Little Brat

So, when I was in 6th grade, I had to memorize the infamous "I'm Special" poem. Every 6th grader dreaded it, but every 6th grader in the school learned it. It starts like this: "I'm special. In all the world there's nobody like me. Since the beginning of time, there has never been another person like me. Nobody has my smile, nobody has my eyes, my nose, my hair, my hands, my voice. I'm special..." And it goes on and on and takes every 6th grader the full school year to memorize.

In 8th grade, in February, we had to do sermon notes for our Bible class. We had to keep a bulletin to prove we'd gone to church, take notes on the sermon, and apply it to our lives. Apparently I missed the part that said we had to do it in essay form, because I just listed all the bullet points. Also, I was going to a pentecostal/charismatic type of church while going to a non-denominational school run by a whole staff full of strict Baptists. That right there brings me down a full letter grade. Lastly, in 8th grade, I had the worst case of senioritis in my entire education, including my last semester at Rutgers where I did pretty much nothing.

So, when my first 5 sermon notes came back with C+, D+, D+, D+, and D-, I sat down at the computer for my next two sermon notes, to get even. Instead of bullet points, I used block quotes to include whole passages of the Bible, and thus, fill up a page and make it look like an essay. The next paragraph was a paraphrase of the previous Bible verse. The paragraph after that was a brief explanation of the point the pastor was attempting to draw from the Bible passage. The paragraph after that is a brief explanation of how the church service improved my life: "I liked the singing, dancing, shouting, clapping, and horn blowing best because Pentecostals enjoy that sort of stuff. I also enjoyed it when the smelly lady next to me left to go have a smoke." And from the second sermon note: "I liked being the only one with shorts on in the church. I like this because I'm special. In all the world there is no one like me."

They were returned without letter grades, only plus signs.