Hello!
In
the process of cleaning out my sentimental items, I found a binder of writing
and memories from when I was in third grade. The binder begins with a few pages
of worksheets about my life as a third grader and my plans for the future. Then,
it continues with my writing portfolio, which consisted of a few stories and
what were essentially analog blog posts.
On
an editorial note, my handwriting and spelling could be pretty atrocious at
this age, and I have made occasional guesses and corrections while typing these
up. Additionally, in the case of the worksheets, I am placing my written responses
in italics. Otherwise, I am presenting these writings as they were written.
About 8-Year-Old Lydia
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| A bolded heading reads "This is what I looked like at the start of the new year". My third-grade portrait is pasted below the heading. In the picture, I have long hair, with bangs swept to the left side of my face. I am wearing a yellow dress with cap sleeves and wire-rimmed glasses, and I am looking into the camera and smiling. The text below my third-grade portrait is transcribed below. |
These are my vital statistics on January
1, 2007:
I am 6
feet 1 inches tall.
I weigh 66 pounds.
I wear size I don’t know
I am missing 1 teeth.
My shoes are size 2 1/2 .
I
presume that Small Lydia was unsure about what their height was, made a wild
guess, and landed on 6’1”. Unfortunately, as of age 21, I am only 5’3.5”.
Looking in the Crystal Ball
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| The heading reads "Looking in the Crystal Ball". The text below the heading is transcribed below. At the bottom of the page, I have drawn "what I think I will look like when I am a grown up. In my drawing, I have long hair and I am wearing a dress with pants and round shoes. To my right, there is a small boy wearing a t-shirt and shorts. To his right, there is a sketch of a taller girl with shoulder-length hair who is wearing a dress. |
I can’t wait until I am 21 years old.
That’s when I’ll be able to probaly have a child.
When I grow up I want to be a teacher & writer.
When I am a parent, I will always let my
kids read books at home a lot.
I will never ask my kids to be very anoyyingly loud, so they won’t hurt
my ears.
While
I have reached the grand old age of 21, I have not, in fact, had a child. While
a few of my comparatively-aged friends and acquaintances (including one of the then-third-graders
who signed this memory book) have had children, it feels incomprehensible that
having children at age 21 was once an integral part of my life plan.
In
my drawing, you may notice that I am featured along with two kids and no
romantic partner of any kind. This is because, at the age of 8, my plan for
adulthood was to (a) get married solely for procreation purposes at age 18, (b)
have kids by age 21, and (c) eventually divorce my husband.
 |
| This photograph was taken at camp, so there is a reddish yurt and a tan bathhouse in the background. I have a small, round, and smiling face with purple-rimmed glasses. I am wearing a Mountain Friends Camp hat with clothespins lined up along the brim. I am wearing a backpack, a short-sleeve, button-up shirt in dark blue with small macaws on it, and forest green pants. |
I’m So Proud of Me
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| A heading in bubble letters reads "I'm So Proud of Me". The prompts and responses below the heading are transcribed below. Beneath the text, there is an image of me in profile, sitting at a desk and reading from a textbook with another student. |
The year 2006 was the first year that I
was able to divide and multiply.
That made me really proud because then, I knew what my problem in the
Highlights magazine was talking about.
The most important thing I learned in 2006
was the word persistent.
This year I found a new hobby. It is helping people out.
I made new friends this year. They are Iridiana, Eligah, Erica, Zack, Jake, and
Ruby.
I tried some new foods in 2006. The new
foods I love are beans with cheese on top
and chile.
I
am unsure as to why “the word persistent” was the most important thing that I
learned in 2006, although I suppose that I still use that word frequently as of
2019.
The Sea Bird
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| Page 1 of the handwritten text of the story transcribed below, cut out and pasted onto the green paper of this memory book. |
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| Page 2 of the story transcribed below. Beneath the text, there is a simplistic stick-figure-style drawing of a bird near a pile of sand and the ocean. |
The animal I am
going to describe is a bird. A birds like red, white, black, and prettily
fluffy. My animal sounds like squawking and chirping. It smells like sea,
seaweed, sand. A bird feels like feathers and people.
Once apon a time there was a bird that
would only fly by the sea. All the other birds made fun of him. Then one day
the flock fell in the ocean. The sea bird had practiced swimming and saved
them. From then on they flew over the sea and made a game of getting fish. And
the beginning fish trained the other birds to be like them.
Another time a sandwiche fell into the
water and the birds gathered crumbs. This is why they now try to get your
sandwiche. They inproved and soon became some of the aminals near the ocean.
And now they (that is, the ones who like the sea bird) live near the ocean
blue. Now that the secrets of birds are ferfilled (Ed. Note: I’m pretty sure that this is how I spelled “fulfilled”.)
it’s time to end this masterpiece.
For
this piece, it seems pretty clear that the assignment was “Describe an animal
of your choice”, and I decided to do the bare minimum description-wise and then
tell a barely relevant story.
On
a small side note, I miss the unfettered confidence that allowed me to end something
I wrote with the words “It’s time to end this masterpiece”.
How to Make Your Laundry
Smell Fresh and Look Clean
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| Page 1 of the handwritten text of How to Make Your Laundry Smell Fresh and Look Clean, transcribed below |
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| Page 2 of the handwritten text of How to Make Your Laundry Smell Fresh and Look Clean, transcribed below |
Here is how to
make your laundry look clean & smell fresh. It can be your personal laundry
or some frum your family members. First, check if you have all the supplies
& tools you need. You well need:
· a washer
· dryer/closeline
· dirty clothes
· a parents
permission
· washing soap
· measurer
Next, take everything to where the washer.
