Growing Up

Before kindergarten I had a teddy bear I named Teddy. He was my best bear friend and he listened really well.

In Sixth grade, I played soccer badly but could play “knockout,” a fast-paced and very competitive basketball-type game where, in the end, there’s only one man, or woman, left standing, as if I were Shaquille O’Neal.

In Kindergarten, I used to hum in class, get really dirty on the playground, and loved a boy named Jared because he had blue eyes.

In Third grade, butterflies were my favorite creature because I thought how they transformed was so cool and I used to witness it happen in our school’s butterfly garden.

In First grade, the teacher that told me I needed to stop humming. She used to read “The Magic Treehouse” books to us in class and that was my favorite activity.

In Second grade they gave me a test that said I was smarter than most of my classmates, but it took me a while to realize that it wasn’t true.

In Fifth grade I was a “school monitor” so I used to tell students to get off the grass, but they mostly ignored me.

In Fourth grade I used to write pushing the pencil down really hard and my teacher told me I was wasting paper. I told my mom and she said to keep it up and not worry about what the teacher said.

In Seventh grade I was really good at soccer. All the boys wanted me on their team for kick ball.

In Tenth grade I became a member of our salsa club at school and learned how to dance. It came very natural to me and I was really good. Those girls in seventh grade should have seen me and they totally would have been jealous.

In Eighth grade I decided middle school was the most traumatic time of my life and asked my mom if I could go to the high school in the neighboring district to get away from my past. My mom said OK.

In Ninth grade I was weird and new. Thank goodness I was always good at making friends. I didn’t know that my friends were all weird too.

In Eleventh grade I decided I wanted to become an English teacher. I also used to walk the halls with a book in my hand, reading as I walked because I truly was a nerd. But I didn’t care and still don’t.