Shortly after we graduated from college, Kasie and I moved into a beautiful (haha) house together in Charlotte along with our friends, Becky and Kyle. Kasie was working at SPC, and I was teaching 3rd grade at an elementary school in Mint Hill. I soon found out that the school system sponsored a program called Junior Achievement. This was a program in which a person in the "business world" would come into the classroom once a week for 6 weeks, and teach a business-type lesson to the class. Most teachers would somehow talk one of their classroom parents into taking on this challenge. I immediately went home and asked the roommates if any of them would be interested. Of course Kasie jumped at the opportunity claiming that it would be so much fun, and she couldn’t wait to meet all of my students who I had told her so much about.

Kasie got all of her Junior Achievement information, and brought it home to share with me. She spread everything out on our family room floor and we discussed the best way to keep the attention of 26 hyperactive third graders during her hour-long lesson. She got all of her plans together for her lesson. The next day, she drove from her office in Uptown, all the way to Mint Hill and began her first lesson with my class. I stood up in the front of the room with her to help keep control of the class, but she did most of the lesson herself. In the middle of her presentation, she started to ask questions, and when someone would answer her question correctly, she’d throw a piece of candy to them. Most people would think this was a cute idea. Teachers, on the other hand, know this is insanity. Well, the class quickly turned into mass chaos as the kids were jumping up and down yelling out answers in order to get a piece of candy. I’m sure you can just picture Kasie looking over at me and saying, "Oh my Gaw, that was not a good idea." She was a little sidetracked from the episode, but we quickly settled the kids back down. At the end of the lesson, Kasie decided to hand out candy to everyone. (You know she would never want anyone to be left out!) And I don’t mean she handed each kid a lollipop or two – I mean she gave them a big ol’ handful of snickers, skittles, M-n-M’s, you name it! As for me, I was given the privilege of attending to a classroom full of sugar-high children for the rest of the day.J Needless to say, the children all loved her, and for the next week all I heard was, "When is Miss Kasie coming back?"

Before her next lesson, Kasie spread out all of her stuff on our family room floor again and went over her plans. How awesome was she to give this extra time and effort to my little class all the way across town?!?! Anyway, she said she learned her lesson and would try to keep the class a little calmer next week by waiting until the end of her lesson to hand out the candy. She said she would even tell them to wait until they got home to eat it. (Yeah, right.) The next day she did a great job again, and I was able to sit at my desk and grade papers while she led the class. She was so charming and interesting, as you would expect. Some of the kids even gave her cards and presents saying how much they loved her.

The next week, she came in the classroom and got started as usual. I told her that I needed to run to the front office to make a copy and that I’d be right back. She whispered to me that she didn’t think that was a good idea because she didn’t know if she could handle the kids. I was like, "Of course you can, Kasie! You are doing great and they love you. I’ll only be a minute. They won’t even notice I’m gone." "Alright", she said. "I can handle it." So, I tiptoed out the door of the classroom and walked down to the office. I made the copy I needed and headed back down the hall. I am not lying when I tell you that as I walked toward the third grade hall, I could hear my class yelling from the other side of the building. As I got closer, I thought, "Oh no, she’s going to kill me." I opened up the door and saw an incredible sight. At least 4 kids were standing on top of their desks screaming and yelling. Another group was dancing in the corner. Drew Chapman was doing a split in the middle of the floor. The Graulich twins were giggling as they watched everyone going crazy. And then there was my student, Zach, who was yelling louder than everyone as he screamed for them to be quiet before Miss Biscombe got back. The rest of the class either chatted with their friends or just sat in amazement watching the confusion. The funniest part of all was the look on Kasie’s face. She was so frazzled, her hair was falling down in front of her eyes, she had her arms spread out in front of her trying to get their attention, and she kept saying, "Ok guys, come on now. Guys! Guys! Let’s settle down!" Of course no one could even hear her above the commotion. When she saw me at the door, she looked at me with such a helpless expression on her face. At the same time, we both shrugged our shoulders and started to smile. I broke down laughing and went to her side to help her out. We got them settled back down as Kasie said, "Girl, I told you not to leave me alone with them."

When we both got home that night we could not stop laughing at the spectacle that occurred that day. From that point on, we’d always joke about little Drew Chapman doing a split in the middle of the classroom as Kasie was trying to teach them about the stock market.

I just had to share this story because it was so typical of Kasie and her personality. First of all, she would never tell me no, even though she knew things would go downhill after I left the classroom. Secondly, there is the fact that she did not want to yell at the kids or get anyone upset. And thirdly, I love the fact that she could always laugh at herself. Only a true friend would return to the class for three more lessons with those heathens!!! We all know that we could always count on Kasie.

I put a post on this website a while back listing all of the things that I would miss most about Kasie. I think I miss something different each day, but lately it seems to be her laugh that I am so eager to hear. I cannot wait until the day we meet again. I cannot wait to rehash all of our favorite memories together and just laugh and laugh and laugh. I love you Kasie.
Rachel