The Real Me

Hi everyone! This is gonna be a long post. It is gonna be about me. The real me. Even though I have only lived ten years, it feels like the past year has been ten centuries.

I was born on December 23, 2010. In New York City, actually. My friend Josie always asks if I get my christmas presents and birthday presents on the same day. The answer is no.

Before I was one year old, me and my family moved to Ohio. We moved to a house that was literally right next to a playground. Mom and dad told me that I used to love playing there.

Writing has always been important to me. Ever since I started preschool. Maybe that's why I learned to write so fast.

The fact that you can turn thoughts into words, then imprint them on paper and turn them into a story is just plain amazing. I can write about anything. Secrets or lies. Fiction or nonfiction. Or I can write about myself.

I also think reading is amazing. I loooove Harry Potter. I have legit read that series nearly fourteen times so far. I also like Blended. And Out of my Mind. And Stella by Starlight. Those ones are by Sharon Draper.

One or two years after we moved, we moved again, this time to Worthington.

On September 26, 2013, when I was almost three, my brother, Holden was born. The earliest memory I have is of my mom and my grandma coming into my room maybe two or three months before Holden was born and asking if I wanted a baby sister or brother. I said brother. I got my wish.

I went to two different preschools. First I went to st. Johns, then I went to the Juniper school. The first friend I made in Ohio, Mila, went there too.

I remember at Juniper all the girls would play frozen. And some of the boys also. The movie had just come out so it was really popular.

The only problem was that we all wanted to be Elsa. I would say, “If I can’t be Elsa, I won’t play.” That always worked.

I made a lot of friends in kindergarten. Maggie. Addie. Julia. Madeline. Adelyn. I met Beatrix before kindergarten. Before preschool, even. I met her when I was three years old, mom told me. I don’t remember it at all.

Maggie Chalfant was my best friend in kindergarten. We would always sit next to each other and we would call Harry Smith “Harry huggie buddy”. I think we called him that until halfway through first grade.

Hair. I have always wondered what hair is for. Is it just for fashion, or does it have some other use? My hair is short and brown right now. It still gets in the way when I write.

I have so many memories. After that first one of me wishing for a brother, I have thousands, maybe even millions. I try to absorb and keep all of them, but over the years they leak out of me, so it’s like trying to hold water in my cupped hands. Impossible.

I was in half-day kindergarten. My teacher was Mrs. Schulze. I went to Colonial Hills.

We had this thing called the lucky onster. “Onster” is “Monster”, except without an “M”. “M” is for mean, so an onster is a nice monster. The lucky onster got to do stuff like changing the calendar and working with the teacher.

You know how I said that I learned to write fast? Well, I learned to read even faster. Before I started school. Yep.

Reading came almost naturally to me. I started with Dr. Suess and stuff, and before I knew it, I was reading chapter books! Nowadays, I can read the longest Harry Potter book in two, probably even one, week.

I started doing the Early Birds Gymnastics program in kindergarten. It was all thanks to Mr. Blaine. We were doing the gymnastics unit in P.E, and I was practicing on the uneven bars. Mr. Blaine told me he wanted to ask my mom if I could join Early Birds. When he did ask her, she said yes, I could join. And so I did.

Since Addie, Julia and I all did half-day kindergarten, and early birds is, like, 5:30 AM, I would always go over to Julia’s or Addie’s house. It was so fun.

Isn’t it cool how one word can become a completely different one if you add another word? Like the word “carpet”. You start with the word “car”, then add the word “pet”. Same thing with “teapot”. I think it’s really cool.

I had Mrs. Joseph in first grade. Not many exciting things happened that year. I did break my left arm when I was swinging on the monkey bars at a park. I remember when me and mom went to urgent care. The service there wasn’t very urgent. I missed half of Early Birds that year because of my injury.

My brother broke his arm once too. We were at a harvest festival with our grandparents. Holden, grandma and grandpa all went to the nearest hospital. I stayed at the festival with my parent’s friend John, and his boys. The rest of the festival wasn’t as fun as it should have been, though.

