Red on the Head

I haven't posted in a while. Haven't had anything much to post on this most personal blog. I'm now writing eight blogs a week at my new job, and that's been a sometimes daunting task. But I'm enjoying it...in addition to all the new things I'm doing at work. I'm learning a lot of new skills, and that's been fun.
I recently visited my niece, who just graduated from her pre-k class at Van Dyke Day School in Tampa. Cap and gown stuff. Wow. I remember when it was a big deal to don the cap and gown when you graduated from high school. Now, it's old hat. Literally. By the time you graduate from high school these days, you've worn the old mortarboard so many times you've worn the tassel down to a nub. It just seems to me that so many celebrations steal the luster of the moment, you know?
Not that it wasn't a precious moment. I didn't get to go because it happened in the middle of the week and I had to work. But I have a new 5X7 of a little girl with a huge grin, wearing a cap and gown.
My niece is now 5 years old. I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday she was a baby with no hair, making goofy faces at her daddy. And now, she's getting ready for kindergarten. Sheesh. Where did the time go?
As she's getting ready to officially start school, I think we're all getting ready as well. It's hard when your baby starts school. I don't have any chil'rens, so I can't relate in that most intimate way...but I understand that it's hard to let go. It's hard to imagine my brother taking his little girl to school on the first day, and leaving her in the care of someone else all day at a new, public school. She's been in a private, church-run day school for the past couple of years...what a big difference that will be for her. When I asked her about the change, she kind of shrugged her shoulders at first. Then, after giving it some thought, she said, "None of my friends will be there." Then she thought some more, and she said, "But it will be okay. I'm a big girl now."
I thought to myself, how very grown up that attitude is. I also thought, how very much I could learn from that attitude. Here's my 5-year-old niece, facing going to a strange place full of strange people, and she's thinking that it'll be okay...just because she's a big girl now.
I am in a strange new place. With people who are becoming less like strangers every day. And it's okay....because I'm a big girl now.
I think my niece already knows the best things kindergarten can teach her...