It was a little after 7 o’clock on Wednesday morning and the sun was still sipping its morning coffee and seemed not worried at all about breaking through a cloud-covered sky.
The first day of school had a decidedly autumn feel.
That’s the way it always used to be, back when school started about a week before the first official day of fall. Now, the school year starts with nearly six weeks of summer left on the books. Funny how things change.
Then again, it’s funny how things remain the same: New shoes. Lunch boxes. Yellow school buses. Backpacks stuffed with school supplies.
And smiling faces.
Yes, the vacation may be over, but there’s something about a new school year that still brings a smile to a child’s face.
Fatima Licea, minutes away from starting her high school career, smiled brightly as she posed in front of the Turlock High School sign on Canal Drive as her mother, Lizzeth, snapped photos.
“Are you excited about starting high school?” Licea was asked.
“Yeah,” she replied. “I’m most excited about sports. I’m playing tennis and softball this year.”
“Are you nervous, at all?”
“Yeah, I’m really nervous.”
Her older sisters, Montserrat and Gimena, graduated from Turlock High last May. Certainly, she must wish they were around to show her the ropes.
“No, not really,” she said flatly.
A few minutes later, walking from Julien Elementary School toward THS on the south side of Canal Drive, Michael Madruga and Lauren Bettencourt had just dropped off their kids – fourth-grader Johnny and transitional kindergartener Althea.
“How’d that go?” the couple was asked.
“Easier for them than for us,” said Madruga.
“They were very excited,” added Bettencourt, who teaches chemistry at THS. “I’m going to throw myself into work, and it’s a minimum day so we get to pick them up early. But they’re pretty psyched.”
“I was hoping that I’d get to take a nap at home and enjoy the quiet, but I’ve got a few things going this morning,” Madruga said. “But we’re looking forward to the routine and the early bedtimes and easy wake-times, because the summer sleep-in schedule has been good, but it’s also been hard.”
Soon, Wednesday morning turned into what seemed like any other school day, with traffic creeping up and down Canal Drive between Main and Johnson streets, kids meandering through the crosswalks, and parents dropping off their students along side streets.
The bell has rung, kids. Classes are in session. But don’t be glum. June will be here before you know it.
