starting school

Can you believe that Gracie started Kindergarten today? Neither can I.

What did it feel like to first start school? I still remember, of course, since it happened in tenth grade. But before that, I did have elementary school memories with my two classmates; Chad, Amber and I all had desks packed in tightly together against the wall. It was like the table setup at The Cheesecake Factory. We each wrote our names on paper bags and used them as our “mailboxes” for passing notes to each other. We would taunt each other for having crushes on a neighbor or a kid at church since we didn’t know anyone else.

When I was their age, I sat in my dad’s fifth grade public school class for a day. It was Flag Day, and I was wearing a pink and blue tie-dye hand-me-down Mickey Mouse t-shirt. A piece of attire with that many hyphens can only mean style disaster. I was mocked mercilessly for being the weird homeschooler, but I kicked some ass in the field games which got them to shut up. One good thing about being the awkward skinny girl was that I could outrun all the kids who grew up on Twinkies and Coca-Cola.

In high school I was shy and introverted. In college, I broke out of it. And now, people never believe me when I tell them I was homeschooled for ten years. Probably the fact that I don’t wear braids or denim skirts throws them off. And the cursing – that confuses the hell out of everybody.