CynthiaLouisaJane
- When I was in first grade....
I will have to post a photo of me in first grade at a later time. Here is a story for you:
When I was in first grade, the school nurse came in and made the announcement that all students would be weighed and measured. HOORAY! Something fun and exciting for all! No schoolwork.
The students lined up, eager to be weighed and measured, like anxious prize calves. I was so shy, I hung back at the end of the line. As each child proudly marched up to the scale, height measurements were taken, then the moment of joy, a bounce onto the scale for the announcement of weight. "Forty-five pounds!" "Fifty-two pounds!" On and on the numbers rolled out...finally, my turn to bounce up. I have absolutely no recollection of my height. I do, however, clearly remember the booming announcement of "SIXTY POUNDS!" for my weight. I was absolutely mortified, for I was the heaviest in the class. No one laughed or said "Holy cow!" No comment was made by anyone at all. In first grade, at sixy pounds, I was simply another kid being weighed and measured.
I thought about it all day long. I was fat. I weighed more than all the boys (nevermind that I was the third tallest in the class.) I was the fattest of them all. I went home and told my mother that I was the fattest one in my class. I told her I wanted to go on a diet.
The next day when I came home from school, a nice box of carnation instant breakfast was presented to me. I could not wait until the next morning to partake of the diet food! I woke up the next morning and bounded into the kitchen. My mama showed me how to pour the milk in the cup and mix the powder with it. Strawberry, lumpy and sweet. Gross. I was allowed to sit in front of the television with my concoction and drink it down, while my skinny little brother had his cereal at the table. I felt good that I was doing something grown-up and bad that it tasted like strawberry vomit.
I had just started my very first bonafide diet. And I knew for the first time in my life that I was fat and it was bad.
