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Description
Greek or Geek
The book snapped shut with a loud click. Everyone turned to look as Mrs. Hayes stood from her desk, her chair screeching across the tiles, and walked to the center of the room. The entire class was completely silent, everyone dreading the bell that would signify the beginning of the class and the beginning of a long discussion about our current myth writing assignment. Suddenly, the bell sounded with a loud, electrical ring, making half the students jump out of their seats. Our Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Hayes, spun to face us with a look that told us she was enjoying this way too much.
"Good morning young scholars," she said in a squeaky, loud pitched voice (we called it her "Whitney" voice because Whitney was the voice of her high pitched mouse puppet).
The class muttered back a dejected "hi," making Mrs. Hayes frown and start shuffling her feet, suddenly nervous.
Soon bouncing back to her normal self, our teacher energetically announced her excitement, "Today, we are going to have someone read their myth, so that we can analyze it. Who wants to read theirs?" A sudden, nervous murmur ran up and down the rows of students. After a pause she repeated her question in a pitch that almost broke the windows of the classroom, "So, who wants to read their myth?!" Mrs. Hayes practically cried.
A few hands shakily lifted half way into the air, only one student's hand shot straight up. That student was me.
Looking around I realized my mistake and hastily brought my hand down, but it was too late, "Megan!" Mrs. Hayes shouted, her voice shooting up another octave, now so high that dogs everywhere covered their ears, "You can read yours"!
Shakily, I stood up, my legs threatening to give out at any moment. Excuses ran through my mind: I didn't print it, I forgot my flash drive, or my computer broke. My mind working furiously, I slowly walked to the center of the room and took out my flash drive, brandishing it like a weapon.
"Ummm…" was all I could get out of my deflated lungs, I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. What was I thinking? Why had I raised my hand?
"Plug your flash drive into the computer, and I'll turn on the projector," squealed Mrs. Hayes, lunging forward, eager to start the reading.
I plugged the drive in slowly, every minute seeming to last an hour, my hands shook as I stepped back so that I could see the computer screen. Slowly, I took in a deep breath and started reading.
Only a few minutes into my story, Mrs. Hayes stopped me, "Megan," she began "you need to add a comma two sentences back."
Sluggishly, I did as I was told, slowly scrolling my cursor back too the right spot and correcting my mistake. After a few more minutes of stumbling reading, I got into a rhythm and began to speak more confidently, although I was still acutely aware of the 26 other faces staring morosely at me. Soon after I had gotten comfortable, I was abruptly stopped with another mistake. Seeing my distress, Mrs. Hayes called up one of my friends to help.
"Kayla, why don't you go up and help Megan make changes to her paper?" she helpfully suggested.
Jumping at the chance, Kayla leaped up and skipped over to where I was sitting. Soon after this help, the reading became more comfortable and even a little fun. I read confidently and, interjected comments smoothly into the story.
"Suddenly, a small clatter in the shadow of a dark corner alerted him to another presence in the room besides his own. He froze, rigid, suspecting that the two guards had come back to execute him. He soon noted that this couldn't be so, because there was no door near that corner, and no one had come into the dungeon since himself. He finally relaxed as he realized that what he had suspected to be a threat, turned out to be only a small rat, hiding in the cool corners of the room. The rat seemed unafraid of Axl, almost as if it knew he was screwed, and scurried up to the bars of the cell, stopping right before entering.
"Come here, little guy," Axl crooned to the small creature, not to kill it, but to have any sort of companion in the empty prison.
Suddenly, the rat grew in size, its small body twisting and turning in to birds and cats and dogs, slowly transforming, seeming to stop on a creature, only to have another animal take the place of the last. Axl sat, horrified and transfixed as a fox, than snake, than bird all slowly melted out of the last, right before his eyes. Eventually the creature took on a masculine male form, standing before Axl as though transformation were yesterday's news.
After several moments of sitting there stupidly with his mouth open, eyes bulging, Axl managed to gain control of speech again, "Wh- wha- who are you?!?!" he finally managed to stammer.
"I am the shape shifting god, Nioteus; I am very pleased to make your acquaintance," he said in a deep tone that made Axl think of tigers and handsome birds singing deep throated songs.
"Oh," was all he could think of to say in reply."
At this point in the story, Mrs. Hayes stopped me and, as serious as could be said, "Megan was Nioteus naked?" I stared at her in horror as she went on, "because if he is, he'd be really handsome." I almost screamed, a teacher, asking that!
Unable to control ourselves, the entire class broke into hysterical laughter, between gasps, I managed to giggle that he was not naked; he was wearing a toga that covered him completely!
After that moment, the whole class joked and giggled with each other about the story, and everyone was very relaxed. Too soon, the class was over, and I packed up my stuff and left with the rest of the class. I know I will always remember that day, and will always bear in mind the feeling of connection I had with Mrs. Hayes.  Almost a year later, I am now much more confident speaking in front of a class and to teachers, because I now realize that no matter who you're talking to, they're also human, and they most likely aren't judging you. I will always cherish this memory.

