Sweet Shoppe Designs

Journaling (I altered "I Trust You Will Treat Her Well" by Victor Buono)

Dear World:

I bequeath to you today one little boy...in jean overalls...with two blue eyes....and a happy laugh that ripples all day long..and a flash of strawberry blond hair that bounces in the sun when he runs. I trust you'll treat him well.

He's slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning...and skipping off down the street to his first day of school. And never again will he be completely mine. Shy and scared he'll look backwards with eyes that say "Goodbye" and walk with little boy steps to the schoolhouse.

Now he'll learn to stand in lines...and wait by the alphabet for his name to be called. He'll learn to tune his ears for the sounds of school-bells...and deadlines...and he'll learn to giggle..and gossip...and stick his tongue out at little girls across the aisle. And now he'll learn to be jealous. And now he'll learn how it is to feel hurt inside. And now he'll learn how not to cry.

No longer will he have time to sit on the front porch on a summer day and watch an ant scurry across the crack in the sidewalk. Nor will he have time to pop out of bed with the dawn and kiss lilac blooms in the
morning dew. No, now he'll worry about those important things..like grades and what to wear and whose best friends is whose. And the magic of books and learning will replace the magic of his blocks and
cars. And now he'll find new heroes.

For two full years now I've been his sage and Santa Claus and pal and playmate and mother and friend. Now he'll learn to share his worship with his teachers… which is only right. But no longer will I be the
smartest woman in the whole world. Today when that school bell rings for the first time...he'll learn what it means to be a member of the group...with all its privileges and its disadvantages too.

He'll learn in time that proper young men do not laugh out loud...or kiss dogs...or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms..or even watch ants scurry across cracks in sidewalks in the summer.

Today he'll learn for the first time that all who smile at him are not his friends. And I'll stand on the front porch and watch him start out on the long, lonely journey to becoming a man.

So, world, I bequeath to you today one little boy...in a jean overalls...with two blue eyes...and a flash of strawberry blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when he runs.

I trust you'll treat him well.

Kit is Teacher's Pet by Melissa Bennett
Alpha is It's Not Easy Being Green by Darcy Baldwin