Rose Sayah

It's the first day of school of fourth grade, and I am standing out in the playground, hot in my Catholic school uniform, nervous with all the other kids, because we're waiting to find out who our nun is gonna be as our teacher next year.

Mother Superior comes out on the front steps in her long black habit, blows a silver whistle.

We all come to attention, and grade by grade,

We're called up to the front.

A nun meets us, walked inside the school.

This is really nerve-wracking because nuns were people to be feared.

And at that point, I was just hoping I got one that smiled and not one that threw erasers or hit kids with rulers.

And when my grade got called up to the front, I heard a boy shout, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, she has legs.

And sure enough, standing in the front, there was not a nun, but there was a woman in a flower dress with her hair styled and, yes, stockings on.

And as we walked into the school, you could hear her high heels clicking on the floor.

She went up to the class.

chalkboard while we were sitting down to write her name in perfect Palmer penmanship.

She turned around and one of the boys actually fell off of his chair and swooned and said, Miss Egan, I'm in love.

And she turned to him and I held my breath.

All the kids were holding their breaths because we thought she was going to hit him.

And instead, she put a book down in front of him and said, well, I hope you like reading because that's what I want you to love.

So Miss Egan was really enthusiastic and loved teaching.

That was clear from the very beginning.

She once taught us about energy by pretending to be a windmill.

And she let us make paper mache volcanoes where baking soda lava came out.