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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Second Grade Was a Very Big Year for Me


So, as I previously noted, I am a vegetarian. No one else in my family is a vegetarian; actually we’re Italian, so they’re pretty ashamed of my unwillingness to eat meat. When I said I wanted to stop eating meat in the second grade, my mom thought it was a phase and went with it. But it wasn’t. I think second grade is about the time when you really start making the connection between animals and meat.

I realized that when I was eating spaghetti and meatballs:
It's spaghetti and meatballs. Shut up.
or a hamburger:

I was actually eating Bessie the Cow. :(

My little second grade self was deeply disturbed to learn where grandma’s meatballs really came from.


Also, we were learning a lot about American Indians and for some reason, the idea of whale-hunting really upset me.


In-a-not-totally-unrelated-way, second grade was also the year that I found out I was a wussie. I don’t actually mind the sight of blood, but talking about your heart and blood and circulatory systems and pulses (ugh, pulses!) really freaks me out. I know I know, “but a pulse is a GOOD thing,” and I agree, but if you try to touch my pulse, I will poke your eye out (oh, maybe boyfriend isn’t totally an innocent victim, eh??).

Anyhoo, I remember a distinct episode in second grade when I came to realize this about myself. The teacher was telling us about blood and pulses and other gross stuff, and we were practicing feeling our pulses, then jogging in place and feeling them again. I was completely disgusted and blatantly pressing my fingers on my jaw in an attempt to make sure I didn’t accidentally feel my neck pulse, but I was still getting totally woozy.

I guess I was looking a little pale, because the teacher was all:
 But what I saw was:

I had never been lightheaded before, so of course I thought I was going blind or dying or something equally traumatic. I went up to the teacher and told her there were spots in my eyes and I couldn’t see, so she made me put my head on my desk for the rest of the class. And that’s how I almost passed out in second grade. 


 

I probably should have called this post “The Year I discovered I was a Wussie” because I clearly couldn’t handle anything icky. I’d like to pretend I outgrew it, but I’m still a vegetarian and I BARELY got through junior year health class (CPR. Pulse feeling and heart beating. Ick. ICK ICK.) BONUS embarrassing confession: Even writing about pulses is making me feel a little iffy. I was going to draw another picture to go with this, but really I just need to stop thinking about it.  Shudder.

9 comments:

  1. So are you not down with vampires? All they do is talk about blood.
    I love that psychedelic picture.
    You were way more self-aware than I was as a child. Maybe if they made a cartoon with cows talking and acting cute then suddenly getting shoved into a meat grinder, I may have got it as a child.
    What do you do when you go to the doctor? They check your pulse all the time. Are there a lot of doctors in your area wearing eye patches?

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  2. UGH! I try to pretend they're not touching my pulse and go to my happy place. Blood pressure machines freak me out too.

    I'm actually down with vampires because I'm okay with blood, just not the pulsing aspect of it. I did recently find twilightsagatattoos.blogspot.com and I am FASCINATED.

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  3. I was the complete opposite as a child, my dad used to go deer hunting so as a 4 year old I would point to deers and go, "mmmm good eatin.'"

    No idea what was the matter with me.

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  4. My sister became a vegetarian for a while. We call it a fad even though it lasted her nearly 12 years. We learnt after those 12 years that if we had just taken her to McDonalds it all would have been over and done with.

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  5. I can perfectly relate. That almost happened to me as well :)

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  6. Interestingly enough, I got woozy during the cartoon blood video in 4th grade and had to be excused for the remainder of class. I feel we have much in common. : )

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  7. Its all good .after disecting a pig in high school, I avoided pork for 5 yrs and went full veggie for 4. I eat meat now, but only if someone else made it...I cannot touch raw meat ,gag. And I make everyone over cook it because I am scared of food poisining.

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  8. Every time I have my blood pressure taken at the doctor, I nearly pass out. Idk why it freaks me out, but it's awful. I'd rather have like 50 shots.

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