annie firebaugh.

So I was sitting in the Cowpens Middle School locker room.... the school was probably built in the early 1900's and used to be Cowpens High School and not much remodeling had been done yet. With all this said there was no air conditioning in the locker room.... only one of those big fans up in the window.

So it was Hot. And we were in Sex Ed Class. And we were a bunch of 6th grade girls.

So it was hot, and awkward.

I kept fidgeting in my seat... just a bench like thing... squeezed between every other 6th grade girl in our CMS Physical Education Shirts, Umbro shorts, and probably adidas shoes... It really didn't make sense that we had to dress out to sit and learn sex ed but whatever....

All of a sudden I got really hot and could feel it coming on, that oh so familiar feeling right before i pass out.... everyone feels like they are talking to me in a tunnel, i feel like the floor is moving, and as if all the blood is leaving my head, no fun.

I look at my best friend Heather Chapman sitting right beside me and say, "Heather I think i'm gonna pass out...."

and I hit the floor. From what I was told after that everyone kinda freaked out. My teacher had no idea that I passed out so she really didn't know what to do. Everyone crowded around me waiting to see what happened and my teacher sent Heather to get the nurse.

When I woke up my mom was already on her way to the school. I felt perfectly fine when I came to but my teacher wouldn't let me move. She put me in a wheelchair and told someone to get my things from my locker and wheeled me to the nurse's office. When I got there my mom was there and she wasn't really freakin out like everyone else cause she was used to me passing out like a weirdo. So she got all my stuff together and realized that something was missing from my belongings, probably the coolest part of my wardrobe, my Timberlands. So that's when mom started to freak out, she said she was not leaving until we found the boots.

So everyone that had on timberlands in my class had to line up and show my mom their shoes.
How did we know they were mine you ask?
Because they were off brand, they were 579's.
And there they were, right on Annie FIrebaugh's smelly feet.
Great, now my shoes had been on Annie Firebaugh's smelly feet and the whole school knew that my Timberlands were fake.


And oh yeah.... the next day everyone at school rumored that I had seen a penis for the first time in the sex ed book and that's why i passed out. Awesome.

Isn't it crazy how everything meant SOOOOOOO much to us in middle school. It was so important what everyone thought of us. We had to be POPULAR. Wear the right clothes, listen to the cool music, hang out with the coolest kids, and "fit in".

I still have lil tingling of feelings every now and then worrying about fitting in and being noticed. But nothing like then. I have a God who loves me no matter what. Friends that love me no matter what. And a Family with never ending support. And it's kinda ironic too that in college the "cool" kids aren't always the ones who "fit in" but most of the time are the ones who stick out. The ones that go against the flow, make their own path, make a difference. But I don't want to be different for the sake of being different, which I have a tendency to do. I go against things for the sake of not going with them, when I should be praying about decisions and seeking guidance from God. I want to be me, me being whoever God wants me to be, I have to put my wants and desires aside and constantly seek him. I find myself coming back to this point often, seeking his direction, and slowly but surely it's becoming more clear. God is awesome and I can feel great things coming that he has in store for me.

"Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father,
And give attention that you may gain understanding..." Proverbs 4:1