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Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Elementary School (07/19/04)
TITLE: Back to school
By Tami Bachman
07/23/04
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It used to be when I thought of elementary school I would think back to my own childhood and remember the times I had both good and bad with friends who are now long lost for the most part. Or perhaps I would remember a special time with a “favorite” teacher like class parties or field trips, or my ever-favorite 6th grade class camping trip with Mr. Potter's class. Always I remember that buzzing excitement/anxiety in the pit of my stomach.
But now I suppose times have changed and when I think of elementary school I think of my own children. That first time taking them to kindergarten...A much harder task then preschool...Their excitement and trepidation of “going back” each fall...Their hopes and dreams being slowly reached for in each passing day, there over jubilant excitement coming home those first few days to spew forth the vast knowledge they acquired that day and the wonderful new best friends they seem to make daily. Of course with these new found friendships there also are the sad days of occasional heartbreaks of childhood squabbles that are usually forgotten by the end of the school week.
I see the same excitement and well hidden anxieties surface on my children each year as the end of summer draws to a close and that “1st” day fast approaches. For the some it is sheer delight in the ownership of a brand new box of crayons and new pencils and pictured folder. Others may anxiously be awaiting to be reunited with friends that they haven’t seen most of the summer, and to see who lost more teeth or grew taller. Of course there is also the painstaking decisions of exactly which brand new outfit to wear on that monumental 1st day.
On each 1st day as I approach the freshly opened school with my children close to my side, I feel that same burning excitement/anxiety I felt in my youth for each of my own children. Someday they too will think back to their own early school years, hopefully with fondness and happy memories, as they walk their own children to the door.