A Fifth Grader Is Kicking My Ass
I was asked by my wife to judge her school’s art contest. She teaches at a K-6 school in the Riverside Unified School District. I was one of three judges and I was there because I have some art background. It was pretty obvious from the get go which students had help from parents and which ones didn’t. Some of the pieces were very good. There was one kid though that really blew me away.
It wasn’t even an art piece. It was an example of writing. I didn’t even know that writing was going to be part of the competition. There weren’t many examples and the ones that were there were what you’d expect from fourth and fifth graders, beginning poetry, free form ramblings, a lot of misspelling and poor grammar. But this little girl was something else. Fifth grade and the stuff that I read put 99.9% of all the bloggers on the internet to shame. FIFTH GRADE!
I started reading and had to sit down as she drew me in with her work. The theme was about “beauty” and what it was. I told my wife that I was shocked and surprised at how good it was.
“You should read the book that she wrote”, said my wife.
Book? She wrote a book? My wife then told me that her parents took her on a trip to visit all of the California Missions last summer and she wrote a book about them. It’ll be available on Amazon.com in the very near future.
I felt very small.
I will never bitch again about how tedious writing is for me. I will write everyday for the rest of my life. A fifth grader is kicking my ass.
