The year I started kindergarten was a year of big changes for my family and me.  For me it meant the first time I would be away from my mom as I was given the gift of staying home with my mom and siblings as a young child rather than being sent to preschool.  For my two older brothers and my older sister, it meant leaving Catholic school and attending public school for the first time.  The two oldest siblings attended the local junior high and my brother and I were volunteer bussed to an elementary school outside of our neighborhood. 

I remember the first morning of school more than anything else about that first year.  At the time I didn’t realize exactly what was going on as my brother, my mom, and I stepped onto the bus but I did sense something big was happening.  It wasn’t until later in life that I understood that my mom was choosing something for my siblings and I that many parents at the time were fighting against – she was sending us to the “black” neighborhood school in our city.  For a few of my neighbors who didn’t have a choice in the matter as they were chosen for mandatory busing, they spent one year at L’Ouverature Elementary School and then returned to our neighborhood school.  For my brother, two sisters and me, we completed all of our elementary years at this school because we loved the teachers, we loved the principal, and my mom loved that we were being exposed to something outside of what surrounded us in everyday life.  (We didn’t realize at the time this was something different as we had never known anything else.)  I realized something big was happening but what I didn’t realize until much later in life was that these experiences early in life would later guide me in my choices with rheumatoid arthritis.

I had awesome teachers almost every year of elementary school.  My teachers were very sensitive to my shy personality and often took a special interest in me.  That is until my last year of elementary school when I landed a spot in Mrs. Foust’s class.  Mrs. Foust was the dreaded 6^th grade teacher that nobody wanted.  Mrs. Foust had taught 6^th grade for many years and had her own way of teaching that was very different than the other 6^th grade teacher who did lots of innovative activities.  What I thought would be the worst year of my life actually turned out to be a year that has become a strong part of who I am today.

Mrs. Foust was the first of all of my elementary teachers who didn’t nurture my shyness. In her classroom I was no longer coddled or taken care of as I had been in the past.   Rather than focusing on my shyness she focused on finding my strengths.  She saw something in me that the others hadn’t seen and she pushed me to explore that part of my personality.   She worked us hard and for the first time in all my years of elementary school, I felt smart.   She forced me to face my shyness and insecurities every Friday afternoon when we gave book reports in front of the entire class.