That Time I… – Saratoga Falcon

Seniors describe a memorable expierence during their elementary school years

That time I expressed my hatred in book…

In third grade at Argonaut Elementary School, girls were my only friends, boys were my sworn enemies and cooties were a legitimate concern. Thus, when current senior Michael Owyang dumped pencil shavings in my hair one day for sitting in his seat, I vowed to exact revenge.

I’m sure Michael had no idea he was getting himself into; he probably just really wanted his seat back. In my defense, his action catalyzed the events that followed.

As a budding journalist and writer at the ripe age of 8, I decided the best way to express my anger would be to create a construction-paper burn book, in which I compared Michael to a cucumber, among other insults.

I don’t remember what exactly what went into the book, but recently, Michael sent me a photo of the cover, and it consists of a drawing of something that resembles a vampire-ghost mix in one corner, his name spelled incorrectly in bubble letters under the words “No. 1 Evil Nerd” in the middle and “1,000 percent mean” written in another corner. Clearly, I’ve never been good at math.

After that incident, Michael and I never really talked again until recently on the Disneyland leadership trip. He told me the book made him cry (one of the multiple times I made him cry throughout third grade, apparently), and I was guilted into writing about this for the whole school to read. So Michael — I’m truly sorry, but I promise I’m a nicer person now — just no more pencil shavings in my hair, OK?

– Ariel Liu

That time a poster got me floor seats at a concert…

Who wouldn’t want to watch a bunch of teenagers break out into song and dance every five minutes? My third-grade self was completely obsessed with “High School Musical” (HSM). When my parents told me I could attend the HSM concert at the HP Pavilion with my best friend from Carden Academy, I thanked them with loud shrieks of excitement that are usually heard on roller coasters.

Of course, we had to create a poster to be our accessory of the evening. As wide-eyed, overly excited 8-year-olds, my friend and I probably spent five hours working on our colorful masterpiece — it had to be perfect. We divided the poster into four quadrants, shading in each with a different color of the Crayola Crayon set. Then we cut out pictures of the cast and pasted them in each quadrant next to supportive comments, such as “You rock!”

At the actual concert, we approached one of the concert officials, hoping he could give us directions to our seats. That’s when the poster worked its magic. He looked at it and said something along the lines of, “We have three empty seats on the floor — would you like to sit there instead?” While my friend and I were spazzing out in excitement, jumping around like a bunch of, well, crazy 8-year-olds, my mom replied with the word that was running through our heads: “Yes.”

Every time I hear “Stick to the Status Quo” or “All in This Together,” I will never forget the awesome poster that allowed us to watch the cast of our favorite movie from just 19 rows away.

– Vibha Seshadri