Well, Cheyenne went back to school this week.  This year she is in 6th grade at a new school. The first day of school (which was Tuesday in West Fargo) she was a tad nervous and decided that she had thought better of middle school and would not remind returning to the much more familiar halls of Westside Elementary.  I can understand that.  Sometimes new places, new things and new experiences can be scary…but as I told Cheyenne, they can also be exhilarating and filled with promise.  I reminded her that while new may equate with unknown – it does not necessarily equate with unpleasant.

Cheyenne halfheartedly accepted my premise, but it did little to dissipate her nervousness.  Indeed, she didn’t even want to get out of the car.  So I did what any good mama would do in such a situation, I offered to get out of the car and go with her into the building.

Well folks, I developed a new scientific theory that day.  A theory that addresses the speed of flight.  A theory that is intended to explain the linkage between extreme social embarrassment and physical momentum.  Here is how this moment in my car played out:

Me: “I’ll just park and go in with you.”

Cheyenne: No words – merely a momentary look of abject horror and then self-ejection from the vehicle in 2.5 seconds.

Cheyenne bolted from the car as if she had just heard the “blastoff” cue in a space shuttle launch sequence.  I don’t know that she had ever moved that quickly before.  It was, in a word – startling.   It happened so quickly that I had to sit at the curb for a moment to reflect upon what had occurred.  It was then that I realized that when faced with the choice of either going fearlessly into something new and different or being seen walking into school with her mother on the first day at a new school, Cheyenne clearly opted for the former…the lesser of evils if you will.

It wasn’t this bad last year.  Last year I was at least allowed to get out of the car and walk into the school even though I had to walk behind Cheyenne without acknowledging that I knew her.  Now the mere thought of my emergence from the vehicle sends her fleeing into the unknown.

I guess my learning curve is a tad slow as at the end of the school day when I picked her up I actually exited the car and stood out on the sidewalk so she could see where I was at.  Regretfully, everyone else could see me as well which was deemed wholly unacceptable.  I was instructed to park around the corner and remain in the vehicle in the future.  Apparently there are new rules for 6th grade and one of them takes into consideration my new status as a social pariah…it may be a long year. 😉

Day four hundred and twenty-three of the new forty – obla di obl da

Ms. C