Beneath the Wraps

Being a youth (Jr. High age) is such an awkward part of our lives.   Everything is taken literally and there is so much tragedy and devastation.  Too young to be adults but yet too old to be considered children – or treated as such.   Often being told to “act your age” when it’s so obvious that people that age have never been that age before and have no knowledge of how to act.           As adults we can literally look back upon all those "painful" memories and realize that what we thought was so important really isn't.  I think if a person can make it through junior high, he or she has put behind the most awful part of their social lives behind them, and can move on to become actual human beings. Recently I read the juvenile fiction The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger - written from the students' point of view. I laughed so hard – not just at the words, but at the illustrations.   ...

          Jenna has always wanted to learn origami.   One day (between kindergarten and preschool) she told me that her friend Dean might be able to help her.           “Really?   Dean knows how to do origami”                     “Well, maybe not him.   But his parents might know”           “Why do you think that?”           “Because they speak Spanish.   Isn’t origami Spanish?”           “No.   Origami comes from the Japanese culture.”           “Oh, then maybe I could get Tony to help me when he comes home.”   (Tony was severing a mission in Brazil at the time)  ...