Actually to be really honest with you at that point in my life all I cared about in connection with school was recess, lunch and P.E. I had no stress about any tests or learning exercises. I was just there to have a good time, and that I did except when that teacher tried to teach me a lesson. My brother-in-law tried to help me study for a history test, and he was really brilliant with excellent achievements in school, so he thought he could help me get a really good grade, and I did; I got a D- instead of an F, and I was really happy. I could not understand why he was so upset with me when he asked me how I did on that test, and I told him I got a D- instead of an F, and I thought he should have been happy with me too, but he wasn't!
That school was a pretty rough place and a lot of the kids were not that well behaved. We moved to this same Indian Reservation where we are living now during Spring Break of my freshman year in high school. The school was much better socially than where we came from. The kids were more civilized. They were not trouble makers, and they generally treated each other better than the school where I came from. So all of a sudden I decided that I wanted to be an honor student. The problem was that I had no base built for being an honor student. I couldn't read very well with understanding, and my math skills were low. I tried hard during high school to get on the honor roll, but I was never able to due to one difficult class or another. I struggled and worked hard. I graduated from high school, and went on to Bible College. I was not able to excell in Bible College either because of low reading skills, although I took it very seriously and tried very hard. I was out of school for about 15 years before I went back, but in the mean time I pastored churches, and did a lot of recreational reading. After I returned to teacher's college I got mostly all perfect grades. Very few subjects since that time did I ever fall below a 4.0, and that included math and science classes as well as all other difficult classes. I spent 10 years teaching in the public schools, and I enjoyed that immensly. But Carol and I got jobs and found an opportunity to live in the most beautiful place on the earth for 10 years, and now we have moved here where we are very happy. I am still maintaining my teaching certificate just in case I would want to teach again. I may even go to the Philippines and teach English; who knows?
Now my excelling is giving me a lot of stress because I have taken college classes for so many years from so many various Universities that it kills me to think that I might get a grade below a 4.0. Oh for the days when I could get a D- and be happy with it. I think those days are forever gone!