Today was a fairly big day for me and my wife. And, I guess, our two kids – but they seemed to be less perturbed about it than we did, so they don’t really count…
As of today, both our son Ewan and our daughter Salem are at school. The “big school”. No more daycare – these days are gone.
Instead, Ewan began grade one, having finished senior kindergarten before the summer break, and Salem started junior kindergarten (JK).
Two big steps in their ongoing evolution from our babies into young children into youth and beyond.
It was a very mixed emotions kind of day.
Pride that our babies are their own very distinctive people. Pride that they’re excited about this new chapter. Pride that they’re discovering more about who they are each day.
Sadness that the daycare years are over, as that’s something that tells us our babies are no longer that. Sadness that this is where perhaps they’ll start to grow a little apart from each other as they discover new friends and independence.
There’s also a feeling of awareness. That this life we have – my wife, our two kids, and me – is one that isn’t ours.
We can’t stop our kids from growing up. We can’t stop our lives from changing as they take the steps that, one day, will see them leave our home and begin to make their own elsewhere.
Neither should we try – or want – to stop them. After all, that’s how we got here.
But it made me realize that no matter what we do, or say, and how we love each other, and help each other grow, this life is still a borrowed one.
There’s no extended warranty. There’s no ownership. There’s no trading it in when we’re tired of it.
This life is all we have. Each part of it – love, sadness, pain, happiness, children, no children, future, past.
So. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the lessons, the takeaways, the growing up.
Make good of what you have now.?One day, it’ll all be gone.
Until then, borrow well.