School's Out For Summer

I was driving home today and passed all the kids exiting Coral Cliffs Elementary. It was 12:30 and the last day of school and it was just a kick to watch the kids jump, dance, gather in small groups or celebrate their last trek home of the year in whatever fashion the 5-11 yr crowd felt like. I got that feeling inside-- the last day of school feeling. I'm not even a student and I still felt it. It feels like excitement and accomplishment and freedom and anticipation, all rolled up into a bundle that only exists between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I always loved school; and it always felt so comfortable to have my life framed by the school year calendar. I loved the first day of school, I loved the new clothes, the new classes and new teachers--- I loved the end of grading periods and vacations. I think part of me becoming a teacher can quite easily be attributed to this textbook-love-affair. There was an odd time period in my life when I felt slightly out of sorts, and now I can pinpoint why. From age 4-18, I was in public school. Then from 18-22, in college. From 22-25, I taught high school. But between 25 and 30, I was at home with Madelin and Megan. Which was a great job, no doubt, but they weren't old enough to be in school and I was no longer in school. It was weird. What made weekends special if there wasn't school during the week? Did Christmas vacation and spring break even exist? They didn't really-- I had to find other paradigms to manage my schedule and life. But then moved to St. George; I worked in a school for a couple years and both Madelin and Megan started school. Ohhhh!!! Here was the familiar tide table of my life. Here was the framework I loved so much. And now we have been on 'school-time' for a number of years now and I have grown so accustomed to it that I forgot what it felt like not to have it. But when that end-of-school feeling came to me today, I spent the next few minutes thinking about why I could still feel that way-- which is where all this came from. So I guess the school-year is my touchstone. It pretty much embodies most of the things I love-- my girls, learning, teaching. It gives a sense of proportion-- there is a beginning, there are specific requirements, an assessment and then accounting at the end. It all makes so much sense; my kind of structure.

(I just realize I wrote a paragraph that included the words "paradigm", "framework" and "touchstone". Uggh! I really should edit out all that existential cr@p, but I am feeling too lazy to rewrite it. School's out, remember??)