By Claire Heinichen, `11, Contributor, with assistance from Grant Hesser, `11
The accepted definition of a lifer is someone who has attended CCDS from first grade up through graduation. However, a small core of true lifers believe otherwise. Grant Hesser and I began school here when we were 18 months old in the small building behind the gym known as the house. Not only did Grant and I begin quite early, we also had the pleasure of repeating Kindergarten. Seriously. As Grant puts it, “My finger-painting skills were just not up to par.”
I remember my first day at the house very distinctly. I wasn’t feeling very well, but we were having graham crackers and peanut butter for snack and I wasn’t about to let the opportunity to eat pass me by. I had two best friends, Alyssa and Zachary, neither of whom liked me very much. Grant and I were merely acquaintances at this stage of life, but only because he was more concerned with making sure everyone sat Indian-style on the circle-time rug than with making friends.
After spending a year in the house, Grant and I both moved along to Pre-K I and II. Neither of us remembers much from these dull years, except that I thought Montessori was only for Jewish kids. But like everyone knows, Pre-K is like the waiting room, and once you’re in Kindergarten, you’re the coolest thing around. In our first year of Kindergarten, I had Mrs. Krody and Grant had Mrs. Rockwell. Grant’s favorite memory from this year includes a project on the ostrich, from which the only thing he remembers is that “they can lay up to three eggs!” This first year of Kindergarten was rough for me. I desperately wanted to be friends with Tonya Grieb because she had pretty blonde hair, but, since I was in the special nap group with two other kids, I didn’t get to hang out with her very much. As the end of the year approached, Grant and I looked forward to moving on with the big kids to the Lower School where we got to wear uniforms and everything! Little did we know it had been strongly recommended to our parents that Grant, Jake Thomas, Alex Hong, and I do Kindergarten year again to be among children closer to our age. While most kids would be devastated to repeat a grade, as long as we got a second year of snack and nap times, Grant and I were set.
This second year of Kindergarten was much better than the first. Grant stayed in Rockwell and had another mundane year, while I moved to Mrs. Hoenig’s class and finally got up the courage to tell Alex Hong that he looked like an M&M. We made new friends and finally made our way to the first grade.
Grant was placed in Mrs. Paden’s class, where his best friend was her dog, Barkley. He even brought in his dog, Vandy, for show and tell one day. I was in Mrs. Macfarlane’s class, where I met and fell in love with Baldur Tangvald. This affection lasted up until the day I accidentally stabbed him in the eye with a pencil. He’s still not really over that. Although we spent another year apart from each other, Grant and I bonded over being angels in the Christmas pageant together.
Second grade was a step up for our class. Grant enjoyed a primarily successful year in the “Marin Money” game until victory was “robbed” from him at the end of the year when he called Angela Hayes stupid for getting out in a game of kickball. As punishment, she got all of his money. Baldur and I, although still going through rough times as we entered a Lower School love triangle with Alexandra McInturf, still managed to remain good friends, despite the fact that I was in Mrs. Winter’s class while he was with Grant in Marin.
Looking back on third grade, all Grant can remember of Mrs. Gerber’s class is the bathtub full of pillows and the class pet, Bunkey the bunny. Other highlights of these Lower School years include Grant’s epic performance as James’ Father in the fourth grade play James and the Giant Peach, and my growing fear of Grant, who I deemed the class bully, thanks to a little game he liked to call “furniture,” where he rode other kids down the slide.
Fifth grade was a turning point. Grant and I bonded over a love of singing and started a band while on the Mammoth Caves trip, although our only song was the Jigglypuff theme from Pokémon. Middle School was a mash-up of awkward moments, starting off on a high note with our first Middle School dance. I was super nervous because I had never been to a dance before, and I didn’t want to embarrass my fifth grade “boyfriend” Will Duncan with my lack of moves. Morgan Levine and I decided we would go to the one we thought knew it all—Grant. Grant took his role very seriously. “First,” he instructed, “you must always have a drink in your hand. Second, just kinda sway your hips from side to side. And every once in a while throw in one of these!” He then succeeded in showing us a full 360o twist without spilling his drink. Never again did I ask him for advice.
From mastering Play-Doh in our two consecutive Kindergarten years, to being my date freshman year at homecoming, to introducing to my Spanish class the riddle “How do you say Grant’s pants in Spanish?”* Grant and I have done it all together, and in 2011 we’ll be done. Next year marks 17 years together, and thanks to a little something we like to call the alphabet, Heinichen and Hesser will be walking down the aisle together at graduation. True lifers. Beat that.
*Grantalones! (Not actual Spanish —ed.)