Whilding 1

The Witch

As I walked in front of the room I could feel my heart beating out of my chest. I could hear the

voices of everyone who warned me in my head. She was old, loud and evil. She gave piles and

piles of homework, threw books at students and even yelled at them for no reason. This was my

last year of elementary school and I could not believe that I was stuck with her, the witch.

Now as a junior in high school I realize how insanely juvenile that was. Not only did this

woman prove me wrong in every way, she taught me the most valuable lessons and shaped me

not only into the student I am today, but the person. I remember the day vividly. It was a nice

Thursday afternoon in the beginning of August, my sister and I were in our daily evening

routine. It started with our bike session, riding around carelessly soaking in the last few nights of

summer. My mom always called the riding to and end for dinner, we would get washed up and

waited for the last member of the family to join who was always carrying the mail, my dad. Each

day we would watch intently at the pile of mail to see if the inevitable slip was in there. The slip

with our teacher for the upcoming year. I watched that pile all dinner, patiently waiting to rip

through and see if the little beaver stamp was present.

Today was the day. It was finally here. I ran to the living room flipped over the card and the

name that was on there hit me like a ton of bricks. Mrs.Wade. I sat there in disbelief, and my first

instinct as a young child was to just cry. And when I say cry, I mean a full on temper tantrum.

Spending the rest of my night crying in my room until it finally soothed me to sleep. A few

weeks went by, the aroma of freshly baked cinnamon rolls filled my house. It was finally here,

the dreaded first day of school. I walked like I had weights chained to my feet, being completely

stubborn and shedding a few tears along the way. I walked outside followed by both my parents,

mom my shoved a sign in front of me and told me to smile. She received a face that made her
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cross. I heard the squeaking of the school bus approach. My parents were already agitated

because I just gave them a fit while getting ready and going to the bus stop. But little did they

know they were about to get even more infuriated.

It was my turn and the bus pulled up to the stop. A fight or flight reaction went off in my

body and before I knew it, I was in my house hiding behind my dog. My fuming parents picked

me up, put me in the car and proceeded to drive me to school. The whole ride there was a blur all

I remember is a very kind lady opening the door so I could hop out. She walked me across the

crosswalk and told me to have a good day. As I saw my parents drive away and I knew then that

I was stuck.

I was at the door thinking of possible escape routes, but I was pushed through the door by a

stampede of nervous students, there was no way to get out of this. Swifty I found my seat at the

back of the classroom which was some sense of relief. I saw a bunch of kids with the equally

terrified look over their face sit. A waft of fear filled the air as she walked in. Her voice boomed

through the classroom and she had all the eyes on her.

“So I know you all have already made up your mind on who I am but please someone tell me

things you have heard about me, don't be shy” said the witch.

“I heard you threw a book at someone,” a fearless guy at the back of the room said.

She then picked up a book and tossed it lightly onto the table.

“There that’s what I did. Now I know no one else is nearly as brave as the young man over

there. So let me tell you a bit about myself. My name is Carolyn Wade. I’m the youngest of 9

children if that answers the question about why I’m so loud. Growing up I had to yell to get what

I needed, so it kinda stuck with me. I’m am not mean to my students and I never have been, but I

am strict there is a difference. And newsflash the students who said all that stuff are the ones
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who gave me lots of trouble.” she explained. We continued on with class and I started to feel

more and more comfortable.

As the year went on,she became,what we still call to this day, my school mom. I have never been

the best at math in my opinion and lucky enough she would spend her time trying to teach me

and understand what I was doing. ̈Bella,̈ she started ̈You are so bright, I know you can do this

because you help your classmates every day. You need to keep your parachute open.¨

̈ Parachute?¨ I said with a confused tone.

̈ ̈Yes think of your brain as a parachute, if you keep it open it will catch all the knowledge you

need to stay a float. But if you close it you will just free falI.¨

With that lesson engraved in my brain I survived fifth grade with flying color and all other

grades to be honest. But I also grew as a person. She was by my side during some one the

scariest times. I talked to her about the overwhelming amount of things happening in my life at

the time. Her arms and heart were always open to help. Mrs. Carolyn Wade was my biggest

lesson as a student and person. As a student she taught me to keep my mind open and to push

myself more than I ever thought I could, the lessons and habits she instilled that are still used

daily. And as a person she taught me to never judge a book by it’s cover, I sure learned that the

hard way. They always say a extoridinary teacher reaches the hearts of their students and she

definitely reached mine. To this day we still talk about how terrified I was during many frequent

visits, but little did I know as a tiny fifth grader that I would grow up and now consider “the

witch” to be one of my greatest role models.