The Kid has just completed the first week of middle school! This is the first year that school has ended late enough that I get to pick her up after school instead of relying on daycare. I don’t know who was more excited about school starting – her or me. I got there with locker decorating supplies in hand on Monday so that we could decorate her painfully empty locker. Apparently the latest craze in decorations is to wallpaper your locker and put all kinds of magnetic decorations, flowers, cup holders, et al in there. The Kid went with a sky blue wallpaper with large white polka dots on it. She also got matching blue flower magnets, a white board, and two coordinating cup holders. There were other girls with cute pink prints, zebra designs and other fashionable wallpapers.
After the locker was decorated, we had to run by Academy Sports to get the rest of the list of items for gym. They obviously were mistaken when they told us all we needed was a gray shirt and black shorts. There was an entire list of items we needed to purchase. We got everything but black sweatpants since sweats are hard to find in Texas when it’s 105 degrees outside. I have no problem waiting another few weeks to purchase those. I also managed to work my way through the massive pile of papers I needed to sign and forms I needed to fill out. I have a feeling there are more coming this next week.
Thankfully Adam, my trainer, was out of town and switched my usual Monday workout to Tuesday. As exhausted as I was, I don’t think I could have eeked out a workout with full energy. It was all I could do to walk Thing Two and climb into bed. Homework is in full swing even though it was the first week. There was homework every night and more to do this weekend. The Kid is horrified at the rudeness of the teachers for doing this, while I am secretly excited that she is finally being challenged. I will say I’m glad that I have the mental capability so far to actually help with homework. It is strange to me though that they are doing the same things I did years ago, but calling it differently. There are some things I know how to do once I figure out that’s what they are asking. Is there a committee somewhere that periodically renames all the school instructions and terms every 20 years?
I always love the first day of school. It’s like a new start without having to wait until New Years. Goals are set, there are new people to meet, friends to make. Plus cooler weather is just around the corner. It’s also a reminder that you don’t have to wait for January 1st to set new goals. You can choose any day that’s meaningful as your start date. A Monday, your birthday, first day of school, first day of the month. There are tons of firsts all year to get a fresh start, set your goals, and get working towards them. I saw a great quotation from Christine Dwyer on Twitter this week that really should be taken to heart.
“If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.” I’m going to try to live that each day because it makes perfect sense. It’s one of the reasons that I decided to do the contest. I want The Kid to see that you have to work hard for something that’s important to you. If you want it badly enough, anything is possible regardless of age, state of body, state of mind. It’s never too late to start or to get a fresh start if past attempts have failed. No excuses.
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