The ONLY Class I Ever Dropped Because It Was TOO Hard Was Home Economics

I took Home Ec in the 11th. grade as an elective. I didn't need the credit I had way too much and I thought what easier class than Home Ec to take. Boy was I wrong!

At our school you did one semester of sewing and a one semester of cooking. Unfortunately my first semester was sewing. I was actually looking forward to the class because I thought I would like to learn to make quilts. I quickly discovered that I am absolutely inept at sewing. The only thing I was good at was using a seam ripper!

The problem I had (still undiagnosed) was, I like to refer to it as, a touch of dyslexia. I would sew one side of my pattern perfectly fine but then I had to do the other side - hence, the problem. Every single time I would sew the other side inside out. I wouldn't do it once. I would do it over and over.

At the end of the semester we were required to make an outfit and wear it for extra credit. It took everyone else around 3 weeks to sew their outfits. I made a skirt and a blouse - it took me 2 months and that was with me going in on lunch and free class periods to sew it. I can't even begin to express my frustration level. I had always been good at everything I ever tried - at the very least, adequate anyway.

Here was something I just could not do - no matter how hard I tried. The skirt was easy. It only took me about 3 days because it was basically 2 seams - one at the waist and one at the bottom.

The blouse threw me into fits. I did the one side just fine. Everytime I sewed that stupid sleeve on and then a cuff, one or the other or both was ass backwards! I was in tears several times. The teacher would show me again and again how to do it and I just couldn't catch on.

Finally the outfit was finished after 2 months. There was no way I wasn't going to wear it. I needed the credit too darn bad! I wore it proudly to school. It didn't look bad at all on me even though one sleeve was a little short and a little too tight and the skirt was massively too big for me.

I got a "c" on it. I think it was a pure, pity "c" because she knew I honestly put every bit of my effort into it.

Our next semester was supposed to be cooking. I was so frustrated by the sewing that I dropped out of home ec and took an extra semester of gym. It was really dumb of me because I really like to cook, but I took gym even when they told me I wouldn't get any credit for it because I had already completed the class. I didn't need the credit anyway because I was an over achiever in those days. I already had enough credit to graduate at the end of the 11th. grade, they just didn't allow early graduation in those days at my school.

postscript: Even today I have problems matching things. I am the only cashier at Fruth that is not required to straighten my money - i.e. face all the bills the same way. It gives me fits! On those standardized tests they give people I have always scored in the 90th. percentile except for the visual test where you have to look at the 4 pictures and find the one that is different - they always look the same to me. My usual score in that area is in the 20 percentile range. That would be in the actual range of a lucky guess, I would think.