Sister, I never did pass gym.....

I've always been a dreamer. When I was a kid, the nuns who taught me encouraged me to use my imagination and write.

So when I got to public high school, I was surprised to find that using my imagination landed me into big trouble within the first month after I wrote a piece for the high school newspaper making fun of gym class.

There was a big hullabaloo about the whole thing. The editor, a senior, protected me, a freshman. It was like a Deep Throat incident. Newspaper staff were leaving each other notes in the girls' restroom as to what they told the administration about the author of the controversial piece. The minute I found out about it, I marched into the office and announced I was the one who wrote the article, which ended the whole thing. I didn't even get detention, just a stern warning not to make fun of anything at the high school ever again.

Right.

As you can see from looking over my blog, I took that advice to heart - not. I think I was too far gone in my outspoken ways by the time the nuns were done with me to ever recede back into the shadows and keep my mouth shut. I was not only a dreamer by the time I finished eighth grade - but an outspoken, articulate one.

To be blunt, I left high school prematurely, obtained a GED and went on to college early mostly because I felt as if I was dying intellectually. The high school I attended had textbooks that were 20 years old, teachers with low expectations and an administration that thrived on keeping the status quo. I never looked back or regretted leaving and moving on.

Of course, they refused to issue me a diploma although I'd completed enough credits in the few years I went there and was ranked first in my class. The reason?

I didn't have enough credits in gym class.