Something about the first day of
school makes me nostalgic, as I suppose it does a lot of parents and grandparents.
Because I live across from Lily B. Clayton Elementary Schoo, when Jacob was
still a toddler, we used to sit and watch the kids go to school or leave in the
afternoon. When he was about three, he took good friend Linda by the hand, led
her across the street, and said, “This is where I’m going to go to school.” He
didn’t live in the district but he got to go there because I was the day care
person of record. This year his parents live in my house, and he’s fully legit.
He’s also sad—seems impossible, but
this is his last year at Lily B. Next year he goes to middle school. This morning
he hunkered by the front door and watched people arriving. Then he was off to
school, where his parents took the traditional picture of him standing by the
steps. They have taken that picture every year, in the same spot, and charting
his growth is really interesting.
Today he went off looking spic and
span. Here is what he and his buddies looked like after school when it rained.
As his father keeps telling me, “Boys will be boys.”
Ford, an Austin grandson, went off
wearing a TCU T-shirt. His mom says he wears something TCU almost every day.
They will be up here this weekend so Ford and Jacob can go to “Meet the Frogs.”
Facebook this morning was full of
proud parents’ back-to-school pictures—such fun to see, especially the kids who
are starting kindergarten. They have such a long haul ahead of them, but I don’t
think they see it that way. They see it as a new adventure, and I hope for each
and every one it is that.
It’s a new start for me, too, as I
prepare to move into my cottage this weekend. It’s a new start on a new year
and a new adventure, and it always makes me optimistic
No comments:
Post a Comment