This is the day that Lincoln Public Schools has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Or at least give ourselves an extra 5 minutes for the bumper-to-bumper commute with all those kid-laden cars.)
I’ve been known to get weepy on that first end-of-summer Monday morning. (And, no, I am not a teacher.)
I’m also not sending any children off to class, which often caused tears of another kind.
But I’m here for you.
I’ll be here in the morning when you start posting those photos.
The little chalkboard signs with that perfect printing — name, age, favorite subject, future earnings based on expressed career preference in kindergarten.
All the Kubick first day-of-school photos were slightly blurry.
There was often squinting, sometimes a scowl. The occasional lunch box — does anyone carry a lunch box anymore? There were bowl cuts and long, baggy jean shorts. A skinny girl with a lime-green backpack her mom still totes on airplanes. (Note: they made JanSport to last.)
Some advice: Don’t worry about the photo.
Worry about the school zones. Go slow.
Be on the lookout for crazed moms in minivans, who I assume — having once been one — are still out there, possibly driving mid-size SUVs.
Be on alert for darting children, pokey crosswalk-crossers, fifth-graders on scooters.
Breathe in the possibilities, the hope of a perfect report card, the making of new friends, the promise of getting the third grade teacher your big brother loved last year. (Looking at you, Mrs. Woolf.)
Ingratiate yourself with those teachers. All of them. Because, despite their unbridled joy in snow days, despite the immediate counting down of days until fall break, they are in it for your kid.
So turn in those permission slips. Log into the homework portal. Keep sharp pencils. (Keep them at home only.)
Look at those other children. Think of the small hopes and dreams of their parents. Beloved, like your own offspring. (And no doubt, just as annoying.)
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I see you judging those middle-schoolers with their phones and that hair and the scent of oncoming adolescence. One day they will be coming home to you.
Love them, too.
Sign up for Fun Night, even if they won’t let you bring a homemade cake for the cake walk because your kitchen hasn’t passed a Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department inspection. (If your kitchen has passed a health department inspection, invite the entire staff over for dinner.)
Sign up for booster club, sign up for PTO. Or not. (If not, don’t complain about how bossy the parents in charge are.)
If you are sending your baby off to school for the first time, go ahead and weep. But don’t be so busy taking the phone video you miss the moment. Feel it.
Life isn’t an Instagram picture.
And there will be more moments to come. More than you can imagine.
The day your kid comes home, bright as a sunbeam, because she learned how to read.
The day she comes home scratching her head and holding the dreaded “second grade has experienced an outbreak of head lice†note.
The day you land in the Lincoln Southeast High School health office and see all those notes written by you, that weren’t written by you.
The day you get the bill for senior pictures.
Oh, yes. I’ll be thinking of you today.
About all the first days and last days to come and all the out of lunch money, fighting in the bathroom, forgetting notebooks, crying over homework days in-between.
All of the hard days and proud days, the growing up of a child with the help of a community of educators to nudge and prod and cheer them on.
And remember, you’ll be returning to Target on Monday night.
Because all those school supplies you bought?
You forgot the protractor.
And the locker mirror.
And whatever it is everyone else had on the first day that your child did not.
Back to school in the Lincoln area
Updated photos: Back to school 2019 in the Lincoln area
Dominic Yankus Geneva
Jamison, sophomore year
First day
First day
LNE senior.jpg
2nd grade.jpg
Grace.jpg
Charlotte.jpg
Carisa.jpg
2nd grade.jpg
Left-4th middle-2nd and right-3rd.jpg
Sophomore year at Arts and Humanities.jpg
Kindergarten.jpg
First day 3.jpg
First day.jpg
5th grade.jpg
First day 2.jpg
