Off to School: David's Next Adventure

Earlier this month, David got up an hour earlier than he previously did for school, got dressed, ate his pop-tart, watched a little TV, then grabbed his book bag to head off for the first day of school.  But this year it's different: it was his first day as a Stallion at South County Secondary School.

I drove him to the bus stop, which is two blocks further away than his elementary school one (he's bigger now, can walk farther, I guess), and stuck around to watch him get on the bus for his first day at the only other school he'll go to.

When compared to the other "first day of school" memory, the time he went to kindergarten the first time, there were some notable differences, most significantly that as a parent I was expected to remain well out of sight while watching him get on the bus.  He is decidedly getting to the age where that projection of independence is becoming important.

But there were marked similarities as well.  As with the first day of kindergarten bus stop, he was definitely one of the smaller kids there, lost amid the sea of high-school seniors.  And just as with the first day of kindergarten, once the bus arrived he clambered aboard with his backpack, without a single glance back at me: a boy ready to take on the world.

He seems so ready for this.  He went to all of the various orientation events, so he had a working knowledge of the school layout, he knew his locker combination and had practiced getting into it, he had walked his schedule and knew where to go...so much about his first day of school telegraphed "I'm ready."

I don't think he's been awake that early since; the proto-teen enjoys his sleep too much and now is rolling out of bed with 10 or 15 minutes to go until I take him to the bus.  He's gotten one progress report so far, and it's an A- in English (which for him is amazing)--his English teacher writes, "David is a delight in class [...] very kind and giving to the other students."  He's been able to stay on top of the homework (as far as we can tell).  From this early perspective, it looks like the transition is going well.

And I know, too, that it won't be long before the memory of him climbing aboard a school bus for each of his first days of school at a new school will be joined by the memory of him waving goodbye in the rear-view mirror as we drop him off for freshman orientation at college.  It's difficult to think that that day is closer at hand (six years off) than was that first day of kindergarten.  But for now, the next adventure has begun.  It will be an adventure, too, I am sure.