The Last Day of School

As the father of three sparkling-eyed children, I find great joy in observing life through their lenses.  The daily process of three kids, three schools, and three schedules can be most succinctly paraphrased by the Magician in Frosty the Snowman, as “busy, busy, busy.”  I am blessed by sharing the driving of our 9^th-grader to school and waiting for the bus with our 6^th- and 1^st- graders.

Sometime during the month of April, shortly after spring break, one of our annual spring rituals begins, and that ritual is called “the Countdown.”  The first number I remembered this year was 25, which meant “25 days left until summer break.”  “24″ through “10 days left” were somewhat blurred by my early morning fogs.  The next number of note was 9, 9 days left, which meant my ninth-grader “only has to get up and get ready for school one more Monday.”

Over the past few weeks, I asked each child, “What one thing do you look forward to when school gets out?”  The answers that came back were both expected and unexpected – “being able to sleep in, more time to play guitar and my first kiss.”  Freedom and goals!  On other days, I asked each of them, “What will you miss most when the school year ends?”  The depth of these answers really surprised me—“I’ll miss not having my teacher next year, not seeing my friends each week, and it makes me sad to think that some of my friends will change schools and I won’t be able to say goodbye.”

            Summer break, defined by the joy of freedom of schedule and the pain of missed relationships.  I am continually amazed by my kids on how they define their lives and times.  Now our jobs as parents get a little stickier—loosening the rules to allow more freedom while being met with, “But, Mom, its summer!” – And structuring the unstructured, so we can squeeze in hot days at the cool movies, the frothiness of the root beer stand, the red eyes in the pool, sunscreen, roller coasters and the exhilaration of the first jump in the lake!  And, of course, no more pencils…