My Elementary School Journals: A Kenyon Story

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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My Elementary School Journal: A Kenyon Story

Our younger selves were both profound and innovative, and this feature is dedicated to highlighting those brilliant minds and memories.

Happy holiday from young Zoe Smith '15.

Happy holiday from young Zoe Smith ’15.

We are headed into finals week, and it is time. It’s crunch time, it’s nap time, and it’s high time that I actually got all of that work done. As the French-Canadian pop quintet Simple Plan once crooned, “I’m just a kid, and life is a nightmare/I’m just a kid, I know that it’s not fair.” Unfortunately, as most of us here are 18 and older, the “I’m just a kid” excuse doesn’t exactly apply anymore. You can, however, derive some quiet joy during finals time by reading through some of the younger writing of Kenyon students, and taking a moment to reflect on simpler times:

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Bring us your Elementary School Journals!

(image via theblaze.com)

(image via theblaze.com)

I hope you’re all excited for Thanksgiving. What better way to give thanks than to rediscover writing from when you were small? If you’re going home for the Thanksgiving break, this would be a great opportunity to look around for some elementary school journals/young writing to submit for the feature, My Elementary School Journals: A Kenyon Story. Look around your house/hometown, and send your submissions to thekenyonthrill@gmail.com.

My Elementary School Journals: A Kenyon Story

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Bully for you, Adam Reed ’15.

Remember when doing a doing a history project meant you had to dress up like a historical figure? I sure do. Elementary school was a dynamic and educational time. Fourth grade was probably the first time you started to question authority, or else it was the year you learned that you can turn ice cream into soup if you mix it up really well. What I’m saying is that our younger selves were both profound and innovative, and this feature is dedicated to highlighting those brilliant minds and memories.

Read real elementary school journals from real Kenyon students after the jump!

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My Elementary School Journal: A Kenyon Story

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Here at The Thrill, we love taking a look back at old (dare I say, repressed) memories. And what better way than looking back at your old Elementary School Journals. Journals are an unbiased look into the past which show us how much we’ve changed- or stayed the same. Personally, I never made it more than a page or two into any of my journals as a kid (my most common entry was “I promise I’ll write more!), but some Kenyon students were much more dedicated. What were your classmates thinking about 10 years ago? Find out below the jump.

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