This year is my last “back” to school. Youngest is a senior this year. Therefore, next year we will be going for the first time rather than heading back anywhere.
The high school mailing came this week. I already had vacation days, late starts, and finals on my calendar. But this week, I added senior parent night, senior awards night, graduation practice, and graduation. The year flew before my eyes.
When you have kids you know in advance that they will eventually leave you. But it’s hard to believe the time is almost before me when hands-on parenting won’t be part of my daily life. Of course they’ll always be my kids, but they will go on to jobs, friends, and families of their own. As I wrote in return, they will come back here, but this won’t be their home anymore.
Maybe, after this year, I won’t miss going “back.” Instead, I can enjoy remembering the past as I look forward to the new chapters in their lives. All these years of back to school, driving to practices, and orthodontist appointments along with shared meals, game nights, and family trips will be the strong foundation on which they go forward in their lives.
May we love the season we are in now and anticipate with joy the next. For even in our going back we are actually beginning something new.
Note: No 2019 picture yet. Wisconsin doesn’t start school until after Labor Day.
May we love the season we are in now and anticipate with joy the next. For even in our going back we are actually beginning something new. #backtoschool #parenting Click To Tweet——————
It’s Friday, so this post is five-minute free-write on today’s word back. You can read other great posts here.
“May we love the season we are in now and anticipate with joy the next.” I love this! Wishing you many blessings in this season of moving ahead while going back.
And to you as well!
Oh, how I remember the days and landmarks you’ve shared. Congratulations to you and your sons, especially the older, for reaching this point in his life. No doubt there’ll be things during this year that will bring tears, but you’ve obviously done a good job parenting and can be proud of the man he’s becoming.
I am looking forward to this year with him. Thank you!
The “lasts” of that youngest child’s senior year are difficult to go through for sure. I still remember how strange it felt preparing for the next phase in family life, even though it’s been 16 years ago. Holding you close in prayer.
(PS Sam is a phenomenal young man. Well done, mom!)
Thanks Jeanne.
Oh my the years go quickly. It has been almost a decade since my last back to school – but I still get a bit sentimental and mushy when the new school year starts!! You have a very handsome senior!! Hope it is a great year!
Me too. I love to see everyone’s back to school pictures.
May this be a very memorable year for your son…..each day!
Louise
Thank you Louise
Congratulations to your son, and to you, Michelle.
This is for you…and for me, too, for as I write this one of my beloved dogs is approaching the Rainbow Bridge.
Enjoy it well, this road you travel,
for you shall not come back again
to this place of time’s sweet ravel,
to these blessings, to this pain.
Do not hope that time goes swiftly;
each minute passed’s forever gone
and if ignored you’ll feel the guilty
hook of loss; the loss, your own.
Live within the mindful moment,
embrace the laughter and the tears
sing each praise, and each lament
and take them with you through the years.
Hold all of life that you have seen;
don’t live in thrall to ‘might have been’.
Congratulations to your son (and his parents!) for making it to this point in his journey. I hope the year ahead is one of memory-making for your family before he leaves the nest. I also hope he’ll begin to venture out on his own more and more during these next months while he still has a great sounding-board at home. Here’s to the graduates of 2020!
Thank you!