The Last Back To School Day
It’s all over Facebook and social media. It’s the first day of school. There are tears from moms and my favorite – the mom in the pool with a glass of wine as her children head off to school. My friends and I always celebrated the first day of school by meeting for a fun breakfast. I miss that.
I miss the excitement of buying school supplies and new shoes I miss the first-day-of-school picture with our Golden Retriever, Reagan. She was in 14 of those pictures. I even miss the Open Houses where it always rained and we got soaked. I miss my boys being little but I miss them being in high school too (well, maybe just this first day of school. . . . ) We still laugh over middle boy’s question when we told him he would be taking his younger brother with him in his truck to high school. He asked simply, “All the way?”.
We have had someone starting school in the fall for the last 25 years. Yup, every year for 25 years. I’m including it all – grade school, middle school, high school, college and law/graduate school. This year is the last time that will happen. Our youngest will begin his third and final year of law school.
It’s different now. First of all, he’s not little. Not even close. There’s no clothes shopping or trips to Office Depot to buy school supplies. My son no longer needs me to accompany him to buy a new pair of shoes for the school year. There will be no picture of him leaving for his first class of the school year unless I specifically request it and he chooses to humor me. It could happen, but I can’t count on it. I’m no longer in control. Also not even close.
So it’s time to change that first day of school ritual. This year will be about donating school supplies to children who may need them. Publix has an existing program for those of you not close to a school. You simply add money to your grocery total and Publix takes care of the rest. It’s a little bit more fun to actually buy supplies and deliver them, so think about that too. There are supply lists available at most local stores that sell school supplies and any teacher would be thrilled to receive additional supplies.
One day I’ll have grandchildren and I will hopefully share their first-day-of-school anticipation. I will offer to take them clothes shopping and we will have summer fun together.
Today I will enjoy your posts and watch your babies grow up too quickly. I will tell you to soak it all up because it really does go amazingly fast. Maybe I will even ask my law school boy for a last first-day-of-school picture.
And I will continue to enjoy summer.
