Oi Mithai,
This is you now. Beautiful, smart, weird in your own ways ... you are growing up to be an awesome person with a uniqueness that I am very proud of ... we all are ...
You're as moody as a 4 year old is I guess, sometimes that gets to me, but hey, what's parenting if you don't have to deal with some of these.
You really like to be a princess. A regular day with your request to dress up as a princess and your mamma always indulges. An example is right here ...
Anyways, the reason for the new post after so long ... a new phase of your life started a couple of weeks ago ... you are now in Junior KG ... in your new school. You have liked this school since Vihaan started going there, and we went to the pool for a couple of swims. This is where you always wanted to go ... we too liked the school for different reasons. That's a story for another time.
I am very proud of how awesome you were about school ... right from day one. This is when you grew up a little more at one shot. Let me tell you why ...
So far, we have held your hand all the way to school and let it go only about 10 ft from your classroom. You have been in the warm comfort zone of your life, your parents' and thammu's arms ... almost all the steps we've been there. You yourself have always been very cautious and safety minded and would get very hassled when you didn't see us around. Especially when it involved going somewhere.
But for school you had to be picked up by what you like to call "School cab", about 30 minutes before school and be dropped outside school where you had to walk in about 200 tiny steps and a couple of flights of stairs to your classroom ... Junior KG (G). You hadn't done such a long journey in a new place by yourself ever before. We knew that, and you did too. I was a little worried, but I knew if you didn't get scared, you were witty enough to make your way through to your class... your mamma knew that too ... but she was kinda worried till you got back home.
Anyways, the first day we wanted to go see how things were, so we followed your cab to school and saw you get off. You were the first one to be helped down from the cab, and as soon as you got down you turned around and grabbed hold of Lakshmi's hand. Lakshmi is from our apartment building and was in Sr KG, and knew her way around. You and her held hands and walked towards school. Your mamma and I showed ourselves to you to give you confidence, but you were focused on getting this right so you didn't pay much attention. In your eyes I saw the fear of the unknown and the determination to conquer it ... you knew you were on your own and had figured out the resources at your disposal.
I was heart-broken to see you having to fend for yourself, with a thumping heart that I could feel from far away because I know you. I could almost mirror all the emotions you were going through, in my mind. But then this is one of the many times we have to let you fend for yourself, to help you be self-reliant and ready for the world.
At the same time I was proud of you that you chose to brave through all these, as you were looking forward to school, and you wouldn't let a little fear stand in the way.
On the way back, we went to see how you get picked up from school by the cab guys and how the school coordinates that. We saw you sitting with your class. When you saw me, you thought the day's fending-for-yourself was over, and wanted to come to me. But since the cab was supposed to pick you up, I had to ask you to be where you were. You didn't protest, and went back to where you were. It made me sad, but I didn't want to set wrong expectations. I knelt down and asked you how the day was, and you introduced me to a few friends. You saw mamma and managed to still stay at your place. Then the cab people came and picked you up.
On the way back, you had your friend from your old school ... Addu ... you both were very excited to see each other. When I saw you guys together, I realized you will be fine ... not because Addu was there, but you have figured out what fun school buses can be with friends.
That's what school is ... a place to explore all the avenues, have fun, create memories and make a good human being out of yourself.
School will be a lot of things, not everything will be nice, but all of it put together will give you wonderful memories, hopefully the kind that you don't get tired of talking about. Just like we do ... of our school days.
All the best Mithai (your favorite name from me so far) ... experience life with an open heart and mind. Take chances, learn new things, have fun ... if things go wrong, they will be temporary, and most importantly, we'll be there to help.
So go be awesome.
Love
Baba
P.S. I clicked some photos from your first day at VIBGYOR ... they are happy and vibrant ... that's exactly how you'd like to remember the first day at school ... isn't it?
