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Ellie started off our school shopping nights this year. I knew she only needed a few skirts and shirts to get her ready for school and I thought it might be fun to outfit her with some locker accoutrements as well. I had no idea that Ellie had other ideas. Her ultimate goal was to get her ‘required’ shopping done so we would have enough time to go to Staples.
Yes, you read that right. For Ellie’s school shopping night she ultimately wanted to go to Staples so she could get herself ready for middle school.
Here’s how clueless I was about my middle daughter’s state of mind. When we sat down for dinner I opened our conversation with ‘What are you most excited about for Middle School?’ And then I added ‘While you are thinking about that I’d love to know what you are most worried about too.’. Talk about opening the flood gates!
‘I’m worried about bullies. Oh, I’m also worried about bears in the courtyard (there were some at the middle school last May) and missing the bus.’ Bullies, bears and the bus, Oh my! But that wasn’t all. She is also worried about not hearing her alarm, not finding her classes, forgetting her locker combination, having too much homework, and would her best friend have a locker nearby. My lovely little introvert had been holding all of this inside all summer. (Of course I should have suspected something was up because she hasn’t been sleeping well. NOW I understand!)
What was she most looking forward to? ‘I have no idea. I’ve never been to middle school!’ Fair enough!
Despite all of these worries we had a fun night and now we have her closet and locker fully outfitted and ready to go for the next school year. I thought about picking up one of these for Ellie too, but I know once the school year starts she’s not going to need it!