It’s that time of year, and all the feelings that come with it are welling up inside me. Some schools across the country have been back for a few weeks, but in my little corner of the world, school starts this week. Tomorrow morning, I get to drop Courage off at his last first day of elementary school. Serenity will be taking multiple buses to get to her first day of 8th grade at VSAA, and Patience will drive herself to school on her first day as a Senior in High School. All of them are significant milestones, and my grandmother’s heart is excited and nervous for all of them – and for everyone who is heading back to school in one way or another. Parents, kids, teachers, building staff, and all of us who are going to be stopping for yellow buses we haven’t seen for a while are all a part of the back-to-school reality.
So I want to mark the occasion with a few thoughts for my daughter, Amber Lamb, a fourth grade teacher in Montana, my friends in schools all over the country (especially those of you at VPS where I spent my career as a teacher), all parents passing their children off to spend their days with other adults, all of you who are employed as caretakers of teachers’ children so they can open their classroom doors every morning – and all the kids and young adults who are heading back to school. My heart is with all of you.
Excitement, anxiety, new schedules, joy, tears, planning, new backpacks, shoes that aren’t broken in yet, buildings whose air conditioning stops working, and exhaustion all mark the Back-to-School season. I remember it all so well. I have been the child, the parent, and the teacher – and I feel all the feelings everyone has right now. To parents sending their kids off to kindergarten, wondering how the last five years have gone by so fast; to those sending their kids off to middle school, wishing they could go back to kindergarten; to those who are sending their kids off to college, remembering the days when they held this now-adult child in their arms as tiny babies, and to all the school employees who have no idea how it is already the end of August, I get it. I get you. I see you. But, it’s a brand new year with all kinds of new possibilities. It’s time to pat yourself on the back. Good job getting ready! Keep posting the pictures of your classrooms, your kids’ first days, and the dorm rooms that are all set up. I love seeing them all.
Here’s to the 2022-23 School Year. May it be one of growth, happiness, and resilience. My love to all of you!
MARNA