Monday, December 20, 2004

Tenth Grade History

I had this teacher in high school who scared the poop out of me. Her room had this huge map of the world painted on the back wall. Every week she would pick students to go to the map and point out certain countries,cities,oceans, etc. Then we would have to know the exact spelling of whatever it was she told us to point out. When someone got something wrong, she was not nice about it. She would embarrass us for not knowing. I tried so hard to be nonexistent in that classroom. But at one time, I could label everything on the world.
Of all the countries and their capitals, the one that I can remember the most now is Portugal. The girl that was called up to find Portugal's capital had a very unique way of studying and being able to remember what she had studied.
Her answer to Portugal's capital: "Lesbian". After the entire classroom stopped laughing, including the teacher, and her face went back to normal from the shock of just saying that out loud, she stammered, "Lisbon".
I will forever remember the capital of Portugal because of that incident.
I think about that girl now, and I wonder if she ever reminisces about that day. And if she does, is she still embarrassed?
Well if so, I tell her thank you. I am smarter because of your mistake.

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