Like lying in the grass, watching the lightening bugs twinkle and flit above you. Or rolling down the hill at Miller Outdoor Theater. Or running through the sprinklers. Or having a full team for kickball.
Those dusky summer evenings when adults sat in lawn chairs, and we ran around with water guns.
I can't get those back. They are gone...forever. Swallowed up into the gaping mouth that was Fall.
Just the word....Fall. It makes me nauseous.
Your hopes are falling. Your fun is falling. Your life is tumbling into an abyss of pencil, paper, "quiet water, still water", and math.
I think my mom forgot to tell me school was starting until she walked me to the bus stop. Maria was with us.
"Maria is starting Kindergarten today," Mom announces proudly and excitedly.
Maria is smiling, and I am looking at her like she has drunk the koolaid.
"And Kara is starting second grade."
WHAT?!!??!! Whoa, there. Slow down, boy! "What are you sayin', Mom?" I almost scream at her.
She raises a brow as if to say, "Deal with it. You'll be fine."
Oh, my Lord. It's starting again! Does it never end?
As a voice above me whispers, "No.", I realize there was nothing I could do about this hamster wheel I was on. They'd beaten me. I was a student, and I was going to school. No manner of wishin', hopin', or prayin' would change it. So, I might as well bear it.
I look down at my sister and see that hopeful gleam in her eye. She gazes up at me, unafraid because I am beside her.
Standing a little straighter, I decide I could handle anything for the sake of my sister. Even school.