Déjà Vu

                I don’t think I have much of a favorite musician or band. I do enjoy music by bands like Red, Skillet, various techno artists, and Kristine Sa. However, I don’t think I’d like to talk about favorite music artists for this whole blog. After all, we did have a blog that was more or less the same as this one earlier in the year (link: http://ahsonlinepublishingstephanieg.blogspot.com/2012/11/f3-that-moment-when-you-realize-that.html). I won’t completely ignore the music-based theme, though.

                So, I’m going to talk about a different sort of music to which I listen. First: Show tunes. I was introduced to show tunes (aside from Disney; that has a category all on its own) when I was a sixth grade student. That was the first year that we could actively participate in the school musical. Slowly, I developed a taste for the music of the stage. I loved singing it, I loved acting along with it, but there was one problem: I never got the chance to watch musicals, like go to theatres and see them. My first legit musical was probably Grease, which my mom had on VHS (Did I just age myself there?). I loved the songs, but the songs of musical theatre were like a drug. I couldn’t have just the songs from Grease stuck in my head forever. I had to go out, expand my horizons, and learn more! The next musical I saw (it was on DVD, but it was a film rendition of a musical) was The Phantom of the Opera originally written for stage by famous composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. I don’t really want to talk about how obsessed I was with that show, mostly because it got bad. Like, really bad. I’m sure that at least once, each of my friends wanted to shoot me in the head to get me to shut up and stop singing the songs. Recently, however, I went to go see Les Miserables in theatres, and I may have found a new passion. The music and storyline were so beautiful and believable, and I instantly fell in love with the songs. So now, I have a new set of songs to sing all over my house.

                Disney. Everybody knows Disney. But I’m talking about classic Disney; the stuff produced and put out on VHS when I was a kid. The Little Mermaid, Robin Hood, Mulan, and Pocahontas were constantly being watched, rewound, and rewatched over and over again. I don’t remember who created all of the Disney songs, but (s)he is/was a genius. Their ability to touch every tiny ounce of muscle in my heart with a simple melody and group of lyrics made classic Disney movies fun to watch, and I loved every second of it. Go ahead and ask me to sing “A Girl Worth Fighting For” or “Belle” for you. I won’t be bothered, because even though I’m almost legally an adult I still love my classic Disney movies and I’d still go back and watch them all over again just to relive my experiences of childhood.

Who's That?

Note: Teachers’ names are not intentionally misspelled.

Looking back, I’m not all that fond of my intermediate or primary school years. You never knew exactly who was in your class because you were only with a small group of maybe twenty kids at a time and met one class each year for a gym class once every few days. Friends you made in Kindergarten would change by the time you hit third grade not because you had a falling-out but because you weren’t in the same class. However, if I had to choose a favorite year, I would choose Kindergarten.

Unlike most of my town, I didn’t start out attending the local primary school. I actually grew up in a small town in Maryland, and that’s where I went to school. That being said, I don't expect anyone reading this blog to know of any of the teachers mentioned here. As the oldest child in my central family, I was the first one to attend any sort of school program. I remember my parents making a huge deal out of it, but I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. It was just school. A lot of characters that I watched on PBS Kids went to school, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. I remember being kind of freaked out on the first day of Kindergarten, though. I made my mom put my favorite stuffed animal at that time in my backpack so I could have something familiar while there.

My first teacher was named Mr. Kilduff. He seemed pretty nice, though I can’t really remember much about what he looked like. Truth be told, I never got to know him very well. I switched Kindergarten classes shortly after school started (my parents later told me that it was because I was too advanced for the class and sitting there bored would have done me no good). So, I was transferred to Mrs. Maditz’s class. She was pretty nice, though I don’t remember enough to give an accurate description. At first, I remember being really, really freaked out. I mean, I had just started making friends in Mr. Kilduff’s class and was getting used to the way that he taught, but then the next minute I was in a new classroom with a group of new kids and a new teacher. Mrs. Maditz was really, really nice about that, though. I don’t remember exactly what she did to help, but I know that if I had transferred to a classroom where the teacher was downright mean and didn’t give me transition time to get used to new rules and kids, I would have been less enthusiastic about going to school. Mrs. Maditz introduced to me that learning things could be fun, too. For example, I remember using the computers for the first time to learn things like math and basic grammar functions, and there was always time for fun. I think that’s what I liked most about Mrs. Madtiz’s class: even if there was work to be done, time could be made for us to have a good time while we learned.

Okay, this blog ended up being more about why Kindergarten was awesome than about why Mrs. Maditz was awesome… But I doubt I would have thought that it was awesome in the first place if I’d had a really crummy teacher.