#2: Lower Elementary School

Elementary school started for me at Abernathy Elementary in Portland, Oregon.  A school surrounded by rose bush round-a-bouts, a large covered play area, a fairly busy road in the distance and a play ground with an epic tire swing and bark dust where Clark once peed during recess.  Which brings me to the learnings of this age of life...


  • Boys are gross.  Sometimes they try to be sweet by attending the school carnival and using all the tickets they earn to buy you a small hello kitty pencil set.  This IS sweet.  Boys are gross, but super sweet.
  • Boys make the heart flutter.  I've had crushes since AT LEAST first grade.  Usually the flutter of the heart made me run away and hide.   I am an excellent hider.  This is not actually good.  I need to remember to 'unhide' myself too.
  • Problems are not only an adult thing.  On the playground I used to solve all the problems of the world.  My role was to brainstorm solutions for others.  Helping others is great!
  • One day, while in line for recess a classmate asked to go to the restroom and the teacher told her 'no.'  She peed her pants waiting for the bell.  I walked behind her to the bathroom to hide her water spots and her embarrassment.   We tied her sweater around her waste to cover the evidence.  I don't remember liking that teacher before, but after that I greatly disliked her.  She never apologized.  I moved classes.  Adults many times do not understand kids.  I try to reflect on this truth now as a teacher.  It's still true.
  • Spinning on the tire swing, was one of my favorite recess activities.  I loved the 'around-the-world' push the best.  Traveling around-the-world can make you dizzy, but it is super exhilarating! 
  • Chickens DO run around, even if you break their necks.   This is true even if the neck breaking is a result of over hugging. 
  • I was never an actual cheerleader, but we did practice cheers with the neighbors next to our small fish pond.  Falling in a fish pond while doing cheers doesn't mean that you stop.  Sometimes your body naturally finishes before acknowledging the new surroundings.  Finish what you start. 
  • When you break into your own house through the secret window in the basement that your parents always keep unlocked just in case there is an emergency, it is only exciting until you are caught.  Then the window is no longer secret because secrets are not secrets once they have been exposed.   The big bummer is that the no-longer-secret window then gets locked.  
  • Eat peas.  They are delicious!
  • Although throwing pillows is not allowed, it is super fun.  However, when you blame the resulting broken plate on your innocent little brother and refuse to eat the special pizza dinner that he has been banished from as punishment, it is a heavy burden.  When you tell the truth, the burden is lifted, and the weight is suddenly lessened. 
  • Grandmas are the best.  This is especially true when they babysit and give you slices of cheese.
  • Jump! Along the sidewalk there was a wide stone wall we used to walk, with a small gap where our front walk broke off the sidewalk and approached our porch.  To continue walking the wall, you had to jump the opening or climb down and back up on the other side.  Jumping always scared me.  But once I tried I realized the jump was much smaller than it seemed.  The world looks different in reality than through the spectacles of fear. 
  • Imagination can take you anywhere.  Just ask the jungle animals, orphans, family of misfits or flying swinging children that we became as we adventured in our backyard.
  • As kids we have weird reasons for making friends with others.  I embarrassingly often didn't care as much for the people as what came with them:  snacks, dolls, toys, time, freedom, etc.  However, there were a few whose hearts I loved.  For those friends I would have given up a lifetime of snacks to have taken the people with me when we moved.  Hearts are a priceless beauty. 
  • Family is essential and joyful to embrace often and purposefully.  Pizza / French fry Sundays!  My family knows what this means.  That is what is so sweet :)
  • Dogs do not last forever, even if you love them.  To lose what you love unexpectedly is a deep cavern of feeling that is good to release into fountains of tears, and hugs and love. 
  • Lasers are the best.   This is especially true when no one knows they exist yet, but your dad works for a big printer company and brings home a giant one to shine into the neighbors house, and they chase it around their living room like nervous felines on the hunt for an alien fly.  Laughter is good for the soul.

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