The day I learned about the power of writing

Okay, so, from the age of 4 to the age of 9, I was the type of student who hated writing. I hated writing so much between those years. I was more of a girly girl, meaning, I was sassy, and I had attitude. I was more of a singer, dancer, and an actor, (I still am sort of an actor!) and the least thing that I ever thought would be a part of my life, was writing. And I seriously had no intention of liking writing after the age of 10. But then, after 4th grade, I was starting to realize, why I was born for.....

In 3rd grade, I lived in a city in Canada, named Toronto, and there, yeah, there were a lot of people, A LOT! And I just went along with them. I had a routine there every single day. Get up, go to school, walk home, go to the park, got to my skating lessons, have dinner, then go to sleep. And I had the same routine every day. All of my friends also had the same routine. And I had never even heard of the word "Writing" before. I mean, I had, I just never paid attention to it. And I did not know what it actually meant until I moved to another small town in Canada......

Toronto was a lot of fun. I mean, I had loads of friends. We lived in a nice house, on a nice street. My dad had a great job. So we were having a great time. Though, my dad has had some terrible times before. My dad studied so much to be a Veterinarian, then for some reason, he became a car dealership owner, then he went back to university in Toronto, and finally settled on a profession, An Environmental health officer. So, as you can see, I have some times where I had so stay patient. But for some reason, I wasn't feeling calm. I felt like I was missing a puzzle piece in my life, and I was in deep search for it. I didn't bother anyways. I was just going along with everyone else.

Then, one day, my father came home from work, and he seemed really excited. He said that he got a great job in a small town with only like 50,000 people. He said that it had great pay, and that we will have to move there at the end of the year. I was terrified. Really, I was. I wasn't prepared at all. I had never experienced change before.

I begged my parents to stay in Toronto, but they wouldn't budge at all. Even my twin brother actually agreed with me for once. But they said that we were gonna move and that was final.

We had to go to that town during my winter break, to look for a new home. And we did. And sure enough, at the very last of 3rd grade, I told my friends my very last goodbye. And it wasn't easy at all. They were the friends that I loved. They were like literally the best. And it was so hard for me to believe the fact that I was leaving them.

After all that sorrow, we finally moved to that town. My parents told me that I was gonna start school the next week, and they were trying to make it sound "Fun." I was upset, but at one point I was glad that I was going somewhere where I would have the opportunity to make new friends.

When I started school the next week, I had no intention of this, but it was terrible.

I mean, what the hell! That school was so small! It only had like 150 students in it. And my school in Toronto, Yeah, we had like 900 students there. And it only had one gymnasium, like 10 classrooms, and the computer lab and library were together, in one room! And that room was the size of half of a classroom!

Well, even though I wasn't really satisfied with the school itself, I hoped that the teachers and students were nice enough to accept me.

The students were okay, but they weren't nice enough to accept me. What I mean is, I was alone all recess and lunch. The teachers were very nice, in fact, one of my teachers were so darn nice, that she was determined to change my life completely, with just one small written letter that she taped up to my desk...

A lot of the girls in my class, were nice. But they didn't even offer me to hang out with them at recess, how rude! So basically, I was a loner. I admit it, I was a complete loner. From being that most popular girl in my class, to being a complete loner. A huge change, a very huge change. And I was so depressed, I kept on praying for a wishing star. But there was no hope. I was literally about to give up hope. But just one small written letter saved me from totally stopping believing in myself.

The next few weeks weren't any better. I still sat all by myself during lunch, and I still did all of my "group projects" all by myself. My goal the year before, was to be super kind to everyone around me. And to make a lot of new friends. But it wasn't working, at all.

A few very terrible weeks later, in like mid-October, my teacher wrote a letter, placed it in a lovely pink envelope with flowers around the edges, (I still have that envelope!) And she taped it to the side of my desk. When I saw that letter, I thought it was an early Valentine card, (How stupid I was then, eh?) So I took it home, and when nobody was around me, I opened it.

