Jessica the Great

While I'm on break, I've been trying to sort through some pictures and organize some albums -- needless to say, I haven't really gotten very far; however, I was reminded of a token from my childhood that I thought you guys might appreciate: my biography. As written by Virginia Ammons when I was in first grade and she was in fifth.

See, for a couple of early elementary years, I lived with my grandparents on their farm in CO, and I attended a one-room schoolhouse; seriously. There were just two of us in the first grade: me and Lucas-Mucus (having to always partner up with that snotty -- literal boogers -- kid bugged me more than I can express; I hated having to stare at that slime-covered upper-lip of his); my mom credits my experience in that school with much of my later accelerated learning; Cherry Valley worked in a unique way since there were so few students (30 total: grades kindergarten through fifth), and essentially, students worked at different grade levels for different subjects, depending on individual skill (kinda like a Montessori). So, I was good at English and worked at the fifth grade level with them, but I sucked at math, so I worked with Lucas-Mucus on that.

So, as a fifth grade project, we wrote biographies of one another and Virginia had me: "Jessica the Great."
Here we are, partnered up, and I, of course, am the small, dark one. This photo was glued on the inside jacket of the spiral bound book that was all about me and my favorite things. Fav movie? "Journey of Natty Gann." Fav TV show? "Cosby Show." Etc. So, as you can see on page 19 below, my "favorite thing in life" was that I ran "fast."

Personally, I love the illustration -- it DOES demonstrate speed, doesn't it?

I think about this little book from time to time, and especially this page, and when I'm running, I try to picture my knees moving back and forth with the sort of speed illustrated by Virginia Ammons -- my pony tail flapping in the wake of my speed. I certainly no longer think of myself as fast, but 23 years after this book was bound together, running is still one of my favorite things in life.

Where Virginia chose the title from, I have no idea, but it has stuck over the years, and I have always thought of myself as "Jessica the Great" (running is partially what makes me "great," but the "greatness" is really a general attitude); I hope everyone else thinks of themselves in similiar terms: We all should be our first name + "the" + a chosen adjective of significance. What's yours?