15 - Antonio L: A Fresh Start

 A Fresh Start

My 4th grade year began with me being in Tennessee. George Whitten Elementary to be exact. It was a generally small school with portables for extracurricular activities like Music. (I can only remember music.) 

Since it was my first year there after leaving California, I tried my best to be recognized as a cool person by my other classmates. Example of this was when we went on bathroom breaks. My 4th grade teacher didn’t allow people to talk in the bathrooms at all, but there was this one classmate named Johnny (or not, I think that was his name) who allowed us to talk.

  My 9 year old mind then imagined that as a cool act, an act I imitated with great confidence. However, this act of gaining respect and acceptance didn’t work out well, as I got in trouble for letting my other classmates talk while in the bathrooms. I think one of them told our teacher, but looking back at it 8 years later, I think that it was probably a tad bit racist, since there was nothing to gain from it. (Partially joking)

Another thing about the school was the land around it. It didn’t have farmland acres of grass, but it did feel like it. No fake grass that was too dark of a green, nor was it too yellow that it looked dried up and had coarse dirt underneath that’ll be the equivalent to hitting the sidewalk when deciding to fall back onto it. There was even a little hill-like area near the front of the school, along a road where the bus carried me to and from the apartments I stayed at.

A part of Tennessee I miss a lot was the snow. Though it wouldn’t call it snow per se. It was more like taking a freeze ray over your entire neighborhood and drizzling down some snow. Snow also meant no school which was a cool and bad thing honestly because I would’ve loved to go out playing during snowy weather with my friends at school, like on TV. 

I wasn’t an instant hit in my class, but my intellect got me well known there. However, I also felt like 4th grade was the worst year of elementary school for me. It just felt so odd for me to gain the trust of people I’ve known for a few seconds while people had bonds that have lasted longer than the founding of the U.S.

My grades were also worse than I thought, though I was still smart. It was more of an adjusting year, full of me getting accustomed to Tennessee and how I’ll change how I act towards others. Looking back now, I realized how better of a person I am now because of the mistakes I made back then, though the enlightenment for different things came at different times for me. 

I know I wasn’t as descriptive as I wanted to be, but there’d be too many words, and more untold stories of my 4th grade year, a fresh start for me. 

Word Count: 511