Looking back, I gaze at my innocent thoughts of the things that troubled my mind that, at the time, seemed like mountains. Why was reciting poems on national holiday festivities such a demanding task for me?
1. To learn the poem by heart.
2. To recite the poem in front of an audience.
3. To say the words with half a breath, swallow the punctuation marks, and at raise my voice near the end in order to show my patriotic enthusiasm…my breath was not enough!
4. To share the poem with a boy. My head was turned directly away from the boy so I couldn’t see him, not even out of the corner of my eye. In one hand I held the flag, in the other my blue corduroy skirt that I turned and twisted with my fingers, hiding my anxiety.
Come to think of it, it was not a simple task for all us little ones to revive our patriotic anthems with courage!
