Iced Coffee with Cream

     So, it was one of my first days at Woodrow and I had to go to the restroom during class. But there were like, no signs. So I just randomly walked around the school. I didn’t know where the bathrooms were. Then I finally found a bathroom and walked in there. Then there were guys coming in too. Then I realized, I had walked into the boys’ bathroom. They started laughing, too. It was really embarrassing. I just sprinted out and went back to class. I never went to the restroom again.

[Sophie] Have you never gone to the restroom at school?

I do, but then I ask someone where the girls’ room is.

[Sophie] Are there signs at your school in Germany? Saying like, “Here’s the girls’ room.”

There are signs saying, “Here’s the girls’ restroom.” But here, there is nothing! And they all look the same.

[Sarah] They do have signs! Above the door!

Yeah, well.

-Paula, Legal Grounds

Iced Coffee

     It was last year. I decided it would be a good idea to try out for cheer since I had done it in middle school, and I thought that I could. I spent days learning this cheer and this dance because I was so excited. I wanted to at least make JV, because I was going to be a sophomore.

The tryout finally came. We had been going over it over and over and over again. I went into the gym and it was just three judges staring at me while I did this cheer and I was like, “WOODROW, WILDCATS,” and then I blanked.

It was like, a two-minute cheer and I got like the first two seconds of it, even though I had gone over it so much. So, I just slowly put my arms down from my high “V” in my cheer and I made this really ugly face and one of the three judges (it had been completely silent), she started laughing at me. So, I just curtsied and I spirited off, just going, “GO WOODROW!”

And that was the end of my cheer experience. I’m officially retired.

-Sarah, Legal Grounds

Mango Iced Tea with 1 Sweet'N'Low

     I can’t remember what grade I was in. I was in elementary school - below forth grade, I know that. I wannna say it was third grade.

We used to carpool with our neighbors to St. Thomas, which was like three minutes away driving. So, the Valeks picked me up in the mornings and my dad would ride his bike to work those mornings. Almost every time the Valeks took us, my dad would race us to school. Usually, we would beat him every time, because obviously we were in a car and he was on a bike.

But, one time, we raced to school. He said he was very reckless and rode through stop signs. But, one time he beat us there. He told me, before we left the house, that he wanted me to wait if we beat him there. So, we beat him and I remember coming home that night and he said that he had waited for me at the school and I had totally forgotten. I guess he was just sitting in front of the school, with his bike, waiting for us to come piling out of the car and we never did, because I guess we were already inside or something.

That night when he told me, I was really upset, but I didn’t want him to know I was upset. So, after he told me he had been waiting for me and I didn’t show up, I sat in the kitchen and cried. I was so sad because I had left him there all alone. To this day, I don’t think he knows that I cried after he told me, after he told me that I left him there alone. But, that will haunt me for the rest of my life, I swear. I still feel so guilty thinking about it. So, I guess this is my apology to my father for leaving him.

-Sophie, Legal Grounds

Americana

     It’s gonna get really depressing. In high school, I did a lot of drugs. I got caught by my parents. It was a huge deal with my family. Went through all that stuff.

     Afterwards, to show that they still trusted me, they got me a dog. It was a little puppy - shepherd mix. She was for the family, but really she was my dog.

I love her. She lives with my parents. I got back all the time and every time I go back she spends the whole day just sitting next to me. It’s the greatest thing ever. And that’s my story.

-Humza, The Pearl Cup

Passion Tea Lemonade

     My memory is pretty recent, but it’s something that’s been on my mind a lot. I’ve got this big bandage on my hand and it’s from soccer on Wednesday. I’ve been trying really hard to get the position of goalie on my team and be accepted, because I was told things like, “Women can’t be goalies,” and “You’re too fragile to be a goalie.”

In our first game of the season, I end up almost breaking my finger. It’s actually severely sprained. It happened when somebody tried to head the ball into the goal and they headed my head instead. So, really hoping they let me stay on as goalie.

     I’ve always had that problem. I used to do MMA [Mixed Martial Arts], and I got comments like that all the time. You know, like, “Why don’t you stay home and bake cookies?” or, “Bet you wish you had stayed in the kitchen.” You know, after losing a match in practice there would be these awful, misogynistic comments.

You know, now I am actually out of MMA because of injuries. I tore my ACL. I tore my meniscus. But each time I returned, and now I’m out permanently.

It always happens. Women face comments like that all the time. I thought I would be done with that when I left MMA, but even with intramural soccer, it’s alive. So, hopefully I’ll be back to being goalie next week, and for now, I get to walk around with this club-like bandage.

-Hannah, UTD Pub