{"id":3970,"date":"2012-08-16T11:50:40","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T15:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?page_id=3970"},"modified":"2012-08-16T11:50:40","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T15:50:40","slug":"going-back-to-fifth-grade","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/going-back-to-fifth-grade\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Back to Fifth Grade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You sit down<br \/>\nclose to the floor<br \/>\nlosing your height forever.<br \/>\nAll along they have been<br \/>\nexpecting you. Across the aisle a boy<br \/>\nwith thick glasses and<br \/>\nwide underwater eyes<br \/>\nturns to smile. You become aware<br \/>\nthat he is not happy,<br \/>\nthat none of them are happy.<br \/>\nThe baby-faced girl<br \/>\nwith breasts and the bald one<br \/>\noff by the windows who had ringworm<br \/>\nare blaming you<br \/>\nwith words you can\u2019t quite<br \/>\ncatch. Surely they recall your painting<br \/>\nof the tropical bird<br \/>\nyou ask, speaking their names<br \/>\nwhich you have never forgot.<br \/>\nBut things get worse: Someone is questioning<br \/>\nyour decision to grow up<br \/>\nin the first place, leaving them here.<br \/>\nThe whole class applauds.<br \/>\nUp front, meanwhile, the Penmanship Man<br \/>\nwho travels all over the state<br \/>\nwriting beautifully<br \/>\nis putting on his coat,<br \/>\nand the teacher is at the blackboard<br \/>\ndotting the i in your name<br \/>\nso hard her flesh jolts.<br \/>\nYou are the Person<br \/>\nWho Always Spoils It<br \/>\nFor Everyone Else. If you could make<br \/>\none half-inch margin, you cry, just one<br \/>\nbeautiful pink map<br \/>\nof Asia. Outside it is beginning<br \/>\nto rain. When you stay after school<br \/>\nnobody is there.<\/p>\n<p><em>-Wesley McNair<\/em><\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-3970\" data-postid=\"3970\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-3970 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You sit down close to the floor losing your height forever. All along they have been expecting you. Across the aisle a boy with thick glasses and wide underwater eyes turns to smile. You become aware that he is not happy, that none of them are happy. The baby-faced girl with breasts and the bald [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2341,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3971,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3970\/revisions\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}