“Get out of the car!” my mom yelled as I denied to step out of our small, red Toyota.  Kicking and howling, I refused to lay foot onto the gravel school parking lot, making my mom carry me inside the unknown hallways of my new school.
The first day of kindergarten.
This shouldn’t be so bad, I thought as I accepted my fate and entered the beginning of my educational career. Crying in terror, I didn’t know what to expect.
My tiny hands crunched my mom’s as we approached the classroom. Reaching our destination and looking around, the students had fun as they played with dollhouses and drew pictures. I will never forget meeting my teacher for the first time.  Talking to her about how much fun I’m going to have during the school year made me comfortable enough to say goodbye to my mom and hello to kindergarten.
She greeted everyone with a “hello” and a smile each day we walked through the door. Her spunky personality made me want to learn and to listen to what she had to teach. Her upbeat words were whole-hearted and welcoming.
She provided us with hands-on activities and made learning fun. I remember when she had the kids sit at her round table and she took shaving cream and spread it around. She then proceeded to tell students to draw shapes and letters in the shaving cream. Learning to make hearts, squares, or circles, making everything fun to learn--this was how I learned the basics.
On show and tell days, we brought whatever we wanted from home. I brought in my hamsters. The class was in awe as they surrounded the cage examining what I shared. I then explained why I decided to bring in hamsters to class and why it is so important. Not knowing I was giving a speech in front of the whole class, this is where I learned my speaking skills.
Another memory is where I stole her stuffed animal unicorn. I thought I was sly as I grabbed the pink and blue unicorn and hid it behind my back and put it into my backpack. I was successful and nobody noticed. I took it home and made it my best friend. But one day, I went back to Mrs. Krank’s class and she told the class she had an announcement. She was wondering where her unicorn went. I kept my mouth shut. She wrote all the parents an email and my parents wrote her back saying I showed up at home with her stuffed animal.  I went to school the next day, and she didn’t say a word. Feeling guilty, I told her I had taken it. She said, “I’m not mad at you because you accepted what you did, and you know it was wrong.” From that day forward, I learned what I did was wrong. And I learned that stealing is not a good idea because it can cause you to get into trouble.
Usually people forget their kindergarten classes. But Mrs.Krank had such an impact in my life that it’s impossible to forget the memories shared in her classroom.
Mrs. Krank’s upbeat personality reminded me of Betty White--without the white hair and wrinkles, of course. It was as if she had a dozen cups of coffee everyday, without the jitters. She knew each and every student and treated them as they were her own. She was more than a teacher. She was a friend, a mentor, and the best teacher I have ever had.