First Day
The sun isn't up yet; the bus arrives 15 minutes before the sun--which we wouldn't see even then given the torrential rain. But girly's working the look in the mirror. Last night she emptied her dresser drawers--tried on everything, handed me everything that felt a little snug. (Coming your way, Kiran! Make room!) And she made five piles of clothes she likes, and put five sticky notes on them: Monday, Tuesday... Mad frenzy this morning because the perky little First Day skirt wasn't really suited to the weather, so she had to swap sticky notes: this is Thursday's look. Which--the swap--was almost more than she could take at 6:20. An argument for uniforms, some have told me. But where's the fun there?
He slept with me last night, and I was so hot all night--kept moving him over, until around 3am when I realized the hot was his fever, which I dosed with the purple stuff. And though teachers and parents everywhere will groan, I let him go this morning, because not going was more than he could take--and he looked and felt fine. But he had his clothes picked out, too, and had planned to color-match Maisie's perky green First Day look, and betook his ailing self back upstairs to recover HIS Thursday clothes, the better to match She Who Is Too Cool. His bus was brand new, and the driver brand new, and Liam stopped in the middle of the road and looked back at me and asked, "Are you sure this is the right bus?" and kept going when I nodded. And somehow I knew, in that moment, that I should have kept him home: that a moment of anxiety might be all it would take for the fever to win out over his determination. I'll go in at noon and check on him.
Happy Monday!
posted by I n g e r @ Monday, August 28, 2006
6 Comments:
much love to the three of you, on this day of "firsts."
my "baby" begins her freshman year of high school this morning. :::sniff::::
They grow up so awfully fast it seems now...
:o)
alan
Lovely children!
your words amaze me always...you should be sending these snippets in somewhere...
this is all a blurr to me, kinda...my son, my "baby", left this weekend for college...suny purchase, only about an hour and change away...he wouldn't let us take him, he drove himself...he's allowed to have a car, even tho it's freshman year, and most schools don't...
your daughter looks wise beyond her years...is she even 10 yet?...and you know my thoughts on the golden child...i hope he's feeling better...
all the best i n g e r & co.
peace...
I just teared up and they aren't even mine.
To all--a good year.
look at them kids! i see teeth, and i'm glad. don't let him know i noticed.
the first day i ever taught, nervous as all hell, i arrived at my classroom to find several students and a note on the door that said the classroom had been changed to across campus. i walked with the students to the new classroom, and didn't reveal that i was the teacher. i wanted to hear what they were saying.
"i hope she isn't a bitch."
"i hope there's not too much reading."
"i hope she knows what she's doing."
the last comment was mine.
the kids were shocked when i stood up at the lectern, when they found out the girl they'd been walking with was the girl teaching the class. but if i'm honest, so was i.
that feeling never went away.
i taught for five years and i always felt like an imposter on the first day of class.
Post a Comment
<< Home