Morning Walk Musings: Off to School, Part 1

This morning, while on my walk, I sent out the following twitter:

"Extra layer of warmth for walk today was a smart move. Still not as cold as when I would walk a mile in the snow, uphill, to school."

I'm not going to whine about how cold it is today because I'm from Maine and I know real cold.  I also know the second sentance of that tweet is actually the truth.  For 2 years I walked a mile to school every day, no matter what the weather, and there was a hill I had to trek up at the end.  Then, once I got to school, I'd have to wait outside with everyone else until the bell rang.  I usually didn't thaw out until second period.  I'm sure there are other people who can relate.  Most schools had a rule that if you lived less than 1 mile from the school, they would not provide bus service.  Here's the really crazy part.....I could have taken the bus.....my house was 1 mile from the school.

I lived in California during my elementary school years and, part way through my 4th grade year, we moved and I had to go to a new school.  The school I left behind was really nice.  There were small classes and everyone got along.  When I started the new school I discovered I was in a whole new world.  On my first day I was challanged to a fight after school.  The girl later backed down because she decided she liked me.  This school also became my first experience with "The Clique".  Back then I didn't know the term "clique" but I could see the kids would divide themselves into different groups during recess.  If you didn't know the secret "code" of the group, you weren't invited to join.  I found the whole thing rather strange but knew I wanted to belong somewhere, I just wasn't sure which group would accept my code.