High-school memory loss

After awhile you forget most of the things you learned in high school: locker combinations, gym class survival skills, and the periodic table of elements.

Most people take a language, but by freshmen year of college, any recollection of conjugations or grammar is buried under a new load of information: Top Ramen recipes, roommate survival skills and the fastest routes to class.

I have been desperately searching for the French language in my own memory. I test myself occasionally, quizzing myself on verbs, names of vegetables or common phrases.

Luckily, I remember more French than elements in the periodic table. Unfortunately, it may not be enough to blend seamlessly into Parisian crowds as another citoyenne as I had so hoped.

I dug through my closet a few days ago, searching for a French dictionary and came across something better: a tattered French textbook from freshmen year of college.

I took French my freshman year because it was something I thought I was good at. I toyed with the idea of majoring or minoring in the language but after a quarter or two, I realized my accent and vocabulary wasn't quite up to par.

So I dropped French and concentrated on Journalism in my native language and my textbook got stuffed in a closet; it was too dirty and torn to sell back to the bookstore.

Sipping my coffee the other morning, I flipped open my forgotten textbook and began to cram like a college student. The only thing I haven't done is make flash cards.

I figure I have the entire flight to relearn French. Hopefully I learn enough to pass. Maybe not pass as French citizen, but pass as an American who speaks un peu de la langue française.