Everyone grew up with a certain fear, whether it be of spiders or clowns, it was a fear. Well since I fell under the category of ‘Everyone’, it so happened that a fear awakened in me during Fourth Grade. That fear was of a man whose name was a taboo subject whenever he or another teacher was around. Many of the older kids warned me about him when I first entered in 4th grade. I obviously did not take the advice and avoid his path of destruction. But instead had walked into my own grave one day, when I ran up the stairs to reach my classroom. He heard me coming from the lobby up to the 4th floor and my body had shut down when I saw him with his arms crossed. He loved wearing blue collared shirts and orange ties that would sit on top of his stomach, along with most of his fingers possessing gold and dark silver rings.
He constantly repeated the fact that I was too loud and I shouldn’t even be running to my class. I stayed frozen next to the rail and my eyes spaced out and my mind spoke for my small mouth.
“You are making more noise by near yelling when I am less than two feet from you and I might have to run downstairs to the lobby to get a late slip if you continue to talk”
I felt trumpets scream in glory in Madison Square Garden (The New York Rangers was the Titan’s favorite team, ewh!), the victorious student who had slayed the New Yorker Titan. Woah wait... Oh snap! What have I done? His mouth opened as wide as a whale and his black bushy eyebrows moved closer to his receding hairline by the second. I had prepared for the worst as the morning bell had rung and his only words were, “Come with me”.
Word of the problem spread like wildfire throughout the small school and I felt like a legend to my classmates. I was the only one who had danced with Death and continued to walk. I had shown the world that he was more vulnerable than anyone thought.
During my 5th grade year, I was called to be a tour guide for the school by the Titan. He taught me so much about eye contact, posture, and a strong handshake during that year. He was a difficult person to read as it seemed he had thousands of different people sharing his body periodically. He was such a depressed and impatient person when teaching me, yet he was very happy when he saw I was doing a great job. I understood why I was a tour guide as the school kept running because of the donations that generous people give. I would leave class just to tour and I was one of the only students who managed my tour guide life and student life fantastically. He never taught me in my whole academic career at that school, he only taught 5th grade and 8th grade for 1 year. Soon after, he earned a position at the school as the Dean of Student Life and was a leech on anyone’s neck.