The Young and Innocent

The first school that I can remember attending is South Colby Elementary in Port Orchard, Washington. This setting comes with many warm memories of my first great social interactions outside my family. It’s hard to piece together the social climate and impacts of a period like this because I was not paying particularly close attention to it when I was there. I can, however, recall several relationships that obviously had huge impacts on my life. My first close friend at this school was Javan Miner, a friendship that started on the first day of kindergarten and lasted for the next four years. Javan was from a local Presbyterian Church so I had the occasional exposure to this tradition. The most I can recollect from these visits is that I was always quite uncomfortable and nervous. It is here that I can begin to see a pattern of pessimism throughout my life with things that I am not familiar with. When I get into a situation that I am not accustomed to, I begin to feel very negative about everything associated with it. This demonstrates the ideals of a pessimistic outlook and belief that situations are relative to different people that I share with the postmodern movement.
There are other instances in South Colby that affected my early faith formation. For instance, in my fourth through sixth grade years I was part of a multiage classroom setting. In the beginning, I was part of the youngest group in the class. I had to learn to be mentored by older kids and work in teams to get projects done. Then, as I grew older I learned that it was my responsibility to teach younger students coming in all that I had learned. This classroom dynamic is a great model of discipleship in Christianity. It helped me understand that I need spiritual leadership to help me grow in my faith. However, it is also imperative that I teach and nurture other new Christians.