Aug 27, 2019 3 min read

Yesterday marked yet another first in our journey as parents. Our middle girl had her last first day of school, as she is a senior who will graduate with a certificate in welding from the vo-tech school, and she doesn’t plan to attend college. We are very excited for her to begin her journey.

Simultaneously, our baby started his first day of high school. Although it’s early, his plans are to study vocational agriculture and follow in his dad’s footsteps as a farmer.

Ever since our oldest girl, who is now 21, had her very first day of school some 16 years ago, we have taken a first-day-of-school photo at our front door. A couple shots of our students as individuals, a few with our other kids starting school, shots with mom, and shots with dad have all been taken. It has been fun to see the progression of clothing styles, height changes, hairstyling ability, and how there’s almost always excitement on their faces for the first day of their new chapter.

In years past, our kids have caught the bus around 7 o’clock. Getting up at 6 has afforded plenty of time for picking out clothes, eating breakfast, gathering supplies, and taking these pictures. This year, however, the pickup time was more than 10 minutes earlier than usual.

When we saw the bus coming, I yelled “get to the door for pictures,” and my son said he didn’t have time. I told him there was time for one picture to make my mother’s heart know I hadn’t messed up our tradition. My daughter, who drives to school on days she works, was not in the same rush since she wasn’t required to leave yet. She moseyed over to the door as my son’s anxiety ratcheted up, knowing the driver was now at the stop.

I shouted out, “Look and smile, Son!” And he obliged, twisting around to face me as I pressed the shutter button on my phone.

“One more,” I pleaded.

But he was not willing to make the bus driver wait the extra two seconds, and he turned and left. When I looked at my phone to see the one photo I had managed to get, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. My daughter was standing sideways, yet facing the camera, looking calm and confident and giving me the smile she gives me in pictures before I make her laugh.

My son, on the other hand, looks as though the mere idea of looking at the camera is causing him immense pain. He is grimacing in the way that he does when I’ve requested too many photos in too short a span.

I’ll admit I was extremely displeased with him momentarily. I wanted a photo that would look as adorable as the ones in years past have. It honestly took me a moment to regain my composure over it.

I have now decided to be grateful for the picture. I can still see their first-day-of-school outfits, I can still see the door behind them that allows me to see their height differences, and the face my son is making will forever remind me of just how excited he was to get on the bus for the first day.

So instead of lamenting his lack of a genuine smile, I am embracing that our tradition may have been tweaked slightly, but still stands.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.