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My First Year of School

Beginning a 12 Year Journey

By Rebecca SharrockPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Like the vast majority of six year olds, I was extremely excited from the realisation that I would be starting school in a month’s time. In Australia just about every school (independent or state school) has a uniform in which their students wear. One night in January mum brought my new uniform home for me to try on, just to see if it would fit. While I was wearing it I felt so grown up and asked mum if I could wear it all the time. Though I was told that I couldn’t wear it until I started school because it had to be clean for my first day.

In Australia we begin the school year in late January, and I could hardly sleep the night before I began. My then four year old sister (Jessica) shared a bedroom with me and was told by mum to not disturb me as I had a very busy day ahead of me. Jessica was somewhat envious about this, and I felt a childish sense of pleasure that it was me beginning school and not her.

Finally it was the right time to get out of bed, and the very first thing I did was put on my uniform. Though I didn’t put my shoes on until later because I still couldn’t tie shoelaces back then. At 8:30 AM, mum said “Get into the car girls. We’ve got to take Becky to school.” This made me even more excited.

When I entered my classroom I was surprised that there weren’t any toys and play areas like there are in preschool and kindergarten. The walls were covered with educational posters such as those relating to the alphabet and numbers. Mum then told me that I would be there from morning to afternoon on every day of the week, except for weekends and school holidays. That upset me because in kindergarten I attended only a few days of the week, and also for a significantly shorter time.

Once mum had to leave I felt very upset and missed being at home with her and Jessica. I didn’t expect that on my first day of school. Also, there was no nap time or play-with-toys-time in Grade 1. Instead it was straight on to learning letters, words and numbers.

School wasn’t as exciting as I initially thought it would be. Instead I (at first) felt like it was daily torture. For my first few months of school, I would scream and cry constantly. A fair few classmates gave me the name “crybaby” and there were even teachers who couldn’t tolerate me crying all of the time. During one recess break, I overheard my teacher being told by a colleague “That kid sounds like a handful. I definitely wouldn’t have her in my classroom.” Hearing those words now as an adult would upset me. Though hearing them back then as a six year old was even worse for me.

A few months into my first school year I was walking around the grounds one recess break, and while I was doing so I had a nice long thought to myself. During those past months I had learned that I had no other choice but to go to school, and also that all the crying and screaming in the world wasn’t going to take me home to mum. All that happened was that I made a complete fool of myself and I got bullied as a result of it.

So I came to the conclusion that I was not going to cry anymore and instead keep myself comforted by escaping into my imagination through writing, reading and drawing (preferably the first two). The school was shocked about my sudden ‘silence’ and reacted in a variety of ways. One girl came up to me and asked “Why are you quiet now? You’re a little bit too quiet.”

Yet the result of my decision was a success overall. In life it’s impossible to be liked by everyone, but when our personalities are compatible with someone, friendships then form. I did indeed make friends during my school years who I enjoyed spending my time with greatly. When I was in high school I got diagnosed with autism. But at the same time my friends and me myself did not change as a result of that. Nor did school itself, for better or for worse.

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About the Creator

Rebecca Sharrock

I'm an autistic person who is making a career from writing, public speaking and advocacy work.

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