Something exciting happened this year. Since Kindergarten I had been attending Knights Elementary. But a new school was being built in town and they were inviting children that were gifted to attend their school. It was called Lincoln Elementary and they called it a "magnet" school. They were going to offer smaller class sizes to provide more opportunities for learning.
My mom took me to the building one day and we spend the whole afternoon doing brain puzzlers and answering questions. I didn't even realized I was being tested, I had so much fun!
Later we received a letter inviting ME to attend the new school the next year! I was SO excited!
My third grade year had all ready started at Knights Elementary and my teacher's name was Mrs Everett. At first she wasn't so bad, we did some fun things. As we learned about rain forests we built a paper maché model around the doorway so it actually felt like walking through a rain forest. It was so big we were featured in the local news.
But that year we were also learning about multiplication tables and I was struggling.
This was also about the time that a lot of other things in my life were changing. My faithful canine companion, Ramseys, who had been with me as long as I could remember, went missing, and never came back. I was VERY sad.
And I was 8 yrs old now. I had been baptized, become an official member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and started attending Achievement Days, an activity night for girls 8-12 yrs old. I liked the leaders of the youth group but I didn't get along very well with the other girls. They all went to different schools and talked about things I just couldn't get interested in. I felt very excluded.
My brother Cody turned 19 and left to serve as a missionary in Mexico for two years. This meant I no longer had to share my room but at night I wasn't sure I liked sleeping in there alone.
With all of this going on, multiplication was the least of MY worries... Usually I was VERY good at memorization. So when I told Mrs. Everett about getting invited to attend the new Lincoln Elementary, she became upset. She pulled out my multiplication quizzes and said "Do you really think they want a stupid child like you that can't even multiply?"
I was heartbroken. She thought I was stupid. What if she was right? What if the new school would find out I couldn't keep up?
When I got home that night I told my mom my concerns and what had happened. Mom was upset and told me not to worry about it. The next day we had a meeting with the school principle, Mrs. Everett and my parents. I sat and listened as they discussed what happened and Mrs. Everett apologized.
The very next day however Mrs Everett called me to her desk at the front of the class. "Are you trying to get me in trouble?" she asked. I shook my head, I hadn't MEANT to get her in trouble, I thought, but I knew now, she should never have called me stupid. I didn't say anything to her though and she thought I was being rude. "When you get to that new school, you'll see I'm right."
I knew I wasn't going to say anything about this to my parents, or Mrs Everett would think I really was trying to get her in trouble. But she WAS wrong and I was going to prove it!
End of year testing started that week. I tried my absolute best, hoping that if the new school say my test results they would still be impressed.
Everything came back fine and I never had to worry about seeing Mrs Everett again!
