Chapter III; Suddenly, I became me..

We were in our blue mini van; I had ice cream in hand and sporting neon pink heart shaped sunglasses. At two, maybe, three years old, I was the coolest cat on the block.

While idle at a red traffic light, I noticed a big truck. Excited, I started pointing and smiling. Not able to get my mom’s attention, I thought shouting truck would be the ticket. Full of enthusiasm, I blurt out “F*%$!” in place of truck. My mom suddenly turned around and said “WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

Mortified, slowly pointing at the truck and whispering, I say “F*%$”.

Chuckling, she says, “No, sweetie, it’s TRUCK.”

One of my favorite memories as a child was when I was in kindergarten. As a child, I always befriended special needs kids. My first best friend was a little autistic boy named Andrew. I still have a picture of him and I stored away in a special box on my dresser.

It was Halloween in my kindergarten class. Kids dressed up as cowboys and Teletubbies, but Andrew, he was a scarecrow. He had cute overalls decked out with plaid patches and straw poking out everywhere. On top of his head was a cool straw hat. I was Pocahontas, with my hair a mess and a headband trying to keep it tame.

In my picture, he is looking at me and he has the biggest smile on his face. We are holding hands and I am smiling up at the camera. That was the last time I saw Andrew.

Later on in life, I spent my fourth grade days with a girl in a wheelchair named Mary Ann. She taught me how to make friendship bracelets and how to be a good listener.

People are people, and people are better than having no people. Everyone needs someone. These were important people in my beginning.