When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #37

37- 6th grade-Valentines day-bag/accelerated class-yikes!-My height –too tall!

I am sure that you have had a class Valentines party. You bring Valentines and exchange them with your classmates. It’s exciting and you have fun!

I was an average student and had a couple of friends. I was not popular. I was just average, like most of the class. I was at an awkward age. I was skinny and tall. I was 5’5 in 6th grade. I was the tallest one in my class. We had two 6th grade classes and I was the tallest in ‘both’ classes! That did not help. Most boys are shorter than girls until they get into high school. I wore size 7 shoes in 6th grade. I felt all arms and legs and feet! My dad, jokingly and fondly, would sing ‘Clementine’; she wore boxes without topses and her shoes were number 9! I hated that song!

I was a pretty hard working student. I wasn’t the smartest in class but I worked hard. Both of my parents had a photographic memory. They could see things once or twice and remember them. Not me! I had to painfully spend hours and hours memorizing facts, figures, dates, etc. I have a few children now that took after their grandparents and have their photographic memories. Lucky them!

I was moved into the accelerated (smart kids) class in both 5th and 6th grade. That caused me a lot of anxiety. There were kids in both grades that studying came so easy to them and it was not easy for me. I worked hard to make all those A’s and a few B’s. If I got a C, I was mortified.

Back to the party. I have sort of laid a background of what I was like before getting to this party. I was shy and didn’t have but 2 or 3 friends. Our teacher gave us a class list so we could give valentines to those who we wanted. We had a brown paper sack that she had us decorate and we hung our sacks across the back of the classroom. We hung them up two weeks before Valentines Day. Well, three days before our party I only had 3 valentines in my bag. Several of the other kids already had a bag full!

I felt awful! My mom had bought a box of valentines for me and I gave one to each one on our class list.

The class rule back then was you did not have to give a valentine to everyone in the class. You could give a valentine to whomever you wanted to give one. After seeing only 3 in my bag I went home and got another box of cards and made them out all to myself! I got to school early and when no one was in class I put them all in my bag! I tried to write in different handwriting so it looked like someone else wrote the cards to me.

One student in my class said, ‘I bet you wrote those all to yourself!’ He said it in a mocking way. I boldly declared, “I did not! I have cousins and they sent them to me.” That was a bold lie! I didn’t have any cousins that sent them to me. But I felt better about having a sack full of valentines than only the 3 that were in there. One of those 3 was from my teacher and the other two from my two friends.

Looking back on that experience I realize how insecure I was and my lack of confidence in myself. Some of this was due to my height! I was so tall! I think how pathetic to give myself all those cards but I so wanted to fit in and have a full bag of valentines. I am sure I was not the only one who didn’t have very many cards from classmates. At least when my children were little and in grade school, the teachers gave a list and you were required to give each person on the list a card. I liked that. No one was left out and no one felt bad. Progress!

When I got into high school I resolved that I was going to have self-confidence and feel good about myself and not be so shy and insecure. I was both confident and secure! I felt good about who I was. This in part was due to the fact that the gospel (our church) was a big part of my life and I knew God loved me for who I was.