When we moved back to my hometown, I had a lot of idyllic visions of how things would be, much like my friend Kate.

Some things came true.
We take strolls around our neighborhood and nature walks or alphabet walks.
(Well, we do when it’s cooler outside.)
We swim and have lazy dinners with some of my oldest family friends.
We do fun stuff with friends, old and new.
We often have Sunday lunch with my parents.

So in a lot of ways, life here is idyllic.

But there are also things that aren’t exactly what I anticipated.
Carter’s school, for example.

He will be starting Kindergarten this year.
I don’t know who’s more excited: me or him!

He’ll be going to a *Brand*New*School*, which is awesome and beautiful and well-planned.
But I have to admit that when we picked our house, we assumed we’d be zoned for what was my old elementary school.
When I went to register him for school back in May, I went to my old school…the school I thought he’d be going to…
and I was floored by how many memories surfaced just by walking through the front door.

The time in Ms. Golson’s class when we donned black plastic trash bags, dressed up like California Raisins and did the dance.
The first day I wore glasses to school.
The time I was disappointed that one 5th grade class learned the word “antidisestablishmentarianism” and our class didn’t.
(I’ve always been a dork.)
The time we made paper with Ms. Rivers.
Sitting in my 1st grade class and watching the snow fall through those tiny little slits of window.
I even remember one day from Kindergarten…when Chan asked me to sit at his table.
I remember lunches and PTA meetings and talent shows in the lunchroom.

A few days ago, I had another reason to go up to my old school.
I asked if it was ok if I just walked around and looked, and the secretary said that was fine.
I walked to the play ground.
There was a lot of new equipment, but the swings were still there.
And I remembered kicking a boy because he tried to kiss me,
Being too much of a scared-y cat to jump of the swings while I was swinging,
Standing in the shade of the building with Ms. Blizzard and some of the students from her class.

I know it sounds a bit crazy,
but I thought it would be cool if my kids and I had memories from the same place, different times.
And I know it sounds crazy, but there are parts of me that wish we were zoned
for the old, slightly-run-down-but-obviously-loved school and not the *Big*Fancy*New school.

At the old school, there are lots of playscapes.
The new school has no playground at all(yet).
At the old school, I know the principal and a lot of the staff.
I’ve never met the principal at the new school, but I’ve heard that she’s really nice.
At the old school, I have lots of memories.
The new school has new memories to be made for the kids and me!

He is excited!
I am excited!

I’m happy about the teacher to whom he’s been assigned.
I’ve known her for years, and she’s super-duper sweet.
She taught him in Sunday School a few years back, so she knows what she’s getting into!