I made two new friends in first grade. Marley Hurt, who was in Mrs. Underwood’s class, and Dale Smith, who was in my class and was my best friend for that year. She introduced me to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. First grade was also the grade when I started reading the Harry Potter series with my dad and Holden.

I joined Girl Scouts that year. It was the best thing ever. I loved it so much.

I always feel like I have read every book in the world. But I know there are thousands and thousands of books out there that I have never even heard of. I sometimes wonder if I read too much. I don’t even think that’s possible.

Addie became my best friend in second grade. I think it’s kinda weird how you switch best friends until you find the perfect match. Like a puzzle. My piece still hasn’t found it’s exact match.

My second grade teacher, Mrs. Riggs, was so fun. She let us perform plays for the class, and work on our props and costumes (made out of paper) for the plays during our free time. The more advanced students in vocabulary (including me) worked in separate workbooks. Mrs. Riggs let us work on them under tables or even at her desk. We would always fight over the teachers seat.

I started doing Cross Country in second grade. Dale convinced me to. That has also been fun.

Some people might call me crazy, but I actually really like school. And not just recess and stuff. I also like the actual learning part. I love learning.

I had Mr. Bisca in third grade. I remember in my first class with Mr. Acton, he said “If you were in Mr. Bisca’s class last year, all you did was do math and eat candy!” That is half true. We did eat a lot of candy. And we did do a lot of math. But we also did a lot of writing and reading. Mr. Bisca read us books by Pegg Kharot, the first one we read was Escaping the Giant Wave.

I didn’t have a best friend in third grade. Probably because not many of my friends were in my class that year.

I got into EPP in third grade. Addie used to think that EPP stands for “Important Person Program”, but it doesn't, it stands for “Enriched Placement Program”. “Important” doesn’t even start with an E.

Holden started kindergarten at Colonial Hills when I was in third grade. He seemed really nervous on his first day.

Mr. Bisca would always try to “take” some of Addie’s lunch. He would say “These crackers have my name on them” and take them, then give them back at the last second

One time when we were playing truth or dare at lunch, and Beatrix dared Addie to bite into a pretzel then give it to Mr. Bisca. Instead, she dropped it on the cafeteria floor then gave it to him. Mr. Bisca ate it. I don’t think he ever found out where it had been.

The Coronavirus pandemic started at the end of third grade. It has been so boring.

I’ve been wondering what 2020 would have been like without Covid. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop wearing a mask all the time.

In the summer between third and fourth grade, I made a website (https://pb1007.wixsite.com/website). It helps me keep my memories even when they are gone.

My memories from this year are jumbled. I have to cram them in with all my other thoughts. I think some more of my memories are going to leave my head soon. I hope nothing too important leaves me.

I have Mrs. Leonard for homeroom this year. I also have Mr. Acton for ELA, Mrs. Puckett for science and social studies, and Mrs. Scragg for EPP. I still don’t have a best friend, although if I had to have one (or two), I’d probably say Marley and Caroline are mine.

My favorite related art used to be art. But I have changed my mind. I like music. Ms. Wessel is really nice and funny, and I play the violin and love to sing anyway. Everybody else likes P.E the most.

Dale started this thing called “The Dale Virus” in EPP. I think everyone in our class has it by now. I need to put my name down to get the “vaccine”, even though I don’t have a very bad case.

Addie, Beatrix and I are doing a field hockey program at TWHS. It is really fun. I think I’m getting pretty good.

I got a dog in January. Her name is Senta. She is a German Short-Haired Pointer. She is only five months old.

I zoom with Addie and Dale a lot. Sometimes other people join us.

I zoom with my cousins in Pennsylvania. I sometimes see my cousin Camille in person.

I have been over to Dale’s, Addie’s and Beatrix’s houses recently. Beatrix even came over to my house once.

Things are changing.

I want to go back to normal, but sometimes you have to wait for normal to come.

Power through.

Stay safe and stay strong.