When school starts

 School started today as kids shed their swimsuits for uniforms. Bicycles and school buses competed for the road, and crossing guards smiled and asked each child their name. Backpacks looked like a sea of colors winding through the neighborhoods on a mission to carry the weight of books and assorted necessities. Some contained bagged lunches and comic books to share with buddies during study hall. Girls' packs held enough makeup to open a cosmetics counter. The first day meant locker assignments that sometimes meant a popular kid getting the locker next to a nobody and sometimes a perfect match who could end up king and queen at homecoming. The top shelves and the inside of the locker door were filled with pictures, good luck charms, stickers of a favorite band, and emergency cans of deodorant needed after gym class.

Homeroom was when everyone sized each other up, scouting out potential new friends and welcoming back those who had just returned from summers spent at grandparents'.Teachers were either returning for another year and pointing out the brothers and sisters they had taught last year or, in some cases, the parents they had taught years ago. Some were just your average teachers, the men in sport coats and ties, crew cuts and shined shoes. The lady teachers in dresses they probably made themselves and medium-heeled shoes that made a thudding sound as they moved around the classroom in search of violations. And then there was that one first-year teacher who would stop you in your tracks. She walked into the room, and everything got very quiet as she wrote her name on the blackboard, while every red-blooded boy fell in love.
Lunchtime was chaos as older kids shoved you out of a chair they wanted or took your dessert. It was like a big version of musical chairs. But once the dust settled, everyone knew their place and sat where they belonged. The jocks at one table, the nerds at another. The really smart kids, and of course the bullies, tucked away in the back, ready to strike at any moment.
Back in school days, you felt so many emotions that had nothing to do with book learning; it was a time when you were thrown to the wolves and expected to survive, all while being pressured by parents to try harder. Year after year, as you climbed the ladder to senior year, you grew up both physically and emotionally, eventually becoming the leaders of the pack that first-year students strove to become. Senior proms and backseat make-out sessions, getting sick on spiked fruit punch, and dreaming of futures that meant college for some and the trades for others. Some chose the military; others chose a semester abroad or a year off backpacking across Europe.
Now, as decades have passed, I'll bet I'm not the only man or woman who stops in front of the school or schools we both hated and loved. Listen hard, and you'll hear the bell and the sounds of shoes going from class to class, sometimes the sound of books falling to the floor, only to be picked up by the boy you've secretly liked from the beginning. Think about the crossing guards and maintenance people who fought a losing battle to keep things in order. Or the cafeteria workers who smiled at you, thinking you were having a bad day, and gave you an extra dessert.All those moments in time you wouldn't change for anything.

Mike 2026

Mike  2026