Re-public

As we discussed the general awesomeness of the infamous Jon Harrison scissor-kick picture over coffee and Pink Box baked goods at the generally awesome LHS Focus Film Festival this afternoon, the idea of making things from our pasts public again was humorously pitched – and I’ve decided to take a break and have some fun with it in the form of a quickie photo essay.

Last year in Methods class, we started the semester by telling the story of our “literacy history,” so I had my mom scan and send me these pictures, which I will now "re-public" here. They are also the only truly good pictures of me in existence, I believe; sometime after this, I transformed into the least photogenic person on the planet (don’t ask about the “Kid Rock face” pictures).

8 months - Dang, that's a cute baby! And no, this wasn't posed - I really did pretend/attempt to read, and I really did lay around holding the books with my feet. The weirdness started early, folks.

1 year-ish - This one has nothing to do with reading, it's just ridiculously adorable (except the Mizzou hat... I was obviously being brainwashed at the time). We refer to this time period as the "Cindy-Lou Who" years.

Just shy of 2 years - I've got my parents to thank for my frequent and early exposure to the wonderful world of words. More than just about anything from my childhood, I remember the books. I remember the library. I remember being read to and loving it. My mom remembers me reciting the alphabet at 15 months, recognizing new words at the grocery store at 2 years, reading the pool rules off the wall at 3 years, and reading Charlotte's Web to her (without seeing it before) at 4 years. I don't know exactly how it happened, but I literally cannot remember what it feels like to not be able to read. Thanks, Mom.

5 years - Once an English teacher... always an English teacher. My stuffed animals knew their Dr. Seuss backwards and forwards, let me tell you.