I’m going to be honest with you
I don’t know what to write
a common plight
in my relatively English assignment free unschooled life.
I fight to figure out what to say,
five hours in advance of a shindig,
where I won’t wear a gown or walk across a stage in a funny hat as my name is read off a list,
because this is Nelson’s hippy school,
and that’s just not how we roll.
We roll in the direction of ‘artifacts’ rather than ‘assignments’
to a place where the answer to the question
“Is this mandatory?” will always be, “This is an invitation.”
It’s cool because I still get to tell people I’ve never gone to school,
at least not, “Real School,”
and bottle up those surprised looks,
the ones that say, “But you seemed so normal,”
so I can use them fuel my stilted forays into social environments.
I want you all to know that every time anyone has ever asked me one of the never ending variations on “Who did you have to assassinate to acquire social skills?” I have bitten back a retort.
“Social skills? What are social skills? Wait, I know this. Or maybe I used to because I crammed it into my head right before a test one night at 3am. Let’s see. Social skills. Is that when you are able to have functional interactions with other human beings and not make them feel really awkward for stereotyping you as a socially inept outcast due to your non-traditional education? I guess I learned it all from watching Seventh Heaven reruns every afternoon at 1. Still working out the kinks though. Please fill out this comment card with your constructive criticism or call one eight hundred-how’s-my-small-talk.”
But I don’t say that because sometime between the sleeping in and wearing my pajamas for days on end, I picked up what I like to call my social toolbox. And it’s not perfect, the lid doesn’t close all the way and the handle is rusty. But at least I learned to build relationships based on shared interest rather than mutual confinement. We can’t all say that.
So yeah, I had a friend once. It was kinda cool.
But back to my point. Matriculation.
I guess thank you is in order. See, I have enough social skills for that.
Thank
you.
I can’t find a way to express what I want to say that’s not a hopeless cliche
but one day,
I might have it down.
one day I might have a language to express all this misplaced gratitude but until then, I have this one simple word to lay in front of you, knowing full well it won’t be enough to measure up to all the cups of tea and hugs you proffered on those too often bad days. All the support and love, without which I would not have made it to this stage.
Thanks.
