This morning, for the first time, my daughter walked out the back door  to catch the high school bus.  It was 6:15, and nearly as dark as midnight.

In our driveway, from behind a cluster of pine trees, I watched her walk down the street. Other teenage forms materialized out of the darkness. I felt a jolt of happiness as D enthusiastically hugged a  girl she’s known from babyhood.  How lucky she is, I thought, to begin high school in the company of friends who have been in her life as long as she can remember.

As I returned to the porch, I saw my husband standing at the office window, which offers a conveniently unimpeded view of the bus stop.  I joined him, and we kept vigil.   Soon the lights of the approaching school bus were visible.  It sighed to a halt, and our daughter, along with the other neighborhood kids, disappeared inside.  We watched the bus turn around, lumber back down the street, make the turn onto the main road, and vanish behind the trees.

It’s been nine very short years since we waved goodbye to that first school bus, the one that carried our little girl off to Kindergarten.  H and I had both been teary-eyed that morning.  Neither of us cried this time, and he didn’t follow the bus in his car, as he did then.  (See Moving up to Middle School, As a Parent, October 2011.)  But we’re at another of life’s crossroads, and we felt  a similar sense of apprehension, and an all too familiar astonishment at the speed of time’s passing.  Now, from experience, we know how quickly these four high school years will zip by. We’ll blink, and suddenly we’ll be empty-nesters.

But I mustn’t let my worries sprint even faster than time.  There is that dicey business of learning to parent our high schooler.  H and I aren’t sure we’re ready to embark on such a work/study program.  We’d really like to be held back a year or two; we may need remedial training.  That’s not an option, unfortunately.  School has begun for all or us, whether we’re ready or not.  I hope that in four years, we can look back and say, collectively, that we passed our courses.

What do you know?  The first school day has ended!   Within the hour, I’ll see the bus returning, bringing my high schooler home.