Daily Affirmations

Miss Pieffer was big on her students being kind to each other. She was the kind of teacher that was thoughtful and relatively new to teaching. Obviously, young enough to still know how cruel kids in the fourth grade can be to each other. It was because of Miss Pieffer that she realized that boys would have crushes on her too.

She knew from the first day of school that she was going to like him. Jimmy. She knew Jimmy's older sister from cheerleading and because of that - they always had something to talk about. He was about her height and not exactly the smartest kid in class but he liked her and she knew it. She always thought of him as a friend because she really had her eye on Dwayne.

Dwayne was a football player - only - not for the team that she cheered for. He played for the bears, she cheered for the cross town rival, the spartans. When they gave out their pictures that were in the form of trading cards, she asked him for one and he gave her one. As soon as she got home it was quickly affixed aside her bed with a penned heart with purple ink. She could look at it any time she wanted to. However, she knew it would always be a distant crush because despite knowing that he was nice enough to give the picture to her, that's as far as his kindness extended. He didn't like her back.

Secretly she hoped he would but knew that the daily affirmations she received were from Jimmy. She could tell by the handwriting.

Daily affirmations were more of a weekly project but it was required that everyone in Miss Pieffer's class accomplish at least three of them a day. You had to do them. All three had to be to different people but you could always give one a day to the same person. And at the end of the week - you looked through your handmade personal "mailbox" to see what kind notes your classmates had left you - entirely anonymous - that is - unless you knew what their handwriting looked like:-).

She knew what Jimmy's handwriting looked like - and he knew what hers looked like. I guess that's why they both ended up being such good friends. Afterall, it was only fourth grade - but it was then that she realized - I guess these crushes aren't always one-sided.

He moved away after fifth grade - to somewhere in New Jersey. And she would reconnect with him sometime in high school when he finally confessed to her what she already knew - he had had the biggest crush on her and just never thought he could tell her. It was, after all, fourth grade. You don't meet your soulmate when you're 9, right?