Introducing...my older daughter, the delightful Miss J. She is thirteen, tall, blond and blue eyed, affectionate, witty, talented, is great with little kids, smart and compassionate. I'm very proud of who she is, and not only do I adore her, I also really really really like her. She has started high school this year, and is attending a public high school near Perth that is geared towards educating bright kids.
I think Miss J starting high school has been much harder on me than it has been on her. My daughter heading off every day to cross busy main roads, catch a train, walk again across more busy roads and into the school. She is very responsible and level headed, so I know she will be careful...she assured me herself that she has no wish to be squished. I trust her, but I don't necessarily trust the world around her...those drivers that run red lights, people who are pushy or mean, not to mention those that have desires to do awful things to children. All possibilities of how to avoid harm have been carefully thought out and arranged....using high visibility streets - not the back roads, walking with friends - not alone, having a mobile phone with plenty of credit to call mum with, etc etc. It is still hard to let go. My fears have needed more conquering than hers. I found it very difficult to tread that line of making her street savy, and allowing her to retain that innocence she still has about her environment being wonderful.
Then there were all my fears about high school itself. How would she go with making new friends (only one other girl from her primary school has gone with her), not to mention how would she deal with the older teenagers? Would they be nice to her? How would she cope academically ?- she was a big fish in a very small pond, now she is an average fish in an ocean.
Well, Miss J is at the end of her fifth week of high school....and everything is just fine, actually, more than fine. She is coping well with the travel, and in fact has discovered the joy of people watching, telling me all about the guy whose piercings were symmetrical all the way down his face...the other kids she catches the train with, and is relishing the new found sense of independence. She is making friends, a couple of girls she mainly hangs with, but new friends in all of her classes. She likes her teachers....said that her head clicks with her maths teachers, her music teacher is very funny and a bit hyper, her english teacher has a nose piercing like me and is lovely etc. She has joined the debating competition, inter-school tennis and a maths competition. She is organising her way around the school, finding her niche, making herself at home. And then today, the postcard bomb.
A whole heap of the new year eight students have their lockers in one particular building. Most of their classes are in this building...it's well known that it's year eight territory. About half way through the day today, they went to their lockers to find that a postcard had been shoved through the vents, into each of their lockers. The front of the postcards were all the same.....one of those free art postcards that you can pick up in cafes and cinemas. On the back of each, was a different, hand written message. This is what Miss J got...
"Our lives are not judged by the breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away". Other kids got messages about loving, forgiveness, appreciating beauty and laughter, and in one case, that "Mr D is an awesome teacher!" The handwriting on each was different too....obviously a group effort. We don't know who organised this, whether it was a teacher or one of the older kids in the school, but I'm not that worried any more about how the older kids treat the younger ones.
And my girl?.......she is fine....my girl is just fine.
xxx
