early memories of plain yogurt

{photo via}

i remember this vividly.
reminiscing,
whether it's my life or another person's,
is one of the greatest things to do with your time.

childhood memories, stories, loves...
they give a lot of insight about a person.
there you are in your purest form,
acting and reacting in virtually the same world, on the same planet you exist now.
i never want to forget these things,
so it's best to pin them down onto this little corner of the internet that i call my own.
just in case.

when i was 5 years old
and in kindergarten,
we began exploring the art of taking data, surveys, and graphs.
in a very simple way, mind you.

my teacher, mrs. riggle,
brought three different types of yogurt:
strawberry, vanilla, and plain.

she introduced each flavor,
noting that she had acquired the strawberry yogurt from her sister's farm,
the vanilla from the grocery store,
and had made the plain yogurt herself.

she passed out tiny cups of each flavor for us to try.
strawberry was good.
vanilla was good.
plain was a.w.f.u.l.

we were each given a piece of paper
and told to mark which flavors we liked,
and which we didn't.

i most definitely did not like the plain yogurt,
but mrs. riggle had made it herself,
and i couldn't hurt her feelings.

she led us in tallying up our findings,
stopping on my paper.
she looked up and asked me directly,
"miss ayley, did you really like the plain yogurt?"

of course, i hesitated.
i was caught.
she knew.
i had to play it off.

"yes, mrs. riggle. you did a good job making it."

she chuckled and put a tally mark on the board,
the only "yes" tally mark under "plain yogurt" for the day.

later,
before we headed to the library,
she pulled me behind the rest of the group
and gave me a quick hug.
"you're a sweet little girl," she said.

i remember feeling a slight sinking feeling,
knowing that she could see right through me,
yet feeling comforted that she knew.
i didn't need to try to be altruistic by lying to her about something so trivial.
she released the hug,
and grabbed my hand.

as we walked,
she giggled again,
"no one in their right mind would have liked that icky, bitter yogurt, ayley.