4th and 9th.jpg
2nd grade 2.jpg
2nd grade.jpg
2nd and 3rd.jpg
First day.jpg
Yelaniya 8th grade and Yasyah 4th grade.jpg
First day of 1st grade for Haileigh and first day of 4th grade for Afton
Senior year.jpg
Miracle is a Preschool. Catina is a 1st grader. Mommies 1st day at a new school, 3yr with LPS..jpg
Mz Bella on her first day of 5th grade.jpg
L to R 4th grade at Arnold Elm, 7th grade at Schoo Middle School, 1st grade at Arnold Elm.jpg
Lt to Rt (baby home schooled lol) 10th, 5th, 2nd, and 1st grade!.jpg
Kindergarten and 1st grade!!.jpg
Ibrahim saleh. 1st grade at Roper.jpg
First day of 6th and 9th Grade.jpg
9th grade.jpg
First day 4.jpg
7th and 3rd.jpg
5th 2nd 1st preschool and bees room.jpg
6th grade.jpg
4th grade 3.jpg
4th grade..Alex Aguirre.jpg
4th grade 2.jpg
1st grade.jpg
2nd and 4th grades..jpg
1st grade 2.jpg
1st day 3.jpg
1st day.jpg
First day of 8th grade
Zane first day of sixth grade.jpg
Mehdi first day of 5th grade!.jpg
Zahra first day of Kindergarten.jpg
Kira 6th grade.jpg
Mason Starts Kindergarten.jpg
Iliana (1st Grade) and Zain (Kindergarten!).jpg
First Day Azalea Geiszler.jpg
First day.jpg
Breanna 8th grade.jpg
Elija is in 5th.jpg
Austin's first day of second grade at Belmont Elementary!.jpg
Alyssa 1st grade.jpg
7th grade.jpg
Tegan Korf, Age 6, 1st Grade.jpeg
Sheridan Sharks.jpg
Shannon family.jpg
Shannon family 2.jpg
First day of Kindergarten at Holmes Elementary.jpg
Josiah 5th & Aubrey 4th!.jpg
Yareli.jpg
Owen, 5th grade, Maxey.jpg
Jasmine 7th grade. Randi 5th grade.jpg
Melina starting TCA criminal justice classes at scc and Terry Jr. 1st day of high school.jpg
First day.jpg
First day 5.jpg
First day 3.jpg
First day 4.jpg
Delia 3rd grade.jpg
First day 2.jpg
Bentley’s first day of 3rd grade and Haylee’s first day of 1st grade at Kloefkorn.jpg
Back to school.jpg
2nd and 5th grade.jpg
6th and 8th grade.jpg
NW 55th neighborhood kids.jpg
Jacob Seuferer-Partin, 2nd grade.jpg
Jaceon.jpg
First day.jpg
The McCormicks.jpg
Sean first day of 2nd grade.jpg
Mason's first day of kindergarten.jpg
Justin_4th_grade.jpg
First day pose with the trash men.jpg
First day.jpg
First day 2.jpg
1st grade.jpg
6th grade.jpg
1st and 3rd graders.jpg
Third grade.jpg
Tari, Aveya and Tavi.jpg
Miles and Harper Jones.jpg
Stephen, freshman at East.jpg
First day!.jpg
Kody.jpg
First day of preschool.jpg
Easton.jpg
Carter.jpg
11th grade.jpg
9th,7th,2nd.jpg
7th and 3rd grade.jpg
6th grade Dawes.jpg
4th grade Roper.jpg
2nd grade West Lincoln.jpg
3rd & 7th.jpg
2nd and 4th grade!.jpg
1st grade Roper.jpg
Fifth grade.jpg
Clarke 1st grade Wysong.jpg
1st grade.jpg
Reighn.jpg
My kindergartner and 6th grader...2 big milestones!!.jpg
Kindergarten.jpg
Kindergarten 2.jpg
First day of 6 & 8 for the humans while the puppies wait patiently for them to be home!.jpg
First day 4.jpg
First day 3.jpg
First day 2.jpg
Andrew 2nd grade.jpg
8th and 6th grade at Lux!!.jpg
7th and 3rd grade.jpg
6th grade at Pound.jpg
5th grade.jpg
5th grade 2.jpeg
4th grade.jpg
4th grade 3.jpg
4th grade 2.jpg
3rd grade- Lakeview Elementary.jpg
3rd and 5th grade!!!.jpg
2nd grader.jpg
3rd and 1st grade!.jpg
2nd grade.jpg
2nd grade! Morley Elementary.jpg
1st day of kindergarten.jpg
1st day of kindergarten 2.jpg
1st day of 2nd grade.jpg
1st day of 2nd grade 2.jpg
1st day 6.jpg
First day of 7th grade for Kalina, first day of kindergarten for Maddox
Twins Reagan and Rozlyn , 8th grade at Moore Middle school . First class to go all the way through Moore.jpg
Nero's first day of kindergarten.jpg
Sheree 3rd grade. Deovontay 6th grade, first year of middle school.jpg
My grandson Caleb Venetis. Arnold Elementary..jpg
Moore Middle School, 6th grade and 8th grade.jpg
Keanna and Breanna first day of 9th grade.jpg
Lily.jpg
Kaydance 4th grade and Zeadyn 2nd grade.jpg
First day of high school, 5th and 7th grade! Have a great first day to all the kiddos going today!.jpg
First day of 2nd grade.jpg
First day as a 2nd grader and a kindergartener.jpg
First day 4.jpg
Fifth grade.jpg
Allison Dobbs, 1st grade at Kloefkorn, photo from Sarah Evans Dobbs.jpg
The Journal Star celebrates the first day of school every year with photos from our readers. Submit your child's photo in a Facebook message or email it to yourpics@journalstar.com.