By DEBBIE JOHNSON
www.HippieChickChronicles.com
www.EyeRollDiaries.com 

Normally, when Wal-Mart switches out the sunscreen and pool toys for back packs and pencils I feel the familiar back- to- school panic! Soon, I will be packing lunches, checking behind kids to makes sure they are keeping up with school work, and other school related tedium. When I see little children excited to begin a new school year, I am awed at how quickly time marches on. I know they will be teenagers oh so soon!

I admit my back to school thoughts this year are different than in years past. My son is a senior in high school, and I remember very clearly the year he started kindergarten. My son was not exactly thrilled to begin kindergarten. I remember the second week of school with me pulling him kicking and screaming into my car to be dropped off in the carpool line.  I also remember a conversation that I had with my daughter when she was about 3 or 4 years old. Somebody we knew was going away to college, and she couldn’t understand that they didn’t come home to eat dinner and sleep at home. She proudly announced that she wasn’t going to college! I knowingly smiled and told her I wouldn’t be mad if she changed her mind.

Each year since then has brought slightly different school preparations for our family. Years ago, I could no more imagine leaving my kids at a far away campus than my daughter could imagine not reading her cherished bedtime books with momma and daddy.  This summer, we visited college campuses! From the first steps down the kindergarten hallway to the long hallways in high school, our kids walk with greater and greater confidence. Soon, they begin to walk their own journey. Each milestone moves us toward the day we leave them at their chosen college campus. They begin to function with greater and greater independence. I can see that my son and his friends are ready for this transition. That makes me happy and sad. He won’t live with us much longer, but I know that he is about to take some giant steps toward his much anticipated independence.  It won’t be long before I won’t need to make the yearly journey to purchase carts full of paper, pens, and binders!

Debbie Johnson is a Milton mom of two & the writer of EyeRollDiaries.com & HippieChickChronicles.com. She has been married for 20 years & manages her husband’s dental office. Johnson also co-founded the Milton Sweet Tea Society.