Young at Heart

I went to an assembly at Oak Hill Elementary yesterday.  And, yes, you read that correctly.  Random, huh? 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Young at Heart kindergarten reading program, and the kindergartners were putting on a musical program in honor of Young at Heart and to recognize both Ms. Gathright {my kindergarten teacher} and Ms. Taylor for starting it.  The program was centered around the alphabet {where reading all begins}, and it was really cute.  It was called "Alpha Bop", and the first song that they sang had the lyric, "Alpha bop, alpha bop, every letter makes me hop."  Very catchy.  So catchy that it is {unfortunately} still stuck in my head.

Ms. Gathright invited me to attend the program since I was in her kindergarten class when the program began.  My mom had always told me that the program was started because of me and my best friend Kate, but to be honest, I had always thought that was just her version of the story.  Apparently she was telling the truth though.  Ms. Gathright said that Kate and I were both so ready to read, but because I was in such a rowdy class, she spent most of the day trying to keep the rest of the kids in line and didn't get to spend nearly as much one-on-one time working with us as she would have liked.  That's when she came up with the idea to have volunteers come up to the school on a weekly basis to read with the kindergartners, and that's when Young at Heart was born.

Ms. Gathright asked me to stand up and say a few things about my experiences with Young at Heart, the importance of learning how to read, and what I'm doing now.  Speaking in front of such a large group {all the kindergartners, 1st through 3rd graders, their parents, the teachers, and all of the volunteers} was definitely not my favorite part of the program, but it was fun to remember the days that I sat on that very same cafeteria floor during assemblies and to see so many of my old teachers. Some of them came back for the program, some of them have recently retired and are now substitute teachers, and some of them are still teaching at Oak Hill. I saw Ms. Beckley {my 1st grade teacher}, Ms. Dumas {my 2nd grade math teacher}, Ms. Thomas {my 4th grade language arts teacher}, Ms. Knight {my art teacher}, and Ms. Barlow {my principal}.  Ms. Barlow was such awesome principal, and I was so excited to see her.  The thing I remember most about her was that she always showed the students how proud she was of them with a thumbs-up or a high-five, so it only seemed appropriate that when I told her what I was up to these days, she responded by holding up both hands for a high-five.

Never in a million years would I have thought that I'd return to my elementary school for an assembly at the age of 26, but I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity.  Being in that building and seeing all of my teachers brought back so many wonderful memories and made me wish I was a kindergartner again.  Recess and centers are definitely a lot more fun than work and laundry.