The Last Day

Tomorrow is the last day of school for my kids, and it's also the end of an era for our family. In many ways, the school they've attended has been their home-away-from-home since they were born. This is the school Justin has taught at since we were first married. When we had O., Justin would take him to school with him for the parts of the day we couldn't get daycare. A family at school gave us a nice port-a-crib so Justin could put the baby down during class. All of our kids have been carried through the halls in their carseat, toddled into class to say "hi" to Daddy during the school day, visited siblings in class, and played in the pre-kindergarten playground while waiting for Mom to get through parent-teacher conferences. Our oldest spent 9 years going there -- from pre-k through sixth grade. Justin has spent countless hours there during school hours, after school hours on weekends, holidays, and summer "break." I've substitute-taught there for Justin many times and for several other teachers. I worked there too, in the main office, when Justin and I were first married. In fact, it was a little tricky answering the phones there for a while because my mother-in-law was the main office receptionist/bandaid dispenser/secretary/school mom for many years, and we share a first name. There was also another teacher there years ago whose first name was Anna. She was on the Relief Society General Board, and one afternoon, someone called to talk to Anna, and since I had happened to answer the phone and said, "This is she" the caller started to rattle off some Relief Society business. I gently interrupted to tell her this was not the Anna she needed and went to get the right one. It turns out that was Chieko Okazaki on the phone. We three Anna's had some good laughs over the confusion on the phones. Our family has been involved with the school for 15 years, most of them good. There have been some very difficult times too, to the point that Justin finally accepted another job elsewhere a couple of months ago. But our feelings for the school run deep. It's hard to face sending my children to school where they won't know anyone, when, for their entire academic life they have already known their teachers and classmates before the first day of every school year. I've known the teachers and loved them, especially for how they've loved my children and taught them. I worry about my kids going someplace where I don't know everyone there, including their classmates. It's going to be as much of an adjustment for me as it will be for them. The school building they're attending (for one more day) will be torn down at the end of May to make room for a new LDS stake center ... at least that's what we've heard. The LDS Church has purchased the property.

Well, change is good and important to learn how to handle, right? Well, for tomorrow I've gotten each of the kids a disposable camera to take pictures of their friends, and they're going to enjoy Field Day (if it isn't cold and wet tomorrow...kind of crazy weather after having 92 degrees yesterday!). I'll take a bunch of my own pictures of the school too.