the Haley's comet: letters

A Letter to My Elementary School

4:00 PM

Last week, my mom asked each of the kids in our family to write a letter for the staff and teachers at my old elementary school. My youngest brother is graduating from the 6th grade this year, and after 16 consecutive years, there will no longer be a Christensen child attending Del Rio Elementary.

Here is my letter.

To the wonderful staff and teachers at Del Rio Elementary:

It’s been a long long time since I was in elementary school, and I’ve met lots of people since then, but I still think that some of the best educational experiences I’ve ever had were at Del Rio.

I met two of my dearest friends at Del Rio and we all have very fond memories of elementary school.

We used to love map game, the ball wall, horse racing, kickball, tetherball, four square, and line tag. One of the best days ever was when we had a school soccer tournament against Centennial Elementary in 5^th grade. We totally won.

I remember in January of 1998 when it snowed like crazy and school was canceled for a few days. Even once school resumed again, there were still piles of snow out in the field and we’d play in it at recess.

I remember going from 3^rd grade to 4^th grade and worrying that waiting that extra few minutes for lunch or having an extra hour of school every day would be really really hard. It wasn't that hard.

I remember Incentive Parties and going to Rollerama or John’s Incredible Pizza or to see a movie if you had good behavior that quarter.

I remember loving and praying for fog delay days.

I remember Spirit Week and always needing to find a friend to dress up with me for Twin Day.

I remember taking field trips to Fort Tejon and Pioneer Village and Camp KEEP and the La Purisima Mission.

I remember collecting mulberry leaves from the tree at the very back edge of the field to feed to our classroom silkworms.

I remember Pause and Read and AR. When I was in 6^th grade, my AR goal was 80 points and I thought my head was going to explode.

I remember Little Caesars Pizza Day was the only day I ever wanted hot lunch. I think it was usually on a Thursday. And if you were chosen for lunch duty that day, your life was awesome.

Once I even got a Red Slip and thought my life was over. That was a hard day.

I remember building my state float in 4^th grade and building an emu out of paper mache in 5^th grade. I remember learning about Greek and Roman history in 6^th grade. I remember learning my times tables in 2^nd grade and learning about the pilgrims and Indians in 3^rd grade.

I remember loving when the older kids would come practice their oral language pieces for us in 3^rd grade, and then becoming one of those kids. When we won the county competition in 6^th grade with our Oral Language “Dream Team,” I thought I was on top of the world. A couple years ago, I got to be a timer for the District Oral Language Competition and had to laugh at how full circle my life had come.

I have lots of other memories from Del Rio, but those are some of my favorites. It’s hard to believe I’ve been away for so long, but at the risk of sounding cheesy, I will always cherish the time and friends and experiences I had there.