Trares
Another chapter has come to a close.
Anthony closes out second grade in the coming days. The past few weeks have been a flurry of end-of-year activities familiar with any elementary school parent: music programs, field days, final projects.
Now, with just two more days this coming week (side note — why?), our second-grader will soon be a third-grader.
It has been a good year for Anthony. He’s grown as a reader, a writer, an artist and a mathematician. For the first time ever, he’s happy to plop on the couch and open up a Cat Ninja book for some silent reading. He spent a good chunk of the winter and spring doing research online about tigers, giraffes, sea turtles and other creatures, then writing his own books (complete with illustrations and bindings).
Anthony is excited for his summer break, with dreams of sleeping and lazy days around the house filling his head. But he’s admitted the end of the year comes with a whiff of sadness, too. He’s made some good friends this year, and he’s sad that he won’t get to spend every school day with them.
“What if I never see them again?” he asked us, explaining his distress.
We assured him that he will. Between planned playdates or seeing them around the neighborhood pool, there are plenty of opportunities to hang out, we told him.
But even as we tried to soothe his fears, I realize that might not be 100% true. Certainly, we have phone numbers for his closest friends, who will be coming to his birthday party in July. And my wife has already worked with Anthony’s teacher on a playground meet-up later in June.
Still, I remember how some friends and acquaintances wouldn’t be back to school in the fall. Their families would move away, or they’d enroll in another school. Even the ones who were back might be in another class, limiting how much you’d get to see them. You start to realize people drift apart.
So with all of the ways we’ve already come up with, we’ll work to keep Anthony connected. Not that he’ll have a ton of time to ponder where his friends are. We have trips to the lake planned, soccer camp later in June, a week with his grandparents and more marked down on the calendar.
There will be campouts and fireworks and the aforementioned birthday to fill those summer days.
And before he knows it — and both of his parents do, too — it’ll be time to go back to school. Hopefully, all of his friends will be there to welcome him.
Ryan Trares is a senior reporter and columnist for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
