I don't have children of my own (save my pugs of course) but today I am reminded of the first day of school by many of my facebook friends. Seems everyone is posting pictures of their children along with tearful words of nostalgia for the days before he/she was "all grown up." I'm sure if my dad were a facebook user he might have similar sentiments on this day. Thank God he hates computers and spends more time cussing their existence than actually working on one.
Anyway, I learned recently that one Dallas school has IPad stations for their Kindergartners. Ok I don't even own an IPad. WTF?
Knowing this, I have to wonder if kids these days are filled with as much trepidation about the first day of school as many of us were before the days of technology filled classrooms.
I woke up early for the first day of school. My outfit was already picked out my my mom. The year was 1980 something so who knows what kind of exotic clothing choice I was sporting that day. I'm sure there is a picture or two somewhere. I can't tell you what I ate for breakfast but I can tell you that I was excited about having school supplies. This quirk of mine would carry on into my college years. I love school supply shopping. Something about notebooks and pencils makes me feel like I'm about to accomplish something great.
I remember clearly my mother walking me to the door of Mrs. Blaylock's Kindergarten class. I was nervous but not crying. Looking back I wonder why? In a town of only 5000 people, I had encountered most kids before that day. I think my mom put me in every Vacation Bible School there was the summer before - regardless of denomination (this could explain some of my issues with organized religion but that is a whole other topic). Upon entering the classroom I immediately recognized some of the faces. Suzie Allen was one; as well as James Stevenson - two people I would eventually go on to graduate high school with 12 years later.
Then there was this one girl... I didn't know her name when I walked in the door but I noticed her immediately. She was crying. And by crying I mean bawling. And by bawling I mean her face was red with tears streaming down it like her life was over. I mean, quite literally, like coming to school that day was the worst thing that had ever happened to her, EVER. Heck, maybe it was the worst thing she had ever encountered in the whopping 5 years she had been alive. Who knows? I knew this much - I wanted nothing to do with her. Her crying was contagious. The girl next to her caught it and started with the tears streaming down her face too. A few other kids were beginning to sniffle. This was awful. I told my mom "bye" and tried to snag a seat near some people I recognized in the corner of the room. Bad news for me, the teacher was putting us in alphabetical order and I got stuck right next to red-faced crying girl. She cried ALL DAY LONG in some form or fashion. Sometimes quite hiccuping other times full on hissy fit. I found out her name was Stephanie and tried to show her my cool school supplies. She was not interested. Any time the teacher offered up a chance to go somewhere or do something I was out of my seat ASAP just to get a break from this chick.
When my mom picked me up later asking about how my day was, I was not that pleased. I voiced some complaints about Stephanie and her crying. My mom's reaction was basically "deal with it, Lesley."
Turns out this Stephanie girl lived not far away in my neighborhood so we ended up being friends for a while until she stole my boyfriend and pushed me on the playground. Then we were NOT friends and I hated her guts and thought she deserved to have a terrible first day of school for being such an awful person. She moved away a couple of years later.
Hm, come to think of it - maybe we would have done better with IPad stations.
