School Field Trips From My Childhood: Sixth Grade

United States
September 23, 2017 2:44am CST
In sixth grade we spent a week at Woodleaf, a hippie camp up in the hills. My bunk buddy didn't show up the day we left so I had to share my bunk with one of the high school counselors in charge of my cabin. I did not have a very good time, as I had no friends there, and I was on my period which made things miserable. I had a really bad migraine the first day and ended up at the nurse's station, and woke up in a strange bunk with one of the male teachers (not my own) standing over me and glaring at me, and he mocked me for having a headache. The nurse yelled at him to get out of there and luckily he left me alone after that, but I was horrified. No 11 year old girl wants to wake up to finding a strange man lurking over her. The rest of the trip was just meh. I had a crush on one of the naturalists who worked there, who went by the name Jason Jurassic. He had longish blond hair and a goatee. I wanted to get a picture of him but I was too embarrassed to take one, so I never did. I was sad when we left because I knew I'd never see him again. The big field trip in sixth grade was a visit to the Bay Area to visit a sea life sanctuary. That was the first time I got to see the ocean. We got to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, and I swore I saw Peter Tork of the Monkees drive by twice (he lived in San Francisco at the time.) Toward the end of the year I got to go to Water World (a water park) with the orchestra, which I was a member of (I played the violin.) I had no friends to hang out with so I latched onto a group of girls I knew from the choir. I ended up burning the bottoms of my feet from walking barefoot on the hot concrete and had huge blisters, and my mom made me wear maxipads on the bottom of my feet for a few days afterwards, and wrote me a note to get out of P.E. My older sister told everyone at school about the pads on my feet and I was humiliated. My class also got to go on an end of year field trip to the pool, which was also a horrifying experience. My friend Ravneet did not know how to swim and thought she was drowning in the shallow end (which was only about 2 or 3 feet deep.) She tried to take me down with her and pulled my bathing suit down in the process, flashing my 12-year-old boobies to anyone who was looking. Then, the boy I liked swam between my legs, leaving me terribly confused. Oh, and Mr. Angeloni, my English and History teacher and the resident school pervert, floated around with his shirt off and we were all afraid we would choke on hairballs. Middle school wasn't a very pleasant experience for me, as you can probably tell... (Thanks to @Courtlynn for the inspiration for this post series.)
5 people like this
3 responses
@allen0187 (59828)
• Philippines
24 Sep 17
The year wasn't too kind to you eh. You still made it out so good for you!
1 person likes this
• United States
24 Sep 17
Yeah...it was the worst. But somehow I made it out alive! lol
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@allen0187 (59828)
• Philippines
24 Sep 17
@Srbageldog you are a better person because of it!
1 person likes this
• United States
24 Sep 17
@allen0187 It's given me a lot of writing material, that's for sure.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (118793)
• Anniston, Alabama
23 Sep 17
Not a good year for you at all. LOL`z about the school pervert.
1 person likes this
• United States
23 Sep 17
My middle school years were the worst years of my life, and I've been to hell and back so that's saying something. Probably why the characters I write about are usually in middle school. Mr. Angeloni never was a pervert toward me, but he did like to massage students' necks (never mine, thankfully!) and there always seemed to be something *off* about him.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (118793)
• Anniston, Alabama
23 Sep 17
@Srbageldog Yeah thats a little to much touching.
1 person likes this
• United States
23 Sep 17
@andriaperry There was a rumor circulating (that started when my sister was in his class two years before me) that he would look down girls' shirts...I don't know if it was true or not, but that rumor was still alive and well years later once I was an adult and working at that school, so I always wondered if there wasn't any truth to it.
@Courtlynn (67089)
• United States
23 Sep 17
Oh wow. Most od those don't sound fun. Sorry about the man standing over you and being a jerk. And sorry you didnt have friends in 6th grade, plus the bathing suit ! . I wouldve been your friend!
1 person likes this
• United States
24 Sep 17
Aww, thanks. My best friend from elementary school chose to go to a different middle school (so she could have a fresh start away from me, I later found out) and my other best friend ditched me for this girl who absolutely hated me. They would follow me around school saying horrible things at me and I was really depressed. I made a couple casual friends here and there, but nobody that I was really best friends with. Ravneet became my best friend eventually but then she ditched me to hang out with other Indian girls, which is what usually happens once they hit a certain age. Anyway, yeah, middle school sucked.
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@Courtlynn (67089)
• United States
24 Sep 17
@Srbageldog yeah, i remember you mentioning all that
1 person likes this