even after all these years

i remember first grade tea parties and second grade art classes

i remember school getting cancelled for one inch of snow on the ground in 3rd grade because i lived in Virginia

i remember in 4th grade we dropped my sister off in a different state for college and i wondered if i would ever see her again

in fifth grade a girl at the bus stop told me i had ugly teeth and a big nose and now that’s all i see when i look in a mirror

sixth grade was orthodontist appointments and seventh grade was figuring out how to open a locker

i remember being too old to trick or treat in 8th grade, but too young to drive to a halloween party

i remember toms and colored jeans in ninth grade

in tenth grade all my friends had blonde hair so i begged my mom to let me dye mine, and i remember crying in the car on the way home from the salon because i hated it so much

i remember hating junior prom and not getting asked to homecoming at the beginning of senior year

i remember wishing it would all be over

and now it is