The Trials of 3rd Grade (Piggy Tales Thursday)

Let's face it. When I was a kid, I was a little bit introverted nerdy. I enjoyed my books and tended to lose myself in those worlds rather than making friends in my own. Don't get me wrong, I had my best friend Ashley, but I was never one of the "in crowd" So, by third grade people started having little crushes, and I was not unlike the other girls in that sense. Mine was a cute little guy with red hair and freckles. But I was just the little girl with big blue eyeglasses and a crooked smile. Anyway, one day, I got a sweet little card with rainbows on it from that redhead that asked me to be his girlfriend (or something along those lines). Now, I should have been skeptical when I saw that rainbow. But I was blind to the obvious. And of course, I was SO excited! But before long, the obvious was brought to my attention by another one of the girls in my class. The card was a fake, written by another little girl.

Regardless of my dorky exterior, I was never the type to be pushed around, even if it wasn't a shove in the literal sense of the word. So, I shoved back. I shoved that fake card author. Hard. Into a desk. She shoved me. A teacher approached and broke in. We were both ushered out into the hall to work it out amongst ourselves.

Now, I don't remember the details of how it came to be, but somehow, that was the beginning of a new friendship. It's funny how things work out. Paige was one of my best friends for the next five years. Of course, in high school, we drifted apart as we did our best to explore the new halls with new friends. Just recently, I reconnected with her on Facebook (Ah, the wonders of the web.) and can't wait to get together in the real world again.

Third grade was a time when you began to realize that people could be mean. That not everyone was a friend. But sometimes, something that seems like the worst thing in your life really wasn't so bad. No, the boy didn't like me. Really, he probably never even noticed me. Maybe, he knew about the note. Maybe he didn't. But that nasty note turned into one of the best things in grade school. I look back on it and realize two things. First, kids are resilient. They bounce back from things that adults wouldn't. Don't think for one second that I wasn't back to whispering about boys the next day. I just had a new friend to whisper to. Which brings me to number two. Kids forgive.

Just recently, I had a falling out with a close friend due to an inadvertent slip of the tongue. I have apolgized, but this was almost six months ago and I fear that I have lost this friend. Kids don't hold a grudge. They fight. They make up. Life goes on.

We all could take some lessons from our younger selves.