What You Are At Four, You Are At Forty

Tonight, I went to my parents' house for the bi-weekly check-in. I brought in the mail, checked the freezer and watered the plants. As I was downstairs, I found my old report cards that where kept in the "catch-all" desk in the rumpus room. I grabbed the big, brown envelope and brought it home. While Mike was feeding Joel his night lunch, I read through all of my old report cards, from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve. The comments from the early years seem to hit the nail on the head:

Kindergarten:

Jillian has an excellent command of English and enjoys relating stories or making explanations to her whole class.

Jillian will be working in a 'high' group next year and will find the challenge exciting. She has had little opportunity for peer competition this year.

Grade One:

Jillian is an excellent reader and her stories are interesting.

Jillian is a hard-working, conscientious student. Her pleasantness and friendly attitude make a nice contribution to our class.

Grade Two:

Jillian's friendly personality is appreciated by her classmates and teacher. She enjoys socializing and she occasionally, has to be reminded to talk at appropriate times.

Jillian has excellent reading skill and is very proficient at expressing herself in oral and written communication. I enjoy Jill's imaginative, well-written stories.

Jill excels in all subjects. It is a joy teaching a highly-motivated, creative student like Jill.

Grade Three:

Jill has some difficulty getting along with some classmates in the classroom and on the playground. (I'm pretty sure this comment has to do with me stealing Jerri Wadham's "Star Wars" wookie figurine out of her backpack. In my defense, I was dared to do it. On the plus side, she and I became friends after I gave it back to her).

Jill excels in reading and is very creative in her written work.

Jill is an excellent student. She finds regular classroom work easy.

Grade Four:

Jill reads with expression and fluency. She expressed herself very well in written assignments.

Jill is a real pleasure to work with. I appreciate her cheerful attitude.


So there you have it...from a young age, I enjoyed telling stories (or, as Mike puts it, I've always been a bull-shitter).

It was neat reading through all the comments and looking at my grades. I'm pleased to announce that in Grade Two, I had straight A's! I remember failing my first test in Grade Seven and feeling so embarrassed (but that year had it's own problems that would fill an entire post). I don't think I failed too many tests after that.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to curl up in bed and look through the scrapbook that holds all the cards I received as a kid - birthdays, Valentine's etc. I am going to start a scrapbook for each of us, rather than all our cards just piling up in a box.

On a side note, if you didn't receive a phone call about us sharing our lotto winnings with you, don't worry - nobody got a call because we didn't win. Oh, well...maybe next week :-)