Thank you, Dorothy

"Ok, give me a smile..." The photographer guy coaxed me gently. 

I remembered my mother holding my brother by the hand, looking on while my picture was being taken. I was sitting on a box, coached by the photographer, on how to pose. There was a flash of light, and then, "Ok, very nice, that's it..."

I was maybe 5 or 6 years old when the picture on the left was taken. I was in the second year of kindergarten at St. Paul's...and it was for our yearbook. It was my first year in a private school (as I had done preschool in small public schools twice already), but I had been studying since I was 3 and a half years old, according to my mother. I was underage, so they didn't let me get in kindergarten, until I was about to turn 6.

I was in the usual Paulinian uniform; white top with the sailor collar, and starched black and white checked skirt with the matching neck tie shaped like a diamond (for our year level), complete with a laminated card of an orange carrot, with my picture and name on it. 

My teacher was Miss Orlina, and she was a nice young lady who was pretty and petite, and had curly hair. I remembered how she'd always start each afternoon class with a prayer, and had us cross our arms when she wanted us to behave. She had a way with kids...we were hardly ever rowdy. Years later, when I was much older and had seen her with her class, I saw that she could make each little pony-tailed tot cross his or her arms, and stay in line, and even walk a certain speed with just a simple command. They followed her instructions to the letter. (Clout with kids, I call it now. :-p)

This week's blog rounds had quite an amusing topic, and honestly, it was an unexpected surprise. I haven't talked about my time in Kindergarten ever, and I had to think about how I'd write an entry on it.

So what was kindergarten like, for me? Well, I only remember little bits and pieces of moments in the past, here and there, but they are very clear anyhow. :-) It was my first time in a private school, and my first time to "mingle"with city kids. I think I was a very quiet kid then.

The lessons came easily for me, as it was the case in kindergarten, and there wasn't any difficulty to it. The "entrance exam" involved being asked to identify shapes and colors and to put blocks in certain places. After the exam, I remember feeling, "Is that it?" Well, that was it. It was kindergarten, after all.

There was one time when I was seated at the same table as a girl named Lilibeth and Lyndi. Lilibeth was a chatterbox, and Lyndi was a pretty girl who had waist-length wavy hair and always did her hair in two pigtails, the coveted hairstyle for 5 year-olds, I remembered. Anyway, one afternoon, they said some mean things, but i didn't do anything about it. And the next afternoon, when Miss Orlina asked me what was wrong, I told her that the two girls were mean to me (meaning the other day), and the girls vehemently denied it, and said that they didn't do anything,

It was a love-hate relationship at that table, because, in that afternoon, when I took out my jumbo crayons from Australia, they borrowed some, we were friends again. Oh, and also, I remembered a Spanish kid named Joshua who borrowed an orange crayon that afternoon (and even asking him, "Didn't you bring your own crayons?", which was mean of me too, of course). He was a cute/good-looking guy, in a time before I knew what cute/goodlooking guys were. :-p

I suppose it was stressful for me, because one afternoon, without my meaning to, I peed in my seat and wet my skirt through. Miss Orlina took me to the back room and took off my wet skirt and cleaned me up. I didn't bring extra underpants, so my teacher borrowed some from another kid's locker. I remember putting on a pair of white shorts with psychedelic multicolored prints with my sailor uniform and traipsing around the halls, black maryjanes and fluffy socks in all.

She said I should go over and thank my classmate, Dorothy, for loaning me her pants. So I did.

:-)

I think I loved writing back then, and I remember this essay we had to write in our workbook. The theme was, "How did you spend your weekend?" I remembered writing, in big thick pencil lead, "I did not go out to play, because we have a..." I thought for a bit, hmm.. and  nudged my seatmate, asking him, "Hey, how do you spell television?" He didn't know either. So, i put in... 

"I did not go out to play, because we have a televihon."

Bad spelling, but it was a thought. :-p

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I still wonder what I would've done if Dorothy didn't have any spare shorts that afternoon. yikes.