Dear Mrs Hamilton

Hello Teacher.

How are you? I'm sure you don't remember me, or know me at all- but at one stage you did. I was in your grade 0 class, and I wasn't born free.  It's been years, 18 to be exact. While the masses fumble around to calculate my current age, I'll carry on with this letter.

I was one of those kids that didn't attend crèche, nor did I know English so I was basically a child with two problems: social skills and language drama. I don't remember much about being a six year old but I do know I survived it and I'm pretty sure you played a role in it. Thank you.

I don't know how you got me to play with other kids because the best parts of my day are when I'm alone. Thanks for the detailed report cards where you documented everything from my height and weight to my academic and social skills. I haven't grown much in height since then, and I've barely doubled the weight so rest assured it wasn't because I was throwing away my sandwiches at break-time. Puberty has shown that I'm just a small person. Even that stage has passed.

My numeracy skills are still alright but I was a bit confused when I started doing derivatives and integration in second year Math. I've come up though, you'd be kinda proud. Not completely. I can count to much higher numbers than 100, and I've even found out that the square root of a negative number isn't impossible. But that's a letter to Mrs Kloppers.

I'm not being bullied (anymore), in fact sometimes I feel like those roles have been reversed. I am kind to people most of the time when they aren't busy annoying me. I do greet them at the start of the day, I just don't call all of them friends like you taught us to. 

Lastly, my English is so much better, and I know the difference between he and she. Sometimes I slip up but I promise those are just silly mistakes. I went on to learn Afrikaans even, how about that? My twang isn't of nasal congestion standard, but it's pretty decent. There are people that think a twang is directly proportional to someone's IQ so it works out well for me.

I hope this finds you well.

With love,
Ntsako