September

day book entry #1

Ah.

I'm thinking of the days of Taking Attendance, or sometimes known as roll call, such "fond" memories of the past.

"Zahav Shultzer?" called the teacher in an uncertain monotone, the first day of seventh grade, pronouncing it like "zaa hayve shawl-zer" she looked very stern and grumpy, like the word "hello" would set her off in a negative sense, but knowing that I said, as politely as I could, "its ZA-hav shull-t-zer" "Zahav", she mumbled as if trying to find it in a dictionary, "what an obvious fake name, I wasn't born yesterday! Do NOT try to trick me again, missy!" oh kay, now I was starting to get mad, besides the fact that I hate being called "missy", she had insulted me also the randomness and rapidity of her accusing me made no sense whatsoever and was crazy. "Excuse me," I said, biting my tongue, "I would really appreciate it if you wouldn't make fun of my name, the one I registered under and the one I was given." I hadn't realized I was standing up. "Zahav" she said, "is not a real name". What the heck, NOW I was angry, she calls herself a Religion teacher? "It is a real name and it is the name I was given", I raised my voice, "if you don't like it too bad, you know how to work that computer over in the corner, right? Zahav is Hebrew for gold, Google® it." "Zahav" said the teacher, you could almost hear the air quotes in her voice, "take this to the principal." She handed me a slip of paper. "You are in trouble." I quickly walked out, only noticing the kids staring at me bug-eyed as I stepped through the door.

I rarely think before I talk but now I was heading to the principal's office on the first day of high school. I have nothing against the principal's office, it's just the connections people make, in grade five, the teacher handed a girl named Amanda a note and told he "please go to the principal's." and then all the kids went "OOOOO! AMANDA IS IN TROUBLE!" "Oh give me a break!" I had said, "Stop being so immature! You know y'all are in grade FIVE, right?" and then I was sent to the principal's office for the same reasons the kids thought Amanda had.

"You were back-sassing your teacher?" the principal asked me after reading the note a few times. " That's what she understood." I said, I try not to say "I WASN'T!" because whoever took it that way, "but that was not how I intended her to, she had accused me of using a fake name." He looked at the note again "Zahav, that is a Jewish name, right?" "Hebrew" I corrected "but there are a lot of Jews who have it, it means "gold". " It is a nice name," he said "thank you" I replied.

Apparently the teacher was new so he just called her in to talk to her about not letting a bad hair day rule her behavior. A bad hair day! Can you believe it? I think it is crazy! "It IS crazy" agreed my new friend Alyssa sympathetically when I described what had happened in Ethics, Alyssa's teacher is nice, she says she is OBSESSED with charity, it's the second day of school and Ms. Barrymore has already planned to raise money this year for "Free The Children's". An organization made to help children in poverty. Not that that is a bad thing, I think it is great but I wonder how much they get done in class.

DAY BOOK ENTRY 1 COMPLETE, until tomorrow, good night day book! (yeah, I am crazy, so deal with it)

-ZAHAV SHULTZER