A New School Year

Their backpacks are packed and sitting by the door. One is filled with colored pencils, a sketch book, a composition book, a toy for the class cockatiel and a flash drive. The other has nothing more than a pair of slippers and a change of clothes. Both have lunch boxes, each packed last night with the help of its owner. The kids are still tucked in bed as the rain falls and the wind blows and I sit here on the couch with a cup of coffee, waiting. In a way, we are all waiting, waiting to see what the year will hold. As parents, we expect challenges but hope for triumphs. The kids hope they can do what is expected of them but, more than anything, they hope for friends in their classrooms and people to play with at recess. We all wait to see what will happen. As a kid, I always loved the first day of school. I would sit and stare at my school supplies - the clean pages of the notebooks, the unsharpened pencils, the markers/crayons/colored pencils fresh and full of color - and see the potential. I would sit and ponder the words that I might write, the art I might create and I could barely contain my excitement. Last night, as I helped Miguel pack his backpack, I shared this memory with him and added without thinking, "...but I was nerdy that way". He said, "What's nerdy about that?"

And now...it's time to wake them and begin...