1st Day of School

The first day of school. Today was the day we welcomed all the students back to an extremely over-crowded campus. We waited in traffic, fought for parking spaces, dodged in and out of stopped cars as daring pedestrians... Ah yes, summer is over and the new school year has begun.

And even as I drove to "school" for the start of a new semester, a new academic year, I must have passed at least 3 families waiting at bus stops. The first, our neighbors. Mom had the camera ready. Dad was standing watch. Baby boy was unaware of the nostaligia as his big brother waited for the bus to take him to his first day of first grade. And of course, big sister - was waiting for her first full day of kindergarten. It was a lovely sight.

Another mother sat - yes, sat - in a lawn chair perched in the driveway with her little one on her lap. It was their last few moments that she was clinging to her "baby" before she loaded on the giant yellow bus.

Still another dad waited outside with his son, They looked to be playing a game of sorts, although I was in too much of a rush to tell what.

And then it hit me - in four years that will be me at the bus stop with my little man - my "baby." I will be the one with the camera. Ed will be the one psyching him up for school.

Believe me, I am not wishing for it AT ALL. I even told Ed in four years we're going to say "where did the time go?" But I am also all the more aware of how quickly time passes.

Soon we'll be looking into preschools then we'll have the great debate of private schools vs. public schools (you all know me better than to think I'm going to home school). I'm so thankful today, the first day of school, wasn't really the first day of school.