The first day of preschool is a day most kids don’t remember at all by the time they’re eight. For some reason though, I’ll never forget that day. Although the memories have faded, I can remember leaving the house that morning and getting into my moms van, nervous as any four year old would be. I didn’t want to go to school, I didn’t want to see the other kids, and more importantly, I didn’t want to leave home.

I remember walking through a beat up parking lot, into the back doors of my high school. For some reason the preschool was being held in the high school building this year. I walked through the rotting old school, holding my mom with one hand, and my lunch box with the other. I had passed by a few high schoolers on the way and remember being afraid of one of them falling on me, or not seeing me and tripping over me.

As we approached the room I remember becoming more and more afraid of what was to come. I had never been with so many kids. I didn’t know what to expect besides the stories of big, mean bullies that I had seen on TV. I walked in the room and saw the teacher standing in the back, but quickly made her way to greet us.

“Hello, welcome to preschool, what’s your name?”

I didn’t know what to do, I was so nervous I did what any kid would do and wrapped my arms around my moms leg.

“This is Richard.” My mom replied. “It’s his first day.”

I let go of my moms leg and shook the giant hand that was held out.

“Hi Richard, I’m Ms.Wallus, you’ll fit in just fine with the other kids.”

I looked around the classroom to see all the other kids playing with the toys scattered around the room. When I looked back my mom was gone and I was all alone. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try to play with some of the toys, maybe no one would notice me. I picked up a few legos and started building some form of a house. Within two minutes of me sitting there another kid came over and started playing with the legos as well.

“Hi I’m Devon,” the kid said as he picked up a handful of legos.

“Hi.” I replied nervously. “I’m Richard.”

I wasn’t sure how to react with another kid coming over to me. I imagine I was pretty nervous, but that being twelve years ago, I can’t quite remember. We both sat, playing with legos building houses or race cars, or anything we wanted. We might have a had conversation, but like I said, it’s hard to remember. I do remember that would be the last time I felt nervous around other kids.

This experience from preschool taught me a lot about making friends, and interacting with other kids in general. Being tossed in a room of kids at only four years old helped me better understand how everyone was different. Preschool helped me build a very basic foundation of social interaction that I will use for the rest of my. The lessons you can learn in preschool, although they might not be academic, are some of the most important lessons you can learn. I believe this is something most kids go through in preschool, or kindergarden, to prepare kids for the social world.