School Days

I was on my way into work this morning when I saw a woman crossing the street with her little girl. The little girl was dressed in her school uniform (blue plaid skirt and vest with a crisp white shirt) with her pink Barbie book bag on her back holding her mother’s hand and just plodding along. She saw me looking at her, gave me a bit of a sheepish look and yawned. I looked at her and thought, “She doesn’t look excited or happy at all.” I’m sure for the past week her mother had been whining her off of late nights (I remember going to bed no later than 9 o’clock on a school night. The weekends? Now that’s an entirely different thing!) and may have even been giving her “practice homework” so that doing homework wouldn’t be too overwhelming for her once school starts.

I remember being so excited in the days leading up to the first day of school. Along with wondering who from last year was going to be in my class this year, I loved the idea of school shopping (for new supplies and new clothes!) It was the one time of year when your mother would (for the most part) give in to your choices, instead of hearing the proverbial mother mantra: “When we get the store…don’t ask me for anything!!” There was the excitement in the opportunity to make friends and to open one’s mind to learning. Educating yourself is the best way I believe to educate your children. It’s the opportunity to indelibly place your mark on the world. How wonderful it is to give your child the gift of education. Their eyes will not only twinkle when they have that moment when they’ve learned something new. The twinkle will continue when they give that something that they know to someone else.


So, although she may have looked worn and tired in those early morning hours, I know most certainly that the little girl with the pink Barbie book bag left school today with a twinkle in her eye that her mother will be most pleased to see.