Highest Self-Esteem Ever

One of my students (age 8) came up to me in class today and handed me this note:

On the envelope:

"Je t'aime Anne de la par à Chahrazad mon prénom anglais es KETE"
"[Translation mine] I love you Anne from Chahrazad my English names is [wrong conjugation] KETE [it's actually Kate]*."

On the other side (in case I missed the first one):
"Pour Anne de la par à Chahrazad Tu es trop belle et trop gentilles"
"For Anne from Chahrazad You are too† beatiful and too kind [plural adj]"

On the outside of the note:
"Pour Anne de la par à Chahrazad Je t'aime beaucoup Tu es trop belle Je t'aime tu es trop belle De la par à Chahrazad"
Need I translate? Plus lots of hearts.

The note itself:
"tu es trop belle Anne
Chers Anne
vous êtes trop gentille et trop jolie vous êtes la plus belle englaise que je connaise du monde. tu es trop gentille et tu es parfois rigolote mes dans ton sourire tu es trop belle. et dès que tu es heureuse je suis heureuse. mes dans tes yeux je sais que vous êtes sinsère. Chahrazad"
Translation [ignoring awesome 8-year old spelling]:
"you are too beautiful Anne
Dear Anne
you are too kind and too pretty you are the most beautiful Englishwoman I know in the world. you are too kind and sometimes funny but in your smile you are too beautiful. and as soon as you are happy I am happy. but in your eyes I know that you are sincere. Chahrzad"

So despite (or probably a little bit because of) the numerous mispellings, the repetition, and random changing from the formal to informal "you," not to mention that she thinks I'm English and that I'm probably the only one she knows, this note made me infinitely happy and amused. I am too beautiful and too kind. Who else will ever tell me that?



*This was actually kind of helpful because I don't know any of their real names. They all have fake English names. But she handed the note to me, so I totally knew which one she was.

†Typical French exaggeration. Everything is too good or too delicious, but I like to think it was sincere. Just like my eyes.

You have to promise never to tell anyone...

About Ghostwriter!* (Kudos to my friend The 7th Grade Poet for reminding me that this show existed.)

If you don't know about this show, you were obviously not alive from 1992 to 1995, or maybe your parents just didn't restrict you to public television viewing the way mine did, but I was totally the target audience for this show at ages 7 to 10. Like, I totally believed in Ghostwriter. At the age when most kids were writing Dear Diary, I was writing Dear Ghostwriter, I feel sad. Please find out if Shane likes me? (If I were not in France, I would find my old diary and pull a direct quote, but I swear that is not far off.) Also, I kept a casebook where I would write down evidence (of what? I have no idea, I seemed to think there were potential mysteries to solve) and interview questions, in case I ever found anyone to interrogate. Plus I totally bought one of those pen-on-a-string necklaces that Jamal would give you when he made you promise never to tell anyone about Ghostwriter. Oh, Jamal.

Classic Ghostwriter moment. Jamal was so cool for having that computer!

I think I just felt like I had a lot in common with the Ghostwriter crew. They were growing up in the mean streets of New York in mostly middle-income families, I was growing up in the White Bread suburbs of Vancouver, WA; Gabby and Alejandro had to work really hard in their parents' store, I really wished my parents had a bodega for me to work in; they used a computer that pretty much only displayed large text on the screen, we had a computer for word processing; sometimes Samuel L. Jackson would guest star as Jamal's dad, I have a dad.

Also, there was this one episode where Gabby steals money from the till at her parents' store to buy this coat she wants because her friend tells her she can say there's something wrong with it and get a refund. But it was on sale and there is a sign that says NO REFUNDS ON SALE ITEMS and then she's screwed because she didn't read the sign at first and then she's out fifty (of her parents') bucks. Anyhow, it really reminded me of the time I was in Fred Meyer with my mom (when I was like 5) and I found this broken porcelain animal on the ground (I think it had fallen off the shelf) and I picked it up and took it home. But then I realized that I had stolen it (!) and was so overcome with guilt that the next time we went grocery shopping, I took it back and put it in the same spot on the floor of the same aisle. Gabby and I were pretty much the same person.

If you have as much free time as I do (and you shouldn't), take the time to check out some videos, they're pretty amazing. And then wonder to yourself, who decided to make Ghostwriter look like a floating period with two eyebrows right on top of each other?

*¡Fantasma escritor, en español!