College Girl

Last week Sarah started her sophomore year at NPC.

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I still can't get my mind around the fact that my baby girl is a college student! Wasn't it just a few months ago that I was cuddling my firstborn in my arms and vowing to protect her from every hard thing in the world?

Sarah was the first in my tradition of first-day-of-school photos.

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Here she is at age 5 in front of DeNeil Olson's kindergarten class on August 17, 1995. Mrs. Olson was young, patient, and nice, and Sarah had no trouble adjusting to school.

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After we dropped off Sarah, I took Jacob over to the Toddlin' Jackets preschool and took his picture on the front steps. His was my second first-day picture, although he'd actually started at the preschool several months earlier.

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Then came 1st grade on Sept 9, 1996. It was the year school started late due to extensive remodeling throughout the district.

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This is Sarah, age 6, at Brenda Penrod's classroom. Brenda had been teaching for many years and Sarah did well with her. Jacob was also in Mrs. Penrod's class 2 years later.
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Aug 14, 1997: 7-year-old Sarah begins 2nd grade with Zita Seballos Semingson. This was a very exciting year for Sarah because she had a brand new baby brother. Dylan was 7 weeks old when school started.

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That was also when I went back to work, leaving my 44-day-old infant with a sitter. I cried all the way to work. Which may explain why Sarah's hair was so wild on the first day of school!

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On to 3rd grade! Here we have 8-year-old Sarah in front of Pam Trainor's classroom on Aug 13, 1998.

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We love Mrs. Trainor, who lives just around the corner from us. Dylan was in her 3rd grade class 8 years later!
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Blue Ridge Elementary School ended at 3rd grade back in those days. Students moved on to grades 4, 5, and 6 at the nearby Mid School. The change could be a bit frightening, as Sarah's expression here attests!

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This was Kay Locke, 9-year-old Sarah's 4th grade teacher, on Aug. 12, 1999. Kay is one of the most amazing teachers I've ever met. Jacob was in her class 2 years later, and soon afterward Kay retired. (I don't think Jacob drove her to retirement, though!)

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August 24, 2000: Sarah, age 10, begins 5th grade with Lisa Gray, a first-year teacher who gave up a career as a police officer to become a teacher.

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Sarah had a special connection with Mrs. Gray and they stayed in touch for awhile. The following year Mrs. Gray and her husband, a DPS officer, moved to Australia for a year on some sort of exchange program for law enforcement.

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I'm not sure what happened with the shot below. Since I had a regular camera in those days, I didn't know the picture was bad until it was developed.

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Thank goodness for today's digital cameras!

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Anyway, you can almost see 11-year-old Sarah in front of the classroom of her 6th grade teacher, Denise Thomas, on Aug 20, 2001. Sarah grew up a lot in Denise's class.

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Again, Jacob was in Mrs. Thomas's class 2 years later.

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Originally I had intended to continue first-day photographs until my kids all graduated from high school. However, without a specific classroom to pose them in front of, it became a bit trickier.

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I did take pictures in front of the junior high school while Sarah was in 7th and 8th grade, but by the time Jacob reached 7th grade I gave it up. The junior high's school hours were the same as mine at the high school, and my first-day-of-school duties as a teacher made it hard to continue the tradition.

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At left, 12-year-old Sarah on Aug 15, 2002, her first day as a 7th grader.


And here we have Sarah at age 13 as an 8th grade student on Aug 14, 2003. (The first of many photos taken with my first digital camera!)

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She certainly blossomed into a young lady during the year she turned 13, didn't she!

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And so Sarah has traveled a long road to reach the life she has today as a college student. I'm so proud of the choices she has made along the way. I know she'll accomplish great things as she continues toward the goals she has set for herself.

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Sarah, you go girl!