Union Elementary School Accelerated Reader Champion 2001

number 004

When you are a 10-year-old fat girl who lives in the middle of nowhere in an already small North Carolina town, there’s not much to keep you busy. I did my fair share of walking around in the woods and shooting my BB gun at cans on the dirt mounds behind my house. I also paid a lot of lip service to my grandma, talking about family gossip, biscuits and gravy, and The Holy Bible. Eventually, though, I ran out of things to do. And that’s how I found reading. 

Okay, that’s not entirely true. I was lured into the sweet bosom of the written word by a Wilkes County Schools program called Accelerated Reader. 

Thinking about going into the library at Union Elementary School (RIP) fills my brain with endorphins.

Just as I began attempting to figure out where I belonged in the world, I found a sweet spot of time that was all mine from 4:30 AM to 7:00 AM before school. The world was quiet, and I could read without being disturbed or distracted. When I think of a world without cell phones, I think of this time. When I think of happiness, I think of how I felt when my alarm clock would sound and I’d go straight from my bed to my reading chair. 

I wish I could say I was motivated by a love of books, but I wasn’t. I was encouraged by an orange lava lamp. This hunk of 90’s nostalgia was the prize for the student who racked up the most AR points, and I decided at the beginning of the year that it would be me who Union School’s librarian would crown queen. 

I spent the whole year reading books with high numbers of AR points, and eventually, after a close call with Briana Oakley, I did win. Not only did I win a lava lamp, but I also won a hiding place for years to come. I won an escape route. I won a love of reading that I’ve rediscovered in adulthood. I also won an abundance of candy, bouncy balls, bookmarks, and other miscellaneous plastic arcade toys. 

Years later, I’d find out that my husband also won his school’s AR point contest, and he won a bike. I indeed went to the underfunded school. 

Reading: Still stoked to finally read Everybody (Else) is Perfect by Gabrielle Korn. I get to start it now that no-distraction week is over. 

Writing: digital fitness, my middle school bullies and high school frenemies being an unsavory blueprint for my adult friendships and email fatigue. 

Listening: I found a new podcast about the creative process during my no distraction week called Spark and Fire! I recommend this episode about Susan Orlean, the book The Orchid Thief, and the film Adaptation. 

Watching: a screener for a new movie out on Amazon Prime tomorrow called Bliss. It stars Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, and it is a wild dystopian ride described as a mind-bending love story. If you loved Inception then you’ll be into this one.

Buying: Resin pouring supplies because baby’s got a new hobby.
Also adding the preorder for Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner to my shopping cart. If you haven’t read her essay for the New Yorker by the same title, you absolutely should. Also buying: 

Focusing on: lowering my screen time each day and wishing I could just hire an unhinged ex-bouncer named Rocco to slap the device out of my hand.

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See you next Thursday!