Kindergarten showoff

I'm surprised that my memory works as well as it does, but apparently my disgust for reading as a child made a lasting impression. The night before I started kindergarten, I can recall sitting in my bed getting ready to go to sleep. My mother was tucking me in and I asked her to make sure I could say the alphabet without singing that song. I wanted to be a big kid and not have to rely on some annoying song to say my alphabet. I wanted to be smarter than any other kid in my class. It took me awhile to understand which letters I was actually singing during the elameno (L-M-N-O) part of the song.

Well, it turns out some snot nosed kid named William already knew how to read. Showoff! Teacher's pet! Ok, so I didn't know what a teacher's pet was at the time. I didn't think it was any stranger for a teacher to have dog since I had one. Anyway, I knew I didn't like the fact that William could read and I could not. The teacher started with teaching the alphabet using these cool inflatable characters with letters painted on them. It was a big deal if you were the student who got to hold it while the teacher explained the sound each letter made. Soon I was reading.

It didn't take me long to learn how and soon I was as good of a reader as William. However, it took even less time for me to discover that William could not run as fast, he was no good at dodge ball, and he couldn't even climb the pole on the playground. Who cares about reading when there are more important things to prove yourself on, right? At the age of 5, reading just wasn't as fun as playing Candyland with Grandma. So, what if William was a better reader? I didn't care anymore.

I'm not sure whatever happened to William, and he probably kept reading and has become a scholar, making millions. As for me, I doubt I could climb that pole anymore. At least I can still read. I do wonder what happened to him, because I should probably thank him for inspiring me to want to learn how to read.