Dear Mini-Lori,
Goodbye Ponytails
You’re in Miss Hermes’ 5th grade class now. Yes, Miss Hermes was your brother’s teacher too. And yes, she’ll have the same expectations of you. You’ll learn that you don’t like to read. You really need to get over this and learn to love reading now rather than later. Trust me, you will love reading. In your business section of your library, you’ll have over 2,500 books. So stopping resisting, start reading.
Back to Miss Hermes, your teacher is reserved, stoic, and somewhat scary, but you like that because you respect authority. Go figure. Because of Miss Hermes, you like rules. Apparently you have a lot of rules, at least according to Karman.
And in the 5th grade, you have long ponytails. While you can’t believe people take you serious with long ponytails, they do. Fortunately, for you, Billie Jean King will become your idol through junior high. You’ll want to be just like her, cutting your hair short just like BJK.
Dictionaries are Ridiculous
You’ll be part of a new approach to classes, one that’s blended with 5th and 6th graders. You’ll learn how to use a dictionary. Miss Hermes, I’m sorry. I still don’t know how to use a dictionary! I don’t get it. If I don’t know how to spell the word, how am I supposed to find it in a dictionary?
The experience of interacting with 6th graders in your class will be useful since in junior high and high school, you’ll always be the youngest starting player the basketball team. This early experience will help you business, since you’ll learn management and leadership skills from team sports. In the 7th grade when your former basketball coach from gradeschool learns you’re on the starting five, she’ll ask you comeback and speak to the basketball team about your experience in junior high basketball team and the transition from grade school to junior high. Ms. Koceba was always one of your biggest fans and favorite coaches that helped you develop into a leader.
Cassettes Decks aren’t Perfect
On the lighter side, Elton John’s new album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is huge. Mark’s a junior in high school, doing more grown up things, but he still indulges you as his little sister. He even lets you borrow his “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” so you can play it in his cool Sony portable tape deck.
Of course, something goes wrong. The Sony tape deck eats Mark’s tape. He’s so angry with you even thought it wasn’t your fault. Little sisters…we really can be trusted with things like grown-up equipment. Technology malfunctions every now and then. It was a cassette deck! Not our fault!
Pop Culture of 1973-1974
Your favorite day of the week is still Saturday mornings when you watch The Super Friends (with Wendy and Marvin), Speed Buggy, and The Addams Family. Your routine is to wake up, eat your favorite dry cereals like Cap’n Crunch and Quisp, watch cartoons, and then do your weekly chores like dustings or vacuuming. You’re watching more TV shows with your Mom and Dad and have some favorites.
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Your family’s favorite TV shows are Kolchak: The Night Stalker, All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, McMillan And Wife, The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and Barnaby Jones.
When you get older you’ll own the box set of Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Maude. Kolchak will continue to creep you out. Your favorite Kolchak episodes when you get older will be: The Werewolf, The Ripper, The Zombie, The Vampire, Bad Medicine, and Horror In The Heights. The Werewolf will freak you out so much that as an adult, whenever you’re on a cruise ship at night time, you’ll contstantly look up to make sure nothing furry is decending on you.
And The Bionic Woman remake? Let’s just say that Michelle Ryan was good, but she’s awesome in Merlin!
Emerging Leader
The upside of 5th grade? You’re becoming a leader. You’re considered the best player on your basketball team. Your coach looks to you to lead the team. You take charge on things on the basketball court. You do have a teammate, who’s also have Alaska Native and Japanese. Her name is Dody. Eventually, you two will have very different experiences in school because she looks more Alaska Native while you look more Japanese. Dody’s cool and she’s one of your close friends at this time. She’ll continue to play base in junior high school, but not stand out as much as she did in grade school.
Races Issues?
In 5th grade, you’ll become aware of class and race issues. One of your friends will be cruel to an older female Alaska Native classmate named Maggie. One day after school, you two are walking with someone else, your friend sees Maggie in a vulnerable situation. Your friends calls Maggie a name, putting her down for socioeconomic or native status. You feel terrible for Maggie, put your head down, and continue walking home.
Unfortunately, you won’t understand what your friend said, but your presence will appear as if you are empowering the anti-native sentiment. In the future, you’ll never know what happens to Maggie because she disappears in junior high. You will also experience Anti-Japanese prejudice by a mean Caucasian kid named Scott Crabtree. He’ll enjoy calling you a “chink.” But of course, you’ll think, “What an idiot, I’m not Chinese.”
You’ll also notice that the girls’ basketball teams you play are predominately Caucasian while you’re team is not. In fact, in the future, you’re school would be consider “urban” or “inner city” compared to others schools. For now, prejudice or race issues, with the exception of that moron, Scott Crabtree, do not affect you.
Action Items
- Learn to use your powers for good. As a leader, you must learn to set a good example. Most people prefer to be followers or teammates rather than leaders. They’ll look to you for guidance, so use this power for good not evil. If you see prejudice or racism, don’t let slide or tolerate it. Be proactive about educating others on race issues when you can. Think of Maggie.
- Give up on dictionaries, use Google. Sorry, but you will never learn how to use a dictionary. Wait long enough until Google is invented for the Internet. It will recommend how to spell words that you can spell. But be weary. Google will eventually develop artificial intelligence that will become self-aware and kill all humankind. You think Google would learn from movies like “I, Robot” or “The Terminator” movies.
- Don’t buy into being a minority or female. Learn more about female role models. Billie Jean King will be the second woman you admire (the first was Helen Reddy). Women in sports, business, entertainment, and eventually politics will be problematic for women. Fortunately, you will never buy into gender roles or let it limit your opportunities. You won’t face prejudice or discrimination in school because of your athletic status or confidence, but it does exist. Pay attention to race and gender issues because others will be limited by being a minority or woman.
