NO Back to School For Me!
After 17 years of back to school shopping, getting back packs ready, new clothes, shoes, haircuts ,etc, and dragging 3 kids through 13 years of school each (as a single parent, too!) I am experiencing my 1st year of not having to do "Back to School"! Yippee! The topic is too painful and fresh for Sarah, so I have to contain my happiness and smile in private, and I am stealing moments out of the house away from her to do little happy dances. I've strolled down the school supply aisles of the stores looking at notebook paper and erasers and pens and taken in the fact that I am not one the mothers with a list in my hand, a stressed look on my face or a pounding headache. HA HA......I have finally arrived. And I mean no disrespect to my friends with younger children ......if you are stressed, tired, etc, you have my full empathy and sympathy. If you enjoy the whole buzz of school stuff, I'm with you - I'm a closet stationery junkie. And I thoroughly enjoyed helping with field trips and class projects, etc. I did a lot of volunteer work in the school and look back fondly on my memories of my time there. So no disrespect.....I am not rubbing anyone's noses in this. I am simply enjoying MY new time of life. It's a freedom thing. I've worked long and hard to get here. Being a single mom for over 16 years and my kids having extra challenges has given me quite the row to hoe, as they say. And I got ripped off this year with not getting to see Sarah graduate. So, I have to take what I can and enjoy the moments that come. Instead of being sad about this, I'm feeling relieved that we can move on to healing and better things. Putting the official school experience behind us is part of that. Sarah will get her credits and get her diploma, but it will be different. We will celebrate when it happens and make a big deal about it and give her a party.But for now life is about healing. And for me ....I get to do a little happy dance. Next week when all the moms are getting their kids out the door, I don't have to.I don't have class lists of required supplies and last minute shopping trips for obscure graph paper or expensive calculators "because the teacher says we have to have it" to look forward to.Yippee! I have arrived at last! I am standing in the light at the end of this particular tunnel and it feels good!
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Ah... The joy that I have to look forward to! Only another 15 years to go... Am I really in a tunnel? It seems so dark and forboding.... I reach out as I stumble forward (uh, hop, \'cause of my foot) and my hand lands on something smooth and silky - A notebook! NOOOO!!!!! And there are NO papers inside! ARGH! Now where\'d I put that book of a list...?
Actually, I\'m lucky this year - Her teacher seemed to have provided everything! (WOW!!! What Twilight Zone is she from?) And she only got her backpack-folder-bookbag thingy at the end of last school year. But I were stressed and paranoid \'cause I WASN\'T GETTING THAT *$&%$*% LIST! How do I know what to get... Everything\'s gonna be gone by the time I finally know... All the sales gone... All the good stuff away in the wind (tornado) of prompt shoppers... Took a week to find out she wasn\'t gonna send a list! :-) :-) So I\'m doing my little happy dance, too. I passed the back to school stuff today and just smiled and walked on by. I actually looked at the erasers and pencils and thought about getting them \"just in case\". \"Just in case\" of WHAT? Her young teacher suddenly have a heart attack and Kari gets a poorer, less generous teacher? KEEP WALKING, KEEP WALKING!
So we\'ll dance together. And we\'ll walk past those seasonal racks together. Now we can both save a smidgeon of our sanity for our poor girls. But I\'m still jealous, \'cause next year there\'ll be another list (no doubt) and the year after that I\'ll be cursed with not ONE but **TWO** lists! :-/ Enjoy your freedom, you\'ve certainly earned it.
You have my complete sympathy about next year...been there....remember I have 3..and they were every other year apart in school...so that meant I had 4 years of them all in elementary school and one really interesting year of having them all in high school at the same time...for us that\'s grades 8-12, so I had Sarah in 8, Jeffrey in 10 and Andrew in 12. Ahhh! Parent teacher interviews were nightmares for soooo many years!
Anyway ...I\'m glad that Kari has an organized generous teacher this year...hopefully it\'s a sign of good things to come!