Julia Sims: Back-to-school jitters
Who would have thought I would be the one nervous about the start of the new school year. Not Will, but me.
If you ask Will about school starting up again, he gives you a heavy sigh - a nod to the fact that summer is indeed over. But I also sense a bit of excitement that he and his friends, now fifth graders, will finally be the kings and queens of the campus.
As for me, the thought that keeps clicking through my brain is this: This is my baby’s last year of elementary school.
Let that sink in ... his very last year.
I clearly remember dropping him off for that first day of kindergarten like it was yesterday. I walked out of the school and then cried the whole walk home.
A lot has changed since then:
He’s taller. Heck, he’s nearly as tall as me.
His feet. Oh those feet, the ones will one day carry him on grand adventures, have been bigger than mine going on two years now.
His swagger. His confidence has grown ten-fold and then some.
His independence. With every year he’s grown to need us less and less. Bittersweet, yes. But, it makes my heart swell with pride.
The one thing that remains the same? The tears that threaten to spill from this mama’s eyes and the squeeze of this mama’s heart watching her little - or not-so-little boy - walk away into a world without her.
Julia Sims is the mom of one and a former reporter for WRAL-TV. She regularly appears here on Go Ask Mom.
