Nowhere to Turn

Our campus is crowded; there are 2800 students occupying a school intended for 1500. Walking across campus during a passing period is quite a challenge, especially when students are so totally unaware of anyone else around them.

This morning, I had to go to the bathroom. Because the facility nearest my classroom has been removed and is in the process of being replaced with a much smaller handicapped facility, to make it to the bathroom and back during a break takes some doing--and some hustle.

I made it to right outside the office on the library side when the girls walking in front of me suddenly stopped. There was nowhere for me to go to get out of the way, so in order to avoid a collision, I tried to stop, but my shoe caught in the uneven pavement, and I pitched into the tree. My arm flung itself out to stop my fall, causing a nasty scrape on my forearm to deal with as I hurriedly finished the trip to the toilet, washed the wound well with soapy hot water, and scurried back to the classroom before the bell rang.

The wound bled, but I cleaned it again with waterless hand cleaner and bandaged it, so it wasn't a big deal.

I did, however, ask a student to take a photo of the injury, which I then attached to a brief accident report. The school secretary was a bit taken aback that I wanted to file a report of the accident and my injury. I assured her I really wanted to do that--and left the report and the photo with her. I reminded her that I have diabetes, which means that I am both prone to infection and slow to heal, so I want to be sure the accident and injury are properly documented.

During the last class period, a student asked me why I had a bandage on my arm, and I explained (briefly) that I had tripped and fallen into a tree. The one kid I just cannot stand to see come into the room had his usual smart-ass retort: "You fall all the time. You should retire and stay home! That would be great!"

Picture the obnoxious little fat boy laughing his ass off for all the other kids in the class.

If it had been anyone else making the comment, I would have laughed, but this kid's mouth gets to me as it's going constantly in a steady, vile stream of put-downs and crap directed at me, as well as the other students in the room. I've told him he's going to ISS every time he opens his mouth as I am sick of dealing with his rudeness and crudeness, but he doesn't care. As a matter of fact, he thinks it's funny that I find him offensive.

My apologies to John Wayne, but this campus just ain't big enough for the two of us! June can't come soon enough.