My Relationship with Me
| August 31, 2016
Photo: Shutterstock
M
rs. Braun’s smile is mysterious. “This year” she says looking around the classroom “tenth grade will enjoy a special privilege.”
Our principal smiles again and scans our faces. This sure is suspenseful.
“The tenth grade will run a very special carnival to support the Emes V’chesed Tzedakah Fund!”
Some girls start to clap and then stop. We are in class with our principal at the front desk after all.
A carnival! We will run the carnival!
And we’ll miss class — lots of it!
I really feel like breaking into long applause. Classes were so never-ending lately I found myself looking at my watch more than at the teacher. Finally something to break the monotony.
Mrs. Braun launches into a speech with guidelines rules and warnings. It’s hard to listen; I just want to bolt out of my seat and get out the balloons and streamers.
Jobs are delegated and the fun begins. Toby and I are in charge of the maze booth and it’s an exciting challenge. We have to create a maze that’s both difficult and possible to navigate.
Miss Herman our mechaneches supervises the carnival preparations. I think we’re all embarrassed to admit to each other just how exhilarated we are. Miss Herman is our favorite teacher and now we get to have her every day for hours of fun!
It is the first day of carnival preparations and we are all down in the school auditorium planning our booths and figuring out where to station each one. Miss Herman makes her way around answering questions encouraging giving ideas.
Miss Herman hasn’t yet reached my booth and I search for her around the auditorium. She is talking to Chaya at the trivia station. Five minutes later she’s still there. Ten minutes fifteen minutes. Chaya is flushed and Miss Herman is talking to her quietly nodding smiling.
Twenty minutes later she’s still there and I’m getting frustrated. The day is almost over and Miss Herman will never get to our maze booth today. Toby and I are stuck unable to decide whether to do the maze horizontally or vertically and now we’ll have to wait for tomorrow.
The bell rings. I watch Miss Herman wave to Chaya then to rest of the class pick up her bag and leave. The whole class automatically turns to look at Chaya. Chaya jerks her head away.
The next day we start on our carnival preparations right after lunch. We have a long stretch ahead of us and we’ll finally get to plan our booth with Miss Herman.
Oops! We could not locate your form.
