Personal Essay: The DrainpipeFor a half hour, every school day, for a few months, I was really happy.
Afriend and I would go to the drainpipe, and we would sit, talk, eat our lunches,and listen to my walkman. It was the perfect place: It was quiet, beautiful, andit was full of peace. It didn’t matter whether it was cold or hot, somehow youdidn’t feel anything sitting on that drainpipe. You would feel the wind on yourface, and it made your face cold, but inside, you felt warm and cozy, and youalmost felt like you couldn’t be harmed. There was something magical about thedrainpipe.
Maybe it was the fact that nobody was around except the two of us,and we were tiny compared to the long grass surrounding us. Then again, it couldjust been the freedom of knowing that we were listening to the walkman that wasbanned from school, and we weren’t getting caught. What ever it was, it doesn’tmatter because analyzing something takes away the feeling it gives when youthink about it. It was just a great place, and it made me happy, and I don’tknow why. That makes it better in a way, just knowing that it had that power.
Everyday, I would meet with a friend at the drain-pipe. That is until ateacher found us and told us that because we didn’t have any adult supervision,we couldn’t eat there anymore. It felt terrible. I wanted to stay there.
I hadalways thought that adult supervision was outdated by the time we were this old. We had come to this place to get away from adults and all the other P. C. peoplein this world, and now we had to join them again.
At lunch time, I wander now,using the tape player in any open classroom and get into screaming matches withpeople, it’s all just little kid fun anyway. Lunchtime isn’t the same anymore. Iwish the teacher had never found us. Even to this day, I go to the drainpipe. When things get to hard at home,and I need to just escape, I make the excuse that I forgot a book at school andI leave.
I cross the soccer field, then the gym, sometimes stop at my locker toput away my backpack, and I run to the drainpipe. I lay down in the grass, andthink about what ever is bothering me right now. I put my headphones in my earsand blast the tape that is in my walkman. I’m transported.Music and Movies
