Fall of 2017 brought three different school start times for our kids. I didn’t even get a picture of Anna because after sleeping in until at least 7:00 all summer long, I was unprepared for what waking up at 5:45 would do to me. Ninth grade means early morning seminary for her and a 6:30 drive to the church. Thank heaven it’s less than five minutes away. I wish I could have caught the smile on her face on camera. It’s going to be a good year for her.
Lily leaves at 7:30, which is no change from last year since she took a first period math class at the junior high (despite still being in 6th grade, which is elementary school here). She was pretty chipper and looked fancy with the wavy hair she sported thanks to the braids I had put in her hair the night before.
Rachel and Eve leave an hour later and were equally excited for the school year to begin. I am so grateful for kids who love learning and for local schools and teachers who facilitate that love. I dropped them off for their first day and hopped in the car to head down to Utah for my “first day of school” at BYU’s Education Week. I hit “eclipse traffic” on the way down – all the Utah peeps who headed up to eastern Idaho to get into the path of totality waited a day to return home and I got to greet them when the freeways merged. It took me an hour to go 10 miles – I felt like I was in California or something. Here’s the view outside my back window:
No matter, I had a fantastic audiobook and I was alone. All alone! Who would have guessed that such freedom would be so exhilarating to me? Ditching my kids on their first day of school, no less.
I spent my first day at Education Week literally running across campus from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. sampling classes across a variety of topics of interest. That night, my dear friend from my mission joined me and we dabbled in more classes, ate delicious asian food (reminiscent of our days in Taiwan), and fed each other good advice and encouragement. It was soul-filling. Every last bit of it.