First Days

Boy, times sure have changed. Back in MY day, starting high school, us incoming sophomores were pretty much thrown to the wolves. There may have been some hour-long, bring-your-parents-evening orientation, or tour of the school, but the first day of school was real classes, real lunch, and real fight-your-way-through-hallways-full-of-enormous-senior-MEN-terror. I still remember the shock of discovering on my first day of high school that many of my fellow classmates looked like full grown adults.

Thankfully, times have changed, and Duncan's first day of high school was nothing like mine. He is starting high school as a freshman, and at his school they have what they call Freshman Academy. The first day of class is JUST freshmen, so it gives them a chance to get lost on the way to the lunchroom without having to worry about looking stupid in front of the upper classmen.

Our power went out the night before, thanks to the monsoon-like rainstorm we had in the middle of the night. So he wound up missing the bus, which gave me the perfect excuse to take him over without either one of us feeling too foolish.

We were met on the school grounds by several teachers, all wearing t-shirts, who were there just to answer any questions. Then Duncan was handed a donut on the way in to the school, and encouraged to take 2 or 3 if he wanted them. These people are good. They definitely know the way to a 14 year old boy's heart.

So the day started off great. They assigned everybody into small groups (he got put with his resource teacher and her other students), and spent most of the day touring the school, and finding out how everything works. Then they figured out lunch stuff in the cafeteria, went to all their classes for 10 minutes each, and that was it. He has today off, while the older grades all go have their first day, and then tomorrow, it is on to the real thing.

Overall, it was a pretty painless day. MUCH better than his first day of middle school, when he just about had a nervous breakdown.

I wish my other freshman, Alisa, had had as painless a day. She discovered first hand the joys of parking on campus and trying to get to class on time. She only had one class, but stayed up on campus to figure out where her classes for today were, and how she was going to get around. I don't think anybody can really prepare you for the switch from high school to college. It's like you go from being a kid to being an adult overnight. It turns out to be a good switch, but it takes some doing to get there. Hang in there kiddo, you can make it!

Will is still loving sixth grade. I don't want to jinx anything here, but he REALLY loves it. He loves his teachers, he loves orchestra, and I love seeing him so happy. I just hope it lasts about another 9 months....

Audrey, well I can't say she loves 4th grade. She doesn't hate it. Everything is fine. It's just back to the same old routine for her. Maybe starting orchestra next week will help. Maybe I will let her pierce her ears, or do something else to spice things up a little.