The 26th Letter of the Alphabet

This post has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the 26th letter of the alphabet, but you’ll see that in due time. It has been neither sponsored by the 26th letter of the alphabet, nor endorsed by said letter. That being said, on with the show.

I have always had a fascination with words. From the time I learned how to read and write, I have been voracious about understanding and using a robust vocabulary. Like some people who use word-of-the-day toilet paper (never seen it), I just can’t get enough of language.

So, when I finally got a chance to learn a foreign language in school I was ecstatic. It took me a long time to pick which language I wanted to study, though. And it wasn’t easy for me because it was junior year before I got around to it. In the end, it was one of the few decisions I kind of let my sister make for me. She had taken French since freshman year, so it would be French for me.

I find it funny now how much I stressed over the decision because once I was in French class it was just like learning English, except easier. You see, French has rules, and it follows those rules, unlike English. Verb forms mesmerised me because they were all so… regular.

And it was more than that, too. Not to toot my own horn (you know I never do that), but because it came naturally to me, and because we had to share in class, it was the one class where I was popular. Yes, even more so than in English. While my classmates thought they knew our native tongue (they didn’t), they knew they couldn’t grasp French (they were right), so they came calling. It was nice to see how the turntables… um, turned.

I became student of the week twice for carrying the highest average in the subject (100), even higher than my sister. And I have to admit, it all made me feel good, about my work, about my new school, and about myself. There aren’t many things I can say positive about high school, but that is undeniably one, and for that I am grateful.

Every once in awhile I find myself reminiscing about French class, I drag out my conjugation notebooks, and I trill those Rs. Yes, that was the life.

And damn, I really hope I didn’t use any of that pesky 26th letter of the alphabet in this post. You’ll let me know if I did, I’m sure.

Sam