After that, place the clothes in the washer. Be careful not to fill it up too
much. ¼ of the washer is probably enough. Next, place the tempenture turner on
warm, cold setting. Make sure to turn the buzzer on or off (if you turn it off
you will have to check it frequently). After that, place them in the
dryer/closeline. After a while check your clothes. If they are dry put them in
a basket and place them where they belong.
Soon, you may
begin to feel your hole familys clothes are your clothes. Feel proud of your
efforts. Maybe this will become your chore cause your good at it.
Here are a few tips:
· Not only does
hanging clothes on your closeline save elictricity, it also keeps you in shape
· Ask a adult to put
a mark on your measurer so you know where to place the soap to.
· Nonliquid soap
works best for everyday clothes while liquid soap works best for stains.
· Don’t get your
clothes dirty just to do this chore.
I hope you enjoy having clean clothes.
Bye.
I
read this piece and immediately thought “Oh my goodness, this is…an
instructional blog post?”. In addition to backing up my claim that I started
doing my family’s laundry at the age of eight, this piece truly shows what a
responsible little nerd I was. I love seeing how much pride I took in being
able to do a chore.
The Evil Prince and the Fairy
Princess
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| The handwritten text of the story transcribed below |
Once upon a time there lived a evil
prince. He wasted all his money on many gold riches. Now in another kingdom a
very fair princess was ready to bride. All of the suitors were to come to the
royal palace. Now, the evil prince knew he just had to have her as his wife. He
had a beautiful robe he had wasted 100 dollars on. Knowing that the king would
judge by outside appearance he thought it would be just perfect. And also the
princess would just have to deal with it. So he got on his robe on and hurried
to the palace. Sure enough he was the most handsome of them all. “Here is your
royal groom” sang the king.
On
the one hand, I like the anti-capitalist underpinnings of this fairytale’s
messaging. On the other hand, the only “evil” things that this prince appears
to have done are (a) spending his money, (b) buying nice clothes, and (c)
dressing for the job that he would like to have. While “the princess would just
have to deal with it” isn’t a particularly feminist message, I do have to
wonder why my younger self seemed to be so firmly against spending money in any
less-than-frugal way.
Rain is Super Important
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| Page 1 of the handwritten text of the story transcribed below |
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| Page 2 of the handwritten text of the story transcribed below |
Do you know that
rain is very important for the earth? Without rain our water supply would run
out. We can’t drink saltwater and it could dry up extra quickly since salt is a
grain. We get water from our homes from it being cleverly (I think) from rivers
& lakes (no saltwater included). Also the salt is nonhealthy for certain
living creatures. Animals & plants that don’t live near an ocean would die
of thirt.
Did you know if
one species of plant or animal dies out the rest of the plants and animals will
die out, too? That includes humans. I’d be dead by now! This is how it works.
Let’s start with the food chain in an urbane (city) environment. Rats eat
leftover food scraps that are forgotten. Cats & birds eat the rats. Since
people made cities there food chain isn’t very long. But, you get the idea, don’t
you? All animals need water. In the deserts its plants against animals. I think
that is sort of mean, but I live their. Animals will try to get water out of
the plants which is rightfully, because it was the one who stored it so very
carfully.
Without rain
people who get salt out of salt lakes wouldn’t have a job because there would
be no reason to, salt would be replaced in water. No money for them. The earth
would evaporate without rain. “Oh, my.” No drinking water or water for baths. “Oh,
no.” We all love water. Don’t you?
This
is another piece of writing that feels like a blog post. I will say that
eight-year-old Lydia was factually inaccurate in some ways; of course, drinkable
water can be extracted from the ocean, birds do not eat rats, and (as far as I
know) the desert is not characterized by a fight to the death between plants
and animals. Still, I love that I’m clearly thinking as I go, and that I tried
to engage my imaginary audience throughout this piece.
When My Sister Was Born
I
have chosen to cut off the last few sentences of this piece of writing, because
they feel too personal to share with the internet.
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| The original typed version of the story transcribed below. |
“Hurry.” “Get
strapped in Lydia.” “Ok dad.” That is an example of the type of chitter chatter
we had when my sister was born. This is a true story and description written by
me, the sister of this child who is now three. First of all, I was overly
excited and had been for months. And it didn’t take more than a few days or
weeks to realize that the baby was going to take up some of my mom’s time. My beloved
walks (for your information I was four) were traded for several boring (for and
four year old) shows on T.V.
by the time we
were in the car I had spent most of my morning hearing news on contractions
which was work for all of us. For me, to have to listen to it. For my mom, to
have the pain of it. My dad, to have to record it on a piece of paper.
Everything was hurried. I felt excited, but bored at the same time for having
to wait so long. The hospital wait took up most of the afternoon. I had to
watch the doctors and nurses crowd around the bed. I was impatient to see my
baby sister. When I think of this memory I automatically think of the moment I
sway my baby sister. My dad had to lift me up, so I could see.
This
was the first assignment that I had to type up, and—as a result—it is riddled
with typos. I am amused by my use of parentheticals in the first paragraph, and
by the fact that 8-year-old Lydia thought that experiencing contractions was
comparable to having to hear about contractions or having to record
contractions.
I
hope that you enjoyed reading some of my elementary-school-era memories and writing.
I was a pretty weird, relatively pretentious, and very nerdy kid, but my early
writings feel like a clear precursor to my current writing on my blog. Two of
the pieces that I did not include were assignments about places I visited that
I clearly was entirely uninterested in writing, which reminds me of how much I
dislike writing travel posts now. Similarly to Present-Day Lydia, Small Lydia
really enjoyed providing advice, going on long tangents, and talking about the
past.
Do
you have strange things that you wrote as a child? Do any of your childhood
interests feel like precursors to your current interests? Please send any
nonsensical stories you wrote as a child my way.
Best wishes,
Lydia
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