“They were there when we graduated”

Meleni Hernandez is a 13 year old girl who goes to Animo Jefferson Charter Middle School and went to San Pedro Elementary School. We met in kindergarten and talked about each other’s life at the moment and also talked about the past. We also talked about school. 

Transcript:

Stephanie Lopez: How is your day going?

Meleni Hernandez: My day is going really good but I’m really tired.

SL: Why are you tired?

MH: I barely slept.

SL:  You barely slept?

MH: Yeah.

SL: What was your experience in elementary school?

MH: My experience in elementary was good, I had a lot of fun memories.

SL: Can you name a memory?

MH: Uh yeah, one memory I had was in fifth grade when me, you, Natalie, Jose, and Natasha was kicking our shoes off of our feet.

SL: I remember that so vividly. Who was your least favorite teacher and why?

MH: My least favorite teacher was Ms. Barahona because she was really strict and mean to everybody. I remember when she would rip everybody’s projects.

SL: Mhm I remember that. I’m still wondering why she ripped it.

MH:  She said because um because we didn’t meet all of the [tries to pronounce criteria]

SL: Criteria?

MH: Yeah criteria. She ripped it up.

SL:  I remember when she would only let the good kids go out to recess and leave us to do repetitions. Kinda sad.

MH: She was so mean.

SL: But who was your favorite teacher and why?

MH: My favorite teacher was Ms Huffer, because we had a lot uh good times with everybody. Everybody was really close and we had a lot of fun field trips.

SL:  Remember her husband?

MH: I remember. 

SL:  He made it ten times better.

MH: He sometimes came to our class then they were there when we graduated and they were also in a lot of fifth grade memories.

SL: I follow her on instagram now.

MH: I follow her too.

SL: What was your point of view in culmination.

MH: My point of view it was sad.

SL: It was sad?

MH:  It was sad, I was sad. I remember when I cried when I saw Emily leaving.

SL: It turned out that I saw her the next year.

MH: Yeah you did see her the next year and I haven’t seen her since fifth grade. So sad.

SL: What was your favorite memory?

MH: My favorite memory… fifth grade?

SL:  Mhm. Everything, just fifth grade.

MH: Fifth grade memory. Oh wait. Fifth grade memory was that Mr. Cruz would let us watch a movie, like when we finished reading the book and he would let us watch the movie of it. It was fun.

SL: I was kinda sad because my book that I liked it was like Percy Jackson and I think it was the third book and the movie didn’t come out and I was sad.

MH: Oh yeah we didn’t watch that movie did we?

SL: No.

MH: It was the first one and the second one. I wasn’t a big fan of the movies.

SL: You weren’t? 

MH: No.

SL: I thought it was kinda weird.

MH: Yeah they were kinda weird and I didn’t like them.

SL:  Could you name another memory from fifth grade?

MH: Uh another memory was hmmm. Another good memory was when we would play kickball. 

SL: Why? 

MH: Because we would just be outfield and we would just be talking to each other and everyone would be mad of us if we didn’t pay attention.

SL: How was like your first semester in sixth grade?

MH: My first semester in sixth grade was interesting…

SL: Interesting?

MH: Yeah.

SL: Why?

MH: I wasn’t used to anything cuz like I had friends but it was also really weird because I didn’t have like people I knew that much. Yeah 

SL: What about second semester? 

MH: Seco-secound semester was when we literally left to quarantine. And I didn’t like it. 

SL: You didn’t like it, why?

MH: I felt like it was more difficult than in person.

SL: But did it change for seventh grade or felt the same?

MH: It felt the same, I didn’t like the online school. I didn’t like it.

SL: It was kinda difficult, you got to wake up and join class.

MH: And like the teachers were not physically there to help you, so like.

SL: How was your firs- eh I wouldn’t say first but how does it feel to come back.

MH: It feel really weird but really fun to see everybody like uh i got to see ummm like my old friends i didn’t get to talk to during quarantine. I got to see people I did talk to like Isaiah and I really liked that part.

SL: Going back to the second favorite part who was your second favorite teacher?

MH: My second favorite teacher was probably Mr. Cruz.

SL: Cruz.

MH: No no no, Ms. Ramirez.

SL: Ramirez, why?

MH: She would like have a party kinda like we would- like we would do work and she would also like give us candies,  treats and like we would celebrate every holiday. It was really fun.

SL: It was. Do you remember anything about when we first met?

MH: No, I don’t. It was since kindergarten, I’m not going to remember stuff [starts counting] from nine years ago. Like I can’t remember that far. 

SL: I feel like would y- no cuz I would transfer back and forth from my classroom to your class. That’s the only thing I remember. 

MH: Yeah that’s something I remembered. [cuts for some reason] Everybody uh was like everybody had the same recess time so like every kindergarten teacher classroom- I mean recess time so like we all just got to see each other.