An Uncomplicated Life Blog: The Best And Worst Day In Elementary School

Thursday, February 9, 2017

The Best And Worst Day In Elementary School

Remembering back to the best and worst memories from elementary school


I think it's fun to think back to memories made, months, years or in this case, decades ago. With the new Secretary of Education in place, I've been thinking a lot back to my years in grade school. What it was like for me, and what it will be like for Henry, who will be going off to kindergarten in just two more years. There were some really great times in elementary school! And also, some buzzkill days. And so I start a series: The "best and worst days" in various time frames of life. If you like reading short stories, enjoy! I'm starting at the beginning, elementary school. Because do you have real memories earlier than that? I have about two.

Kindergarten Paige in a party dress and full on mullet status

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. Ahhhh, the worst day. It was in 3rd grade. Now, I was always a pretty popular girl and made friends easily, which is semi-surprising because my entire mid-section was covered in a back brace from severe scoliosis. I had my first crush, named Andrew. Back in the 90's, we walked in the hallways in a line, silently, when we had to go from our classroom to the lunchroom or the gymnasium. But, being in third grade, those rules were hard to follow!

We were walking back from somewhere, when my sweet crush came by my side to chat. I look over to him with big googly brown eyes and smile. But instead of chatting with me, he knocks on my hips, which are covered in the plastic of my back brace, and says, "What are you, growing your hips out or something? They're huge! And hard. What's wrong with you anyway? Are you a turtle? What's with the stupid shell, turtle?" 

I was so taken aback by his mockery! He was normally so sweet and nice to me. Before I knew what I was doing, I wound up and punched him in the face. The line we were walking in stopped and half the class gasped and pointed at us.

Me circa 2nd or 3rd grade. How could that sweet face punch someone? Don't be fooled, I'd kick your ass.

Little did I know, Mrs. Finch, our teacher, had swooped in on our conversation to silence us and our rule breaking. She witnessed the whole thing! I looked at her with fear in my eyes, because I was NOT a rule breaker and knew punishment was coming my way. But she just gave me a stern look and told Andrew to get back in line. Later, she called me to her desk and I thought the punishment was inevitable. "Paige, you cannot hit people. Andrew deserved what you gave him, but that doesn't make it right. If you get made fun of again, please come tell me and we'll manage it together, okay?"

That was the one and only time I was ever made fun of for having a back brace. I don't know if rumors spread that if you made fun of me, I'd deck you - and I was easily a head taller than everyone, so getting decked by me would knock a kid straight over - but that was the one and only instance of a kid being rude to me for my scoliosis. After that, I was back to the popular girl and teacher's pet.

The best day is hard to choose from! There were so many great memories. In 5th grade, we got to go to a Harriet Tubman play at the children's threatre and I was absolutely fascinated with history. It was my favorite subject, and getting to go to the play was the cherry on the cake! I also was put into a gifted and talented class where I was able to research a topic and present my findings to my class. I researched historical fashion from colonial America to present day and loved every second of it. (Who loves research projects in elementary school?! Me. I do. I did.)

Denim on denim on denim, FTW. Also, I'm the younger sister. Now we know how I could kick ass {literally}

But the most recurring favorite memory was Track and Field day. Do kids still have those?! They were the BEST. Each class would put forward a team for all the different events and compete against each other for a school trophy. I learned early on that I was a fast sprinter and good at just about every event at Track and Field. I went to a small elementary (shout out to Cedar Manor!) and quickly developed a reputation for being the fastest girl. I secured the trophy for my class in fourth and fifth grade.

On the first day of sixth grade, I was transferred into a "team class" where you started it in 5th grade and kept the same class and teacher team for 6th. I'm not sure why I was put in that class, it's probably where they had room, but I was the only new student who hadn't been in the 5th grade class. The teachers were going over things together and making announcements. Mrs. Bramwell, my teacher, concluded by saying, "And welcome to Paige! She wasn't in our group last year, but is this year and we're so happy to have her. We're gonna get that track trophy this year, whoohoo!!" And the whole class cheered! I don't think teachers can even say things like that anymore, but it sure made me feel good.

This was in 4th grade, spring break trip to FL. Can we talk about how I wore SOCKS with my BIRKENSTOCK'S to the BEACH? Overall game on point though 

And better believe I got that track trophy in 6th grade, too. And I did it in my back brace to boot.

Elementary school was full of so many good memories for me. It was my favorite time growing up. My sister and I were best friends, I had tons of friends at school, and I was an A student. Sure, there was the occasional crush that needed a punch to the face, but I didn't let that get me down for long. And you always need a few worst days to appreciate the best days in elementary school, right? 

16 comments:

  1. Love reading stories like this. My favorite blogs have a personal touch to them, which this definitely does. I will check back in for sure!

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  2. Such a fun post! And the denim on denim on denim!!! LOVE :) (I rocked a similar look, of course)

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  3. Kimberly @ Berly's KitchenFebruary 9, 2017 at 3:33 PM

    This is such a cute post! I could easily go on for hours with tales from my elementary days. Mostly good but a few bad (like the bad haircut in my 2nd grade picture). Lol!

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  4. Aw, this is so sweet! It made me think back to my elementary school days!

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  5. I love that your teacher said he had it coming!! And love even more than you whooped him - Go Paige!! I can't BELIEVE how much young you looks like HENRY.

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  6. Good for the teacher for telling it like it is. Kid totally deserved it. And I loved field days! They were a favorite memory of mine as well.

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  7. Oh man you remember things so vividly from Elementary school - for some reason I only remember snippets, but they were good! xo, Biana

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  8. Hahaha! I can only imagine what jerkface thought when you punched him.
    I was terrible at track and field day. Awful. And the teachers always put me in the rope climbing competition (maybe because I'm short and therefore I should be good at climbing?). I was not good. Terrible, actually.

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  9. I loved reading this! I always got in trouble for beating kids up that teased my little brother. We went to a k-12 school, so he and I were always together. ALWAYS got detention here too and almost didn't graduate because of it... but you can't prevent the valedictorian from graduating...

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