The Kindergarten Princess Experience, by Vanessa Timmons

Monday, September 13, 1993, was a life-changing moment for me. I was starting Kindergarten. The whole night before, I kept running up and down the hallways, screaming at the top of my lungs, “I’m a big girl now; I’m a school princess!” In my mind, school was going to be everything I thought it would be: coloring, friends, basketball, Play-doh, pizza, and candy. Even though we didn’t play with Play-doh, everything else was my dream that came true.

As my Winnie the Pooh alarm clock buzzed at 7:00a.m., I got out of bed without any hesitation. Joyfully getting ready was the most incredible moments of the day. After I bathed and dressed, I was surprised with a very special “Kinder-G Breakfast” that included sausage, raisin toast, scrambled eggs, strawberries and blueberries with Tropicana orange juice in my favorite Winnie the Pooh cup.

At 7:55, my fresh, new pair of all-white L.A. Gears with pink lights hit the concrete one by one as I walked to the bus stop at the end of my block. I was scared and nervous as Ms. Louise pulled up in a big yellow bus, saying, “Good morning, pretty young lady. I’m Ms. Louise, your Blue Bunny bus driver.” The bus ride was very loud, but fun as the radio played 97.9. I remember Jodeci playing very loudly as the whole bus sung along in unison. The girl next to me, Paige Patton, a 4^th grader, was very nice. She said, “You’re in Kindergarten? Wow, you are going to have an amazing time.” As I smiled I was thinking, “I hope Paige is right.”

As we arrived at Baylor-Woodson Elementary School, the big clock in the middle of the building struck 8:15. I got off the bus, and my very first teacher, Ms. Solomon, approached me and said, “Hello there, Vanessa. Are you ready for Kindergarten?” Eager to enter the classroom, I sat where my name was at the yellow table with three other people. Pierre, Andrea, and Jonathan were sitting quietly, waiting to see if I was going to say something.

Sitting in silence for the first few minutes, I finally introduced myself and that’s when the fun began. Once the class was settled, Ms. Solomon gave us a blank paper and asked us to write our first name, ABCs, and our favorite color. I finished first, and I noticed a lot of students were not writing anything at all. I wondered if I was doing something wrong but, as I got older, I understood that not every 4- or 5-year-old knows the simple fundamentals entering Kindergarten.

 After our “test,” we colored a big book bag with a lunch box and pencils on the page. My coloring sheet was going to be the best, I thought, because my book bag was going to be the Crayola color carnation pink, just like a Princess would have. As I gently pressed the pink carnation on my coloring sheet, Pierre asked, “What color should I color my page, Vanessa?” Shocked that Pierre asked me, I answered, “Any color you think is best.” At the end of the coloring portion of class Pierre gave me his coloring sheet, saying, “I colored this for you, Vanessa. It has my favorite color green and your favorite color pink.” I was so surprised because Pierre had a crush on me, and maybe I thought about having a first-day crush, too.

Since we were the youngest, we had A lunch with the other five kindergarten classes and first graders. To my surprise, we had cheese pizza bits (my favorite), pears, carrots, and milk. This was a lunch meant for a Princess, exactly what I wanted and liked. Lunch was noisy with different conversations going on everywhere. I was pretty excited about what thrilling event was going to take place next. Then a tall, slim man stood in front of a door and said, “Are you little people ready for an outside adventure?” I was confused about what he was talking about, until he opened the door front that lead outside. The whole cafeteria charged to the exit to see what was so exciting outside waiting for us. There we saw many different toys, basketballs, jump ropes, chalk, swings, jungle gyms, monkey bars and much more waiting for us to explore.

Following our lunch and recess, I began to feel tired. Sitting down next to Andrea, I wondered if she was just as tired as I was. Ms. Solomon softly said, “It’s quiet time,” turning the lights off, giving us a chance to calm down. As the class sat quietly, with our heads down on the table, we were secretly taking a nap. I don’t remember how long we were in quiet time, but it was enough for me to get rejuvenated.

Waking up to play a game called Name the Animal, I was on teams with Jonathan. It seemed weird because I really hadn’t talk to Jonathan all day. However, for the game, we won together equally, getting two pieces of Laffy Taffy each. Finally, as our day ended, Ms. Solomon pinned a note on our coats, color-coded according to the color animal bus we were distributed to.

Arriving home, I remember meeting my mom after I got off the bus, jumping into her arms with excitement, trying to tell her everything that I did in one breath. My dad had my favorite snack waiting for me: peanut butter and apples with graham crackers. He knew I had a lot to say and that we would talk about it for more than an hour. I had the best first day of Kindergarten, as I knew I would. After, all I was the Kindergarten Princess.