I was so surprised to find out that the letter was from my teacher, Ms. Fullarton. I read it out, and that had to be the best day of my life.

(Since I can't really explain the letter, I will explain it to you word to word about what it said)

Dear Hareem,

Hi! As you know, I am you teacher, Ms. Fullarton. I have seen and studied all of your amazing work that you did in the past month. And I have to say, You have something special that nobody else has. I know that you have experienced a lot of loneliness during the past few weeks. Even though you didn't really deserve that. I am very inspired by your kindness, patience, and your positive behavior around others. You really deserve to be liked by other students :-) I want to help you make friends. If you don't mind, of course, I have decided to make a club in our class. In that club, there will only be you and me. We will do many great activities, and have loads of fun! Even though we haven't really communicated in the past month, you have still made a huge impact on me. You are like a daughter to me. I personally have 2 daughters, Amy, and Karli. My daughter Karli, has autism. So she can't talk to me. And it makes me really upset. But once again, I am always thankful for what I have to offer everyday as a mom and a full time teacher. Anyways, I have another plan, I was wondering if we could write stories together. What I mean is, I could write a few sentences, then you could write a few sentences. Then we could complete new stories! That would be a lot of fun, eh?

Sincerely,

Ms. Fullarton

When I read that letter, I froze. I had so many different emotions during that time period. (I still remember!) But I was mostly happy. The only I wasn't really sure about, was writing. But once again, I just went along with it.

The next day, I went to school, both excited, and nervous. When I got there, I saw my teacher and she saw me. When she saw me she had a huge smile on her face, and that smile was so "good," that I couldn't help but to smile back.

The rest of the was really awkward for me, but I got through it. Then, at recess, my teacher asked me to stay with her so she could talk to me.

When everyone left for recess, I went to my teacher. Then she started talking to me. She said, "I want to be your friend, is that okay with you?" I was thinking about it, even though I should've said yes right away. After a few milliseconds, I said "yeah, sure." Then she gave me a notebook, and said, "Here is a notebook where we will write stories together, Okay?" I was a little nervous, but at the end of a couple seconds, I said "yes, that's okay." My teacher looked at me in a confused way. Then she said, "Don't act like your in gang or anything! It's just me! Your teacher! I am sure that we will become BFF'S after a couple days :)" After she said that, I felt ashamed, I knew I shouldn't have acted that way, So I quickly apologized. "I am so sorry! I just felt a little nervous, I guess." Then she said; "Oh no! It's completely fine! I was also nervous!"

Then she gave me the notebook and sent me off to recess and lunch. When I got home, I went straight to my room, and opened the notebook, and read what it said. She had started a new story. It was called "Ruby's Fairyland." She had started the story with 3 short sentences. Then at the bottom, she asked me to write a few sentences to continue the story. So I did. I wrote 4 short and sweet sentences to continue the story. And to be completely honest, I thought I did a pretty okay job. The next day, I gave the notebook to my teacher so she could continue the story. And when she completed it by the end of the day, she handed it back to me so I could continue it. Inside there was a note saying how good those 4 sentences that I wrote were. I felt...somewhat proud, actually... really proud! And then I thought to myself, "I can actually do this! Let's actually give this a shot!" So I did actually give it a shot.

After another few weeks, My teacher came up to me during lunchtime, and asked me something. "Okay! Hareem, So I was wondering if we could make a club, and in that club there will only be me and you. Does that sound good?" This time, I was definitely not thinking and I blurted out, "Yes! That sounds great! So what will you call it?" She thought about it, then said, " I think we should call it something relating to smartness." Then I said, we should call it Smarties!" She obviously agreed to that, then said that we should start making plans tomorrow. I agreed.

The next day, at recess, me and my teacher stayed in during class. We were in a club, remember? It did seem pretty boring, until the teacher asked us to share our ideas via writing.

From that day, i continued to write and embrace my love for writing.