The First Day of School

Today is a monumental day in our house. For the past two years, we have kept our son in home school via accredited cyber schooling. We wanted to wait some things out with his behavior and with all that he has been through in his 7 years of life, I couldn't be prouder of hin than today. I'm lucky now to have seen him grow up for over half his life, and to see my influence in him both makes me smile and afraid. He leaves for the bus soon and is excited to meet new friends, ride a bus, learn with other boys and girls, and the cheese steaks on the lunch menu for today. Good luck to you, Rocco. Mommy and I love you. 

Now, this gets me thinking back to my first day at the public school yard. I spent kindergarten through third grade at a private school. I made a friend there, Tim, who I am still friends with today. I keep in touch with two other people, Alex (mostly through Facebook statuses) and Austin (occasional emails and the obligatory "we need to get together sometime"). But in fourth grade the school was too expensive and I had to move on. 

So, the weeks leading up to it, I would hang with my brother, going into eighth grade, and his friends. His friend Bill had a younger brother named Tim who was going to be at Rush Elementary. We tried to be friends. But one day before the last unofficial week of summer, we were playing street hockey with our brothers' friends. We seemed to become good friends at that moment. I remember also talking with old friend Tim that he was leaving the private school to join my school as well. Wonderful! I would already be one step ahead of the friend game!

That all changed when I reared back for a slapshot. I wound up with a ferocity to break my brother's face with a shot. I instead accidentally reared back and smashed new Tim in the mouth. I instantly felt bad. Suddenly I pictured my entire first day to be full of wedgies noogies and pantsing. His teeth were mangled. The game was over. Life as I knew it was over. Also, if you can imagine it, I was smaller than most kids my age as well. 

Then it got worse. The class list came out in the local paper. I can't remember my teacher's name, but I think it was Ms. Hale. Some of you might know her. I looked up Rush Elementary Fourth grade, and new Tim was in my class. Old friend Tim was NOWHERE in the class lists. Suddenly I went from +2 friends to -1 friend/+1 enemy. 

Luckily our brothers conversed and it was relayed to me that new Tim harbored no bad feelings. I went to sleep that night before a little easier. 

I had to go to my neighbor's house before the bus came as my parents and brother would leave early. I meandered down to the bus stop on Stephens Drive I think. Luckily another old friend Chris Katsikis was there. Our brothers were kind of friends and Chris and I used to play with the toys from MASK together. Remember that show? They were a secret military group that would put on these helmets and suddenly their vehicles would transform into some kind of weapon of mass destruction. He also had an in ground pool and that made him seem rich to me as I was of the low class above ground pool stature. Now as an adult I am at community pools. 

So I rode the bus. Bill Mason was on there and he was the cool kid. I don't remember who else got picked up but I remember being silent. We went down the long hill leading into Rush and I was sweating (surprisingly) profusely. I get off the bus and see a line for my teacher. I was first there I reckon. I watched lines form and nobody was recognizable. Old friend Tim was nowhere to be found as I hoped for some reason he was going to be there and his name being excluded was a typo. But then new Tim showed up, stood in the back of my line and I was scared to look back. He saw me and said we were good. That was a relief. 

I was wearing pale green pants, a brown collared shirt and brown loafers. Kids were in shorts and transformer t-shirts. And I was first in line. The only thing I needed was a pocket protector. 

From that point on, I became good friends with Ben Fratto, learned to play the saxophone (very well, might I add, becoming first chair at the Coast Guard Academy until I decided to hang up the mouthpiece), and performed magic tricks for the school talent show, where I believe I finished second or third. 

It was a tumultuous time though going from 10 kids in my class, including Barry Cohen who made it a point every day to fall backwards out of his chair. That was gone. Innocence lost. Now I was getting picked last to play kickball because I had pale green pants on. 

I know a lot of teachers who have been preparing hard for the upcoming year, parents who send off their kids today, and as a coach many kids who will bombard me with first day stories instead of focusing on smashing each other. I'm so happy Rocco will be one of those kids.