Woke up this morning, started getting ready for work. As I was looking for a shirt to put on, my son comes into my closet; he has on a Walter Payton jersey. He told me I should put on mine; that made my decision easy. So yeah, it’s June 9th and we’re both rocking our Payton jerseys; never a bad day for that…
I’m of the mind set that there IS never a bad day; if you’re up and about, you’re blessed. Too many times recently I’ve known or heard of folks who can’t say that any more; THAT is a bad day. If you’re alive, enjoy it, the best way you can. Most days I “enjoy it” by going to work; it ain’t that bad. Today was the same. My son “enjoys it” most days by going to school; today was the same… sort of. Today is his last day of 5th grade.
I asked him if this year flew by; he said it didn’t. He said it lasted forever. Perception is a funny thing. From my point of view, this year, just like any other, flew by, especially the past 11 in which my son has been alive. He likes to look at the pictures on my phone; the number of them really picked up after he was born. I still remember that first day I went back to work after he was born; he was 13 days old. He looked up at me and yawned; I have that picture. I told him I have to do what I have to do, and I’ll see him later; somehow, I think he understood.
He’s extremely happy to be done with school today; the wide open summer lies ahead. Baseball, swimming, basketball, Vegas, summer camp, sleep-away camp, video games, and anything and everything else is on the menu for the next 74 days before he goes back to school, this time in the 6th grade. Talk about time that will fly by; summers always do… more than any other time of the year. Still 24 hours in a day during these months in Chicago, but man… it’ll be over before you know it.
It was another good year in school for him; straight As should never be taken for granted. Of course, as 6th grade starts, the 3 years before high school, where the grades really matter, the expectation will be that he continues that performance; no pressure. As each year goes by, he’ll be doing more and more independently, until it gets to the point where Mom and Dad can’t help him with his homework even if he asked us to; we’ll always try though. I feel like I have plenty of useless information floating around in my head that may come in handy one day…
Congrats son on another year, another job well done; we are VERY proud of you. So far, we’ve managed not to F this up either; of course, we’ll be expected to keep up this course of action too, especially over the next X number of years. Junior high, high school… those are some critical times for kids, and times of change for us all. Ready? Ready. First, let’s enjoy this summer!
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