First Day of School

So I guess it is a milestone.  We have a senior in high school.  Today was the first day of school.  I’ve heard and seen how this affects some parents.  They post pics of their kid as a senior and as a kindergartener along with something about how the time went so fast. Or they talk about they can’t believe their oldest is a senior and how college is right around the corner.

And I suppose all of that is true.  Retrospectively, the time did seem to go fast.  Although when you’re catching baby vomit comprised of milk and peas in your sweatshirt, or changing poopy diapers for a kid with rotavirus at 4 a.m., you’re less nostalgic about the time flying by.  Because the truth is, for me anyway, I kinda like having them as teenagers.  Yes, having three girls between the ages of 13-17 (soon to be 14-18) in the house means there are long episodes of rampant unexplainable behavior that serves no purpose – I blame smartphones – but you are able to have conversations about stuff that doesn’t involve Disney princesses.  I like this.  For example, when I explain to them that socialism, when implemented, is simply stealing.   Because it is immoral to steal from people even if you vote to steal from people.  If I’m in a room with two other people and I have a $100 and the other two vote to take my money – regardless of their reasons or economic standing, that doesn’t mean it is moral to do it.  Done.  That’s socialism.  Plus they can pick each other up from all their own damn activities instead of treating Mom and I like free Uber.  I count that stuff as win.

Our newly minted senior got home from school today and told us it went pretty good. She added that it was kinda weird.  When I asked her to elaborate, she really didn’t have an explanation other that it was weird being older than the rest of the school.  You never think of yourself as a “senior” until you are I suppose.  But Mom and I quickly and decisively let her know that senior year is awesome.

Here, let me explain…

Even though we were in different high schools and in different states, we both count the ’87-’88 school year as our senior year.  In August of ’87, the inexplicably hot Sheena Easton was singing U Got The Look with Prince.  Here’s a pic:

I’m not sure Mom places the same nostalgic importance on Sheena Easton’s hotness that I do, you’d have to ask her, but it was a big deal to me.  Plus, and this isn’t to be understated, we were also about to be entertained by Arnold in The Running Man. Which, as I’ve argued previously, needs to be on the list of remakes for Hollywood.  I mean if they can put together financing for remakes of Total Recall, Red Dawn and The Karate Kid, why in the name of all that is holy can they not find the cash to remake The Running Man.  Travesty.  Crime against Gen X.

And, in an ironic twist, all the seniors were wearing these:

Yeah, they are evidently cool again.  But I’ve been told that much like my shredded Levi’s jean shorts from 1991, I cannot wear one.  But our senior is wearing my old one.  Now its not the same one I had in 1987. That one didn’t survive my first semester in college. Unless its still in the trunk of that Ford Tempo…hmmm.  But she is wearing its successor. Yeah, I kept it in the hopes that one day it would be cool again.  Took almost 30 years but I was right.  Unfortunately I now have a senior who not only found it, she confiscated it.   And she’s put a bunch of pins on it.  Including a Nirvana pin which makes me visibly agitated any time I see it.  Like when somebody defends the inclusion of Rutgers and Maryland in the Big 10.  I mean Nirvana helped to usher in the end of hair metal.  And for that, there is no forgiveness.

But, hey, here’s to senior year!