I THINK I'M GONNA THROW UP!

(Surviving your First Crush on a Teacher) Friday’s were the only days I didn’t have Mr. Long's class and I was so happy that I’d often throw up. What was happening to me…I didn’t like 6th grade and I sure didn’t like having my first man teacher. I mean he was cute and had played football at a well-known college and all the girls liked him, but I felt funny around him. Maybe I really did have a crush on him. But I didn’t want to!

"Lydia, O Lydia,
O do you know Lydia?
O Lydia the tattooed lady!”

Wait a minute…wrong Lydia! That Lydia is from a crazy 1930s song that sometimes gets stuck in my head. No, the Lydia I want to introduce you to is our sister found in Acts 16:13-15.

Sister Lydia was an awesome woman! Intelligent, hard working, inquisitive, resourceful and sincere; she was a leader among her family, community, and eventually church.

As if fifth grade wasn’t hard enough with all the work we got, at recess it seemed like I was always the last one chosen to play kick-ball. I wasn’t the best but I was better than Shelly and she always got picked first just because she was popular!

Shelly wore nice clothes that she bought at really expensive stores, and her mom would take her to get hair cut at salon that was high priced, plus she’d get manicures and pedicures. I did my own toes and nails, and saved money to buy my own nail polish. Life just didn’t seem fair.

Jessie hunched over her peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a scowl. She tore off a chunk of crust and shoved it into her mouth, although she wasn’t hungry. In fact, she’d be fine if the lunch hour bell rang. Then she wouldn’t have to watch Lizzie chum it up with her new friends. Not that she cared. Nope. Their friendship was done. Finished. For good.

“Mind if I sit here?” Gail, a girl from her soccer team, motioned to an empty space at the cafeteria table.