My column at the Washington Independent Review of Books coincided with the first day of school this year—both for me, teaching at George Mason University, and for my son, starting kindergarten. Yikes! Double yikes!
Here’s the opening to my article commemorating the occasion:
Today marks the first day of school for two-thirds of our household. Our son, Dashiell, is starting kindergarten — a milestone transition — and I’m teaching my first classes of the new semester at George Mason University.
Not incidentally, the other one-third of the house, my wife, Tara, started a new job over the summer — and all of us moved to a new house in early August. We’re still unpacking, endlessly, it seems.
Dash is excited about kindergarten, but he’s also a little bit — hold your thumb and forefinger about an inch apart — scared. As I’ve explained to him, that’s normal. Mama was nervous about her first day at the new job, but all’s working out there. And we were all a mix of excited and sad about moving from one home to another. Bittersweet — that was the word Dash learned in early August. Many conflicting emotions.
Oh, and the full version includes a lot about Sherlock Holmes too. Check it out here.