The hardest Winter by Nikki

The hardest Winter by Nikki - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

Being what I consider, a twenty-five year old well-rounded college student, looking back at my life, I now smirk at the bold know-it-all girl I have always been. When I say “know-it-all,” I do truly mean it. I jokingly told my father about two months ago that after the millionth time of telling me to pick up my wet towel or put my seat belt on, I finally get why these things that were not important to me then, were actually important life lessons; Not only for the actual lesson, but also the concealed knowledge behind it. Looking back now, I think some of the greatest lessons I ever learned were the ones I didn’t even know I was being taught.
When I was in fourth grade I had a teacher who, to say the least, was a lot more colorful than any teacher I had ever had. She had true warmth that surrounded her in everything she did. The kind of warmth that you know you could talk to them about anything and they would truly care. She was quirky and had her own special way of doing the simplest of tasks. We sang songs about multiplication, pronouns, and Dewey Decimal System. Nothing was ever normal with her, and yet, it was so completely comforting at the same time.
About half way through my fourth grade year we started our Thanksgiving project. To some this is probably reading stories and coloring in pages of Thanksgiving dinner, but to this one special educator it meant dressing up, learning each job of the time, and role playing like we were really pilgrims. I landed the prestigious role of the homemaker who prepared the food storage for the hard winter months, while my comrades enjoyed roles like Christopher Columbus, preparing the first meal, and meeting the native Indians. To say the least, my feelings were a bit hurt by my terrible role, since after all; this know-it-all girl knew I was the teacher’s favorite student.
I can honestly say I am not proud of the way I acted in the weeks leading up to our big performance. I did not do the proper research or study at all about my very important role. My teacher took special notice at one point, letting me know that sometimes the smallest roles are the most important. I knew she was trying to cover up giving me a bad role, so I smiled and kept doing the bare minimum work on our project. Two days before Thanksgiving break, my teacher asked me again if I was ready to give my presentation. I, of course, sheepishly smiled and reassured her I was a top student so of course I was ready.
The day of our presentations I put on my pilgrim’s best that my mother stitched together from a mixture of goodwill finds and an old sweater of my grandmother’s. I marched in to school to see all the kids dressed up in their fancy costumes while I went over to my mediocre food display. One-by-one we each gave our presentations about the importance of our roles. I went over how the pilgrims learned to store their food from the Indians, items they typically ate, and who was typically responsible for this. As I was about to sit down my teacher asked me how the pilgrims made it through the first winter without the Indians. I paused for a moment thinking this was a trick question because everyone knows the pilgrims met the Indians when we first stepped on land. Sure of myself again, I provided my teacher with this answer.
The classroom busted out laughing. Apparently it had been one of our key lessons that the way the story is portrayed was not at all correct. The pilgrims made it to land, but they had to endure one of the hardest winters they had ever seen before they met the Indians. The only reason the Pilgrims made it through that first winter was because of the women in charge of food storage. If not for them, the men, woman, and children would have starved, and there would be no Christopher Columbus, the first feast, or the meeting of the Indians.
Looking back now, I think she knew that the little girl sitting in her class pouting about her role in a fun presentation needed to touch base with reality. I was a know-it-all and I did get brought back down to earth, but now I see that she taught me so much more than that. It was a lesson that I will carry with me through the tests of time. No matter how small your role is in this world, we are all an important part of our communities and without each other sometimes, we couldn’t make it through the winter either.