It's Back To School, and I'm Feeling Blue - but not why you might think!

My daughter is entering Middle School. There, I put it out to the world. It feel so foreign, after following her into the elementary school every day for six years. I worked at the school as a paraprofessional (that's a fancy word for teacher assistant, but still very important!) and so I was also in the school along with her, able to check on her if needed (didn't need to) or just to say "hi" in the hallway (I did this, a lot!). Mostly we just knew that the other was in the building, and felt comfort in that (me more than her, I'm sure!). Along the way, we each made friends. She found several "besties" in her class to play with at recess and eat lunch with, and I found a few moms to chat with while we waited in the pick-up line. And now I find that while Erica still has a few friends making the move to middle school with her, I am lacking in the same for mom friends. It seems that this is the time when they scatter like a dandelion puff, floating off into different directions. I never thought that I would be looking at it from this perspective. Sure, I worried about my daughter and how she would manage the change, but never did I consider that it would be more than a blip on the screen for me.

Many of us are friends on Facebook, and although it's cool to keep in touch, but it doesn't take the place of the hallway conversations, or sitting in the same row during a class performance. It's not the same as when we banded together to join the PTO, or to meet at the park after school. And occasionally, we went out together as grown-ups, without kids, and had a lot of fun. I'm sad to see those years, just like the elementary years of my daughter, go by. We all helped each other get through the first day of Kindergarten, all the way through the tears of goodbye at the end of Fifth Grade. For that I will be glad, and I will always look back on those years with a smile.