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12.25.01-1:35 p.m.> When I was in 9th grade,the week before Christmas Break,my creative writing teacher read Truman Capotes"A Christmas Memory"to us. I was particularly taken with the detail of the story, and admired my teacher for reading aloud to a bunch of high school students. He politely informed us that within the next week we'd be recounting holiday memories of our own in the forms of 4-5 page stories,to be on his desk,as soon as possible and read aloud to the class. Me ? Read Aloud to the class ? I shuddered at the thought for many reasons. 1) I was the only Freshman in the class, 2)I didnt KNOW anybody else in the class, 3)I was chubby, akward, bumbly,nerdy,girl in a weezer tshirt, and extremely intimidated by the pack of seniors taking this course to simply fulfill their english sequence for graduation. I wrote about the year we got EXTREMELY lost on the way to my Uncle's house,in the old 2 door Renault my parents used to drive. In itself its an extremely funny story. Lots of dialogue between my parents. My brother and I trapped in the backseat banging our heads against the windows. We wound up about 2 hours out of our way. Turning an 1+ trip to Westchester into a 4 drive to almost Albany. These two yokels tried to buy the car off my dad when he stopped to ask for directions and because he refused their offer, they gave us extremely inaccurate directions as to where we needed to get. At 12 years old you really are a helpless prisoner in the backseat of your parents car on long rides like that. I guess maybe that was the entire point. Anyhow, I handed this story in and my teacher LOVED it. I might still have it somewhere infact. I mightve been the sleeper hit of that entire class that year. In the end, it was very unnerving to hear this class laughing out loud at the funny parts,and clapping when I was done. I guess that was it for me, that moment I was done and they clapped, and I knew they really liked it, and I had done something right. I liked words, and I liked to write, and I liked to think I was good at it. But the feeling of acceptance, is something I wont ever forget. Because on that last day before christmas break when everyone is restless, a classroom full of bitter seniors sat and listened to me for five minutes and made me feel good about myself. This is a feeling that shouldnt be so hard to come by, especially during the holidays, especially,this year. - merry christmas,among other things to you and yours. love, melissa
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