From the moment I read in my first grade reader,
See **** run, I couldn’t wait to turn the page
to view the pictures and see what other sorts of
things **** could do.  But my bigger passion was art,
so it was an easy task for me to draw and color big
letters to make an alphabet book, which we were told
we could take home to keep.

With the first letter, A, Sister Clara wrote on the
chalkboard, A is for apple.  In an effort to encourage
us to pick appropriate colors she asked the class,
What colors are apples?  The class responded with red,
yellow, green.  Painstakingly coloring our A’s I was
proud of myself for keeping within the lines, and
based on Sister Clara’s beaming smile, just knew
my A was the best A in the whole class.

Today, going through old boxes I take out that
alphabet book and smile as I open it to the first
page, the letter A jumping out at me in boldly colored
sections of plaids, polka dots, and stripes.  My face
beams its own smile of approval at the pleasant
discovery that even at the tender age of five, I was
already a rebel before my time.