Today is the First Day of School in our town, and Charlotte officially begins her career as a schoolchild as she starts first grade. Of course, “school” is not a new experience for her at all, since her CV already has a long list of previous attendance. That’s a far cry from how I began first grade, back in the fall of 1969. While I had attended a part-time private kindergarten the year before, I had never so much as set foot in an actual classroom.

For the last week or so, the poor kid has been visibly anxious, despite her familiarity with the general routine. It did not help that her last week of summer vacation was a serious change of pace from the rest of the summer — she spent a week at a gymnastics day camp (her school-run day camp having ended its program earlier), and came home every day exhausted from the day-long schedule of physical exercise. She enjoyed it well enough, and once I get a chance to upload it, I will share with you a video of her “talent show” performance on the last day, but they kicked her little ass all week.

She got a chance to see her new classroom last night; the school had an open house for the parents and kids to just come in and explore for a bit. We found her room and her desk (the name placards for all the kids were already laid out), checked out who she would be sitting with and which other kids in her class she might know. She knows a couple of the boys, but she’ll be making all new girl friends. Charlotte is the very antithesis of the child I was — popular, outgoing, confident, and makes friends instantly — she’ll have no problem landing some buddies by the end of the day today. Her “arch-enemy” (her term, not mine) from last year has a different teacher, so that particular rivalry will defuse.

I haven’t met her new teacher yet, but she’s a veteran at it (which probably means she’s about my age). Charlotte’s kindergarten teacher was young enough to be my daughter and only had a couple of years’ experience, but turned out to be quite good. The kindergarten teachers choose which first grade teachers their students will have, so it’s a well-thought selection process to match the kids’ personalities and needs to the right person. A bad teacher-student match is a misfortune that lingers with a kid for years. My brother Tim’s second-grade teacher did not like boys and especially did not like him and he had all he could do to survive that year, and it made him dislike school all the way through.

Charlotte will attend this school through third grade, so the bouncing around of the last couple of years will finally stop. She’ll also get her first real exposure to older kids as she ages through. I can remember being in fourth grade and feeling like the sixth graders were giants at my K-6 elementary school. The effect might not be quite so dramatic for her, but it’s an important widening of her world.

This morning we took the obligatory first-day photos in the driveway before heading to the bus stop at the end of the road. Charlotte was so excited to get going that she made us go to the bus stop a good 20 minutes before the bus was supposed to arrive. When it did, she was only the second kid on the bus that I could see — no pressure of picking a seat-mate on the very first day.

To my surprise, Bridget said that she was feeling overcome with emotion about the morning. Sending her baby off to “real” school for the first time, and all. Since I am usually the sentimental one, I would have expected me to be all blubbery, but my own impression is that we are settling in for the long haul, and that the novelty of school is over for a while. It will not be enough for her just to show up and be polite, she will be learning skills that were only touched on last year, and she will be asked to demonstrate her abilities in those regards. We’ll all need to pay more attention than we did in the past. I have confidence in Charlotte’s ability, but only time will tell if she has the will to work.

I can’t wait to pick her up this afternoon. We have the whole world ahead of us, Charlotte.