Postcards from the Past: The end of the school year last year

This is Lil E's last day of co-op, last year. I'd been in court and so there was no farewell post. There was, however, a recital and program the night before. He stood on stage, singing his heart out. I clapped loudly from the awkward position in the church pews between his dad and my own parents.

I waited to tell Lil E that he would not be going back, in part to give some space to all the transitions we'd already made that year and even that month. I was also nervous myself, maybe even a little guilty that he would be going from two half-days of preschool a week to a full-time academic program.

You can tell a lot about that time by the boxes stacked up behind my boy. We'd been living in our place for about a month and I was overrun by baby clothes, wedding china, and all of the bare necessities we had with us while living with my parents the previous seven months.

One more change, I remember running through my head. Can we do one more change? We can do one more change.

Of course, we could do one more change. In fact, that one change, going from co-op to his current preschool, is one of the primary reasons this child has flourished this year.

He is in an outstanding program and a warm, happy, bright, safe place. His teachers have supported us as a family in many ways inside and outside of the classroom. That change has been one of the very best decisions I've made as a single parent.

It was a change made out of necessity -- I needed to work full time to sustain us both -- but it was also the right time. Even if that time was already riddled with transition. Even if we had to hurdle boxes to get out the door to say goodbye to the old co-op.

I get a little teary to look at this picture. I thought he was so big and now he looks so small there to me. He had an eye infection and a cold and still, he wanted to carry gifts in that bag to his co-op teacher -- a silver necklace he picked out himself.

And there it was, there we were. Sniffling and tearing up, stumbling through our home, holding more in our hands than we even knew.

Next year, Lil E's end-of-year photo will be a goodbye to preschool before he heads off to kindergarten. But this year, the pictures will have some ease with the relief that we will return to the same preschool classroom for one more year. We made it through the change, but for now, we're steady. At least for the moment and for this school, we are so steady.

 

Comments

[Star]

How did you make it through living with your parents? I'm in the midst of this now and it's awful and so hard to navigate. I love my parents but living with them with two kids brings out a really different difficult side of them and our relationship...

[Yum Yucky]

This post actually left me a bit teary-eyed. Just yesterday I was looking at pictures of my 2 oldest children when they were younger. I was a single mom for 9 years, so there were a lot of memories and feelings that rushed through my mind. At the worst points during those years I bunked at 3 different places: on a friend's couch, on a floor under a drafty window cuddling my daughter tight to keep her warm, and on another floor with in another state! I was a broke nomad! I'm married now and have 2 more children, but I'll never forget this challenging time and will always be able to relate.

The best to you! You have an adorable son!