A New Drink Poured

It's here! That day is here that I have been looking toward for... okay, I'm not going to embarrass myself by saying how long, let's just say a long time. Today my baby started first grade, which in our school district is the beginning of full-day school. I'm home alone!

What's that you say? You already knew this because you could hear the whoops & hollers for miles around? No, no, couldn't be. That wasn't me you were hearing at all. So did I sob when I watched my baby walk into the school instead? Well, not exactly.

It's a tumbler-full of emotions kind of day. The Uber-princess, who had been counting down the days and then hours until school started, turned at the last moment and clutched my hand. She pulled me down to her for another kiss before joining the line marching into school. Excitement and hesitation stirred into one for her in that moment. Later, as I wiped the kitchen counter, I sorrowed over how it would be empty come lunchtime. But I also felt nearly lightheaded over the freedom afforded to me by the absence of children for six-and-a-half hours. Exuberance and nostalgia swirled together in another emotional cocktail.

I'm guessing it will continue to be so for our family until we settle into our new routines. LMH started junior high today, with a similar mixture of apprehension and enthusiasm. I think it's a very human response to newness. We revel in the thought of possibilities, the future a brimming pitcher of unsampled potential. Yet we also shrink back toward the familiar, the comfortable. Thankfully, the newness can become comfortable without losing potential. And so we all plunge forward into a new school year, hopeful, excited and yet equally sentimental.

How about you? Are you one for whom Fall and a new school year represents possibility with it's sloshed-together mixture of feelings? Or has it all become a blur, one month pouring into the next, the same drink day after day?