BEDA Day 2: Laura, Circa Grade 1

When I was in Grade 1, I was put into a split grade class. Meaning that my class was a mixture of grade 1s and 2s and for whatever reason had an extremely uneven number of boys and girls (5 boys, 15 girls).

I met one of my closest friends, Twitch, in my grade 1 class. We were seated in groups of six and she was next to me because, alphabetically by last name, we were next to each other. We bonded over our mutual annoyance of a girl seated near us, Jessica, and the fact that she could never remember how to spell the word "because". Both being excellent spellers, we found it exceedingly irksome whenever she asked, "how do you spell 'because', again?" and we would sing-say to her exasperatedly, "B-E-C-A-U-S-E. That's how you spell 'because'."

I was awesome at spelling when I was in school. And not just in grade 1. In all grades. The hardest word that I could spell when I was in grade 1 was "transportation". My teacher conducted individual spelling tests with us, and she added that word to my list -- which is like a grade 5 level word or something -- just to see if I could get it. But I conquered that word. I looked at that word, with its imposing 14 letters and said, "THOU SHALT BE CONQUERED!!!"

Except that I didn't really say that because I'm pretty sure my 6 year-old self wouldn't have known how to speak Shakespearean quite like my 22 year-old self.

Anyway, I was kind of a brainer when I was 6-going-on-7. And a bit of a know-it-all. It was at this point in my life that I wanted to be a veterinarian. I really liked animals when I was a kid so I wanted to become a doctor for my animal friends. I think this was somewhere around the time where I started giving up meat. Like, I would still eat chicken nuggets and really, really well cooked steak, but I didn't like it. I only ate it because I had to eat it.

I'm pretty sure I was what can be considered a creative fireball who liked to make up stories and draw pictures. I liked to collect rocks and stuffed animals and sit on my desk with my tiny fake guitar and make up songs.

I still do a lot of those things. Except for the collecting rocks and stuffed animals bit. I collect YA books and Pixar and Harry Potter things, now.

I'm not entirely certain what the point of this post is. I'm pretty sure there isn't one. I don't have a specific story to tell from when I was in grade 1. Basically I'm just telling you this so that you can see what kind of person I was back then. It's more or less an excercise for me, like, "how did I get this way? This is the way I used to be. How did this happen?"

Anyway, minions...I'll be back tomorrow. Maybe with something more interesting.