Trendsetter?

Today I'm wearing a pair of silver ballet flats that I purchased to wear for my brother's wedding, actually they're the shoes that go with the dress I'm wearing in my profile picture, when I remembered a good story from school last year. I wore my silver shoes to school this past spring and one of the eighth grade girls for whom I interpret was very impressed with them. She asked me where I bought them, a Cato store, which they don't have around here, I actually bought them in Maryland, but I told her it was a store like Deb or Fashion Bug, which they do have around here. I didn't think much about it, until two days later when this girl came to school wearing silver ballet flats quite similar to my own. She, being in middle school, and thus more fashion-conscious than her dorky interpreter, choose to accessorize with a super-wide silver belt and bangly jewelry. I prefer a more understated look, but I'm an interpreter.

This experience in turn, reminds me of the time I worked in a first grade class, right after I graduated. I finished up the school year working for a local elementary school. There was a hard of hearing boy there whose parents and teachers wanted to try interpreting services to see if that would improve his learning. It did because they wanted to hire me for the following school year, but I ended up going to the district where I now work because they paid much better and I wasn't the only interpreter in the district, like I would have been with this little boy.

Anyway, I was in a first grade classroom for the first time ever (well, ever since I myself was in first grade); up to that point all of my interpreting experience had been at the high school and university level. The youngest students I ever observed for practicums had been fifth grade and my sixteen-week student interpreting had been at the high school level. I was pretty unprepared for how impressionable the little kiddies were. The first day I went to interpret in this first grade classroom, I wore a skirt. The second day I went to school, I noticed that well over half the little girls in this class came to school wearing dresses and skirts; none of them had been wearing a skirt the previous day. I still smile when I think about those kids copying me.