Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Chemistry Contest

When I was a junior in high school, I was in a chemistry class. I can't remember the teacher's name, but I remember that she was young and blond. She wasn't skinny and overly hot though, so I was able to really like her. She was one of my more favorite teachers that year. If I recall correctly, we even hung out in there at lunch sometimes.

The room had somewhere between 6 and ten large black tables. We sat around them in groups of four to six. I think it was a mixed class. By mixed class, I mean that there were both honors and non-honors students in the class. I spent most of my days in classes with only honors students, so the classes that were mixed were always a strange mixture of emotions and feelings for me.

In this class she had a particular difficulty getting all the students to complete the weekly homework packets and turn them in Fridays. Now, the thing is, I had trouble with this myself. Not because I wasn't doing the homework, but because I had trouble holding onto it all for a week and staying organized enough to keep it together so I could turn it in on Friday.

So, at the end of the first semester she offered us a contest. For every week that we turned in a complete packet on Friday, we would get a raffle ticket. On the last Friday of the semester she would hold a drawing and give the winner fifty bucks.

Well, for the poor girl that I was, that was enough of an incentive to really keep me going. I had never had that much money of my own before. It seemed like a fortune.

So, I turned in my packets every Friday and earned a ticket for every week. I think it was 11, but I could be completely off base on that one...

And, guess what...for the only time in my life to date, I won a contest.