Story #12

Oh man.  Where to begin?  Maybe I'll just go through each grade and jot down some memories.

Preschool

I remember walking to preschool with my mom (it was in my neighborhood close by the house we lived in in Orem).  The only other thing I remember about preschool was watching this fire safety video with a vampire in it.

Kindergarten

I remember being one of two zookeepers (the main characters) in a little program for school.  The other zookeeper was a boy named Austin, and my dad kept making fun of me for liking Austin, which I did not.  Or maybe I had a little crush on him, but with the persistent teasing, I stopped having a crush on him.  I also remember my teacher, Mrs. Money.  And I remember growing a seed, wrapped in a wet paper towel, in a plastic baggy.  I also remember my bus driver's name was Kelly Underwood.  I thought it was a funny last name because it was so close to underwear.  And one time on the bus ride home, my friend and I were sitting in the very back behind some mean girls.  The whole ride home, they kept blocking the aisle and telling my friend and I that they weren't going to let us off when it was our turn to get off.  I started getting worried as our stop got closer because what if they didn't let us off?  Where would I end up?  Would the bus driver even notice there were still two girls on the bus, or would he not see us and park the bus wherever he parked it after dropping kids off and just leave?  But when our bus stop came, we got off the bus with no problems.

1st Grade

My teacher was Mrs. Snail.  I thought it was a weird last name.  For parent teacher conferences, my teacher told my parents that I excelled in reading compared to my classmates and was reading third grade material.  That made me feel so smart.

2nd Grade

My teacher was Ms. Hall.  I remember the way she rolled the chalk between her hands and the clinking sound it would make as it rolled over her ring.  Whenever I played "school" at home with my sister and stuffed animals, I would wear a ring and roll chalk or a pen between my hands like she did because it felt and sounded so cool.  I became friends with a girl named Kinsley because our desks were near each other and we took our shoes off and stuck our feet up in the air and we'd laugh because of our stinky feet (which I don't think really stunk).  I would later go to part of high school with Kinsley after moving back to the States from China.

3rd Grade

I don't remember my teacher's name, but I remember her being so pretty.  I also remember going to recess one time and my friend and I didn't hear the bell signaling that recess was over, and we kept playing and playing (we were playing in a tube slide so we couldn't see anyone or anything).  Then I realized that we were the only ones playing on the playground and I got so scared that I would get into a lot of trouble.  We ran in and found our class with some other 3rd grade classes at the Kiva.  We didn't get in trouble.  My teacher didn't even say anything.

3rd grade was also the year my family moved to Taiwan.  This was also the year I found out I was (and still am) shy, and my social anxiety manifested itself.  I made some friends, but I felt like an outsider because my classmates had half the school year to make solid friendships, and I was just jumping in, not realizing how shy I was and how hard it was to be myself and make myself fit in.  Like I said, I had a some friends, but I didn't feel like I totally fit in and that I was just tagging along.  I also remember the fun playground that school had, but the best part was the little forest on the outskirts of the playground/soccer field where we'd hang out.  If I remember correctly, there was a rope swing with a little seat hanging from one of the trees that we'd swing on.

4th Grade

My friendships from 3rd grade solidified and I was more comfortable at my new school.  There were also new people who had moved to Taiwan, so I made more friends.  My teacher was Mrs. Huff, and she called us Mrs. Huff's Hufflepuffs. I don't remember much more from 4th grade, but I believe it was the year I contracted chicken pox from my crush.    

5th Grade

My family moved to Guangzhou, China.  And again, I had a difficult time adjusting to change.  I remember having anxiety about making new friends, and then lunch time came, which gave me even more anxiety.  I had no one to sit with, and I had no clue where I was supposed to sit.  So I sat at a table with some familiar looking guys.  It was mortifying.  I was sitting at a table full of boys all by myself.  I had a melt down, and after that incident, I was assigned a friend named Margaret.  It sounds terrible — who wants to be assigned a friend? — but we became good friends.  I slowly made more friends, and I enjoyed my time at AISG.  My teacher was Mr. Jack, and he was constantly drinking tea.  I remember crazy hair day and how I thought my hair was the bomb—a bird's nest with an actual egg in it.  I remember playing Harry Potter during recess, and we'd bring ingredients from home to make potions, things like toothpaste, soap, salt, glitter, lotion, etc.  We would pour those ingredients down a manhole (our cauldron) in the bushes by the fence where we'd play.  That turned out not to be a good spot to play because one day we noticed a man sitting in his car just staring at us.  Then we saw that he was masturbating in front of us.  We freaked out and ran to tell the teacher's aide.  He zoomed away.  We had to talk to the principal in her office during lunch, and we had hot dogs for lunch.  That was the day I started not liking hot dogs.  5th grade was the year I believed 9/11 happened because we had a moment of silence after watching the news.  Then like a year and a half ago I found out it actually happened when I was in 4th grade... so that's kinda embarrassing.  I was scanning Facebook when someone my age posted how he remembered being in the 4th grade when it happened.  And I thought he had a terrible memory because it definitely happened in the 5th grade.  Turns out I was wrong.  But I was living half a world away when it happened, so that makes me feel a little better.

And I think I'll stop there for now.  This is already a novel!  I'll have to write up a part 2 that involves memories from 6th grade and up.