I was born in Tucson, Arizona and when I was around two, my family moved to Stockton, California.

During the time we lived in California, I always enjoyed going back to Arizona to visit family.

However, when it was time to move back to Tucson, Arizona, I was not in the mood.

The move took place around the middle of my 5th grade year, and I was not happy about having to be a new kid at a new school.

When that day arrived, I picked out a pink dress with white polka dots to wear. I also picked out, white knee-high socks to wear with it.

It was my intention to brush my own hair but then my mom told me that she would be brushing it, and that annoyed me.

The drive to Lawrence Elementary did not take long and before I was even out of the car, I was already looking down on it.

I looked down on it some more when we walked my sister, Priscilla to her portable classroom.

I had never heard of a portable classroom before and by the looks of it, concluded that it must be an Arizona thing.

Then I got upset upon hearing that this was a bilingual classroom because Priscilla didn’t know Spanish, none of us kids did.

I shook my head in disgust at Arizona.

When it’s my turn, my dad walks inside my new classroom with me.

It is then that I find out my new teacher is a man. Having a male schoolteacher is new to me and I don’t like it, but I shake his hand anyway.

I am still at the front of the classroom when I notice several large jars sitting on counters in the back, filled with pickled snakes and other obscene creatures.

You’ve got to be kidding me, Arizona! I am thinking this as I make my way to my seat.

I couldn’t wait for my first day of school in the wild, wild west to be over.

When it ends and I am back in the car with my mom, I start crying and I yell out, I HATE TUCSON!

The Arizona dust eventually settles. I have new friends, I break up a pair of best friends, and now I have a new best friend.

One day, my teacher talked about a science fair coming up. Science fair? I had never heard of a science fair. The two words didn’t go together for me. Science was boring and fairs were fun.

But I listened and although most of what my teacher had to say about it was confusing to me, I did understand the part about making posters to advertise for it and I got to work on making one.

I walked over to the cafeteria, where off to the side stood a tall metal rack with rolls of construction paper in different colors.

I never saw a contraption like this in California and I couldn’t believe kids were allowed to take paper from it without adult supervision.

I took a long piece from the white roll, tearing it away carefully to ensure a clean cut.

I came up with the caption, “Chomp your way to the Science Fair!” and recruited classmates to help me draw and paint a yellow Pac-Man (or was it Ms. Pac-Man?) along with some black dots.

We worked on this poster out in the hallway by our class and when the paint dried, we hung it up for everyone to see.

Several posters were hung in the school but I’m pretty sure my Pac-Man was the longest one because we did a lot of dots for him to chomp on.

Making a poster for the science fair was easy. Coming up with a science fair project was harder for me.

My best friend at the time told me what she was doing for her project and her idea helped me come up with mine.

The title for my project was something along the lines of, “Do roots grow faster in soil or water?”

For my project, my parents bought me a poster board and index cards. I chose a pale shade of green for my poster board and would use some of the spider plants from my mom’s behemoth collection at the time, to study.

I was to take pictures of the plants’ roots living in both soil and water and document the growth or lack thereof.

I was excited to start putting my poster board together for this project and when my mom insisted that she was going to help me with it, well, I didn’t like it at first but then I crowned her my assistant and all was well from there.

It’s judgement day.

I’m excited, I’m nervous and I dread having to face the music.

In one hand, I am holding wishful thinking, but in my other hand, I hold the thought that my science project is not good enough.

My dad drives us to school, and he goes inside with me.

We head for the cafeteria, where all the science projects are displayed.

Once there, I pause but my dad immediately starts looking for my project.

There is a lot of commotion. Adults and excited screaming kids are everywhere.

I am debating how to proceed, when I hear my dad calling out to me.

I look at him and he is waving at me to come hither. I can tell by the look on his face that something good has happened.

I join him in front of my project and there is a 1st place ribbon!

I was stunned. I had thought that maybe I could squeeze in a third place but first?

Then I got unstunned and haughtily walked over to my best friend’s project to see how she fared.

I didn’t care what her lot was at this point because I had received the top prize and I couldn’t wait to wave that ribbon around in front of her face.

Well folks, I became stunned again when lo and behold I saw that she too received a 1st place ribbon and mind you, this was way before the days of participation trophies.

We both received 1st place ribbons, we both received certificates and we each got a whopping $5.00.

As far as I know though, she didn’t receive a piece of humble pie like I did.

~missy salcido wead