YMCA Operation Backpack Success Stories

No child should start a school day like this. Just a simple backpack full of supplies can make a child feel like they are prepared and ready to take on anything for a day at school. I know from personal experience that it would have made a difference for me that day and the rest of that school year.

Years ago I had a "First Day at School' experience. We had just moved to a new rural town.

 

I was a very small, quiet, polite child but on this day I spoke words of pain I still remember.

It was the middle of the school year but it is just the same for any child starting a new school or the first day of school "without".

I was in the 4th grade. I walked into the classroom and right away, I knew.

Everyone had their school supplies on their desk, I had one notebook and a pencil, we had been told it was all I would need for the first day,

Throughout the whole day, I had to sit next to someone in order to share their things, this was very hard, I couldn't focus.

Although everyone was nice and polite, I felt everyone had their own ideas why I came to school "empty handed".

I felt so embarrassed... ashamed. I was angry at my parents, angry at the new school but most of all angry at a situation that I, being a child, had no control over.

At the end of the day as we lined up for the bus ride home, the teacher came to me in line and handed me a list of the supplies I needed for the rest of the year and asked me how was my first day. I responded back- totally unlike me, but from all the hurt and embarrassment a 9 year old can feel holding back tears, I blurted out- "This is the worst day in my life"

 

Again I say, No child should start a school day like this, Just a simple backpack full of supplies can make a child feel like they are prepared and ready to take on anything for a day at school