In fifth grade, I started at my third new elementary school and this one was my favorite. I wish I had gone there for all of my years in school. My teacher was my favorite to date. She was very laid-back, young, and funny. She took everything lightly, never raised her voice, and was such an amazing teacher. She made my transition to a brand-new school in my last year of elementary school so much easier.
- With a new school came new friends. I definitely wasn't the popular kid nor was I the weird kid. I was more of a wallflower. I had 3 girl friends in the class: Dasha, Alisha, and Tonya. Those were my closest friends in the class, although I was basically friends with everyone. I was equal opportunity at ten! I also had a friend who lived by me named Bridgette. We ended up becoming best friends and would spend countless weeknights and weekends together.
- In January, my parents separated. While they had done this before, somehow I knew this time it was final. My mom sat me down one night and told me that we would be leaving my father and moving in with my grandparents. I was excited, because it felt like a new adventure and life with my parents was just awful. They fought all the time and it wasn't a very happy situation. So we moved in with my grandparents and my dad's mother moved in with him. (For some reason, I can't remember my dad ever living by himself. He was always mooching off someone.)
- In fifth grade, I had to take the FCAT, which is a comprehensive test everyone in Florida has to take, starting in 3rd grade. And in 4th grade, 7th grade, and 10th grade it's a test you have to pass to either go on to the next grade or graduate. (Let's not get into how ridiculous this rule is.) Anyway, when I took the test in fifth grade, for some reason I got incredibly nervous about my test results. I don't want to delve into the details but let's just say when I get very nervous about something, I get an awful stomachache. So I went home early. I don't even know why I was nervous about this test but I think it's just because how much information is pumped into our brains and how seriously my school took the test. It scared me, I guess.
- For my birthday party this year, I had a sleepover. The year prior, I had a sleepover party but only one friend came. (How sad is that?) This year, I had six friends come! It was so incredibly fun. We did each other's make-up, played hide-n-go-seek, played games, and ate lots of great food (i.e., pizza and chocolate cake.). It's the one birthday party that stands out in my mind as amazing.
- In October, all of the fifth-grades in the county began preparing for Enterprise Village. Enterprise Village is a place that we would hear about all the time when we were younger and it was such a fun experience. EV is comprised of a bunch of businesses, some local and some megabusinesses (such as McDonald's or Bank of America). One school would go at a time and I remember our day to go was November 2nd. Each class would get a handful of businesses to choose from. For each business, one person was named the "Manager" and one person was named the "Bookkeeper." Then there were 4 or 5 "Workers." I was named the Bookkeeper at McDonald's which was the prime business to be in. Needless to say, I was excited. Being the bookkeeper ended up being the boring job of crunching numbers all day. And at the end of the day, somehow I came out with a negative number. So I fibbed on the final total. (Hehe. Did I mention how much I suck at math?) During the day at EV, we were "paid" and had to use a checkbook to "shop" all around the "mall." It was such a fun experience!
- I was involved in my first car accident in fifth grade. It was in the spring, when we were living at my grandparents house. Our routine had become my mom picking me up at school and then driving to my brother's school (he was in middle school then) to pick him up. On our way there one day, a car pulled out of a side street and rammed us in the right backseat passengers side. It was dented in good. Back then, we didn't have cell phones and my mom didn't really know what to do. We got to the side of the road and the guy followed us. All I remember about him was his name was Jesus, kept saying the word "f&^%" over and over again (with an 11-year-old in the vicinity!), and was late for work. My mom just let him go and we went on our merry way. Luckily, other than some scratches, we were just fine. It was definitely a scary experience for me.
- I was a lucky kid who got to leave class 15 minutes early to be a patrol. I worked by a classroom and all I had to do was stand around, talk with my friends, and make sure nobody was beating up anybody else. Easiest. Job. EVER! But I loved it. Since I hadn't attended fourth grade at the school, I came into the "patrolling business" late when the school discovered it needed more patrols so my teacher put my name in the hat. Pretty cool, eh? (Hey! If you're eleven, it is a big honor.)
- Towards the end of the school year, my school began prepping us big time for middle school. Once a week, our guidance counselor came to speak with us about middle school for 30 minutes. It was actually fun because we got to play with locks and pretend to be going from class-to-class. I also visited a middle school with 2 other girls, but I didn't end up going there.
- In our "yearbook", we had to write what we would be doing in 2011. (Crazy! That's next year!) This is what I wrote: "I will be a veternarian and heal sick animals, and I will go to people's houses. I will have a husband and have 4 girls named April, May, Taylor, and Morgan. I will spend a lot of time with my husband and children." Dang. Four kids at 23?
- Our fifth-grade ceremony was so special to me. I was one of the presenters and gave my teacher some award. My mom and dad were front and center. (Getting along for once!) And it was just a nice culmination to my time in elementary school.
