I
have a video of Sam as a pre-schooler in the Swedesboro/Woolwich
district. It was filmed during a Mother’s day tea. I can see all of his
friends, much smaller of course, miniature versions of themselves,
today. The camera pans the pre-schools bright yellow walls which are
lined with drawings of each mom, created with crayon and filled with
love.
They sang songs for us that day, and their voices
rang out, touching our hearts.
The video goes on to the next month, June, and
pre-school graduation day. There are the same children, Conor, Kyle,
Paul, Vinnie, Devin, Tyler, just to name of few of the children, who now
seven years later will be saying good-bye to their grammar school days,
and in a way, saying good-bye to childhood.
So this is a letter to
all of those children...the Walter Hill School Class of 2007
Just a few short years ago, you donned a back pack
and climbed on a school bus. Did you know then what adventures awaited
you? Could you have imagined the friends you would meet?
You were filled with apprehension, some of you
clinging to the legs of your mothers, other, like my son, who was so
filled with anticipation that I don’t think he even noticed when I left
him there.
And guess what? We, your parents, were filled with
the same apprehension you felt, and feeling pretty sad about our babies
who were growing up so fast. We worried about bullies, about whether
you’d eat your lunch, what would happen if you fell on the playground,
if you’d make friends easily and if you’d like your teacher.
We are feeling the same way again, only this time,
we are sending you into a whole other world, one in which you will not
want us to play a part. Sure, we still worry about the bullies, but the
bullies are much bigger now.
You, on the other hand, are excited. Already
feeling grown up, you are anxious to find out what awaits you. You want
to rush right through to be a teenager, to go to dances, to drive a car.
You want to be grown up, but do you know what? Some day you will wish to
be a child again.
Not long ago, we were your best friend, the one who
you told all of your secrets to. You aren’t sharing your secrets
anymore. You share them with your new best friends.
We are an embarrassment to you, but having been
through this before, I know that someday, you will like us again.
There will be times when you will get mad at us for
not letting you do things that you want to do, and you will say that you
hate us. We know you won’t mean it.
And we also know that someday, you’ll realize that
we said “no” because we loved and cared about you. Someday, you will
realize that no one will ever love you as much as we do.
Yes, there are many great days ahead of you. Your
whole future is an adventure waiting to unfold. You may find new
friends, some of your old friends may move away.
But remember that best friends are the ones that
shared childhood with you, and know that you will carry those memories
with you for life.
So when the school bell rings at the Walter Hill
School on the last day of school, and the playground stands empty of
you, and the last traces of your laughter linger in the empty hallways,
as the bus pulls away, look back for just a moment.....before you look
ahead.
