Our ten-year-old, done with elementary school and on his way to middle school, sat at the kitchen counter one early summer morning,
“You know what I don’t get?” he said to me.
“They start preparing us to be big when we’re only three.
We go to pre-school to get ready for kindergarten,
To kindergarten to get ready for first grade,
To first grade to get ready for second,
Second to get ready for third,
Third to get ready for fourth,
Fourth to ready for fifth,
And fifth for sixth.
Now there’s sixth for seventh,
Seventh for eighth,
then eighth for ninth,
ninth for high school,
high school for college, and
college for your job.”
Our ten-year-old son, with the big blue eyes,
looked at me with clarity and asked,
“When does a three-year-old get to be three?”
—from Living Is for Living: A Caregiver’s Story
Oh Terry, your writing is so beautiful. Hard to believe we have two kids done with college. Matt is a strong and wise young man who will surely journey far in life because you and Doug gave him such strong roots.
What a treat that we knew each other’s kids, and each other, when they were little : )