32 Years, 32 Memories... 13-16

Junior High

13. The White Knights Trilogy - Ms. Graber was our 8th grade English teacher. We spent the entire second semester doing creative writings. We had a quota of poems and short stories that we had to turn in by the end of the semester. Inspired by the Lord of the Rings, my first story was the tale of King Derrius and his might nights who went on a quest to kill the evil dragon colon. Several of my class members were the characters in the story. I tweaked their names... Mikonius Bontragion, Crystalanate Boneybody are two examples I remember. The story was rather popular, so I wrote a 2 part sequal to the tale where The White Knights went on a mission against the evil king Mattius Mahoney and Slora Kulpin (two other renamed classmates). The 10 typed page trilogy was enough of a rave among my classmates that I printed off 40 copies of the story and sold them for $2 each. My first venture at capatalism.

14. One of my bigger regrets (really kicking myself) - I played flag football as a 6th grade student. My 7th grade year, I decided I didn't want to go out for the football team. I'm not sure why. All my friends were on the team. I went to the games and watched them play that year. My 8th grade year I decided to be a manager. After one of the practices, Jerry Kulp (fellow manager) and I were cleaning up equipment and we started messing around with the field goal kicking tee. I started nailing field goals. I remember lining up on the 25 yard line on the left hash, and nailing it through the uprights. I was in 8th grade man!
Flash forward to my Juior year. The NW Panthers are in the state finals, and they lose the game due to missed field goals and extra points. I sat in the crowd and wondered...

15. Junior High heartbreak - I had several "girlfriends" in Junior High. One of those girlfriends (Crystal) bought me gold bracelet for Christmas. I broke up with her in early January. In a move that only a heartless 7th grade boy could do, I grabbed a hammer out of shop class and took it to the bracelet during Study Hall. One of Crystal's friends witnessed the devious act, and stole the bracelet from me. Upon presenting the bracelet to Crystal, I immediately became public enemy #1 to the 7th grade girls for the remainder of the school year.

16. Falling asleep in the shower - It was to be the first day of basketball practice my 8th grade year. I woke up from another sleep deprived night that had been filled with around 10 trips to the bathroom. My entire body felt week. It was a huge effort to even walk the 15 feet from my bedroom to the shower. While in the shower, I fell asleep standing up.

I was eating like crazy. Drinking water, milk, pop (anything I could get my hands on) even more. Yet i was losing weight. I think I was just under 80 lbs. My mom decided it was time to take me to the doctor. After explaining the symptoms, Dr Miller decided to draw blood to see if I had diabetes (blood testing units weren't as handy and available back then). We went back to my mom's store, and I ate a huge meal because I was so hungry (didn't know it at the time but that wasn't the best move). The Doctors office called and said, "Derry's blood sugar is 997, get him to the hospital now."
Including the meal I had just eaten, the blood sugar was more likely over 1000 at the point I arrived to the hospital. When they rolled me into the pediatric wing, the Doctors swooped in on me like a trauma victim. We were a little confused, but after about 24 hours, it became clear that a blood sugar of 500+ runs the risk of slipping into a diabetic coma. 700+ risks death.
I'll never forget my mom looking at me after the Doctors left the room and saying, "If you don't think God has a special plan for life, I don't know what it's going to take."

sidenote: my 7th grade devious acts (memory #15) were soon forgiven and forgotten by my female classmates when they discovered I nearly died. Near fatalities are very helpful with the Junior High ladies!