I was Wrong About the em dash—gasp!

I’m in fourth grade, sitting around a table with the teacher and a handful of other students, going over the results of a pop quiz we’d just taken.

As the teacher reviews the subject matter, I look down at my test and realize one of my answers is wrong. I quickly erase it and put the right answer… but when we get to that question, my correction turns out to be wrong. Oh well.

Meanwhile, every time I look up from my paper, Susan Lee is staring daggers at me. What's her damage?

We finish grading and hand our papers back to the teacher, and finally Susan Lee confronts me.

“Why’d you change my answer?!”

uh… whoops. 😬

I’d forgotten that before we started grading our tests, we switched papers with other students. I didn’t change my incorrect answer; I changed Susan Lee’s correct one… and then marked her off ten points for getting it wrong. No wonder she was pissed.

I don’t remember what I said to her, but I do remember the futility of trying to explain to her that I honestly thought it was my own test. Because we literally traded papers five minutes before this happened, and that just makes no sense. Even for a 9-year-old.

(Unrelated, this makes me feel better about my weed-addled, 46-year-old brain. I was obviously born this way.)

Susan Lee was one of the smartest and most badass people in my class. Looking back on this story, I am very fucking impressed that she spoke up for herself that day; I don’t think I would have said anything if the tables were turned. I hope she’s living a good life.

Do you need me to tell you the moral of this story? Nah. You get it.

Eyes on your own paper…

Sam

P.S. I recently wrote a scathing post about em dashes and en dashes… but I actually mixed up which was which. Good thing Susan Lee’s not here.