James Thomas Mr. Munoz. ¥ watch your verbs. Keep tnem all in either past or prerent +enke Dual Credit Eng., Per. 5 October 2, 2014 Special Education “Where are we going?” I asked my friend. She and I were walking through the fifth grade hall, the hall that was strange and terrifying. “We are going to the Special’classroom,” she repl As first gradei%s, we both knew that we were not supposed to be in heréand not just sh because we were getting strange looks from the giants that surrounded us. Her and I kept walking on through, her leading because she had done this before( whatever we were doing. We make it through the hall of older, more mature students and we feel relieved to have made it through the sea of gargantuan upperclassmen. I have never been more intimidated in my life. We walk down a hallway that is outside of the school and my heart is racing. What is this for? Are we in trouble? Was it something that I said? We make it to a door in the middle of the hall and she knocks on the door. “Oh, hello kids! It is nice to see you both here. Please come in and id the teacher. I smile weakly and take feeble steps into the room. It is small don’t be shy! but colorful with all sorts of posters. There are a few desks facing towards the front of the class. On the ground is a carpet with all sorts of scholastic materials woven through its wool. “Please, have a seat. Are ya'll ready to learn?” “Um, sure,I guess?” We went to that class quite WHO'S FaIKiNg? lacey regularly after the first session, In fact, I don’t remember being in the normal reading class at all. \ Pues that is what happens when you are special. ‘When I was in first grade,1 was placed in a special education class. I had no idea what passive that meant. All I remember doing, though, was playing with cards and eating skittles after class.bee oe To this day, all that I know is that I was put in that class gat I was different from the rest of my classmates mentally. I overheard-fonrmy mother telling a friend recently that the school distriet in Cross Plains thought I had a borderline case of Asperger disease. The question that has haunted me since I was placed in the special education class has now been answered and now I ; PASSIVE, Ambiguous question whether or not I am truly smart, After moving to Corpus Christi, realized that life would never be same. I moved through elementary school without very many problems. I got in trouble;fut not like I did back in Cross Plains. Calallen was a different school, one filled with bullies and strange people. I never truly fit in because I was an outsider, a person with a different personality and life. People used to exclude me from games and others would give me a chance. Soon enough though those people would leave too and I would be all alone again. 1 would soon discover my passion for reading through this aloneness and that books would be my only friend In my regular class, ee of ETF set read more than any other of - desi my classmates. For the gifted class,] was averagsymaybe slightly above. I didn’t read for the competition like them.though, I simply read for the fun of it. My favorite kind of books to read ‘ney did, were supematural books. Anything that wasn’t part of the norm was always stuck to my face, my eyes dancing across the pages of those strange books. During sixth grade, I took a break from the book worm world to focus on becoming a jock. | trained for football during the summer, played during the fall, and then went straight to basketball. This trend wewkl-ge-on for the next wens ‘two years. During sixth grade I was placed in the gifted, or honors, classes after being in the top of the average class and passing all of the preliminary tests. 1 enjoyed being smart but in order to | be Popular one eee ier a eae to achieve >achiove his high hor In middle school, image is everything ind Tears = a hard way. ‘on tana 7e-be bullied Mn seventh andi being went ivedifferent. I wasn’t the normal jock3the popular one, I abways-stuck out in a crowd, cursed to be edverb different. | tried to be athletic and cool like the rest of the football team, but alas, it was not ‘meant to be. Twas once again pushed out of the group and was alone. I turned back to reading and tried to hide in the books that I read. The bullying never ceased so neither did my reading. on outcast Soon enough I was one of the book nerds once again,-cweeasted for being abnormal like the books that were always in hand. I spent most of my free time in the library, the only place where I could be accepted, but of course, there was no one other thar tried to be “normal”, to be like the rest of my classmates,but they always treated me with displeasure. “Why are you so annoying? Like seriously, why are you even a You know that no one likes you, no one wants to like you, and no one will like you.” pees a gk same story: go to football practice, go to school, be bullied, and hide in the library. sea was finally in eighth grade that I had had enough, (i beesime smarter, bigger, and more athletic than he Naw paregraph normal student. I naturally became smarter through reading and all that time training for football put me as an equal. I was still bullied, but at least I could look down upon them as well. I spent more time in the library than. ever, reading, learning, and getting an edge that the rest of the classmates didn’t care about, Even the librarian loved me. All the bullying pushed me toward a greater goal in my life; to be better than those who out casted me. I focused on my studies and never received lower than a B in all of my classes. I was fimatty-moving up the ranks. During ninth grade was my hiccup. I stopped reading and focused on being a jock once again. My grades started to fall. The only class that-was consistent,,was English. It was in English, just like in during f@st grade and onward, that I excelled in. I never received less than a high B. I honed in on this advantage but it wasn’t enough, my other grades were failing me. My parents saw this and knew that I needed to be transferred, that | needed more attention,so they moved me to JohnPaul II High School. It is here that I have put all of my effort into school in a last ditch effort in ol being atthe top. I now know that you don’t need to be popular to be distinguished, all you need is to have faith in yaurself. ue) My sophomore year was an awkward one but it was also one of the best years of my life. T became smarter than ever before and fitted in. My World History teacher, Mr. Petrone, recognized my advanced reading and writing skills and recommended that I take a challenge to ee help better myself, but Aas forced to decline-beetase-of my varsity basketball schedule. My eee —— junior year,I became a jock but stuck to my education more than ever. I focused on my writing, with Mrs. Tyree, my English III teacher, and bh\e/developed my skills as a writer eypopentialty. I now focus on school only in hopes of making up for lost ground but there is only so much that I ad vera can do, My weekly blogs for my Dual Credit English Class has helped with my creative writing style, I just feel lucky to have received the special education that has prevailed me through life Propeltedd to put me where I am today.