Back to School...

I don't remember the first day back to school.

I just have a few memories of being in the third grade. One is kind of gross so if you are at all faint of stomach (On Fire for Jesus), you should skip this short, but yucky paragraph. The itch of psoriasis is really intense, and when you are covered in it, you can't even imagine. So, during the day I would pick at them, mostly my arms/legs and then I would put them into a pile on the floor. Isn't that disgusting??? Can you imagine sitting next to me? Yuck. I can't believe I even did that. The poor girl next to me, the poor janitor who had to vaccuum the room every night. How gross.


In California, the cafeteria is outside. It's under cover (for the one time a year that it would rain). Then from lunch we always played outside. The typical games and playground stuff - chase, dodge ball, swings. And before I had psoriasis I had plenty of options on the playground. Plenty of girls that I played with. When I returned to school looking horribly different I stood with the teachers during recess. I had no one to play with. Funny enough, I don't remember being sad about it. The teachers were wonderful. They played with me. They turned a jumprope for me. I was never upset that I didn't have friends on the playground. The teachers were so loving and protective.


At the end of the school year, there are always lots of fun events. We had a luau at the local park. I have pictures of it. It's May, which in California is quite warm... I'm wearing pants and a long sleeved shirt. With a grass skirt, made from different colored streamers the picture has me sitting with a group of three other girls. I don't really remember these girls, except they weren't mean. I was sitting with them, but I have a feeling I wasn't really invited. They were gracious. Third grade is not when most kids learn grace and compassion. But they never told me to move. I really appreciated that.


Then there was the end of the year, third grade pool party at one of the teachers' homes. My mom recalls this day - for some reason I've blocked most of it (except for the teacher telling us that we MUST use the bathroom and not pee in the pool. She said that her husband put in special chemicals that react with pee and turn the water a different color so that people would know that you had peed. Weird I know). Anyway - my mom recalls that I wore stretch pants and a tight tee shirt UNDER my bathing suit. Talk about embarassing. Like I said, I think we all know why I blocked it.


More tomorrow...