Jeneane Sessum started this. Her daughter just began kindergarten.

kindergarten jenna

So the children seem great, the teacher seems great, the room is nice and cool and clean, the learning tools are top-notch, and I am breathing an unbelievable sigh of relief--until Monday. Monday our baby girl takes the first step out of this front door into the real world.

It's a tiny step for her, and a big one at the same time. For me it's a step I will never take again in this lifetime, an ending as much as a beginning, and it's as heavy as it gets. Truly.

Wish me a good cry and a strong coffee.
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This reminded me of another kid's first day of school. It took me two weeks to find this picture. I was unpacking boxes today that I hadn't unpacked in four moves when I found it.

That's me. It's late summer 1949 and I'm about to walk to my first day of kindergarten. The picture is taken in Longmeadow, Massachusets. My mom was 29 years old and was about to send her first born off to his first day of school. I remember this.

I turn 59 today and it's really weird to look at a picture of me, looking back at me, that is at the other end of my life. I don't plan of leaving this existence any time soon, but the bulk of my life does lie between that boy and and me. What a long strange trip it's been.

The school building was a block and a half away. My mom walked with me to school the first two or three days and then followed me, out of sight, for the next week or two, until she was confident that I wouldn't get lost. Then I was on my own.