A sub-category of anecdotes featuring stories from the olden school days of New Leaf Journal writers.
I recall just beating the chickenpox vaccine with a genuine case of chickenpox.
A 2026 story of a snake in a football helment in Arkansas reminded me of that time in 1995 when an earthworm found its way into my shoe.
An article about an outgoing Baidu employee replacing himself with a chatbot reminded me of the time I replaced myself with a classmate in math class. What follows is an anecdote about humanity. Is there a lesson here? I leave that to the readers to decide.
I share the story of that one time I briefly proctored a high school exam while I myself was a high school student.
I once wanted to be a basketball coach. Although I have now become a source(TM) for basketball coaches, I never coached. But what if I told you that I was once a coach on a different field?
An article about the dangers of AI dependency reminded me of how I encouraged a middle schooler to do algebra by hand in my senior year of high school.
An article about the smell of Axe Body Spray reminded me of when a friend in high school described his post-Axe usage “enchanting musk” and that time he called someone a “muskrat who swims in rivers.”
Bam Adebayo’s 83-point performance on March 10, 2026, prompted me to recall how I learned and shared the news of Kobe Bryant’s 81-point performance on January 22, 2006.
I frequented an excellent Dunkin’ Donuts location in Bay Ridge in the late 2000s when I was in high school. I then learned that not all Dunkin’ Donuts are the same.
Recalling the time a friend tried to sell me on the TV show “24” by writing a long dialogue in AIM using emojis to depict protagonist Jack Bauer.
Remembering that time my high school classmate responded to a comment about the then-upcoming 2005 NYC mayoral election by expressing her concern that Bush would win again.
Microsoft’s impending discontinuation of Publisher made me recall my experiences using it as the student editor of my high school paper in the late 2000s.