Catherine and Graham started back at school this week, in person! The 2020 terminology for this exciting day was "The Second First Day of School!" It has a ring to it, doesn't it? Ring or not, we were all on Cloud Nine for days leading up to this momentous milestone.
As I watched it unfold before my eyes, I couldn't help but. ponder prior first days back at school and take note of the marked difference in excitement. No matter your age, we all remember how summer vacation goes. You're so excited on that first day off school in June. It seems like years until you'll have to go back. Then you blink your eyes and it's the 4th of July. The back to school ads (thank you Target and Walmart) start soon thereafter. These days, like ads for Christmas shopping, back to school ads seem to start earlier and earlier. They can hardly wait to start barraging you with ads for backpacks, pencils, paper, and of course, the proper attire. for that dreaded first day back at school. Try as you might to put it out of your mind, the reminders are looming everywhere.
Then before you know it you are in the last week and then the final day's countdown of summer vacation. Each day, the pit in your stomach grows ever bigger. For kids, it's the return to getting up in the morning when the rooster crows (in Hidden Hills the roosters do actually crow so I am not making that up), rushing to and from school, all those after-school activities, and all that homework. For moms, it's all that, plus the dreaded lunches. And lest we not forget the triple-digit temperatures in late August, which just remind you of how much you'd rather be at the beach than on the blacktop at school.
Well, there. was none of that this week. When your first day of school is in December and you live in California, you get to enjoy a pleasant day in the low 70;s. Since you're only going back to school for a little over two hours in the afternoon, there is no getting up with the roosters (except for the poor chaps who drew the AM time slot straws, rather than the PM ones, in the lottery). There are no dreaded lunches for moms to make because no one gets to have lunch at school anymore, AM and PM cohort, alike. There is no afternoon homework because you do it in the morning when you are fresh before you go to school. There are no after school activities to rush to because it's a pandemic and after school activities don't exist anymore. And your mom can dress you in your fancy church clothes that you have never worn and are about to grow out of because you are only at school for two hours and never get dirty.
Not too bad, right?
A normal back to school photo (well sort of, except for the church clothes).
A 2020 back to school photo.
Normal....
2020
Round Meadow even had the foresight to change the sign to include the now-returning third graders. The atmosphere was. electric with. excitement from kids and staff alike. It was joyous to experience.
Two hours later...Mom rushed back to pick everyone up again. It's 2020, we'll take what we can get.
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