last day.

Here she is.

In all her 'last' day glory.

My very favorite little toothless first grader.

She's like a character straight out of a Beverly Cleary novel.

A little bit sassy, a lot sweet, a little bit spazzy, a lot scrappy.

And completely, entirely, utterly lovable.

She's learned a lot in first grade.

All of the important stuff…how to really, truly read, how to do math (which she amazes me at), how to write a hypothesis, how to tell time, how to measure things, all about poems and famous poets, how to use a computer, how to use a table of contents, how to sit quietly in class without talking to your neighbor (this one you never really mastered)…the list goes on and on.

And then she learned the really, really important stuff.

Like how to get a long with all types of people.

How easily feelings can be hurt.

How easily people can feel left out.

And it was hard.

Hard for her as a kid and hard for me as a parent.

Because as much as I wanted to laugh when I heard she got in trouble for telling someone that they had bad handwriting (is that really the worst insult she could come up with…I am failing her), and as much as I agreed with her that she shouldn't have to play with kids she doesn't want to play with at recess…and as much as it made me sad, too, when Mrs. Booker told me she was making fun of a another kids drawing and made the kid cry…and Hadley told me they made fun of hers' first and that it's not fair…and that she shouldn't have to be nice to people that are mean to her first...

the reality is, you do, kiddo.

You have to be nice people.

(even if you they are mean to you first).

You have to include people.

(even if they suck to play with).

And you have to deal with things that aren't fair.

(because that's just life).

And as much as I don't want the world to try to change you and shape you into what the world thinks you should be, or mold you to be 'more like', and as much as I say always stay true to who you are…I also want you to be the person that is nice, and is accepting, and is involved (really the exact opposite of me)…and if you can't do any of that, I just want you to be really good at faking it…and ignore the hell out of the kids you can't stand.

And if you can perfect that combo (a little bit 0f niceness and a little bit 0f fakeness and a little bit of the avoidance), the world is your oyster.

And you will be well on your way to getting anything and everything your heart desires.

Except, being classmates with your best friends Jimena next year.

You two were blackballed from each other for the rest of elementary school.

Something about too much talking.

You win some you lose some.

But I would say, all in all, first grade was a total win!