Transfer Student

Little Wrecker

I was simply a monster back in daycare. The staff could barely hold me, and I could barely hold myself. I was a little kid, running through the hallways of Daycare Sunshine, knocking other kids' blocks over, taking other's toys, and just overall being a nuisance. But the funny thing was, instead of crying and thrashing about, everybody was laughing. After all, how could you take a little kid serious when they've got a "I RULE THE WORLD" hat on their head? Especially since the hat was too big for said kid.

Yep. That was me. Little Cody Zimmerman, pleased to meet you.

My mother had no idea of my mishaps and just the whole general "evil little kid" mentality that I had back then. I guess it's because I was capable of putting on a show that would have everybody crying tears of laughter.

I was a nuisance, but I was a welcome, most entertaining nuisance.

It wasn't until one time that I knocked over a kid's toy brick structure. For an instant, all you saw were the different colored blocks, flying away as if they were simply pieces of plastic in the wind. Some blocks hit other kids, one or two even managed to hit me somehow. Once the debris settled, all was silent for a couple of minutes. Blocks laid all around in a random fashion, some had managed to even find themselves on a nearby bookshelf.

It was, all in all, my most impressive moment in destroying something.

And then, the laughs came, one by one, as other kids began to notice where the blocks had ended up. Some landed perfectly on top of a few heads, some had completely knocked over other structures that were made out of toy trucks.

After a minute or so of laughter, one of the staff volunteers began to pick me up. "Alright, you little wrecker," she said, barely holding in a laugh. "Your mommy is here to take you home now."

She made sure to readjust the hat that was too big for my head so that it wouldn't fall so easily. The volunteer began explaining to my mother just why all of the other kids were laughing, and why it was that little me was beaming with the most proudest face that a little kid could possibly. My mother smirked, as she usually did.

"Little wrecker, huh?" She said to me on our walk home. "So that's the name you'll keep, is it?" This was followed by a soft chuckle.
She wasn't wrong. The name stuck with me the entire year I was there.

In fact, it was even how they knew me when my mother announced that we would be moving away to New Jersey for a business opportunity. Banners with scribbles that read, "GOODBYE, LITTLE WRECKER!" were seemingly everywhere. For the last time I knocked over a toy structure that was made specifically for me. Everybody cheered the same way that someone would at a birthday party when all the candle lights are all blown out.

Those were the best of times.

So, you can imagine me, coming back here a few years later when I'm just about to begin sixth grade, passing a nostalgic glance at the Daycare Sunshine building as I was walking home, a huge grin growing on my face.

I was the little wrecker. I would always be the little wrecker. And the name would be something that I would be proud to have applied to me, like a tattoo, or a warrior's battle scar.