TIFFANY NICOLE

I remember elementary school vividly. The colorful papers and art projects littering the walls and ceilings, carpet squares on the floor, rolling backpacks, and desks that got bigger as you got older – some say they peaked in high school, but honestly, I think I peaked then, in rooms where you knew everyone’s name and teachers would bring their dogs to school. Running at lunch and play practice during school rather than after. While our time was filled with dance and sports and all of the other one million activities parents had their 9-year-olds involved in, teachers were (and are) stretched thin, with their after-school lives consisting of grading math quizzes and creating lesson plans that will make science appealing to snotty children. They needed help. And that is where the volunteers came in. I remember in first grade, there was a different mom that came in to help daily. They did the most mundane tasks, but without them, those things were just another item on a busy teache...

I overheard one of the older girls in the house yesterday say that this night was the best night of all of her Freshman Fall Quarter, and I think that she might just be right. Don't get me wrong, I've had plenty of fun nights, but this was on a whole other level. What made this night so much greater, I think, was that we are all becoming more comfortable with one another. That the "I love you's" that get shouted across the hallways are beginning to take root and really mean something. I have this fear in large crowds about losing the person who I came there with, more of a fear of them leaving without me. I don't like to be left alone in places where I'm not familiar, and while I realize that this is a completely rational thing to be worried about, it often causes me extreme anxiety in these situations and I become fixated on making sure I can see whomever I feel the need to keep an eye on which causes me to not be present in the moment at wha...