First The

Describe a "first day" in your life.

The first day I read "the".

Mom sat with me at the little yellow table in the kitchen, the table that had one leg that kinda buckled under if you hit it too hard. She had a little colorful book, about five or six pages long, and pointed to the little box that showed where the new words would be introduced.
"What does this word say?" she asked. "Can you sound it out?"
As I looked at the word, I remember having the suspicion that this was a trick question. Things, I thought to myself, I probably not what they appear to be.
But I gave it a try, nonetheless. "Tuh- huh - ehh!" I pronounced.
Then she revealed to me that it actually said "THE".

I remember this moment distinctly.