The Desk
By Melanie Lewis
Looking around his bedroom, my son started to think about how he was going to make that his new “school” for the fall. He sat in his desk he had since he was in 4th grade. Now a freshman in High School, the leg room was cramped. The alarm was sounded, “Maaaahhmmmmmm!”
“What?”, I shouted back.
“I need a new desk.”
Pandemic needs for one are usually needs of all. Just like hand sanitizer and toilet paper, desks are sold out everywhere. We needed a solution. In order to make room for the new, out went the old. We chucked-out his old play telescope and a bag of random treasures: Pokeman cards, dice, broken crayons, dust bunnies, and several scrambled decks of cards. We sorted crayons, colored pencils, pens markers, pencils and assorted notepads. This windfall of school supplies means no shopping the COVID aisles of picked-over items. We gave the old gem a good cleaning, and then I posted the desk on Facebook Marketplace.
I had a dozen responses in 10 minutes. Within an hour it was loaded in the back of a large SUV. All done while masked. We started thinking outside the box. Maybe convert a cupboard like I did our old entertainment center. I added a pullout tray and, voila that became my desk/concealed office a couple of years ago. We had an assortment of castoff furniture in the basement, so we cleaned an old table. My son drew a diagram of how he wanted the room to look. (See diagram).
Moving furniture unearthed an equal assortment of random items as did cleaning out his desk. Whoa, the dust! Even he thought this would be a good time to wear a mask. We found . . . wooden dowels he used to make arrows for his homemade bow and arrow set, paper scraps covered with doodles, a gyroscope, more playing cards, dice, crayons, juggling set, single socks, AND MORE DUST. The clean desk was now ready and in place. Amazing to think that thanks to a new arrangement, this child now has gotten a little energized and engaged in the prospect of fall learning.