Change of Plans!

Let’s take it all the way back to the 7th grade. It was the first week of school, last period of the day…gym class. We were outside on the track, getting ready to run the 100m dash to test who was the fastest kid in the class. Group by group, the slower students were eliminated while the quicker ones were moving on to the next round. Finally, it was time for the championship round. And to my surprise, there was one girl standing with me in the final four. I thought to myself, “How is it possible that she was faster than most of the boys in our class?” There we were, lined up side by side to find out who was the fastest… this one was for all the marbles. 5…4…3…2…1….“I WAS RUNNING” (*insert Forest Gump voice here*) The race only lasted seconds…I crossed the finish line first (obviously). To my surprise again, there she was…right behind me, finishing in second. “Who in the world is this girl?”, I asked myself. Her name was Catharine.

Let’s take it all the way back to the 7th grade. It was 4th period...English class. We had a spelling exam. We all sat at our desks, anxiously awaiting the first word. “Pretzel” our teacher called out. P-R-E-T-Z-E-L…”Easy”, I thought to myself. R-E-C-E-I-P-T…”I after E, except after C. Ha, they thought they got me there.” E-V-I-D-E-N-T-L-Y…”Okay, come-on…is this a joke?” I continued writing the words down onto my paper with full confidence. Twenty words later, and the exam was over. We were given a few extra minutes to review our work and make any necessary changes before the teacher came around to collect the exams. As I scanned the room to see who else had finished, I met eyes with my neighbor. Desperation was written all over his face…and almost nothing was written on his paper. I slid my exam to the edge of my desk and gave an inviting smile. After all…he was kind of cute. “Who in the world is this boy?”, I asked myself. I took a glance at the top of his paper. His name was Kevin.