Random Tuesday - Missouri Academy memories

Hey everyone. It's Tuesday, so let's do a Random Tuesday and since I'm still kind of nostalgic for the Missouri Academy, let's mix the two and have storytime! We'll see how a Google search turns out...

At the Academy, what was "something that..."?
(I'll look for things that naturally complete the whole question)

Annoyed you: The fob alarm doors because they were so loud, you could hear them outside the hall.

Broke: Well, there were a couple times where one day, a wall would be just fine, and the next day, oh hey look, a foot-shaped hole low to the ground... Hmm...

Cheered me up: Having fun conversations with the students and developing inside jokes and/or puns

Didn't change: I channeled the students and instantly thought of the yellow walls in the hallways... blech (and they did stay the same color the whole time I was there

Everyone played: Well, that changed from year to year, but in no particular order, here are some things people really loved playing: Super Smash Bros, League of Legends, Halo 3, Ultimate Frisbee, and FIFA

Floated: Perfect way to think of memories. I won't go into too much backstory, but one May, we had a group of students that made two micro-nations and had naval warfare, which consisted of each micro-nation building a giant cardboard boat big enough for 2 people, going out to the campus pond, and throwing water balloons at each other. It was awesome and the boats both held up quite well... for a while. Not forever, but long enough to keep it fun.

Got stuck in your head: Each fall, we would have a talent show with our first-year students and many wings would incorporate a popular song of the summer (or three), so everyone would be humming those songs for a few days afterwards

Happened in 2013 (Yes, this was a real auto-complete suggestion): Well, that was the second half of my fourth year and the first half of my fifth year... I played a lot of "Yellow Car" when I would drive students to church.

I wanted: Well, the optimist in me was always hoping for that year where my wing would have 100% retention from the fall to the spring. I don't believe it ever happened though

Just didn't happen twice: My first year, the graduate assistant for student activities had $25 trips to a bunch of different places, and I only chaperoned that once. (That trip was to Huntsville, Alabama to see the Air & Space Museum.)

Kept you warm: Both of the apartments I stayed in did a very good job of keeping warm in the winter, even when it got a little excessive. Sometimes I would crack a window as well, just to not make it so ridiculous.

Lasted forever: I would like to hope that I can hold onto a lot of memories forever, and by sharing them with others, I'm helping to make that goal a reality

Made you laugh: A student and I made this elaborate ruse and convinced another student that the hallways in the residence halls on campus were designated as state highways in order for the school to raise additional tax dollars. That was a proud moment of improv.

Needed to be improved: In a general sense, the entire facility. More specifically, the Shop for the FIRST Robotics and Science Olympiad teams. Always room for improvement with that space.

Occurred at regular intervals: It was a safe bet that someone would lock themselves out of their room at least once every other week. Not necessarily the same person, but it still felt like it was that frequent.

People would never know: I made this huge elaborate scavenger hunt and every year, I included an item that was "the thing I'm thinking of while writing this item". One group got close one year, but no one ever figured it out.

(Nothing popped up for q or qu)

Required a ticket: One of the random roles was driving students to Kansas City to take the SAT. Fortunately this never happened when I was driving, but there were months where a student would forget his/her entrance ticket in their room and only realize it when we got to the testing site. Ack!

Smelled really bad: Well, I lived in a community of high school boys where almost all of them had lived away from their parents for a year at most... I'll let you fill in the rest.

Took up space: Both of my apartments had dishwashers that I used maybe 5 times between them both across the five years. The one in the first apartment was on wheels, so yeah, it got in the way from time to time.

Used to be free: Unfortunately, an all too real answer came up for this one. When I joined the Missouri Academy, the students paid for room & board on a sliding scale and that was mostly it (outside of some fees). Partway through, financial crunches forced us to charge students a portion of their tuition. It wasn't all of it or even a majority, but it was still enough to turn some students away which really sucked.

Varied in a measurable way: The home states that all of the staff members came from, because it certainly jumped around from year to year.

We did: I mean, we did a lot. Whether you're talking about the staff "we" or the collective with students "we". There were bad memories, but also many really cool memories of fun times.

(Nothing for x either)

You forgot: The further into the position I got, the more difficult it was to remember which students attended & graduated on which years. I've had better lucky thinking about "who was classmates with whom" and having a couple of definitive "I know this student graduated this year" reference points. Even still, the years and specific class cohorts have been blending together.

(Nothing for z either)

I hope I haven't been running the nostalgia into the ground. It's a nice distraction from all of the stress that happens here. Plus, it's nice to reminisce.

Tomorrow is National Running Day and National Tailors Day.

DFTBA