Five years ago: Kindergarten and a fifth-grade buddy

By Daniel Bernstein, A&E Editor

COLONIAL SCHOOL — It was about the second week of school and I was in Kindergarten. I was nervous, but kind of excited. Mostly nervous.

The older kids started flooding into the room. I was so small to them. I was scared. They were going down a list. They said my fifth-grade budd’s name was Jamie. I was so freaked out. The older kids started to get to know their Kindergarten buddies. Everyone had to go back to their classes because I was scared.

I remember Jamie being really nice, though. I liked Pokemon back then, and he gave me so many Pokemon cards. Jamie also gave me a Pokemon video game that would plug into a Gameboy Color (which I have) and a Nintendo DS. Luckily, I had an old Nintendo 64 from my brother, who used to play it a lot.

Christmas a year or two later, my brother gave me a bunch of old video games for the Nintendo 64. One was a Pokemon game that came with a plug-in to the controller. The game that Jamie gave me could plug into the controller. That way I could play the Nintendo 64 game, with everything I had for the Gameboy game.

I was sad when we couldn’t have recess together anymore, and when I see him, I still recognize him. But I don’t know if Jamie still recognizes me.

This year, I had my own Kindergarten buddy, William Crotty (KS). It was really fun to play with him in September. Although we still have recess with the Kindergartners, we don’t play with each other all the time. I hope William will remember me like I remember my fifth grade buddy.

This story also appears on the Colonial Times website.