Monday, June 6

A blast of the past

As my parents are moving at the end of this week, the last week was filled with the passing of mementos. Things that had been sitting at my parents house, got divvied up.

Among the things I collected over the past week were my yearbooks from elementary through high school, other such school-related keepsakes, and (horrible) photos albums I had assembled of two mission trips to Ukraine I had taken when I was 14 and 15 years old.

While I'm bound to toss the (horribly untalented) Ukraine photo albums one day, the school things are being tucked away for further enjoyment. I relish the idea of pulling them out one day and sharing them with my kiddos...to show them what I was like and looked like when I was their ages, to compare grades and handwriting, to laugh and reflect over the changes and memories.

One memory that came to mind, which I thought I'd share, pertains to the Christian school I attended from Kindergarten (age 5) to 8th grade (age 14). During my time, there was only one class for each grade...so we would be with the same 12-25 students each year (assuming they continued going to the school). As it turned out, only four of us stuck around from the entire kindergarten to 8th grade journey, with many other students coming and going throughout that time.

For some reason, my class gained the reputation of "driving" teachers away. I don't think we were an especially difficult, needy, or energetic class...I would say we were fairly normal. But of the 9 teachers that my class had, 5 of them left the school after having us. Some of them were veterans and showed no signs of thinking of leaving...they were old faithfuls, so to speak...but after at the end of our school year, we'd find out that they too were leaving. It got to be a bit comical!

Oh, and it was most definitely confirmed that in 3rd grade, I indeed had a mullet (thanks to my mom). When I showed her the incriminating photo, she laughed and pleaded that she had thought it looked "so cute" back then. Gems like that picture should be shared...I'll do my best to share it tomorrow. Stay tuned!

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