My three year old mind could not possibly imagine how the teacher had caught me. How had she caught me again! Wait, I have to go outside? What’s going to happen? Am I in trouble? All these thoughts scattered throughout my brain as Mrs. Leon called my name.

As I began walking toward the hallway, so many thoughts raced through my mind. I kept on thinking my parents would come…and how my Dad would give me the whoopin when I got home. I now realize that I am in trouble, but how bad is it? Just a talking to or something worse? My fears were doubled in size as I was told to put my shoes on. I strapped the velcro on my red sketchers. I stood up, I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I was in trouble, and it didn’t look so good for me right now.

“Follow me,” Ms. Leon said. We walked out the door, across the street, and headed toward the ‘Big School’. It was fall so the leaves layered the yard. We entered through the front doors of the office. What was worse…we were walking directly toward Deacon Brooks’ office. My heart was beating out of my chest. When I sat down Deacon asked with a calm voice “Why were you horsing around during naptime? Why didn’t you stop after being asked by the teacher more than 3 times?”

What was worse was that he didn’t yell at me. It was a calm and even voice that asked me questions. Although he did show some emotion and slammed his hand on the file cabinet, I was so used to being yelled at when I was in trouble. Not being talked to as if was a normal conversation.

The next day, during nap time, our class walked in and got our mats out and went to sleep, well most of us anyway. If you can’t tell by now I obviously had trouble sleeping during nap time. I guess I was always feeling hyper or just couldn’t keep still. I was not going to get caught. As soon as the teacher exited the room, I raised myself up on an elbow and waited.

After what seemed like only seconds, she re-entered the room. I dropped and fell onto my mat with an audible boom, except this time there was no “Landon….” or “Get back to sleep Landon.” This means…I wasn’t caught! The next time I was caught, and the time after that, even after getting caught I decided I could stand up and I got caught. That third time was the magic number.

“Landon, come out into the hallway!” Mrs. Leon said.

I stood up and followed her out the door. Fear raced up and down my body. Once again we walked toward the Big School, and headed towards Deacon’s Office. I virtually received the same talk as last time: “Listen to your teachers” “Why did you disobey her?” I wasn’t really paying attention because at the time, I could care less.
Two days later, everyone gets their mats out and we all lay down as the lights go out and the room goes black. You would think that I would have learned my lesson right, sent to the principal’s office two days in a row. But, I was a hardheaded child and I didn’t learn so quickly. So during nap time I repeated the process, get up and fall plus get caught equals trouble. I continued this pattern once again I was called into the hallway and taken over to deacon’s office. The conversation went a little something like this.

“Why don’t you listen?” Deacon asked.

This question was followed with a slight shoulder shrug from me.

“You know being in here means your in big trouble? Enough trouble that I could call your parents in and speak with them about this…”  Deacon said.

“No please! Don’t call my parents; I’ll be in big trouble!” I said.

“I want you to know that if this ever happens again, your parents will meet you here, and we can all sit down and have a nice long chat about this,” Deacon proposed. 

“No, PLEASE don’t do that, please!” I said.

“Good. Now that you know behave and get back to school,” Deacon says.

I walked back over to the school in shock, and in fear. Would they call my parents? Would my parents find out? I was so scared. Thankfully the rest of the day continued as normal and nothing else went wrong.

Now I look back and laugh at this situation. I say to myself “Wow I really was a stubborn little kid.” Later on in the year they realized nap time just didn’t work for me and I ended up doing puzzles instead. I still have the foam T-Rex dinosaur puzzle they gave me. I even do the puzzle from time to time. I guess what I learned was that you always listen the first time.

Now after learning my lesson ten years ago I still get in trouble for not listening and doing little things like that. My hope or vision is that I’ll stop and I’m not doing to bad…for now. In the future I’m sure to eventually learn the error of my ways and stop…at least I hope.