Preschool was one of those times in my life where I learned a lot of the simple lessons that I base my life around. My preschool was a small one with around 7 students and only two boys including myself. There we went on trips outdoors and I started to love going on adventures. Usually people do not remember much from the early years of their lives but I have a clear memory of one particular moment, learning to spell my name.

We used to have periods of time everyday devoted to being shown letters in hopes that we could identify them by the time we are in kindergarten. They specifically focused on the letters within our names so that we could be most familiar with them. I used to sit, pencil in hand with lined paper in front of me staring in confusion. Back then, the letters I see clearly now looked like a bunch of lines and shapes with no meaning to me. The thought of being able to comprehend them all seemed out of my abilities at the time and looking back now I am amazed that I was even able to learn the English language.

My name, compared to the average amount of letters in a name, is somewhat long. “William Charles Prescott” I would write and repeat over and over but everytime I seemed to think I got it right it was always wrong. I remember my mom telling me a few years ago that it took me a very long time in comparison to my other preschool peers. I used to have to stay inside while other students went out because for some odd reason, spelling my name was an achievement that I was not able to grasp. Attempts to spell it most likely included “Wiiliam Precott” or some other way with unnecessary repeat letters or letters which are in the incorrect spot. Of course at this time I was not aware that I was behind in this skillset, but eventually I became overwhelmed and upset with the fact that they made me write this over and over again when I just could not grasp it. Finally, one day, my teacher decided to sit me down alone and take a different approach to teaching me how to spell. She wrote each individual letter down and made a story like situation with the letters of my name in hopes that this method would stick better in my head. Eventually I had this “story” memorized.

After that lesson I remember having no trouble spelling my name, and I also remember using the method myself as I grew up taking spelling tests. This method helped me out a lot growing up learning basic grammar and even today I find myself using acronyms and short stories to remember patterns such as things I learned in EMT School.

My favorite memory about this time period was when my mother picked me up and I was so ecstatic to tell her about the achievement. At a time like this, little achievements meant so much that to me it was an impressive feat. I told my whole family how I could spell my name and even used to like to show it off like it was an ability that no one else had. Little did I know that everyone I showed it to could easily had wrote my name in their sleep. Despite that they all congratulated me and made me feel like I did something monumental.