The Joy Of Going To the Office For A Late Pass

This is a paper I wrote in Mr. Tangen's class for PAP English 10.

The Joy of Going to the Office For a Late Pass

Going to the office for a late pass is something students always look forward to.   Getting out of the car and walking across the street to the foot of the mountain is the puzzling moment when all students think: “What is my excuse going to be for Majo this time? Will Mr. Guenther be in the office? Do I have enough lates to get an after school detention?”  The students spend several moments pondering these questions trying to find a believable answer to the late excuse.  By the time they finally cross through the gate and stop at the foot of the mountain they have crossed off the traffic excuse, accident excuse, and pretty much every other excuse known to the citizens of Bogota who deal with the bumper-to-bumper traffic daily.

After finally reaching the top of the mountain gasping for air, can we go to our classroom? Of course not! We must walk all the way to office to make a pit stop for a late pass. Taking a deep breath before walking in, the student prepares him or herself for the “tardy again” look from Majo and any other teacher that happens to be in the office.  On the count of three the student pushes open the door and yells, “Hello Majo! How are you today? Can you please write me a late pass?” Glancing around the room to make sure Ms. Kaun or Mr. Guenther is not present the student normally tries to rush Majo or Andrea into writing a late pass.  Since Majo is the type of person who loves conversation, she decides to ask questions like: Why are you so late? Why don’t you leave the house earlier?  What would the principal have to say? When she finally finishes writing the pass the student yanks it from her hand and runs to his or her classroom. 

As if climbing the mountain all alone, running to the office for a late pass, hiding from Mr. Guenther, and having a nice conversation about being late with Majo aren’t enough reminders that we are late, the teachers decide to make a comment.  With Ms. Pascale you can expect the, “Late again. Do you have a bunch of photo copies of these late passes in your room or something?” With Mr. Tangen you will most likely get the, “Hello just throw your pass in the garbage,” with the singsong tone he always uses with Lina Merizalde.  Hearing a comment from your teacher is completely natural for any student across the globe. The stressful thing is having to go all the way to the office for a late pass when the teacher clearly knows that you are already late. 

This procedure does not only occur if you are late in the beginning of the day. It is for every single class that you arrive at least one minute late.  As soon as the classroom doors are closed you may as well just start your walk to the office.  At this time of the day it is different because you can’t use your sister, driver, or traffic as an excuse.  The excuse you come up with this time has to make sense and it can’t be the typical excuse everyone gives.  The counselor? Dumb excuse and dumb idea because eventually they will ask the counselor if your whereabouts had anything to do with them.  Talking to a teacher? Bad idea. Mr. Guenther is most likely a friend of the teacher and if not then you can definitely assume that Majo will contact the teacher sooner or later.  The only excuses left are: my friend was crying, I was crying, I was picking something up all the way down by the gate, or the truth.  Not many students will decide to tell the truth because then that will definitely gain them the “shame on you” look at the office.

 At no point can a student sigh with relief and think: “I’m safe for now.” Not before any of his or her classes at least.  The only time you can sigh that sigh is at the end of the day when you can no longer be late.  At some point a student finally realizes that the best route is to leave a little bit earlier, walk to class a little bit faster, or speed up the conversation with his or her friends so that he or she can arrive to class on time.  By accomplishing these tasks you can avoid the long walk to the office and the painful process of thinking up a good excuse.