It wasn’t too bad having to enter a new classroom in the middle of the year. I remember Ms. Wheels, the new Kindergarten teacher, having me read through some flash cards to see where I was at in reading.
“to.” I read.
“and.” I continued as she flashed through the stack until…
“Uh… Tu Hu Eee?” I remember scratching my head from being so confused.
“The.” She corrected me with her warm voice, “This word is the.”
Well I can tell you one thing. For some reason I never forgot it. Maybe it was the nice way she corrected me or maybe it was just the simple fact that it was that time. Time for me to chisel it on the brain…
Immediately after the assessment, two girls took each of my hands and excitedly showed me around the room. I wasn’t afraid or nervous. I kinda expected to be approached I guess. I was a pretty confident kid. Eventually, as days passed, I made friends and had a new best friend every week pretty much. Except for Angel that is, she stayed pretty consistent as the best friend.
By the end of the year I was stuffing mud in other kiddie lunch boxes if they were mean through first grade where I really got comfortable. I was different so I had to make myself comfortable. I only knew black or white. I, was Filipino. What was that? I didn’t know. All I knew was that I was the shortest kid in the class but could out scream or out smart any kid no matter how big or tough they were. Don’t ask me why, I just was.
One first grade day during recess, I was waiting in line for the monkey rings. Finally, it was my turn. My heart was beating fast and as I took a deep breath with both hands ready to swing and coordinate one after the other my way across the obstacle, my concentration was interrupted by an irritated, “Hurry up chinese girl!” I turned around angry to see some bigger blonde boy and screamed with my eyebrows rumpled and fists balled up at my sides, “I’m NOT chinese! I’m Filipino!”
He looked confused and gas faced, “What’s that.?” He asked.
“I don’t know.” I said as it dawned on me that yeah, I did not know.
So I monkey ringed across and continued on my way through the tanbark.
On another first grade day, I went into my desk to find that my Hello Kitty mechanical pencil was missing. I was devastated because papa got it for me in Japan on one of his business trips so it was special. As I walked back to my desk, I noticed that Shanette, sitting in front of me, was using my pencil.
“Hey that’s my pencil!” I told her.
“No it’s not, this is mine.”
“No I know because my papa got one for me and my sister! Look (I took off the cap to show her how the eraser had a “c” on it because my mom wrote it on mine and an “m” on Marlie’s so we wouldn’t get them mixed up.) See? That’s a letter c for Christina!
“No my Aunt gave this pencil to me and she did that.” She argued.
So I frowned and plotted how I would get her back. After school, when I got home, I took my math learning toy and wrote Christina Madrid on the back and the next day, before Shanette got to class, I hid the toy in her desk. Once class started, I raised my hand and told Ms. Burger that Shanette had my toy in her desk. Shanette glared at me and spun herself around with her back facing me and she crossed her arms in anger. To Ms. Burger’s surprise, there was my toy.
“Oh yeah and that pencil is mine too!” I said.
And got it back happy as Shanette got sent to the Principal’s office for stealing.
