The advertisements and paperwork and emails are already starting to arrive, midway through July. Specials on notebook paper and teaching supplies. Financial statements for the fall semester. Summer band schedule to learn the fall marching show.
And then there's the desktop widget telling me I have 21 days left of summer break.
There's more significance to the coming school year for our family. "Dear Senior Parent(s)" one letter began, a save-the-date and book-your-hotel-room-now announcement for commencement next May. (Yes, I booked the hotel room.) I'm already sending positive vibes to the Universe on college daughter's behalf for job opportunities upon graduation. Like her, though, I'm trying not to think too much about post-grad employment, as she will be studying abroad in Tokyo this fall, and we need to focus on those details. She's busy brushing up on her Japanese vocabulary while interning for a production company three days a week; she doesn't even want to talk about graduation right now.
Thinking out loud with teenboy in the car this past week, I said, "You're a junior. A JUNIOR." He just laughed, as if to say, "No duh, Mom, where have you been?". Obviously not in the same time-space continuum, because the enormity of it hadn't hit me until that moment. Junior means scrutinizing credits to make sure we're headed down the slippery slope to graduating high school without any glitches. Junior means really paying attention to those college flyers that have been arriving since PSAT scores came out. Junior means talking about the colleges he got to visit with big sister not so long ago, and planning other visits over breaks and next summer. Junior means he and dad need to be a little more active in getting his driver's license.
It's getting real in our house.
Where does the time go? In a flash, life decisions must be made. How did it happen?
ReplyDeleteVery fast, it seems! Weird to think that the biggest part of their lives are still ahead of them; on the timeline, this home is just a beginning for them.
DeleteMy oldest grandchild, my grandson, will start high school this year! Time is something to savor because it really does fly. Your daughter's plans for Tokyo sound exciting, and yes, your son has a big year of planning ahead too, as do his parents! Best wishes for a lovely next 21 days!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It will be a year of planning and exploring. We get to explore Tokyo, too; daughter wants us to visit, so we've already booked flights to do so. Excited about that!
DeleteI always feel like my seniors are leaving me just when I'm getting them to the "good part." Maybe that's the nature of things, and it means they're ready to go on to the next part of their lives, but my teacher-mama heart always twinges a bit, whispering, "Just stay a little longer."
ReplyDeleteYou're sending them off as their best selves, and you had an awesome part in making that come to be. And you may get to reconnect later, as social media is making it easy to do so. Think of their adult successes to come!
DeleteYour post took me back in time to when my kids were the ages of your kids - so many milestones in your year ahead. Brave of your daughter to do her travel abroad in Japan, too - so far away, What an adventure!
ReplyDeleteIt will be a great year, Tara; thanks! Daughter went to Japan during her JanTerm a couple of years ago, and loved it so much she wanted to go back. Thankful that her college provides these opportunities!
Delete