GETTING USED TO THE NEW REALITY
The next four weeks were long! I kept wondering how she was doing. Was she able to hack the school routine? How were her studies going? Once again I had to restrain myself from calling the teacher too often in case he branded me as a needy mom! Meanwhile, I would talk to friends with kids in the same class in other schools, and they would tell me how they would chat with their kids weekly. These conversations were not helpful, as I would feel like we should have opted to have her in a different school that was more kid-friendly (and mommy-friendly as well).
Finally, the four weeks ended, and our gem came home. I was over the moon! She looked a bit better now – not as tired and bony as before. The bag was still full of dirty clothes, though – but I didn’t mind. She was home for a one-week holiday!!
What is a one-week holiday? One can barely catch up with sleep, family, and eating! To make matters worse, there is homework!
So the roller coaster began once more. Sleep, eat, work, eat, work, sleep. We also had other stuff to do, as she needed to replace some items and purchase additional books. By the way – she came home with only one pair of socks out of the five I had bought!
As the week flew by, I watched her struggle with homework and notes, and once again decided to step in. This time I drew the diagrams as we watched our favorite (at the time) cooking competition and chatted. This time she had a few funny stories to tell, and I could see she was settling into the school routine. We had to help her set up a personal and study timetable, but everything else seemed to be on track. My gem was settling in faster than we expected!
The week ended, and it was time to go back to school. That morning was rushed as my gem frantically tried to write a few more notes before packing her bag. Everything was hurriedly thrown into the car and we set off for school. We made good time until the car battery died. Drama! Where does one get a battery that early in the morning? Thankfully we got a new one without much trouble. Thank God for petrol stations that stock batteries! We hit the highway half an hour behind schedule. It looked like we would not get there on time!
The kilometers flew by, but so did the minutes on the clock. I asked myself more than 20 times why on earth the school is so far away!
We got to school with five minutes to spare, opened the doors in a flash, took out the bags, and dashed to the gate just before it was closed.
She made it!
No goodbye hugs.
No last words of advice.
No last prayer.
And she was gone. Again.
This time I didn’t cry. She was settling into high school at her pace.
We would eventually get used to this.