School

I don't have vivid memories of my first school experiences, to me they are just a jumble of vague recollections, people and faces, locations and events. My first day of school was atypical, my parents had decided to start me off at the only secular private school in the county, about a forty minute bus ride at the time. As I've gotten older, I realize that to some who were raised in much more rural areas, this may seem like nothing, but to a five year old who lives in the middle of suburbia, right down the street from the closest elementary school, it was needlessly and often worrysome, as I had to change buses in the middle of the trip.

I remember the first day I had to do the switch myself, I followed a friend I had just made onto her bus, as she insisted it was the right one. She was one of those kids that spoke with conviction, and I was one of those kids who listened to kids like that. As the bus pulled out of the catholic school parking lot, I knew we were going the wrong way, but for some reason kept my mouth shut. Who wants to argue with a new friend? After another switch and a few worried phone calls, I made it home eventually to a very worried mother, and learned a lesson that day about trusting my gut.

I hated the bus, but I loved school. There wasn't a part of it I didn't love. We had a split class of about forty or so kids, and for us, kindergarten was full day, meaning a full eight hours to play and learn in the Rainbow Room and the Sunshine Room (I can picture them clearly, I just can't remember which was which). As I got older, I think maybe I lost some of the continued joy I found in educataion, however, I never failed to get excited about the first day of school. Getting new supplies, new books, new pens, seeing everything all clean and ready to be scratched and dirtied up by another years work, it still excites me to this day. I think the only people who actually enjoy school and succeed in it are the ones who are excited by it, and I had a hard time seeing how you could not be excited.

My experiences in the world of private schooling would only last for the two years it took my parents to realize that the public system in the area we had moved to was better than the school I was attending, and they finally let me go. I remember thinking that the best thing about this was that my friends would now be people who lived close by, the notion of an after-school playdate was now not something that had to be planned weeks in advance. I could be like those kids in movies now, running down the street pounding on their friends door to come out and play before dinner.

I don't remember being nervous about switching schools, but I'm sure I was. Making new friends, meeting new teachers, the potential horrors of a new busing system, I remember seven year old me, and she would have been petrified by all of these things. So I'm sure I was nervous, but I was probably mostly just excited for another first day of school.