HS countdown #7-- FREEDOM ACADEMY with THE FARTMAN

One of the incredible opportunities I had as president of my high school was to attend a week long summer camp at a national guard training site with ALL of the other student body presidents from the state. It was a crazy week and I have a million pictures to show for it. Just imagine combining 100 loud, outgoing, fun high school seniors into one room.. most of them were guys.. but there were several girls and we became the best of friends. The camp was run by Army Officers. We slept in their barracks and ate in their chow hall. We woke up at the crack of dawn for flag ceremony and then spent the entire day doing obstacle courses, driving hummers, touring historical sites in Utah and then sat for hours listening to motivational speakers about leadership, responsibility, etc, etc. In the evenings we had dances and swam at the pool. When we went back to bed, we didn't actually go to bed... even though we were completely exhausted. It was an incredible experience, but I don't think I have ever been more tired in my life.

One day, somewhere in the middle of the week, we went to the state capital to hear a bunch of lectures of government and junk. (boring!) During lunch we went to Memorial Park across the street and had a picnic in between legislature sessions. I was sitting with a few HILARIOUS girls (Val and Neena from T-Ville) when a couple of nice guys came to sit by us. We were talking and chatting when one of the guys (I will not name him, but let's just say he was the president of Skyline high) FARTED really loud. We were in the middle of a conversation, so the guys just kept talking... but I was trying everything I could- to NOT look at the other girls... We eventually made eye contact and started BUSTING UP! Mr. Skyline felt so bad and kept apologizing, but that made it worse. We were SO tired and so silly and we could not stop laughing. Tears started coming out and eventually WE were apologizing to HIM. It was a totally awkward moment and we had to leave for a lecture at the capital before we could really get it resolved.

Inside the capital, we each had notebooks to "take notes" on the speakers giving us such valuable information. Instead, we doodled and wrote notes back and forth to talked about how IMMATURE we were for laughing so hard. Mr. Skyline was sitting right in front of us, so we had to be extra quiet.. we were trying not to giggle as we gave him several nicknames, such as "The Oklahoma City Bomber" And the "FARTMAN" We started drawing silly pictures of the Fartman with several hearts with captions such as "the Unibomber has escaped." We got through the lecture without falling asleep and headed to the bus without ever saying a word to the Fartman.

The next morning, bright and early, we were sitting in the auditorium of Camp Williams. One of the MEAN army officers stood up to the podium to make announcements. The first thing he said was, "JANET LEE CLAWSON, GET UP HERE!" I came up to the front and realized that the big, muscular officer was holding my notebook... which I happened to leave at the capital. He gave me a lecture about keeping track of my possessions and then showed everyone that instead of taking notes from the speakers, I was drawing pictures. It was funny and I laughed and then asked for the notebook back. He said he wouldn't give it to me unless I confessed who drew the pictures with me. I tattled on the president of Taylorsville high and she had to come up to the front too. He gave another lecture about paying attention and then said (really loud) in the microphone, "Before I let you two go.. I need to ask one question: WHO IS THE FARTMAN??" The crowd started to laugh, but we did not. The Fartman was sitting the the FRONT row and turned bright RED. We wouldn't answer him and just said we had no idea what he was talking about. He teased us again saying that we had pictures and love notes about the Fartman all over the notebook. We just stood there and eventually I said, "Please don't make me say." He finally let us sit down and we tried SO HARD not to laugh. We never talked to the Fartman about it... but he still holds a special place in my heart.

*ps. It's been FUN to get back in touch with some of my friends from Freedom Academy through blogging.. it's such a small world afterall!! While looking at my notebook last week, I laughed OUT LOUD at a note from "Weena Nalker." Hilarious--is all I have to say.

**pps. If you happen to know the Fartman, please tell him I am sorry for #1- laughing at him #2- writing funny notes about him in my notebook #3- posting picture of him and telling the story over the Internet. Seriously... I am sorry, dude.