The Fulton School
Here is what my week has been like so far:
On Monday I stopped by school to turn my prom money in (if you haven’t turned yours in, yet then you should!) and then I also came to talk to Dr. Urbano, Mrs. Bryan, and a little with Mr. Waide! I also got to say hi to Mary and Lily, which was so nice. The rest of Monday my mom and I watched the eclipse with my Aunt Patty (we listened to Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” of course, but I forgot to play “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night,” because I was too distracted by George Michael and Rod Stewart songs!). My aunt made potstickers, which I had no self control and legit I think I ate 20 of them. I don’t know for sure because I didn’t want to keep count, but it was definitely a lot, and we watched “Girls 5 Eva” (which I highly recommend) and I did some writing for my substack. Oh also, on Sunday I met Hali at Bread Co., which was so fun and we talked for like three hours! While I was waiting for her, Kristina Fulton walked in, so I also chatted with her for a while!
On Tuesday, I helped set up for museum babies and worked the kids clubhouse until noon. The museum babies program is just so sweet. We lay out rugs for the kiddos to sit on with their parents and we also have these squishy, stackable toys for them to play with and those see through scarves that we used to use in gym for sharks and minnows, does anyone else remember that? After museum babies, we had our storytelling program, but the babies are also welcome to stay! Andy read today and he did a really good job. This weeks theme was spring for the babies and transportation for the older kiddos. He is very interactive and he also wear a headband with flowers on it, so bonus points for that. The headband reminded me sooo much of something Mr. Waide would do to celebrate spring! This weeks batch of kids were possibly the cutest I have seen. After story time, the kids did a craft, which was to make their own steering wheel and decorate it. Then I just sat in the clubhouse and cleaned up and played with kids. There were a brother and a sister who I played with for quite a bit there names were Rio and Archie, and they were so sweet! Rio kept handing me blocks to keep and I showed her our reading nook which is like a carved out portion of a tree. Archie built a castle with the magnetic blocks and told me about how he is kind of scared of monsters, and forgets that they aren’t real, but when he remembers he doesn’t feel scared anymore and is happy. SO CUTE! After they cleared out, the whole clubhouse was pretty quiet and I was kinda bored, so I did some coloring pages and thought about food. There were two families who hung out in the clubhouse, while their kids played and they chatted about private schools. If I was braver, I would have gone over there and bragged about TFS, but I was a chicken, OK? I kept trying to talk myself into it, but I just couldn’t do it, like they were talking so much, and it felt invasive and awkward. I am rep-ing a “I heart TFS” button on my lanyard, though, so if anyone asks I can be like, “Well, let me know tell you what TFS is…” As I was walking out of the clubhouse, I stopped to check my phone (no weeding!!!) and look at my schedule for the rest of the day. There was a man checking out the clubhouse and I said hi and he asked if I worked there. I said yes, and it explained I was a volunteer on my senior project, and said I was planning on becoming a history major. He asked me what kind of history, and I said I wasn’t sure yet, but I would love to be a historical writer. Then he started talking about how he is a historical writer and his current book is on how the Basque (a certain group of Spanish people) actually helped to discover and found colonies in the U.S. It was all very interesting, but by this time I was hungry, had to use the bathroom badly, and my feet were killing me because when I stand for more than two hours in my converse they start to hurt, I’ve gotten used to the pain (figures, since I have to deal with the daily pain of being a woman in a man’s world, shake my head, they just don’t wanna see a girlboss winning), but I just wanted to go on my break! Anyways, I said that was all very cool, but I had to run and it was nice to meet him. I felt like George Michael in one of his hit post Wham songs that I can’t write the title of here, but it was released in 1987 and actually has three parts to it. This little diddy was so inappropriate that MTV refused to play it until Michael and his team convinced them to air it, but by today’s standards it would be considered very tame, but by Danny Alt’s (my father’s) standards it is still considered very raunchy when I dance to it in our living room, which causes him to say things like “George Michael ain’t much of a man, he’s a sissy-boy!” This then causes my so-called liberal and highly accepting aunt to join in and throw