The First Day of School

The First Day of School

It seems like I just blogged about the “Last Day of School,” and here I am writing about the first day of school. I call this phenomenon the “Acceleration of Time,” as I age it seems as though the days, weeks, months and years are all getting shorter. About 2 weeks ago I peeked in at my son in his room. “I’m bored,” he declared. I tried not so smile, sneer or laugh as I looked at him in front of his computer, guitar and amp, IPod, DS, Guitar Hero and PlayStation. I tried not to smile, sneer or laugh. I was just about to preach to him about when I was his age I had this new game called “Pong,” but decided to save my sermon for something more redeeming. “Good thing school is starting in a week,” I stated as I turned and left.

In review, my kids’ goals this summer as stated in the “Last Day of School” were to sleep, play guitar and get his “first kiss.” They slept, most definitely. They played guitar, can’t tell you how many trips we made to the guitar string store. And rumor has it that he got his first kiss about a month ago, though the time, place and recipient are all unknown.
So keeping with tradition, I asked all of them individually what they most look forward to at the first day of school. Once again, the answers surprised me—meeting my new teacher, reconnecting with my friends and “the Hugs.” And sure enough she loves her new teacher, he has reconnected with his friends for every available moment, and my wife swears the other was smothered by a harem of huggers.

The last two weeks have been filled with shopping for new school clothes and supplies and filling up the calendar with all the new activities—jazz band, church youth gatherings, flag football, piano lessons, girl scouts, FFA meetings and dance class. Can’t you just feel the accelerator pressing down?