And so begins a fresh chapter of education for my B's, and they are officially the "new kids on the block" at Harrisburg High and Middle Schools. It hasn't been an easy transition, of course, because change is always hard and being new is never easy. Labor Day Monday was spent in a state of sadness that summer is over and fear of the unknown. Lots of hugs and reassurances were given. But yesterday, the first day of school, was survived and now they are onto the second day. 
Britt seemed to fair better than Brailey, and he is the one we have been worried about all summer, as he did NOT want to change schools. But he rallied himself and after the Open House last week, he said, "You know, I'm actually looking forward to learning in English for once. Because I like History, but it is hard to really understand it when you learn about it in Spanish." After school yesterday, he came to the car with another boy that he met, and although he told us his day was "okay," he then went on to tell us a number of positives that had happened. First of all, he has already found the basketballers. He is in! Secondly, he is the tallest kid in the school and the basketball team is happy to have him, even though they haven't seen him play. Third and perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was the fact that he now gets a recess. He hasn't had a recess since fifth grade! He is also very happy to have a Study Hall class at the end of his day so he can get all his homework done. As we dropped him off this morning, he had a spring in his step and was excited. That will make a mother cry, let me tell you. Tears of joy!
As you can see, he still has some goofy and fun to him, even when he is nervous. (He will kill me when he discovers I posted the picture above, but I couldn't resist!)
Brailey came to the car after school a little sadder than Britt and with a few tears - it was much harder than she had anticipated. After the horrendous year she suffered last year, I think she thought this would be a lot easier. But being new is never easy, and when you are painfully shy, as she is, it is even harder. She started Cross Country last week, which was a big help to her, because she met some people. She came to the car after her first practice and said, "They were all so nice! I can't believe how nice they all were!" That was encouraging, to say the least. She likes most of her classes, and she has a couple really fun ones - horticulture and woodshop! Sadly, she ate lunch by herself, but then at the end she forced herself to reach out to some other girls, and at the very end of the day, she met a girl that she really liked. Hopefully today will go better. This is a great time for her to learn how to overcome her shyness and to really jump out of that comfort zone. On another note, she is in an Advanced Spanish class, which hopefully will be easy for her. However, she was a bit annoyed that the other kids don't have the proper accents. Good to know I'm not the only one who struggles with this problem! 
She was NOT happy that I made her let me take this picture, but tradition is tradition, and there's no way I'm missing out on the school sign picture. She only has to suffer through it two more times.
Britt was happy to pose for me, and I was sure he would be the one to balk at it. He also had hugs for me, as he always does. This warmed my heart - he will forever be my Mama's Boy.
It will be interesting to see where this new journey takes us. So far, Brady and I are thrilled with what we see. They are much stricter than the 4J school district when it comes to cell phones and student attire. All of the course descriptions stressed the importance of respect. The parking is a breeze! They have a few of our conservative values, and that makes us more than happy! One day at a time, and a year from now, they will be veterans instead of the newbies. Life's about to get good! 