Harry Styles and Rod Stewart in the pot of ridicule as well just because they are in touch with their feminine side and don’t adhere to traditionally masculine stereotypes! Sorry for the rant, but I felt like George Michael because of the lyric “every man’s got his patience, but here’s where mine ends,” then he talks about something he wants, but in that moment I did not want what he wanted, I wanted to go use the bathroom, sit down, and eat my lunch! After lunch, I got to listen to this graduate students talk on black Missourians in STEM, except it wasn’t an in person talk it was over zoom, whomp, whomp. I hate zoom, to be honest. It was interesting, but I was also kind of bored so halfway through I went and bought myself some snacks from the vending machine. I got doritos and a diet pepsi, which is honestly better than diet coke. Then I saw they had canned orange juice, I thought, “mmmm, why not!” and inserted $1 within the machine, but it cost $2, what the flip?! I still bought it, but kind of a rip off! All the other canned beverages are $1, why is the orange juice special? The talk finished at 3:00, I was ready to go do something else and then this old lady approached me. I did not feel like talking and when I saw her walking over, I though, “oh, boy!” and the George Michael lyric played again. But I persevered because I CAN DO HARD THINGS. Anyways, her name was Mariane Brickner and she is originally from New York, but has worked all over as a wildlife photographer and was interested in giving a talk at the museum and when I mentioned I was in highschool, she was also interested in coming to our school to talk. So, she was pretty cool, but I was so done with social interaction for the day, honestly. Kat didn’t have anything else for me to do, and I didn’t want to work on writing, so I went to the coloring STL exhibit and colored for a while, very relaxing. I feel like a wipe board like that would be really cool for the kids at school as a brain break / reward for working. I think the upperschoolers could design an outline like places / items around TFS and then anyone could color it! Tuesday night, I also dyed my hair darker, and now I really look like a young version of my mom!
For Wednesday, I spent the first half of my day at the clubhouse. I love working the clubhouse because the kids are just so cute. I met two brothers and their sister, Truman, Penny, and Henry. Henry was the baby and Truman told me they call him “Chubby” how cute! There was also this little girl, Lily, who was so adorable and her mom was gorgeous who played with an older girl with red hair and whose favorite color was red, she was incredibly sweet and gentle with Lily! There was also a little girl who had forehead bangs and a Peppa Pig shirt that I sat next to and colored with her and her mom. Then the rest of my day will be spent at a presentation on having and de-escalating difficult conversations. I think the whole Alt-Schuba family could listen into this! I tried to make this post a bit shorter, since I am working Thursday, Friday, and the gala on Saturday, so I imagine I will have a lot to say, but honestly it didn’t work! My mom said that someone told her one of my infringements and proof that I am just such a troublemaker is that I take up too much space on the blog or write too much in general! This person will not be named, but all I have to say is so sorry, but I am going to keep writing! Also, I put this post into a google doc, and it totaled to be about two pages, so if you think that’s long, I can’t imagine what you will think when you see a book! I am just kidding around and making jokes, but on a more serious note, it’s not inconsiderate, it’s called being creative, and you know what, I actually do all of my writing myself, I don’t have some robot do it for me, so if you don’t like it, you don’t have to read it. While in the clubhouse today I read a book called, “She Persisted” about thirteen American women who were pioneers in various fields. One of them, Nellie Bly, a writer who posed as a sweatshop worker and a mentally ill patient risked her life to expose and advocate for the humane care for workers and patients, once said (this is so “Criminal Minds,” to add in the ‘once said,’ bit, if you know what I am referencing I love you) “I have never written a word that did not come from my heart. I never shall.” AMEN, SISTER!!!! Like Nellie, I have never written a word that did not come from my heart and I never will. To me it is a crime shame to not use your God given brain and share your thoughts with the world. But I will also add this, my brother and I who are both quite skilled writers, agree that people nowadays are just lazy and don’t want to read things that are even a page long, so if this is the case with you, then I am going to suggest you step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself to read my posts! And I will add this, I don’t write for other