I am sitting here, thinking about all the lils that are going to back to school tomorrow, and all of those that are going to school for the first time. I can’t help but feel a little bit sad. Although Woo is school aged, he won’t be going to his first day of school tomorrow. Goose isn’t quite old enough, but we know her first day of school will come after we return from India, and will happen after the official first day of school here. In the interim, they will be attending school in India, though that first day will come in the sometime future, somewhere far from here.
We don’t know what school that will be, but we do know that it won’t be the school in our community, the one that we have talked up for years, planned our school walking route for, and had acknowledged by the lils anytime we go near it. It won’t be the one with Woo’s best pal, who he has been planning to go to school with since they were old enough to know about school. Woo knows that he’ll be going to school in India, I’m just not sure that he realizes that means he will not be going tomorrow. When he sees all the other children going tomorrow, I am pretty sure this will sink in.
We know that this trip is going to bring such richness to our lives, but it’s times like this when I question our move to India, and the impact that it will have on the lils, and on the customs that we expect them to live through. Does it matter that they won’t have a traditional first day of school, either of them? Their first day will be just another day for all the other lils in their classes. It will likely be lost in the new home, new country, new everything that will be going on in their lives. Will it matter to them? Or just to me?
Like everything in their lives, you will make that day, when it comes, special for them. I’m sure you’ll have photos and wonderful conversation to mark the day. And it will matter to all of you. This trip is part of your family journey and will be amazing – even more than a first day of school. xox
I think it matters more to you than to them. I have only one memory of my first day of school and it wasn’t even JK it was SK. I remember painting on an easel while a little girl cried on the floor. I don’t remember how I felt, what I wore or who my friends wore. But I bet my mom does.
I don’t think it will matter to them. They will be too focused on the trip ahead. Which is a good thing to focus on!
They might complain a bit now – but years from now, they will look back on this as one of the most amazing things in their lives. Big changes and big trips are the things kids remember – and this experience will shape their outlook on the world forever. It’s SO worth it.
It will add richness to all of your lives, and it will be with them always even though they are just lil now.
It is an incredible experience for ALL of you.