Kindness Award 🌷🌹🌷

As a child I dreamed of becoming

As a child I always knew that I wanted to be a writer & poet. I began writing poetry at 4 years old. I remember being in 3rd or 4th grade & we had a sea life project that was going to be worth a lot of points towards our final grade. I remember being at home with my mom & I was writing poetry about different sea life animals & I wrote a poem about a whale especially for mom because they are her favorite animals. She loves every species of whales 🐋. 

I wrote 4 or 5 poems & I drew pictures to accompany them for my final project. I don't remember who typed my poems out, but when I saw my poetry typed out & printed with my name underneath each title I felt like I was an official writer & poet. 

My teacher, Mrs. Rottle, was my favorite teacher ever. She asked me to read my poetry in front of a group of people & I was happy to. I remember after reading my poetry the entire room clapped & cheered for me. I remember some of the 6th graders smiling at me & telling me that I did a good job. To me, that was the best feeling ever. 

What made that day really special was that my mom & Aunty Virginia were there, too. At that time, my aunty was working for the school district & she was the director of Indian Education for the school district, too. She was a leader in our tribal community & at the time I didn't understand, but, I knew many teachers respected the work that she was doing for our tribe & within the school district. 

Outside of dreaming of becoming a writer & poet, I wanted to become an astronaut at one time. I realize now, that that dream was because of the school that I attended. It was named in honor of The Challenger Space Commander Francis R. Scobee - Dick Scobee Elementary. 

I learned a lot about the Challenger crew by attending Dick Scobee Elementary. I learned a lot about Francis R. Scobee, too. His wife & family attended a few of our assemblies throughout the years that I attended Dick Scobee Elementary School. I was always happy to see them. And, whenever I received The Dick Scobee Kindness Award I always felt like I made Dick Scobee & The Challenger Crew proud. There were 5 main Dick Scobee characteristic awards that we could earn throughout the school year & every single year I earned 3 or 4 Kindness Awards. 🥰

▪︎ Kindness 

▪︎ Honesty 

▪︎ Courageous & Confident 

▪︎ Positive Attitude 

▪︎ Diligent & Persistent 

By the time that I graduated from elementary school, I received 3 or 4 of the awards. I don't remember at the moment what awards I didn't receive. But, I remember always being extremely happy and proud to receive the KINDNESS AWARD. To me, it was extremely important to be kind to everyone. It's something that I believe in today, too.

I was in 3rd or 4th grade. It was recess time & there was this classmate of mine named Joshua who was in a wheelchair. It was something new for him. It was electronic. He knew how to maneuver around on it perfectly. It was 2nd Recess, so it was our longest recess. He was sitting in his wheelchair by himself. Nobody was talking to him. So, I walked over to him. 

"Would you like to play tetherball?" I asked him. He shook his head yes. I walked over to the silver metal box that was like a fence & reached into the box & picked up the tetherball. I connected it to the metal clasp & I let Joshua have the ball first. He threw it clumsily & I tapped it lightly back to him. He missed it so the ball went around a second time & then he caught it. He threw it again & this time with a little bit more force & I let it go past me. Joshua was smiling. I made sure to try & keep it in front of him so he could catch it. Then, we got to a point where we were hitting it back & forth like a volleyball. It was a lot of fun for me. 

However, moments later we both heard the sound of a whistle being blown & our recess teacher was screaming at me to stop playing tetherball with Joshua. 

"Miss Gerri, it's quite dangerous for our dear friend Joshua to be playing tetherball like this." She told me. She had a different accent that I didn't know where it came from. It might have been a British accent. 

"I'm sorry." I replied. The Recess Teacher scolded me & informed me that Joshua was in a wheelchair because he couldn't walk. She told me that it would be dangerous for him to try & jump up out of his seat to get the tetherball & if I hit it too hard, Joshua could get hurt terribly badly. Especially, if he wasn't able to catch the ball in time. His reflexes were extremely slow due to his medical conditions. I didn't know what he was living with, medically. Prior to him being in his wheelchair, he was walking & running around like the rest of us. He was slower, tho. But, still able to run around the playground at recess. 

She contemplated on whether to have me hold up the wall for punishment & decided against it & told me to run along. So, I went back to the silver box that looked like a fence & picked up a maroon ball & began to play wallball by myself. Normally, I'd play tetherball all recess because it was my favorite game. But, that day I played one of my other favorite games. Joshua strolled along with The Recess Teacher for the rest of recess & I played wallball.

XoXo ⚘️

Love,

Me