Blog 9: Steer Clear of School Supplies

“We're stuck in a reality that is based on our perception,” said one of my survey respondents during my 20-question truth interview with her. Her comment made me think: what are times in my life when reality wasn’t based on the truth, but instead on someone’s perception of the events? And the first image that popped up in my head? This pair of clear pink scissors:


Since I learned what colors were, pink has always been my favorite. In first grade, our classroom had a shared bucket of scissors. It was only natural that the pink ones were the only ones I would agree to use. 


But another little girl in my class loved these pink scissors as much as I did. Her name was Kayla. I am not sure what series of events led to this point, but one day, Kayla and I found ourselves fighting over this pair of highly coveted scissors. It was a fair fight. And somehow, Kayla’s little hand got cut in the scuffle. Immediately, she ran crying to the teacher.


“Lydia cut me!”


And that was it. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in the principal’s office waiting for my mother to arrive because I had been suspended from school. No one listened to my side of the story. No one cared that I didn't cut her on purpose. It was a complete accident, fueled by my passion for the color pink, yet I was the one punished.


Speaking of complete accidents, yet another image comes to mind: a white binder.



At the beginning of 5th grade, I switched to a new elementary school that had just opened up in our district. Unfortunately for me, from day 1, my teachers hated me, other students bullied me, and my best friend, Demi, was the only ally I had.


In one of my classes, our desks were pushed together to form tables of four or five students. One morning, I was opening my binder on my desk, minding my own business. Unfortunately, a guy who sat at the desk to the left of mine had his head far too close to his desk, and the opening flap of my binder hit him in the mouth as I opened it. Immediately, he ran crying to the teacher.


“Lydia hit me in the face with her binder!”


All it took was one look at the inside of his now-bleeding lip and my teacher relegated me to the principal’s office. This time, I did have the opportunity to tell my side of the story: it was an accident! But when my principal brought in both the boy who got hit and the other students in the class, they all told the same version of events: I had picked up my binder and hit him in the face with it.


Next thing I knew, I was suspended. That day, my mom withdrew me from the school and enrolled me back into my previous elementary school. And because of a Valentine’s Day-themed pencil, that was a big mistake.



We were waiting in two parallel lines on the right side of the hallway outside our math class. I was the second person in the leftmost line. I accidentally dropped my precious Valentine’s Day-themed pencil onto the hallway floor. It rolled, and before I knew it, the first girl in the rightmost line had pocketed it.


“That’s my pencil!” I exclaimed.


“No, it’s mine,” she countered.


The girl in front of me chimed in. I gave her the talk-to-the-hand sign I’d used a hundred times before. But this time, my hand brushed her nose, completely by accident, and she slapped me so hard my glasses flew down the hallway.


We were in trouble. Said trouble ended with us all sitting in In-School Suspension (ISS) for the rest of the day. 


And so, I return to the quote I shared earlier. “We're stuck in a reality that is based on our perception.” All three times I was suspended in elementary school were based upon someone else’s perception of the events. My first-grade teacher assumed I cut Kayla on purpose. My fifth-grade teacher believed I had picked up my binder and hit the boy in the face with it. And the girl who slapped me didn’t want to believe that I hit her accidentally, with no malicious intent. No one wanted to believe my side of the story.


That is one major lesson I will take away from this course. Truth is subjective. Perception can overshadow facts so much sometimes that the “official version” of events often becomes whatever story people find the easiest to believe. This class has shown me how important it is to hear all sides and verify what actually happened before blindly accepting a narrative. And, for me personally, it’s a warning to stay as far away from pink scissors, white binders, and Valentine’s Day pencils as possible.


References (images)

https://www.amazon.com/Westcott-67550-Jellies-Scissors-Assorted/dp/B07Z9ZS5FB?th=1

https://www.salesparkle.com/product-p-86083.html

https://organizeyourstuffnow.com/pencil-valentine-free-heart-printables

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