Congratulations on 46 years of Sesame Street! The first show debuted on this day in 1969. Crazy, right? You appeared in the cute, furry blue form that we recognize now by the second season in 1970.I’ve been a fan for a very long time.
While I know you must hear that all the time, I can prove it.
My mom purchased the book Grover Goes to School by Dan Elliott and illustrated by Norman Chartier when I started first grade. I still have that book, and you can see that it is copyright 1982.
What you cannot see is that my mom passed it along to me when I became a mom. You cannot see that I’ve read it to my daughter every year on the night before the first day of school. You cannot see that this year, shortly after she became a teenager, that I didn’t offer to read the book. When I told her good night the day before school started in August, her face became cloudy.
“But we haven’t read Grover yet,” she said.
And so we opened the pages, and re-learned lessons about friendship and confidence that we’ve been learning from you annually, including
- things and possessions are not a good basis for a friendship;
- friendship is a two-way street;
- it is okay to say “no”;
- moms give great advice; and
- the best of which here is “Just be yourself . . . You are very lovable.”
Important stuff.
When I got to travel to Beaches Resorts in Turks and Caicos last month for Social Media on the Sand conference, I packed Grover Goes to School because I knew that you and the other Sesame Street characters hang out there. (If Grover Goes to a Blog Conference was available, I would’ve packed that, too) I was hoping to get a photo of you with the book, and as you can see above, the mission was accomplished.
But then you went a step beyond and signed the book.
That made me a teensy bit excited, as you perhaps could tell. One similarity between us is that we wear our feelings on our sleeves and you never really wonder how we’re feeling.
Given that face, it may not surprise you that I believe your unbridled enthusiasm has always been one of your best features.
There are lots of other features of yours that I love, too. I appreciate that you don’t use contractions when you speak. Not only does it make your speech distinctive and fun, I think it’s emblematic of how you’re not looking for the shorter or easier way out. You try hard to do things right, and I respect that quality, in both people and monsters.
I love how eager you are and that you seem to have true appreciation for the little things on Sesame Street. You always aim high. You were the only character on Sesame Street to try to fly, as Super Grover. I love that despite being a fairly anxious character, you never let that hold you back from trying to be your best, and trying your best.
Sometimes aiming high means that you crash. You prove that crashing is okay, and that what matters is that you pick yourself up and dust yourself off each time. I might appreciate that lesson now that I’m older and have had my fair share of crash landings, but it’s so important for our kids to know this early on.
So thanks for years of smiles and inspiration, my cute, fuzzy blue friend. You are pretty lovable.
Love you,
Shannan
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