Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Letter to me

Dear 10 year old Merrie,

Welcome to the 5th grade! I know, I know -- Mrs. Marioni blows. How can you not hate her and her huge glasses when she keeps telling you, "It's not 'Practice makes perfect,' but "Perfect practice makes perfect.'" Who the heck ever heard of "perfect practice?!" It's really okay that you despise her, because halfway through the year, she's going to get a new co-teacher who is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you.

Mary. Lee. Woolsey. At first you won't like her. She's got a loud demeanor, a funny accent, and isn't going to let you get away with all the crap you've been pulling with your classwork. You'll hate the attention. But then, as she starts to focus on keeping you from spending your recesses writing lines because you didn't do your homework, you'll start to see the light. You'll finally start getting your work done, and it will feel great because someone actually cares. The last day of school will be hard on you. You will cry and you will miss her. It will be the only time in your life that you'll walk home sad on the last day of school. That's a valuable memory. Treasure it.

You've got a lot of wonderful years ahead of you. Remember what Mrs. Woolsey taught you, and apply it to the rest of your school years. Don't make the same mistakes I did by not caring at all. You can do so much better than skating by.

Oh, and stay away from that boy down the street when you're 13. He's trouble.

Love,
You at 32

6 comments:

The Mom Jen said...

Great post, i've been reading a bunch like it from Mama's Losing It!

I swear I though C looked so much like your hubby, but totally you from that pic, the face! ;)

T said...

I think we all wished we had worked harder in school back then and stayed away from certain boys!

Emily said...

I LOVE your header! So beautiful. Good advice to stay away from that boy ... hope you didn't need it when you were 10! Or how did that ever turn out? :)

KatBouska said...

I wonder where Mrs. Wolsey is now...it would be fun to find her!!

Tasha said...

LOL I love this! I might have to do one of these. And I LOL at the boy down the street!

Merrie said...

Ahh, the boy down the street. I was 13...he was 17...I should never have gotten myself into the pickle of being alone with him. Thankfully, I was a wise 13 year old, and got myself out of there in the nick of time. I'll be watching my daughter much more closely!