Another Couple Bricks in the Wall

Ah, that magical time of year known as the First Day of School, when children of all ages are marched into those hallowed halls of learning in that vaguely defined hope that, with a lot of hard work, kicking, and screaming, they will advance the football of academic achievement and personal growth a few more yards down the proverbial field.

My daughter, Kaiya, is now in grade 5, which makes me feel a lot older than it probably should. It's a weird thing to think about. She's at the point now where her stream of consciousness will now be largely uninterrupted as she is swept downstream towards adulthood. My own memories (unfortunately) reach back with decent accuracy to fourth grade. She's at the point now where her experiences will form an integral part of who she will grow into, which means however much I worried about her before, it isn't nearly enough now. It also means I can't fuck around too much: from now on, any of the multitude of ways I could possibly screw up will now theoretically be the subject of a therapy session some time in the future.