A Celebration (Not Really)

So, I had all these big plans for the last day of school. Massive balloon bouquet at the bus stop. Silly string. A #1 sparkler to incinerate. All of it was foiled by emotion.

Bob came home from work early to be at the bus stop, too. The bus pulls up and his bus driver looks pained. She sees us with the silly string and she knows it will be a disaster...because my boy is in emotional pieces on the bus. Right away, she tells us that he is REALLY upset and he's crying. I am befuddled. Why? What happened?

He's sad. He's going to miss his teacher.

Oh boy.

He comes to the door of the bus and his face is screwed up into a mess. Tears everywhere. Mouth opening in a howl. "Mom! I'm gonna miss my teacher."

Caring parents that we are, we decide to totally disregard this and douse him with the silly string anyway. Good choice. He stopped crying pretty quickly and asked for his own can. But still, the whole thing wasn't the joyous occasion I'd hoped.

Later on he told me that he was so upset as they were packing up the classroom that his teacher had to personally walk him to the bus. And their class mom, Karina, told me later that she witnessed the meltdown. Apparently, when they started piling up the chairs for good, he just fell apart. She said all of his classmates were trying to help him feel better and that his teacher was really touched by the outpouring of emotion.

My poor big boy. I'm the same way. I can be kind of happy about something coming to any end, but still, at the end of the thing itself, I lose it. Its the marking of change that gets me, and I suspect what gets him, too. I also feel so sad for him that he went through this and we weren't there for him. But that's what growing up is all about. I'm glad his friends were there to help him through and I'm so glad Karina shared that with me. In life, really, that's the best you can hope for--that when the sadness comes, people who care about you are at your side. If he learned nothing else in first grade, I hope that in his heart he learned and knows this.

Sad or not, we're proud of everything he did this year. Congratulations, Connor!