by Delayne Terra Buranek

Created on: March 16, 2009

I was finally going to kindergarten. I mean finally because I had waited what seemed like forever. A whole five months. That included three months of summer vacation and two months before that. It had been five months since we moved. Five months since I had gone into a building, sat and learned with other kids. See I had been in junior kindergarten, at a private religious school before had. I didn't understand why I couldn't continue school when we had moved.

I was upset, angry even. Those first two months I was furious. Why wasn't there junior kindergarten in public school? I would get up early, earlier than my brothers. The cartoons would be on television while we all got ready. I would stay in my pajamas, but we'd all eat our breakfast cereal together. Then I'd hop up on the counter and look out the big window as they waited for the big yellow school bus to come up the road. I was jealous as I watched them get on.

The summer wasn't so bad. I had cousins near by to play with. That was part of the reason why we moved, to be closer to family and where my father had grown up. I had neighbor girl who was only two years younger than I and we'd go to each other's houses. But my brothers had made friends. I had left my friends behind. I could remember still playing in a pit of balls with my best friend at the children's play place. She was far away now. My mother would help me write letters to her.

But kindergarten was going to start and I was going to make new friends. There was only one thing that made me not so happy about going. It was only going to be half a day. I was angry again. When I had been going to junior kindergarten it was for a whole day. Why couldn't regular kindergarten be for a whole day?

I woke up early, just like the school year before and watched my brothers get onto the bus. It seemed like forever, those few hours. Mom finally got me ready and drove me there. I would take the bus home with my brothers. That day after, I would finally take the noon school bus to school all by myself.

I have a few clear memories of that time, so long ago in my life. I was the last kid to get my piece of gum. We would get the gum if we learned our phone number and had it memorized. I did have a phone number memorized only it wouldn't have done any good. If I had an emergency, whoever assisted me would be calling the wrong state. I finally replaced the old number with the new. I think the piece of gum was watermelon, but I may have implanted that part of the memory because it is my favorite.

I had made a friend too. She doesn't remember this but I do. I introduced myself by asking if we were related. I had met a lot of family after the move, in part because we were closer to them and in part because there is a lot of them as I have a large extended family. She however was not the cousin I met, although she looked similar. But she did end up living near my house. I could go visit her without ever walking on the road, just went the back way through the fields.

When kindergarten ended I was sad. Though I was excited for first grade, finally a whole day! School had been and will always be a big part of my life. Counting junior kindergarten I spent 20 years in school. I've got three diplomas, all except the high school one, hanging on my wall in my office. If I could I'd spent the rest of my life in school. And it all started even before kindergarten.

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