by Anthony, San Mateo
This is going to be about my five to six years in elementary school. First grade was in San Bruno Allen Elementary, the school behind the San Bruno library on El Camino Real. It was the good life in first grade, having to not worry about anything in life but passing my easy lil’ kid packet and class with one teacher. I had hella friends and it was a good life. I don’t even know how to say it. It was definitely a trouble and stress-free life, just living, when thinking is not what you do. I lived with my grandpa then.
Also, my whole elementary school years we had many field trips which were hella fun as I remember. I remember playing soccer and Sharks and Minnows when I got older around third to fifth grade, but when I was in first to third grade I was stuck on these internet games as when I was young called, Club Penguin. Some dumb game where you can have a personal account that you can customize and do missions. It’s similar to the other games I used to play, like Poptropica and some Lego type game called Roblox.
I’m cool with everyone from elementary, and I’m locked up with two of them right now. Around third grade I had a certain group I used to hang out hella after and before school and during. I don’t really hang out with them anymore besides a couple of my older friends. There was an after-school program called Asis. It was hella fun. We got hella snacks and milks then we would have rec’ ‘till seven pm.
I usually got picked up earlier, around six or five thirty pm. The things we used to do was have rock war ‘till we got caught or someone started to cry. We also used to play bay blades on the recess slide, play big games of competitive soccer, play big games of Sharks and Minnows, and last of all play stupid Club Penguin in real life which was fun at the time. Now, I see it as really boring and dumb but I was a kid at the time.
There was also a book program after school where we would go in the downstairs of San Bruno Library to have book club. We would count and do book reports. The library after school was hella fun because me and my friends like six deep would play hide and seek, also would play “Infected,” which was a game where you would be it or not. If you are, you tag everyone that’s not infected. If you’re not, you hide anywhere around the library, City Hall, or the fire station all on El Camino Real.
It was hella fun.
I look back at these days where I was honestly free from everything. No probation, no worries, nothing to pay for, or no beef with other people. Whenever I id not get picked up by my family or grandpa, I would walk home usually which was like fifteen or twenty minutes. I lived by the San Bruno Caltrain. I would usually stop at the store on the way there or back and get a bag of chips or candy.
I remember most of my teachers’ names and faces. I remember selling those chocolates from World’s Famous Chocolates to go on the Outdoor-Ed trip. I had to sell a certain amount to go on the trip and get a banana slug t-shirt which I still got and (I can ) fit (in)to (it to) this day. I got it hella big on purpose so I could grow into it.
In fifth grade in Ms. Mkak’s class we went on the Outdoor-Ed trip sometime in the school year. I’m not gone lie, I ain’t never really leave my mom for that long, a whole week! I was a lil’ sad at first and so was she.
Man that trip was my favorite week in my young life probably. When we got there I remember one of my co-leader name’s. His name was Gabe and he was hella cool with us. The food there was hella good. All in total like three different schools combined attended the trip.
We were divided like nine kids in a cabin. I had the cabin, Buckeye. Three of each school kids together to make nine. Sadly boys were stuck with boys and girls were stuck in their own cabins. The kids were cool with me. I remember one who told me he was an atheist and said God wasn’t real which I don’t believe. I’m a Christian and believe in God. I was shocked because I never met an atheist before and everyone else in my school believed in God that I knew of.
The trips was hella fun. We hiked throughout the days we were there. We were taught about a bunch of trees and wild plants we can eat. We ended up trying hella different plants. We also had a thing where we would have to walk along for a while in the dark. Lots of kids were scared. I wasn’t really trippin’. When it was time to go it wasn’t even dark because of the full moon. I was like tenth in line and they made it seem way worse than this. It was like a fifteen second walk down a trail by yourself.
After the trip everyone was crying. I wasn’t sure why, but everyone was missing the vibes and people there. I was a lil’ sad but wasn’t trippin’. I wanted to go home to shower. Before I knew it fifth grade was over and a lot of people separated in middle school.