Overheard at New Roads

The title explains itself. 

Sitting on a table facing Eden, you hear a lot from others at New Roads as they’re walking by. It’s never intentional — to eavesdrop is to ruin the whole thing, so I did it. I’ve collected a series of quotes for this article, frankly, because I wasn’t sure what else to do to complete the article. All things considered, being perched up on that one table — and sometimes, if I’m feeling up for it, a few tables to the right when I work outside — has led to a better understanding of the school, its faculty, its students, and those doing the overhearing with me.

So, with no further introduction needed, here they are:

“Wakey-wakey !”

“Who are you?”

“I swear, I swear I do things.”

“Do you like turtles? 100% of people who are cool like turtles.”

“I have a liiiiine of assignments”

“You saved me !”

“What block comes after this? D?”

“All this ‘letter’ business…I know what period it is in the middle school right now.”

“It’s like the thing in movies…”

“What thing in movies?”

“Where they show a person who sees, like, a dog, that’s talking, but when they show it to someone else, there’s no music.”

“It’s like when you notice things that aren’t supposed to be noticed…?”

“What do you know about SpongeBob?”

“SpongeBob is a skunk.”

“When you were a youngin, did you listen to Abba?”

“You’re only allowed to have 1 snack. Not 67 snacks.”

“Drag me all the way to downstairs.”

“You don’t want any skin cancer.”

All in all, overhearing students, faculty, and admin at New Roads does take some work. Easy as it seems, it’s hard to pick up on memorable high-school wisdom when it’s become your inescapable task in OTT Journalism.