Letters to Myself - Grade School

Dear Grade-Schooler,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Primary School! You are going to do just fine – Trust me...I know this. In fact you are going to be a favourite of your teachers. Because you yearn to please you will do anything to earn their praise: clean the chalkboard brushes, offer to take copies of the colouring page to the office to be gestetnered. You will find that you love the smell of the ink when the pages are still wet. It will be a smell that reminds you of your childhood years from now.

You will make new friends, but you will remain steadfastly loyal to ones you already have. Be careful. You are going to be hurt by these same friends. Don’t reveal too much to them. Relationships can be cruel, and this cruelty starts young. Unfortunately this memory will follow you through to your adult years, but you will be stronger because of it, and learn how to treat people with respect.

You are going to have the cutest plastic lunch box with a thermos holder in the top half. This thermos is very prone to breakage and will not last long. Don’t worry; they sell milk in the gymnasium at lunch time for a nickel.

There will be a girl in your class who is rather destructive. She will break and kick down any castle or wall or building you decide to construct. You will not understand why or realize it at the time, but this will be your first of many exposures to special needs individuals. Try to be patient with her because many of your classmates won’t be.

There will be a boy in your class who will suddenly get up and wander around the room, bumping into desks and falling down. Don’t be alarmed. He has epilepsy and just needs to be sat down in quiet place until the episode passes. Please don’t make fun of anything he does during these episodes because he has no control over them and does not remember them.

Your mother will sew you beautiful matching skirts and vests that you will quickly grow out of. They will be donated to your church for their basement White Elephant sale. A classmate is going to proudly show up one day in one of these outfits, modeling it for all the girls. You will remain silent and smile at her enthusiasm, and understand that her mother cannot sew like yours can and that she does not have a lot of money for new clothes.

You will be caught throwing snowballs at recess and get sent to the principal’s office. He will make you and your friends sweat as you sit in the hard wooden chairs outside the room and then when he questions you, and you tell him the truth, he will try hard to hide a smile, and send you back to your classrooms with a mere warning.

You will develop a fear of math because your grade 5 teacher makes you recite the times table before letting you out for recess. Although you will still achieve higher than average marks in all of your math courses, this fear will stick with you no matter how much you practice your math skills.

You will be picked last at every team sport you play. You will be put in the outfield during baseball games because no one is able to hit that far. But regardless, you will come into your own many years from now in the form of distance running. All I ask is that you be patient.

Your love of writing and drawing begins here. A teacher who criticizes your drawing of a caveman shooting an arrow at a dinosaur will not discourage you. You won’t learn that the two didn’t exist at the same time until years later. You will continue to write stories and illustrate them – because you love to do so.

You will cultivate a long lasting bond with your grade 6 teacher, and still be in touch with him when you are 47. Although many of your classmates will say he’s mean and uncaring, you will see something in him that they don’t. You won’t try his patience like only 11 year olds can, and, although you know it may be unfair, you will secretly enjoy the special attention you get from him…new, un-chewed pencils, a book that you’ve been waiting to read, or an opportunity to stay in at recess and help him collate the hand-outs for the afternoon. Fortunately neither of you will realize that things will sadly change drastically over the years, and male teachers won’t be able to be alone with female students anymore for fear of many things. Enjoy this innocent friendship for as long as you can.

You will believe that your school will stand forever and you will visit it whenever you go ‘back home’. But it will outgrow its population and requirements and they will build a bigger one to replace it. New students will have their own school to build their history, but you will always have your memories.

Grade School will be an educational experience and you will learn a lot, both inside and outside the classroom, about yourself and others. You will learn to question things and how to obtain the answers. You will learn humility, respect and honesty. These traits will carry you far. Now go off and enjoy the next six years!

Always looking out for you,
Your future self