The unofficial end of summer has passed, but someone forgot to remind Mother Nature. Sometimes, she works off her own schedule. I can tell the season has changed by the myriad of the new standard. Junior’s off to school so a photo op created on Facebook has become all the rage. My newsfeed is literally littered with offspring set for the Fall ritual. Me? I have decided to give my blog another try after a lengthy hiatus. Why? Maybe I just want to document the passage of time much like these perennial portrait parents.
But what shall be the subject of the scribe? The calendar may have changed...yet many things remain the same. This is in direct contrast to the parentally posed youngsters off to education. A year in grade school can be a microcosm of a lifetime. When I was younger it would start in late summer, when you found out who your teacher for the upcoming year would be. You would call on your neighborhood friends, hopeful that many of them would be in the same class. Little did you know that something so small and subtle, would define relationships for years to come. Almost like a birth announcement, you would proclaim...I am having Miss “So and So” this year. Then like choosing sides for kickball, your friends would divulge their destinations. Unlike today, I don’t think anyone ever questioned their fate or requested a change. You got who you got...without choice.
The first day of school, as much as the disappointment of summer’s end still loomed over you, was an experience. You knew the teacher’s rep from older siblings, your’s or your friend’s...so you had an idea what to expect. In the mornings we would gather in the playground before class and the first day would be no different. When the whistle sounded, we would line up by grade. Each year you would move up in the pecking order. The youngest would enter the building first, the oldest would be granted the longest reprieve. Upon entering your new classroom you might have assigned seats, or it became a one time musical chair event as you scampered to cluster near your friends. This was it, your home for the next 10 months. There was no longer period of time in a child’s life than the school year.
The time would pass though. Like a rung on a ladder this was just the next step to take...but it seemed like a lifetime. During this time you would grow - both figuratively and literally. Almost like being on an assembly line, parts would be added to you to create the person you would become. Of course, each child would do with these parts what they wished. During the year divergent individuals would emerge. The brains and the bullies, the academias and athletes, the social ones and the shy ones...and the smelly kid. Every class would have them. While school itself was not responsible for where your destiny lies, it is where it came to the forefront. Good luck shaking a title once you were anointed...whether warranted or not.
This yearly routine would continue until you were off to Jr High or High School. There, multiple grade schools would funnel in their finest. Now, once again, you would be sorted...but grade school never prepared you for this. However, you would learn to adapt...
Kids have been doing it for years.
