BECAUSE she was a Sycamore!!!
She was a Sycamore. Skyla’s last day at her first real school was
this week. She spent a couple of great
years there and the experiences helped form her into what we see today. She has skills and knowledge I didn’t even
know or understand until a much more advanced age when I was a child. She is more confident around others. She can create amazing works of art whether
it is a song, a drawing, a clay mold or scraps of whatever she finds wrapped
around and contorted to form some fantastical creature or scene. The teachers have taken her under their wing,
the students have understood her and the parents have truly cared.
Last day of first grade!
I am not going to lie.
It was a hard day. I went into
the day busy as ever and not really thinking about it. I even went to the end of year picnic the day
prior and was ok. But, when I was
driving there the last day to pick up my little girl, who I knew couldn’t
return to the school she knew so well and loved even more because we just couldn’t do it as a family, it
hit. Somewhere on I-69 South a passing
car looked at me and thought “What in the world?”
I knew I had to be strong for my girl and I had no idea how
she was going to be. I splayed what
sleeping children I could over my shoulders and headed for the front door. Journey spotted Skyla way before I did and
she ran up with big smiles. We hugged
and then I asked if she wanted pictures with any of her friends and her eyes
welled up. The Head of Lower School approached
us and knelt down to tell Skyla goodbye and Skyla and I both lost it.
It was real then, we really were leaving. After some calming breaths and convincing
ourselves that we looked silly we headed in and found some friends that hadn’t
left yet.
Sky's teacher was also retiring this year after being a founding teacher over 20 years ago at the school.
We walked through the halls
one more time and ran into a good friend and her daughters and well, goodbyes
are NOT my thing and the tears came. The
whole time Skyla was a mess saying, “I don’t want to leave my school, mommy”,
“I love it here”, “I want my friends here!”
We stayed a bit until she was ready and then we walked out
to the van and stopped by the glass window for one last picture.
We went out for dinner and ice cream, but during her grace
she began to cry again while thanking God for all the wonderful things Sycamore School
We are thankful.
I am thankful for a place that understood how to teach my daughter at
such a critical time in her learning. I
am thankful for the lessons of patience, determination and decision. I am thankful for a million and more
experiences she had. I am thankful for
the beautiful friendships she made and for her first “love” that she has held onto now for nearly two years and I know
there will be books of pictures to come for years with drawings of the two of
them in it. (How many times we have said, “He is a boy that is a friend, NOT a
‘boyfriend’”)
I am thankful for the people I met there. Sometimes, by seemingly random draw, you meet
people that challenge and change the paths of your life. I met some of those people here. Some kicked around dirt on my path ahead and
some bulldozed whole new paths. I can
never forget those people and though I am not great and telling people, I hope you know who you are. I desperately
want to stay in touch with our old sycamore family and I hope we do. These kids of ours have great futures ahead
of them and I would love to see all the places they go.
Goodbye Sycamore, and though I am not sure what our next
road will look like, I am certain we too will go onward and upward!
Here are a couple more sycamore memories recently made…
First Grade Concert
Jog-A-Thon!
1 comment:
Sycamore is such a specific fit. It seems like an endless list of things that must fall into place for it to work. Most families there evaluate it on a year to year basis. Wherever Skyla goes, she'll take Sycamore with her. It will be how she learns, and how she approaches the world. And of course friends stay friends! See you soon!
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