I am sorry, Mrs. Clarke, really I am...

I am sorry, Mrs. Clarke, really I am….

Mrs. Marian Clarke was my English teacher for my junior

and senior year.  She started out each year with the same

speech.. About paying attention, in class…. And then her

famous last line. Please, oh, please don’t come back after

you graduate, for your reunion and tell me..”I should have

paid attention while I was in your class”… because it isn’t

going to hold water with me. I am telling you now…

PAY ATTENTION… ok, let’s get started.

 

I am sorry, Mrs. Clarke, really I am… I tried to pay attention.

but there were things to think about.. especially when you

were giving us a lecture. My mind wandered.. to such foolish

things, like the boy I liked who didn’t pay attention to me.

To praying I wouldn’t be caught in gym again, in my stupid blue

gym suit that made all of us look like blue balloons, by the fire alarm.

 

Besides who was going to use all this stuff? And those slanted

lines for adverbs and adjectives and all the rest that look foreign to me. Making sure I used the comma, where needed, seem so easy.

 

But then I started to write a blog 7 years ago…and all I can say is,

Thank goodness for the 3 dots (when in doubt) and I am sorry

Mrs. Clarke… really I am.