The School Project

Remember those crafty grade school projects that you used to put your heart and soul into? The other day I was reminded of those days when my friend and I were at dinner and she told of a collage her daughter was making for a science project. I decided to tell her a story about my favorite collage that I made for my 5th grade current events class.

It feels like it was yesterday. The objective was to make two columns of likes and dislikes and fill them with newspaper and magazine clippings. I went with my mom to the supply store and bought a big bright yellow poster board. I searched through tons of periodicals and cut out a bunch of pictures to start arranging on my board. When I finally had everything filled up and organized, I glued it all down. It doesn’t seem like such a difficult project to me now, but at the time it was a big deal and took a lot of effort.

The day of the presentations had rolled around. I woke up got my backpack ready and went downstairs to put it by the door along with my project. I went back to my room to get dressed and a little while later my mom yelled by the stairs for me. She sounded uneasy as she called so I got a bit nervous. I looked over the banister and saw my dog Rocky peaking at me. I walked down to see a trail of little pieces of yellow paper coming from the door. I stepped into the living room and saw the remains of my collage torn to shreds, care of my little pup. He hated when I went to school because he would love it if I could just stay home and play with him all day. I was first panicked and angry, but I looked at Rocky’s sad eyes as he knew he did something wrong. How could I be mad at my little buddy? So I gathered up the pieces of paper in a plastic bag and brought it to school.

As everyone laid their projects out on their desks, I nervously awaited my turn to speak. My name was called, and I brought my bag to the front of the class. I explained, “I know that no one would believe me when I said my dog ate my homework, so I brought it in to show you. I did do the assignment; you can see the magazine clippings on some of the pieces here.” As the class erupted in laughter, I felt a bit relieved. Even my teacher was amused. She took a look at it and said it was fine, giving me an extra week to put another project together. You better believe that this time, I did not put the collage by the door!

Me, Rocky, and my sister Jenn back in the early 90's.