Riding the Yellow Limousine

School started this week around here. Traffic is way up in the morning and it takes me longer to get to work. People are talking about their kids or their grand kids going to school. A coworker of mine talked about her son's first day of kindergarten on Tuesday. He marched right onto the bus full of positive energy. Her story reminded me of Offspring #1's first day of school. He jumped right on that bus with his blue corduroy overalls. I was left at the bus stop, camera in hand, wiping the tears from my eyes. I waited until he couldn't see me before I cried. I knew that first trip on the school bus began a journey we could not postpone or delay. After kindergarten comes first grade. After first grade comes second grade. He was marching his way out of the house already. His first day of school was a huge deal for me; a rite of passage for both of us. The first time I had to call the school and tell them he would be absent because he had a fever I was holding my breath. It wasn't until I hung up the phone that I realized I was worried they wouldn't believe me. They did believe me. I was the mother. I had the authority to call him in sick. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was trying to skip school myself? If the school believed me when I said my son was too sick to come to school, I must really be an adult now. So when it came time for Offspring #2 to go to school, I knew from my first experience that this was a very big deal. And I wanted to prolong the event. Again, I took the day off work. Again I waited at the bus stop with the camera. She had the cutest red dress with puffy sleeves. Again, I surreptitiously wiped the tears away. This time I didn't go to work right away. I got in my car and followed the school bus. Big. Mistake. Kids were all over that bus. They weren't sitting quietly in their seats. They were running up and down the aisles and waving limbs out the windows. Items were flying through the air. If that wasn't bad enough, the bus stopped at the wrong school. The older kids got out while the kindergartners stayed on. Offspring #2 went to a school that had only kindergarten classes. I think they had ten or twelve classrooms full of 5 and 6 year old children. Visiting there was surreal - sort of like Dorothy in Munchkin Land. Once the bus stopped at the wrong school, I gave up following it. I didn't warn her not to get off on the first stop because I didn't know that would happen. And if she did get off, there was nothing I could do about it. There were just too many kids, too many buses, and too many cars. I just turned my car around and went to work, hoping she would figure it out. I worried all morning. It wasn't until I took her picture coming off the bus on the first day of school that I could relax. I vowed never to follow a school bus ever again.