By TEDDY BRAINARD | Contributing Writer
The Palisadian-Post has partnered with Paul Revere Charter Middle School to highlight a series of pieces from its 2020 Literary Anthology. The following piece originally appeared in the anthology, released in spring, and has been reprinted here with permission.
One summer morning at Westwood Charter Elementary School, my 7-year-old self was preparing for the most important day of my life: the first day of kindergarten. I was very nervous and didn’t know what to expect. Little did I know I was about to meet a forever friend. I had a lack of confidence that suddenly grew as the bell yelled out a loud ring for class. I hung up my blue backpack on a silver hook outside my classroom and said goodbye to my mom.
My new teacher was named Ms. Ko. Her face seemed kind, but I knew she was capable of being stern. She had black hair in a ponytail. As children were assigned their seats, they also were paired up with desk partners like pairs of shoes. As my turn to receive a seat and desk partner neared, I listened closely, as I was hoping that I would be placed with one of the few people I had recognized. Even if I was not friends with them and only recognized them, I was longing to be placed with them.
Ms. Ko then hesitantly announced, “Teddy, I am going to put you next to Josh E.” I nervously replied, “Um. Ok.” I went over to sit next to Josh. He had short dark brown hair and was wearing a funny-looking monkey shirt.
As I was enjoying the leftover taste of strawberry jam on toast that I had eaten for breakfast that morning Josh said, “Hello, I’m Josh.”
“Hi, my name is Teddy.” Then, suddenly we started conversing about things that we liked.
Soon after, Josh asked me, “Do you want to play together at lunch?”
I quickly answered, “Sure.” Then, after listening to what felt like an eternity of rules: lunch. Josh and I were playing basketball and Legos like old friends. We played and played until the bell rang to go back to class. As I awaited my mom coming to pick me up, I turned to Josh and said, “Hey, do you want to play together again tomorrow?”
“That sounds good to me!” he replied.
The lesson that I learned this day was that, even if I am nervous, it is good to put myself out there. I just might meet my new best friend.
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