Remember By Necolena Wittrock

Remember….By Necolena Wittrock
I remember my heart racing. I remember my palms sweating. I remember the fear of being picked. I remember thinking please don’t pick me.
You may wonder why anyone would be thinking and feeling these emotions?
As I sat in class that day trying to blend into the background. Willing the teacher to pick someone else. I was mortified as she called my name. I had been picked to read out loud.
To many this task would be “no big deal” but as the new kid and the new kid that couldn’t read well this task was an enormous mountain that I didn’t have the right tools to climb.
I remember the words growing think in my throat as I stumbled to read the easy words and I fell over the big ones. Words that flowed like a river from others were evaporating into thin air for me. A thousand eyes staring at me and waiting for me to figure out the words. After what felt like several minutes I heard the teacher say “Thank you, Nikki”. Rebecca will you please finish reading the paragraph. My nightmare because my reality that day.

A tool that most would know how to do by the 4th grade.
But while I sat there wanting to fall into a big hole, my teacher was thinking and plotting a plan to make me successful as a reader.
With the help of my mother, another student, and a couple of wonderful teachers my reading was on the way to improving.
My mom purchased a reading program and my teacher found a willing student to stay after school twice a week and work with