My Story: Second Grade

Join us each week as those participating record memories from specific times of our lives in an effort to preserve memories and pieces of who we are for our children, and anyone else who's interested!

During second grade, I became quite talented on the rainbow bars. You know.. the ones that arch like a rainbow. I could walk across the entire arch stepping from bar to bar; even over other kids who were sitting on the bars. One day, I misjudged and slipped. I came crashing down and my chin hit one of the bars.

I started bleeding profusely and screaming at the top of my lungs. One of the teachers on duty rushed over and started leading me to the nurse.When I cried out, she immediately shushed me. I was furious...here I was in pain and this teacher has no heart!

Thankfully, my teeth were all in tact, but I never walked across those rainbow bars again.

Later that year, I was swinging on the monkey bars and felt something funny on my hand. I discovered a flap of skin and immediately pulled it off. I was not expecting the rush of pain that followed!

Apparently it was a blister the size of my palm. My entire hand had to be bandaged to prevent infection and that day in art, we were tearing paper to make collages. I couldn't even bend my hand, but my teacher still made me tear my own papers...I don't think I had ever disliked art time before, but there's always a first for everything.

Even though my brother is autistic, and I had to take the role as oldest sibling, I remember recess time, where I looked up to him as my big brother. I was painfully shy and couldn't even sit on swings next to a kid I didn't know. My brother would be my hero because he didn't care who he sat next to as long as I was on one side. I don't know what we talked about, or if we even talked for that matter, but we would swing, side by side, just him and me.