OSFO, in new black jeggings and a striped shirt, left the apartment at 7:50, eager to get to school on time.  Her aubergine colored JanSport backpack was filled with notebooks, pens, pencils, folders (38 of them) and supplies for the classroom — everything on the 8th grade list. She almost forget her summer homework, answers to questions about the books she was required to read. Smartmom called down the hall and OSFO retrieved them and left the apartment, again.

Smartmom ran over to the window, opened it and screamed out to Third Street:

“Faster, walk faster,” she said. “You’re not to be late on your first day of school.”

OSFO’s response will not be printed here.

At 8:30 Smartmom walked over to PS 321 to catch Ducky’s first day of first grade. First grade. The little red headed girl was so eager to meet her teacher and see her new classroom that she didn’t even want to play on the jungle gym in the playground. She did, however, give her kindergarten teacher a big hug and Diaper Diva is said to have shed a tear. Post hug, Ducky hurried her parents to the new classroom on the second floor…

Dressed in a black and white polka dotted dress, red and white striped knee socks, black Mary Janes and an oversized Japanese backpack, she looked adorable and au courant entering her classroom for the very first time. Big-eyed and excited, she explored the new classroom, found her cubby and located her assigned seat at a small table, where there was a name tag, that said her name. She immediately put it on her polka-dotted chest.

“What do I do now?” she said aloud.

And then it was time for the parents to go. Smartmom thought to stop in and see one or two of Teen Spirit’s old teachers and tell them that they’d dropped him off at college last week but she resisted the temptation. Everyone was so busy with the new. It wasn’t time to look back. Forward motion, forward…