It’s been two years since I resigned from my hybrid office/school job. In these two years however my former boss has continued to ask for my help on every single issue of the school paper. Actually, what she really needed was a club bouncer who would have made sure that the heads of the editorial staff rolled. I fit the job description closest.
I’ve been praying for an end to this hemorrhage-inducing publication work since five years ago. I do hope that this March issue will be my last. It’s not that I don’t enjoy working with concentrated capsules of hormones. Oh yes, I do relish forcing eager young Friendster citizens to write about socially relevant issues that they just can’t relate to or are not interested in. But I honestly think I’m losing my touch.
I made a major slip last issue. It was probably because I wanted to finally stop harassing the weepy, distraught printing press artist that I decided to release an issue that had not passed my rigid obsessive compulsiveness. Also, for a change, I wanted to be home before the clock struck late and before my taxi turned into a pumpkin. One thousand printed copies later I discovered to my horror that one of the feature pages contained a picture of a teen with his middle finger sticking out. I nearly fainted. The paper is the official publication of a CATHOLIC school!
The feature page in question contained an article about the emo culture. The article already raised a few of my internal eyebrows. That was mainly because I have a deep respect for emo musicians who take offense at their genre being taken for a cultural fad. But because I had lost the drive to punish myself, the staff and the printing press with my exacting tyranny, I let the feature pass and did not even notice the presence of the offending finger.
The solution to the finger problem? I was told that the publication moderator I was assisting told the other teachers to sit straight, pull their tummies in and start coloring over the finger in nearly all of the one thousand printed copies. They had no choice. How could you explain a finger in that position to a grade 1 pupil? I should at least have sent 3 in 1 coffee sachets to those dedicated educators.
I know I may be losing my touch not so much because I could no longer stand staring at every minute detail but because the whole emo issue really proved that I could barely relate with the kids of today. My former students and staff members used to say that they liked me because I understood their generation. Five years later, I can hardly understand the literal definition of emo culture.
For most of my life I was probably a good example of a member of today’s emo culture. I often thought of deep, dark, depressing thoughts and dressed daily in black which is probably why I once often wished aliens would just abduct me and put an end to my miserable perspective of life. During my time though, I was said to have had a condition that required the assistance of experts in bright, academic offices or of double servings of the latest self-help phenomenon. Now, a lot of kids actually enjoy being or at least seeming emotionally skewed. I must have been partially asleep these past few years and missed something.
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you like emo bands? you do seem like an emo music loving person. hahaha.
aaand about the pic.. sorry bout that maam. that pic was a mistake from the beginning. from what i heard, the guy who did the finger was actually expelled from school before the pictorial! i don’t know how he ended up there.
hee hee hee… (:D
please send my regards to sophia 🙂
you like emo bands? you do seem like an emo music loving person. hahaha.
aaand about the pic.. sorry bout that maam. that pic was a mistake from the beginning. from what i heard, the guy who did the finger was actually expelled from school before the pictorial! i don’t know how he ended up there.
hee hee hee… (:D
please send my regards to sophia 🙂
hahaha. what a riot. it’s ok aimee. partly my fault too you know. yeah i heard he was expelled so maybe he got himself in the picture so he could have his revenge? hehe. maybe
Ma’am!! I’m looking like a lunatic right now, laughing my head off inside crusader office. people are raising eyebrows at me.
But really, that was hilarious!! please send them the 3 in 1 sachets. i love the image of teachers using pencils to erase the offending finger. nyahahah.
Wait, someone got expelled?! who?! man, i’m so behind with the gossip! people–somebody, anybody–SPILL!
why is it that we (jv, beng, and i) never catch you when we’re working on the yearbook??
anyhow, to echo aimee, regards to sophia!
wait… someone got expelled???
in my 10 years of existence there, i never knew someone… whoa! is it very chaotic there nah??? never heard of anything since i graduated… hehehe…
glad i made your day bianca and carmz. hehe 🙂
i don’t know the exact details about the expelled kid. all i know is whatever happened happened long before the CO pictorial. that’s why maybe he just go himself in the picture to exact his revenge. hahaha. i don’t really know
a different source tells me it wasn’t clear if he was expelled or not because whatever he did to deserve a punishment happened at the time that he was about to leave school for abroad anyway. so i don’t know if he left before being expelled or the other way around
anyway if you want a good look at his face, ask for a copy of the green campus observer issue from ma’am mitzie. you might recognize him. hehe 🙂
oh yeah, ma’am, do you still go there often??? kindly tell King Noble(the grade comp. teacher) i said hi! thanks! 🙂 i do hope he remembers me mag mahay gyud ko if dili… hehehe
sure thing. pretty good looking guy. hehe
oh, i forgot the school after “grade”… hehehe.
speaking of comp. teacher, how’s ma’am lurms? nanganak na sya?
yeah nanganak na siya. baby girl 🙂
i just found out from my sister that he wasn’t expelled. he just migrated to Canada with his family. he was my cousin’s best friend, and apparently he shows that finger on a lot of photos. 😀
should’ve known no one would ever get “expelled” hehe. but i heard he was already in some sort of trouble before he left. wonder what he did. grrrr. i’m still fuming that i missed that finger. 🙂
hilarious!
thanks lilaphase 🙂
hahahaha. sir noble was your teacher, carmel? wow!
ei mam, at least we redeemed ourselves with our second issue, huh? 🙂
aimee dear sir noble was not her teacher. he was her schoolmate 🙂