School Memories Remain Just That

In 1988 I was a fourth grader at here in Moorpark. Back then, Flory was fourth and fifth grade only, and then we went on to Chaparral Middle School in sixth grade.

The memories of swinging on the monkey bars, eating my sack lunch on the pastel colored picnic tables in the quad and meeting children with whom I would grow up through high school are forever ingrained in my mind.

I remember my elementary school as sounds of laughter and amusement echoing through the halls, the wise old pine trees towering over the playground with a canopy of security, children swarming around the field like bumblebees, racing to be first to ride on the merry-go-round.

My first day at my new school was foreign. There were different teachers, new rules, and an unfamiliar campus. I was unaccustomed to the daily routines everyone executed. I eventually learned what the other children were like, and I grew to be a part of them.

My young friends and I would eat lunch in the quad hurriedly in order to dash to the merry-go-round. The plain steal carousel was the center of our adventures. We’d wait in line for a long length of time so we could experience the swirling sensation that everyone loves. When we weren’t flying, we were creating imaginative games or writing entertaining songs.

I went back to Flory, which is now Flory Academy of Sciences and Technology, to vote in the most recent election and I had a chance to revisit past memories. But I returned to my once spacious site of education and socialization only to find it smaller than I had recalled. The trees were not as awe-inspiring as I once knew them to be. A slab of unfriendly cement replaced the merry-go-round. The hopscotch courts, where I had many tournaments with my friends, were now repaved asphalt. The giant motherly tree in the quad was removed because it outgrew the space provided.

When I left, I felt saddened and melancholy about the transformation of my school. I always pictured my elementary school remaining the same forever. When I found out it hadn’t, I was disheartened. I try not to visualize the new images and rely on old memories. These carefree, innocent thoughts of the past have helped me to go on with my daily life. I need to accept the fact that things have changed over the years.

I see myself as the old tree in the center of the lunch areas. After its long reign, it too had grown too large for its surroundings. I had outgrown my elementary school and went on to higher learning. There will soon be a new youthful sapling in its place that will mature and thrive until its time to leave.

My two-year stay was brief at Flory, but the cherished memories will last a lifetime. Just like the murals on my school's walls, new murals will be repainted over the old ones. If you scrape the newly applied paint off, there still would be traces of the once freshly-painted pictures of my time. We should all hold on to our childhood memories, but realize that everything moves on, even without our permission.