The Last Day (I hope)

We have arrived at that sacred moment near and dear to anyone who has a child enrolled in school K-12. Yes, the last day of classes for my two kids remaining at home. Sarah is graduating on Thursday (g*d willing) and Jacob will be a junior next year. His last final, test  which I thought was tomorrow, is actually right now. But no worries, Mom! I'm cramming in my room!!

As younger offspring, those days were filled with class parties- misty-eyed gatherings where you handed over some small token of appreciation to the bus drivers, aides, secretaries and teachers who helped your kids along and kept them on the straight and narrow while filling their minds with useful and interesting content. In these later years, school is a kind of amorphous fog where you mostly hear the bad things and when things loom large, swift parental action is required. With three kids, we've been engaged for the last 16 years of getting them in on time, and prepared. Now that I am down to Jacob's last two, I definitely feel my connection changing to this aspect of our community. 

Still, I had to dig out images from a time back in kindergarten. When school wrapped for the year, the teachers and personnel would gather in front of the building and sing, dance and play noisemakers as the last bus pulled away on that final day. Many tears were shed and I'm sure come Thursday night, there will be a lot of teary eyes again. Along with a good measure of relief for many. (us included)