charlie, said it was nice that I dropped by to pay a visit.
I could go on about this. Perhaps next time I go there (I have to, to check on the kid we're working with) I'll write all of my impressions. Just for me. Because I still find it strange, two years later, this thing of growing up and going from school to university.
I still wear bracelets (and let me add: spikes and wristbands), but my name is not decadence anymore.
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