Wednesday, December 16, 2009

"With loss of EDEN, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat"


I don't remember much of my younger years, especially my elementary days. But, I do remember one frog in Second Grade. We'll call him Kickball Frog. He liked me, I liked him. My girlfriends and I would run after him and watch him and his friends play kickball. We were his cheerleaders...I was Kickball Frog's cheerleader and I loved cheering him on. He was cute with blonde hair and big brown eyes and his eyes were only for me, as much as they could be at seven. One day, a new boy arrived at school. He was kind and quiet and not to mention, cute. No one talked to him. Days went by and finally, I went up to him and asked him to play. My girlfriends looked at me as if I had just asked him if I could eat his brains for lunch and they went off to cheer on 'our' boys in their daily kickball game. I found out a lot about this boy, again - as much as you could at seven, and I really liked him. Not in the way that I liked Kickball Frog, but in a way that I could like a lonely boy who was new to a foreign school with children who ignored him. I played with him more than one day and let's just say, one frog back in the swamp was not okay with that.

Our class had been rehearsing for some dance for who knows what assembly at the time. My partner happened to be Kickball Frog. Now, in the dance, you had to skip together, couple arms, swing around and then skip back. Sounds easy, right? No, not really. Not when you have an angry frog for a partner. Frog eyes bug out and they scream when they are angry. Kickball Frog stomped my foot everytime we coupled arms. Now, myself not being one to complain (cough), somehow let the teacher know that dancing frog was not being very nice to my foot. She uttered something along the lines like "What is wrong with you???? Why can't you just get along????" Something I might say myself to a seven-year-old (not because I teach this age or anything.) Nevertheless, I was extremely hurt by his behavior and asked him what his deal was. He revealed some nonsense about my spending too much time with the 'new boy.' My Heavens! So much drama in the Second Grade. I had no idea it would be such an issue. God forbid I show some kindness to someone who is a bit of a loner and did I mention...a little handsome?

That day at lunch, I decided I better leave new boy alone and tramp back to the swamp to give my jealous frog some attention. Big mistake. He yelled out "Get out of here DOGFACE" in front of every child playing kickball and every girl cheering on the sidelines. I turned red at first and then felt the tears burning my eyes. I turned on my heel and walked away. Not only did I lose my frog, I lost my fair-weathered friends as well.

Who knew Second Grade would be so tough. As I said before, I don't remember much of my elementary years, but I do remember that moment like it was yesterday. From then on, I was quick to cry when a frog threw a harsh word my way and have always wondered, "Do I really look like a dog?"

Lesson learned - Don't do anything that might make a frog jealous if you really like him, and if you do, do not, under any circumstances, go back to visit him at the swamp while there are other frogs around.

(Beautiful photo thanks to Miss Viola at http://missviolax.deviantart.com/art/Forgotten-Energy-128610806)

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