First day of Senior year!

I'mmmm baaaaccckkkk! Ha ha!

For years Esme has asked me to continue to add to Everyday Erntson and I just didn't. I wish I had now for obvious reasons but I had the seemingly valid excuses of  "life is busy", "there's not enough time", yada yada yada...

I have no idea if she'll see it beforehand but one of my graduation gifts to Esme, and my future self, is to do my best to document her senior year here. It might just be a quick note here and there but that's ok too. Perfection is the enemy of good so I will not strive for it. 

Yesterday was Esme's first day of her senior year of high school. It seems impossible that could be the case. I vividly remember her standing in front of the sign at Albertville Primary for her kindergarten orientation that read "Welcome class of 2027" and thinking that 2027 was so far away, impossible to reach. Much like I thought that 1999 was impossible to reach when I, myself, was a senior and we were singing Prince's 1999 at parties thinking about our 10 year reunion and how it was a lifetime away, unreachable. But here we are, decades past 1999 and staring straight into the face of 2027. 

Esme and I took the obligatory first day of school photos with the homemade sign that has not changed since preschool, 14 years ago. She smiled the million smiles and posed the multitude of poses and I took at least 20 photos just to get the one or two that would be good enough. Then she gave me real, heartfelt hugs and kisses and went down the road to her friend Carly's house where she was meeting more friends for breakfast and more photos. 

I have asked her twice to send me the photos from there but she hasn't so here are a few of her friends posted to Instagram. Being secretive about why I want more photos this year might bring unwanted suspicion but hopefully she will be so busy being a high schooler that she won't even notice. 

At the end of the day she came home and said her day was fabulous for the most part. The only bad thing she had to say, which was not really bad at all, is that she didn't really like the new principal. So overall I would say that her day was amazing! She is so grown up it's killing me. And also I could not be more proud of her.