Written by DeAnna Erdmann
Sometimes when I get scared, I hide behind Mama’s legs.
I bury my face in that soft part of her back leg and hold on tight to her pants. Then, she’ll reach back and pat me gently, and for some reason, that lets me know it’s all going to be ok.
Sometimes, at the grocery store, a worker will hand me some stickers when I slowly peek around the side of Mama. I almost forget all about feeling scared and wanting to hide when I get stickers. I love to put one on my belly just to watch it stay. How in the world do those things just stay put on whatever you stick them to? Stickers make me wiggle because they are the best!
Today was a big scary day. I could feel it growing bigger inside of my tummy. It was the kind of scared that made my feet squirm around. Mama opened the car door and unbuckled me. She was saying nice words in her happy quiet voice, but the scared feeling inside me made it hard to hear her. Bunches of kids were walking into a big red building. Those big kids had ginormous bags on their backs! I hope I don’t have to carry a ginormous bag.
Mama put me on the ground and grabbed my hand, and we started walking toward the red building. The scared feeling made my feet feel heavy. Mama was having to pull me a little to get them moving. I could hear her saying those nice words in her cheerful voice, but it wasn’t making the scared go away.
We went through the big doors and walked into a hallway with shiny floors. I wondered if we were walking on glass cause the glass is so polished. Mama stopped at a door that had on it a giant tree made of paper. There were apples on the tree with something written on them. When we walked into the room, the scare went away real fast. The brightly colored walls were covered in cut-out shapes, ABC’s and 123’s, and there were even animal pictures. The room had fun-looking colorful blocks and shelves filled with lots of books. There was a computer and a fish tank. On the ground on one side was a blue rug with big bright dots of lots of different colors. There was a rocking chair on the carpet too.
A lady with fuzzy white hair and big green glasses walked over to us and smiled real big.
“Hi there… I’m Miss Maggie. I’m your Pre-school teacher. What’s your name?”
The scare ran back up my toes and into my tummy. I jumped behind Mama and buried my face in the safe soft spot, holding super tight to her pants. Mama patted me, but I was too scared to peek around.
“Do you like stickers?” Miss Maggie asked me. I peeped real quick at hearing stickers and nodded up and down very fast.
“If you come with me, we can find your name, and then you get to decorate it with other stickers.”
I grabbed Mama’s hand and slowly walked from behind her. I looked around the room for the stickers. Miss Maggie reached her hand toward me. “Come on. I’ll show you where.”
I looked up at Mama. She smiled and nodded. I grabbed Miss Maggie’s hand and held on to Mama until my arm was stretched super straight. Mama squeezed my hand and let go, and I kept walking with Miss Maggie. I looked back at Mama, who was standing in the doorway watching me. She smiled and then turned and walked away. I felt the scared feeling start to try to step up my toes again, but Miss Maggie squeezed my hand the way Mama had, and I felt a little better.
“Here we are. Now let’s find your name so you can decorate it.”
I looked at the table she had led me to. Its surface was covered all over in hundreds and hundreds of stickers! Bright colors and shapes and animals and words and unicorns and trucks and princesses and ninjas were everywhere. I could feel my excitement wiggles coming.
Maybe, just maybe, my pre-school would be awesome after all.