Description
Greek or Geek
The book snapped shut with a loud click. Everyone turned to look as Mrs. Hayes stood from her desk, her chair screeching across the tiles, and walked to the center of the room. The entire class was completely silent, everyone dreading the bell that would signify the beginning of the class and the beginning of a long discussion about our current myth writing assignment. Suddenly, the bell sounded with a loud, electrical ring, making half the students jump out of their seats. Our Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Hayes, spun to face us with a look that told us she was enjoying this way too much.
"Good morning young scholars," she said in a squeaky, loud pitched voice (we called it her "Whitney" voice because Whitney was the voice of her high pitched mouse puppet).
The class muttered back a dejected "hi," making Mrs. Hayes frown and start shuffling her feet, suddenly nervous.
Soon bouncing back to her normal self, our teacher energetically announced her excitement, "Today, we are going to have someone read their myth, so that we can analyze it. Who wants to read theirs?" A sudden, nervous murmur ran up and down the rows of students. After a pause she repeated her question in a pitch that almost broke the windows of the classroom, "So, who wants to read their myth?!" Mrs. Hayes practically cried.
A few hands shakily lifted half way into the air, only one student's hand shot straight up. That student was me.
Looking around I realized my mistake and hastily brought my hand down, but it was too late, "Megan!" Mrs. Hayes shouted, her voice shooting up another octave, now so high that dogs everywhere covered their ears, "You can read yours"!
Shakily, I stood up, my legs threatening to give out at any moment. Excuses ran through my mind: I didn't print it, I forgot my flash drive, or my computer broke. My mind working furiously, I slowly walked to the center of the room and took out my flash drive, brandishing it like a weapon.
"Ummm…" was all I could get out of my deflated lungs, I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. What was I thinking? Why had I raised my hand?
"Plug your flash drive into the computer, and I'll turn on the projector," squealed Mrs. Hayes, lunging forward, eager to start the reading.
I plugged the drive in slowly, every minute seeming to last an hour, my hands shook as I stepped back so that I could see the computer screen. Slowly, I took in a deep breath and started reading.
Only a few minutes into my story, Mrs. Hayes stopped me, "Megan," she began "you need to add a comma two sentences back."
Sluggishly, I did as I was told, slowly scrolling my cursor back too the right spot and correcting my mistake. After a few more minutes of stumbling reading, I got into a rhythm and began to speak more confidently, although I was still acutely aware of the 26 other faces staring morosely at me. Soon after I had gotten comfortable, I was abruptly stopped with another mistake. Seeing my distress, Mrs. Hayes called up one of my friends to help.
"Kayla, why don't you go up and help Megan make changes to her paper?" she helpfully suggested.
Jumping at the chance, Kayla leaped up and skipped over to where I was sitting. Soon after this help, the reading became more comfortable and even a little fun. I read confidently and, interjected comments smoothly into the story.
"Suddenly, a small clatter in the shadow of a dark corner alerted him to another presence in the room besides his own. He froze, rigid, suspecting that the two guards had come back to execute him. He soon noted that this couldn't be so, because there was no door near that corner, and no one had come into the dungeon since himself. He finally relaxed as he realized that what he had suspected to be a threat, turned out to be only a small rat, hiding in the cool corners of the room. The rat seemed unafraid of Axl, almost as if it knew he was screwed, and scurried up to the bars of the cell, stopping right before entering.
"Come here, little guy," Axl crooned to the small creature, not to kill it, but to have any sort of companion in the empty prison.
Suddenly, the rat grew in size, its small body twisting and turning in to birds and cats and dogs, slowly transforming, seeming to stop on a creature, only to have another animal take the place of the last. Axl sat, horrified and transfixed as a fox, than snake, than bird all slowly melted out of the last, right before his eyes. Eventually the creature took on a masculine male form, standing before Axl as though transformation were yesterday's news.
After several moments of sitting there stupidly with his mouth open, eyes bulging, Axl managed to gain control of speech again, "Wh- wha- who are you?!?!" he finally managed to stammer.
"I am the shape shifting god, Nioteus; I am very pleased to make your acquaintance," he said in a deep tone that made Axl think of tigers and handsome birds singing deep throated songs.
"Oh," was all he could think of to say in reply."
At this point in the story, Mrs. Hayes stopped me and, as serious as could be said, "Megan was Nioteus naked?" I stared at her in horror as she went on, "because if he is, he'd be really handsome." I almost screamed, a teacher, asking that!
Unable to control ourselves, the entire class broke into hysterical laughter, between gasps, I managed to giggle that he was not naked; he was wearing a toga that covered him completely!
After that moment, the whole class joked and giggled with each other about the story, and everyone was very relaxed. Too soon, the class was over, and I packed up my stuff and left with the rest of the class. I know I will always remember that day, and will always bear in mind the feeling of connection I had with Mrs. Hayes.  Almost a year later, I am now much more confident speaking in front of a class and to teachers, because I now realize that no matter who you're talking to, they're also human, and they most likely aren't judging you. I will always cherish this memory.