My kindergarten teacher encouraged me to learn, as did my school headmaster, who gave me a grant to study.
My parents homeschooled my sister and me for many years. Why? Because the local school insisted that I, being three, should go to preschool, and my sister, being five, should go to kindergarten. The problem? You learn your alphabet in preschool, and I was already reading chapter books.
In retrospect, I'm grateful for the break-up of my marriage because it forced me to deal with all the buried issues I probably wouldn't have otherwise faced. I'm a better, kinder, happier person today because of the spiritual and emotional growth I've experienced.
I feel like I want to be in a world and in a community where we can be kinder to one another, because that is never going to hurt... And that should start with myself.
Winnie the Pooh was such a part of my childhood. My kindergarten was named Pooh Corner, after one of A.A. Milne's collections of stories.
I constantly peed in my pants up until the 8th grade and wore an extra-large sailor uniform from kindergarten to 8th grade because my mom was scared I'd grow out of it. So I learned to make fun of myself at school and summer camp.
I can say the one good thing is for every year where I grow up, I am kinder to myself, and I would say to the younger version of me, 'I love my body, and I have learnt to stop looking in the mirror at the things I want to change.'
My husband and I have known each other since kindergarten. I had a crush on him in school, but we never dated. Then we saw each other again after high school, and there was something instantly familiar about him. I'm a very shy person and was very closed off. But he allowed me to be myself. And there's a safety in that.
My mom dressed me in silk to go to elementary school. In kindergarten, they sent me home because I couldn't do finger painting in my dress.
I was born and raised in California and benefited from California's excellent public schools, from kindergarten through medical school.