people, sure I want others to enjoy it and I want to know what they think about my writing– the good and the bad–, but even if no one wanted to listen, even if no one had any interest, even if no one cared at all, or even if no one ever read my stories, I wouldn’t care because at the end of the day, the reason I write is for myself. There are thoughts, and stories, and memories inside of me that are begging to be let out, and I will be damned (is this considered cursing? I feel like this and the word “hell” are a completely different ballpark than other curse words.) if I don’t let them out This isn’t to be rude, I just don’t get how this is a compliant? I am sharing my love for writing? Oh, the horror! Lock her up, folks! She’s crazy, she’s a rebel without a cause, she’s a wild child, she’s a cherry bomb! Somebody cue up “Bad Reputation,” by Joan Jett! Uh no, I am a girl with a notebook and pen and a laptop with lots of ideas in her head that are begging to be let out and shared and enjoyed by others 🙂 I am also working on writing a collection of linked short stories based on my journal and free writing entries that span over middleschool and highschool. My idea is to keep them sort of raw and free written and dated. Anyways, I am gonna submit them to the University of Iowa’s (Go Hawkeyes, RIP Caitlyn Clark, I love you, but you play lazy defense, and honestly it is understandable when you have an offensive game like you, but still…) short story contest. There are two awards given out and the winners get to be published by the Iowa University press. This is a big deal because Iowa University is very well known for their English and creative writing departments. They run a graduate school called their “writers workshop” where writers live together and you just work on your writing and get critiqued by other writers. It’s pretty cool and I think the acceptance rate for it is only like 2%, but if I got in, I would go in a heartbeat. I know it’s a long shot for me to win and get published, but I figure I might as well try, LOL. Anyways, my plan to popularize my books though, would be to go on “The Bachelor” as soon as I turn 21, unless I have a boyfriend I really love by then, but if my adult life is anything akin to my highschool love life, there may be no boyfriend, the love life may be non-existent, LOL. I would be the perfect contestant I would be well rounded and smart since I would be a writer / historian, I would have worked in a museum, and also I may possibly be able to add aerobics instructor to that list, how perfect is that? I am competitive in nature, I would be really good on a karoeke, sports, or truth or dare date, and I know that show inside and out. Any angle the producer would want me to play up, I would gladly play, and I think I could make it to Hometowns (4 people) or Fantasy Suites (3 people) or even the final 2, but I don’t think I would win, and I wouldn’t want to because I want to give the audience a raw heartbreak scene. Then I would write a book about my experience on the show and sell even more books, mwahahhahaha!!! I may identify as mostly a communist, but this is the captialist in me, baby.
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Just a general update: The training was pretty good and Jess Jones gave us different scenarios of visitors’ reactions to the LGBTQ+ exhibit and how to handle them. The attitudes ranged from curious to just down right threatening. I think the exhibit will overall be pretty positive, but we are prepared for some people to potentially say or do some hurtful things. I do think most people visiting the History Museum are pretty liberal or just open minded in general, but I could see the potential for homophobic people to visit just to rag on the exhibit. More than anything though, I think that the negativity will likely come in the form of snide remarks. I actually was sitting in the lobby either in my first or second week and there were two girls who walked by in the 10-12 age range. One of them was like, “That exhibit is disgusting! They’re trying to brainwash people into being gay!” My jaw literally dropped. Then later I was walking through the galleries, and that same girl remarked about a section of displays on the life and daily work of a slave in the U.S. said, “that’s not even that bad!” I could not believe this girl, what a rat! But the sad thing is that kids often don’t get this ideas themselves they pick it up from other adults, most likely, or I should rather say usually, their parents. It’s just sad to see, but hopefully as she gets older she realizes it’s wrong. The meetings take place with Jess Jones presenting to us, then we usually discuss the topic as table groups, then share them. I have felt comfortable and confident in both of these meetings (the first I attended was on my very first day) to share my thoughts to the group, which I feel like is pretty cool and a big accomplishment!