Grade Schools

We didn't wear shoes in the house, and my preschool was carpeted. The sound of my shoes clomping through the hallways of E.J. Martinez Elementary was such a big, adult, echoing sound. Whenever my parents were late to pick me up I preferred to walk up and down the halls and be comforted by the sound and the emptiness of the school, instead of sitting in the office while whoever was set to watch me got more and more concerned, calling the house more and more frequently.
Somewhere between second and third grade I spent a week or two at Sweeney, which I remember very little of. After third grade I switched from E.J. to Atalaya.
My years at Atalaya I remember mostly for the deeds I did there, but as a school I remember it for its proximity to wilderness. Small and quiet as I still am, I could simply slip away to wander behind the school, alone and in silence. A far more appealing option than the one they presented to us at recess: that of the noisy playground with children running and throwing and being rude and shallow.
I started seventh grade at Monte del Sol. The school was held in a shopping center underneath the Women's Health Center, being a new charter school and not having a building of our own. Being small and quiet has its advantages, but can be annoying when students are packed so tightly and one is constantly walked into. I was asked multiple times whose sibling I was because I looked so young that I could not possibly belong there.
Monte was in the process of adding a grade each year when I started, and the first graduating class was only two years ahead of me. Seventh and eighth grade were spent in the Solana Center, the strip mall. My third year at the school, we got our own building. Centered around a courtyard, with a large "Gathering Space" and high ceilings, it retained much of its hippie community feel. There still aren't enough classrooms in the main building, so there are a handful of portables as well.
I dropped out after tenth grade, being "not all there" and no longer willing to cope with the whole school experience. My class graduated this last year, and with it most of my friends from Monte. But I still feel like a part of the school and enjoy showing up there from time to time.