"Cheers to the 5ths"

You can really liken 5th graders to being a human in general. There are days when the urge to steal beats out honesty, where you approach a teacher saying "we're men of science" and proceed to tell her a plan for the serum that will save the human race - something to do with beetle blood - , days when you may be the lead of the school musical but get pulled out for detention, days when you put rubber cement on one of the bathroom toilet seats and your teacher sits on it because the teacher bathroom was locked, days when you crumple on the floor and cry over the color of a pencil, days when you ask for a book and it's checked out by your nemesis - the girl who applies rubber cement to a lot of other surfaces besides the toilet seat you find out - , days when you get a positive referral - something teachers made up to shine light on the nice kids in a school full of what seems like all bullies at times, days when your teacher gave you her writing business card in hopes to inspire you to write and you sit next to her at lunch and type your first google doc - an epic tale about "jessie" the girl that is DEFINITELY not you, days you say something nice to your teacher who was up all night writing and she takes it way more seriously than you meant it - I mean it looks like she might ...cry?... so you'll DEFINITELY be more careful about how openly nice you are to her moving forward, days like tuesday and thursday which are exciting because dad picks you up and you get to stay at his place, days when you watch a movie about Ruby Bridges and the only thing you take away is how to chant racially mean things, days when you like the smell of a room or don't like the smell of a room but SAY it as you enter every room so others know all the time how you feel about the smell of rooms, and so on. To all my 5th graders out there. 11 years old or otherwise, life is hard, life is fun, life is weird, and sometimes seems two steps forward, one step back - but you've been told repeatedly by those in charge of you that if you chart that on a graph, it really is growth even if it doesn't seem like it in the moment. Cheers 5ths.