WINGATE DORM LIFE -Wingate dormitory has helped me become a well self sustained young man.. This is just a memory. [sorry for the horrible writing and grammer!] I am 13 years old, the dorms are full of young adolescent boys reaching puberty, hyped up on soda and hot cheetos. The military dorm staff, Mr. James, yells Lets go boys, drain your snakes and brush your teeth. i hurry and walk toward the restroom/shower room located at the end of hallway, holding my toothpaste and tooth brush. Mr. James yells, Belone!! Head back to bed, the lights are off, you shouldve taken care of it when you had time! i look at him mad as a young boy could be. The other boys laughed. i walk slowly back to my bunk bed, which in the dormitory they are structured and exposed to one another, with only a 3 foot separator by the beds and a locker to put your belongings into, across from your bed on the other said of the long hall are other beds, or as they called it units. My bed was the bottom bunk and toward the back of the hall, where all the misbehaved students were. I felt out of place and scared there because i was alone and my friends were no where in sight, they were in different hallways- there were 4 hallways: Rainbow, Deerfoot, Sunset, Thundercloud. All labeled as if we were at summer camp. I then laid down, pulling up my military tucked sheet, i was upset still but also needed to pee. The dorm staff always stayed at the end of the hallway to settle the boys down from running around at night slapping, low blowing, nut flicking other boys while they slept. I would observe them when they got up and went back to the office to make sure all the kids are safe throughout every night, they would randomly walk the halls, as if they were securing a military base from intruders. the intruders in the dorm life were the bad kids who would not go to sleep. After heading back to the office, i quietly uncover my self move slowly toward the back of the hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible to use the restroom. but, when you were that young- some nights during the weekend when unfortunate kids could not afford to go home would stay the weekend. During the weekend friends and i would sleep in the living area which were located at the beginning front of the hallways before the first unit and tell ghost stories or Navajo scary stories. So as i walked to the back where i needed to go to the restroom, the stories of bloody mary, IT the clown, skinwalkers, dead soliders from long ago, and a crying baby all appeared in front of me as if they were all present to scare the life out of me. i stood there shocked and scared, i heard my last name being called but in a distant tone- Belone! Belone! and i slowly turned around and it was Mr.James asking what i was doing. i said nervously, ju-just going to the restroom, ineed to pee! He urged me to hurry quickly. and i asked him to stand guard so nothing would get me. He chuckled and said, Okay! Hurry Belone! and after icame back he said, it never gets old. I said, sir? He said the scary stories that are told. i smiled and told him do you know any? he said are you tired? i told him no. he sat me down in the tile floor by the restrooms and the laundry and told me about his days in the military. All the bad things he has seen throughout his years on the Navajo reservation. i was infatuated with what he was telling me and was curious. i asked so many questions, he had so many answers. i then walked with him to the office and offered me a soda for the next day. i felt special, Soda was off limits to students before class and before dinner. so the soda made it a special bond between him and i. I came to realize, that out of all the things said about Mr. James, he was a great person, he was such a hard ass because he needed to be, to help us become young men. i walked back to my bunk bed and hid my soda under my next day clothes in my locker. laid down and pulled the sheets over me and slept until he woke up all the boys at 5am before the sun arose and went for our morning runs. I was tired, but i was also feeling great knowing i met a good role model and a hard ass to keep me in line when i got out of hand, not that i was a bad kid or anything. It was nice to know i had a friend on the inside. My days in the dormitory was smooth sailing after that. Thank you Mr. James.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 07:15:17 +0000