Bully me, please.

Primary School

Oh boy. This is a big one.
I've always had the feeling most of my trauma came from these 8 years of my life.
My most formative years!
I feel like just bursting into tears thinking about all the things I'll have to remember for this section.

I saw a tweet recently that said "'but it made you stronger.' I was a child. I didn't need to be stronger, I needed to be safe." (@yourginganinja) Please, nothing is more true than this statement right here.

Let's all take a moment to note that the school I attended was a private all-girls school. Meaning my parents had to pay a lot of money for the teachers and students to dish out this vile behaviour.
The first year of school was called grade naught. It was from the ages of five to six, and it was mainly just playing about. No school uniform required, and lots of arts and crafts.
Unsurprisingly, I don't remember much from this year.
Barr two instances.
One is when my mom was late (a recurring theme perhaps?) and I was waiting, crying, on the steps of the classroom.
And the second was when my two friends left me at the sandbox and said "we don't want to play with you today!" There were three of us, me, Phoebe and Rachel. Phoebe was the center of our triangle, and for some reason, only either Rachel or I could play with her for the day. Never all three of us together. Kids are so weird.

Grade 1

It was the first year we had to wear school uniforms. I still have nightmares about these but at the time it felt like we were all such grown-ups with our fancy pinafores!
Surprisingly, no memories of my mum being late this year. Perhaps she changed jobs, I can't remember.
This year the trauma began with the teachers. See it was an all-girls school but only become an all-girls school a couple of years prior to my arrival. Therefore a few boys had remained to finish their year before they left. This was not a problem for anyone except the fools who ran this school. I promise you, you're not ready for what I'm about to say, so take a comfy seat, and deep breath.
We had school underwear.
Yep, not kidding. We could only wear dark blue briefs. But it gets even worse, bordering on offense. The teachers used to conduct "panty checks" to check if we were wearing the correct underwear.
They claimed it was so the boys had nothing to peak at when we were playing on the jungle gym. Yes ok, and the reason for the criminal offense of checking children's underwear is???
Yeah not sure how to carry on after that bombshell so I'll just end there.

Grade 2

Far fewer panty checks.
However, the swimming teacher was a right witch and if you forgot your (school-approved) swimming attire she would make you swim in your (school-approved) underwear.
She would also carry a thermometer with her at all times, and if the water was 15 degrees or above in the pool, she would make us swim.
Thankfully, I never had to swim in my underwear, but I did witness another girl get this punishment. That was horrific enough.
I seem to recall grade 2 being the best of all the years. Not that any of the years were "good", due to the prison wardens parading as teachers. However this year I was one of the top students in my class, and often remember racing this other girl to see who could finish our sums quicker. That was a great time.
I was also introduced to silkworms. I was especially intrigued when one of my classmates put one on her tongue. That was what persuaded me to get a shoebox full of them and take care of them. I did not put one on my tongue, though. Like a normal person, I fed them, cleaned their box, watched as they spun their little cocoons, and then as they hatched as these ugly fat moths... fat moths that I loved. And then, they would stick their butts together and, voila! More silkworm eggs. Pretty cool until the grade twos as a whole collectively decided they were no longer fashionable and decided to give up that lucrative venture. 

That year my parents let me go to a two-night drama camp. It was hosted in someone's house, and we each had our own bed, we just had to take sleeping bags. I remember having so much fun, and I won a prize for being the best at something. I can't remember what, but trust me, I was the best.