This activity from our writing project was to explore the great first lines of books. We worked in groups to come up with great first lines and posted them on paper around the room. Of course, I chose the line from my favorite kids’ book (No…it’s not a Pooh book…)
My favorite first line: “I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there is gum in my hair….and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day.” Alexander….by Judith Viorst
After we explored the first lines, we had to choose one that wasn’t our own and use it as a story starter. I loved this line posted by a middle school teacher (I think…maybe a high school teacher)…any way…it was a fun line to use for my writing. Here the great first line I used:
“My name is Owen Birnbaum and I’m probably fatter than you are.” From Slob by Ellen Potter
My name is Sheila Iding and I’m probably fatter than you are. And do you know what? That is okay. I am chubby (that sounds better than fat…don’t you think?). I have almost always been chubby. I was a bit chubby as a girl…always the base in cheerleading. So the shortest cheerleader was the base because of chubbiness and strength (I was strong too).
I was a bit chubby as an athlete. Even with all that pitching…even with all that practice. I was never skinny. In shape…yes. Strong…yes. Skinny…never.
And now as a grown up…surprise!...still chubby. I work hard to be in shape. I really do. I try to run a mile a day (although skunk sightings early in the morning curtailed me a bit). But I work out almost every day very early in the morning. I don’t eat a lot…but I eat. And I love to eat. I love to work out…although obviously not enough. And I am going to be honest…I don’t like being chubby…it’s more fun being slender (so they say). However, I am chubby. And that is okay. I am chubby with the dream of someday being thinner.
While we are at it, since you already know I am not perfect…surprise! I am clumsy. I am very clumsy. I drop things. I break things. I trip over things that are not there. I have fallen so many times in Chicago and New York City it has become part of each trip. (Pun intended.) We even keep track…it’s been 24 hours and I haven’t fallen. It’s been a day and a half and I haven’t tripped. Which is a bit celebratory but then also a jinx because sure enough I will fall and my hands will be cut and my knees will be skinned and if they are bad enough we will go to the drug store and get antibiotic ointment and bandaids. Once when I fell in NYC, I had to go into the prestigious New York City Library…the one with the big lions out front and the marble everywhere…marble floor, marble walls, marble steps, marble columns…so I sat on the marble floor by the marble encased drinking fountain cleaning my newest clumsy wounds and the guard came up and told me we don’t sit on the floors there. I tried to explain I was clumsy…apparently…clumsy or not…you don’t sit on the marble floor.
Further…I am confused a good deal of the day. My mind races a thousand miles a minute. If a mind could have ADD…my mind does. There are ideas to get out, stories to write, lists in my heads, family concerns, lesson plans to revise on the fly and 25-30 first graders to watch over. So with all that in my mind…the thoughts get tangled and I get confused. Mostly I get confused about where I put things. I lose a lot of things. Good thing I have first graders who know just where things might be and family members patient enough to look for my keys…one more time.
So there you have it. I am Sheila Iding and probably fatter than you. I am probably clumsier than you and more confused than you. But I am me. I am okay with it and I make sure my first graders know I am okay with being less than perfect. What a teachable moment every day. I am not degrading myself or minimizing myself. Even wishing it might be different, I have accepted who I am. And I have learned not to worry about being chubby, or clumsy or confused. It’s just me. It’s who I am. Like my brown hair, my freckles and my green eyes. Chubby, clumsy and confused.
It’s just me…Sheila Iding.