Last day of school

I'm feeling mixed emotions about the last day of school.

On the one hand, I'm soooo ready to be done - so ready to move on with my life, to begin using all this knowledge I've attempted to cram into my head. On the other hand, it's going to be really strange. I can barely remember my first day of school - I always think of it in terms of this photograph, taken just before my mother took the curlers out of my hair and got me into my frilly dress to meet the bus:

And now, that long journey is over. Twenty years. 80% of my life. Basically all of my life that I can remember.

And yet, I'm poised at such an interesting place. I'm about to be a mother, and in six short years or so I'll be taking the curlers out of my own daughter's hair, putting her in her own frilly dress. It really seems lately like all of the looking backward I've been doing (and it feels like I've been doing a lot) leads me to look forward. I remember bits of my childhood and think about Eden experiencing those same things. I can't wait to have Granny let her go through her jewelry box, to have Mema let her put makeup on, to have her cuddle with her daddy on the couch and watch TV, maybe to give her grandpa a foot massage. I can't wait to read to her, to have her "read" to me, and discover together the magic of words. And I can't wait till her first day of school. The really weird thing is thinking about her last day of school. When will that be? What will she be? Where will she be? Who will she be?

Heh - sorry for the twisted path this post has taken. It's sort of how my mind wanders these days. See, this post was supposed to be all about nostalgia for the days of my past, and especially about how law school has been both strange and totally normal, both quick and ridiculously slow, both incredibly hard and such a breeze, all at the same time. But I have baby on the brain. Get used to it, I guess. :) This little one is pretty much all I have room for in there. Everything loops back to her. And I love it.