Optimist Rules
There is nothing more perfect than the first few days of school. Every pencil is sharp. Every item is neatly in place. Notebooks are blank, ready to be filled with brilliance, or at least some pretty cool doodling.
We arrived at school early and already everyone was vowing to get to school early every day.
This is what happens when you’re a family of optimists. A family of realists probably accepts that early arrival is strictly a first week thing. They blast right through the first week completely delusion free, mentally prepared for a year peppered with tardy slips, lost homework, and mismatched socks.
But with optimists it’s all possible. We can get there at 7:05 am! We can ignore the fact that it’s completely dark outside. True, my theory has always been that if God wanted us up that early, he’d have the lights on. But who cares! It’s a new age! We’ve got alarms, enthusiasm, a passion for learning, and plenty of sugary cereal. We can do it!
The first week of school there’s no homework, but already there are promises to get it done the minute we arrive home, thrilled with the very idea of spelling, math, and science. It’ll be a breeze, we’ll get through all of it so fast it won’t even feel like homework. It’ll be a joy, pure joy!
The first week of school backpacks are neatly hung up, lunch is made in plenty of time and in the refrigerator, outfits are selected and set aside.
It’s like some sort of Disney movie complete with soundtrack and happy meal tie in. I can just imagine it. Kid run into the fast food place to see what the toy is and oh look! It’s the Organized Prosapios! Let’s get the whole set! Look this one comes with a clean car! And the little one – look she’s got the cutest matching shoes! And the big girl, her hair is brushed beautifully!”
Of course in a month we’ll be back in reality TV land with last minute scrambles for hairbrushes, signed permission slips, and homework finished off on the car ride. If there was a fast food tie in to that reality, it would probably feature duct tape, some crushed crackers, an inside out t-shirt, and four dozen socks that don’t match.
But that’s October. For now, everything is still possible.
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