Towards the end of the summer last year, I completed my first ever novel and published it independently (yay me!). Making something that you created relevant is hard!
My mom is a teacher at a French immersion elementary school and the principal there happens to be my eighth-grade French teacher. She was one of my favourite teachers! She had informed my mom that, if I was willing, I would be invited to their reading event called Read, Rock and Roll, which is basically a reading marathon that progresses for the entirety of the school day. She wanted me to come by and present my story to some of the classes, and I was thrilled when I received the news!
On the day of the event, when I arrived at the school, I met up with my old French teacher in the secretary’s office, where we shared a hug. It was so good to see her again, considering I hadn’t seen her since the eighth grade! She expressed how proud she was of me and had even asked for two copies of my book for the school’s library, which I was more than happy to provide. I also met a few of the teachers who worked with my mom, and they were very excited to meet me. My mom appears to be some kind of a legend there! Those are standards that are difficult to live up to, but I think I managed it! Afterward, I was taken to the first class I would be presenting to, which was one of the third-grade classes.
It was riveting to share my experience as a writer and the obstacles I had to overcome to complete my story. Their questions were really lovely and insightful (although one of them asked me if I was married which I thought was funny). They knew who my mother was too and asked me a little bit about life with her. After about fifteen minutes of talking about myself and my shameless self-promotion, I read a little bit of my story to the classes.
The first two classes I read to were a third and fifth-grade class. The last class I read to actually happened to be my mom’s third-grade class! Apparently, she talks about me a lot, and long story short, her class became my little fan club! As soon as I entered and said hello, several of my mom’s students jumped up and crushed me into giant hugs. Their hugs were so tight, I probably dropped a lung. But man, was it ever adorable! I mean, they hugged the daylights out of me! One of the girls had even told me that she asked her mom to buy my book as a Christmas gift. I wanted to cry; I was so touched!
I received such an enthusiastic response when I read to them. I felt like they hung on to my every word. After it was time for me to wrap things up, the class approached me once again and handed me scraps of paper for me to sign! Then came another round of bone-shattering hugs! Hey, what can I say? I didn’t choose the celebrity life – the celebrity life chose me!
Okay, enough showing off. After I left the class, I was taken to the library where I donated two copies of my story. The principal met up with me there and gave me another sweet hug. We took photos to post on the school’s Twitter page. Then, I had to say my goodbyes because unfortunately, I still had a class to attend that day. But I left the school with the biggest smile on my face.
A reading event for an elementary school does not sound like the most exciting experience. But for me, it was amazing. It was the first time I was given the opportunity to brag a little bit about myself, and the first time I was allowed to share a piece of my heart with a group of awesome kids. I loved every second of it and I would love to do it again! I mean, think about how many more hugs I’ll get out of it!