My Fifth Grade graduation was a grand event. I remember that I specially matched my braces to my blue chiffon dress for the occasion. An alum returned from the High School, to make us feel small and bestow upon us values that I can’t really remember. In fact, throughout the excessive 2 and half hour ceremony, I don’t think I remember anything that was said. All that I remember is the weird sweaty smell of the gymnasium, and convincing myself that I needed to feel sentimental as I embarked upon my new middle school adventure. A full decade later, I still don’t know how to feel about graduation. I’ve lived about as far ahead as my young mind at that time could comprehend, but part of me wonders what my eleven year old self understood about the future that I may have since forgotten. Here are some young minds of Kenyon College before they graduated elementary school, wondering about the future and writing about the present and past, teaching us all through their carefree innocence:

Gray Clark ’17, History and Russian Area Studies: First Grade

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