Beating the system

At the end of every year you're sad to lose the teachers you grew close to, yet ecstatic to never have to deal with the ones you hated. That is, unless you get the same teacher you hated freshmen year again junior year. Lucky me! I got the only teacher I really hated in high school again. And it's a mutual feeling...

There was an incident freshmen year after school. I was talking to my friend across the hall while we were at our lockers that were maybe 15 feet apart. We were discussing our English teachers, and I not-so-subtly voiced, "I HATE MY ENGLISH TEACHER!" Luck would have it he stepped out of the bathroom right near my locker at that very second. He cryptically said, "hello." And I knew he heard.

August 1st I got my schedule. I loved every class, the teachers, and the people in them except for first period English. The class was full of people I didn't care for and of course my good ol' buddy ol' pal Mr. B.

I started having moments of anxiety where I thought he would just fail me and that one class would ruin my GPA. I walked in on the first day and realized he hadn't forgotten that encounter freshmen year.

Changing teachers because you don't like them is impossible at my school without an appeal during the summer. An appeal requires you to write and essay and plead your case to the school board. Guess who didn't have to do any of that!

I have the counseling department head as my counselor, so that's an advantage. I stumbled into his office towards the end of the first day. I told him how Mr. B didn't like me and made me feel awkward and uncomfortable. And just to sell it, I nearly cried. He said he'd see what he could do...

A day later I walk into his office, "I had to pull A LOT of strings," he said. From that moment I knew I beat the system. "If other students had asked the English coordinator would have refused immediately but it's the way you've conducted yourself over the last two years and yesterday that sold her. You never complain about anything so for you to complain it must be pretty bad." Well thank God I felt too awkward to complain about things as a freshman and just didn't care sophomore year! I'm not sitting happily next to my two best friends in Mr. C's first period English. Nothing on my perfect schedule got touched. Destroyed the system.