My Karma List

Okay, so when I was in 4th grade I wasn't the nicest person.

Well...I was mean.

There is an infamous story from those days, and it goes a little something like this:

I was at an assembly and the 1st graders were sitting in front of us high and mighty 4th graders.

Everyone knows that at assemblies you had better sit on your bottom...definitely not your knees.

So this teensy little blonde 1st grader with whispy long hair and a black leather jacket was sitting ON HER KNEES in front of me. (please note I can clearly remember thinking also that since she was wearing a black leather jacket, she was most certainly not Mormon...an obvious conclusion).

I told her repeatedly that she had best sit on her buns.

She ignored me! (in retrospect I wonder if she maybe didn't even hear me...but I choose to believe she ignored me.)

So I think I insulted her...told her she was dumb or ugly or something.

Then she says to me, "Well my mom says I'm the most beautiful girl in the whole world."

And then I, without missing a beat, said, "Yeah, well your mom lies."

Seriously, when I think about that now I feel so awful. And I think if I were that little girls mom I would find my 4th grade self and punch me in the face. What a jerk!

So I'm wondering how to make all right in the world. I don't even know who that girl was?

My conclusion has been this: When I volunteer in Livy's class I try to be extra nice to the underlings...the ones the other kids don't seem to play with so naturally. I tell them they look really pretty or how impressed I am with their work.

Maybe I can help them build enough confidence in themselves so they aren't hurt by jerky 4th graders.

Maybe.