It was a regular day in seventh-grade social studies. We had been studying our ancestry and creating our family tree. This was long before information was available online; in fact, there was no “online” back then.

I received most of the paternal information from my dad’s brother, Uncle Paul, and had only brief details from Grandma Rose on the maternal side. Still, I was pleased with my report and excited to share it with the class.

As I got up to speak, I felt confident and eager to have all eyes on me. I have always liked public speaking – unless I have to present a math equation.

Unexpectedly and not long into my presentation, the whole world literally came crashing down on top of me. Suddenly, the weight of the world lay upon my Fozzie Bear perm and prairie blouse shoulders. Everyone in the room was taken by surprise, and when they realized what happened, rather than showing concern, they erupted in laughter.

My 1983 Fozzie Bear Perm.

I had stepped back too far from the podium and bumped against the chalkboard, thus pulling the unrolled world map down and on top of me – the whole thing – every country, city, desert, ocean, lake, river, and mountain range.

I was mortified. Being a 12-year-old girl is hard enough. But a chubby 12-year-old girl receives her own special kind of ridicule. I had to take control. So, I picked up my proverbial big girl bloomers, shook the world off of me, and laughed it off. The more I laughed, the less they laughed.

“Hmm, this is interesting,” I thought. Note taken.

The laughter stopped, and my presentation continued. Despite the misspellings and that I wrote more about my pets than my human family, I’d like to think I scored an “A.” But there is no grade or a single mark on the report. Maybe the teacher was so impressed with how I handled the situation that she felt an “A” was insufficient. In any case, I still have the report and the documentation.

After I stop cringing from what my twelve-year-old self wrote, I will share some of it in an upcoming entry.

And it will be okay to laugh.