Chiquita on Failing to Switch Gears

I suck at Math. I always have, and I probably always will. I suck so terribly at it that this term I was put into a class called “Applied Math. I had no idea what to expect when I showed up at class first hour on Monday. (Sociology was dropped to make room for this class. Boo.) I came in and the teacher told me to have a seat. I sat in the third row. The class is made up entirely of acquaintances and not a single person that I ever really talk to. With that being the case, it was easy for me to focus on what the teacher was talking about.
As I listened to the lesson, I became increasingly irritated. The students in the class mocked the teacher as he tried to do his job. They are the type with little or no respect for any kind of authority. The type who will not attend any kind of school (be it a two-year, four-year, or trade school) after graduation from high school. The type who have millions of better things to do during this time, like sell drugs or break into cars. I don’t mean to stereotype, but do you blame me? At one point during the hour, one of the guys in the class commented on how all the administrators supposedly thought he was a drug dealer because he was always on his phone. To this the teacher replied, “Is it true?” and the kid replied, “No! I didn’t sell any drugs this year!” Obviously, he meant to imply that he had previously sold drugs. Apparently, he thinks selling drugs is cool. Yea, pretty cool dude. So is working at Mickey D’s until you overdose at age 40, actually.
The class continued like this for the entirety of the period. As I listened to the conversations around me, I actually felt myself becoming less intelligent. My brain slowed down for a moment and I feared it might stop functioning completely and I would forget how to breathe and they’d have to drag my lifeless body off to the nurse’s office and I’d never make it to AP Lang.
Thankfully I managed to make it to the ring of the bell and wander mindlessly to AP Lang. When I sat down in my seat, I was feeling rather sluggish. Mr. Ayers started speaking and I found myself struggling to keep up with him. Frantic, I pulled out an essay and began to quickly read through it. Thankfully this worked and I began thinking like a normal person again. It was really weird feeling so sluggish in AP. I think it’s because my brain doesn’t have to work as hard in Applied Math as it does in AP and it just hadn’t realized it was time to wake up and get moving. The whole time I was in that class I had that song “Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz playing in my head. “I want to get away; I want to get away….”