I don’t feel old enough to have a kid starting high school in the fall. I just don’t! Do all parents feel this way? I feel like I should have somehow hit another parent maturity level before getting to this point (and maybe I’ll get there this summer before the next school year starts). But, as of right now, I just don’t feel ready for the high school years quite yet.

Plus, our local high school is HUGE! It’s a 6A school here in Texas (2,100+ students). When I was in high school (yes, back in the day) the largest campus was 5A, and that seemed insanely big compared to my 2A country high school. I only graduated with about 200 classmates.

The local school seems more like a college campus, and I’ve heard other parents refer to it that way as well, which seems like such an accurate description to me and definitely resonates size-wise. But, that’s also what’s making this upcoming high school transition hard for all of us; it seems like such a big leap from the local middle school.

Thankfully, there is a separate freshman campus to help ease the transition, but it’s still expansive in and of itself.

Then there are the classes that are an all block schedule, again similar to most college campuses. So, on top of getting used to a new class system, there’s also only room for eight classes total per year, which mean something had to give somewhere in our daughter’s schedule.

That ended up being orchestra, something she’s been involved in since third grade when, at age eight, she started playing the cello. Yes, I’m grieving the loss of this activity a little (and as parents I think it’s important to allow ourselves to do so). Plus, this activity has been a big part of all of our lives for years, including weekly lessons, daily cello practice at home and many concerts throughout the school year. Anyway, with this decision made and out of the way, she now has time and space for her core classes, Spanish and running/basketball (depending on what team she makes after tryouts in the fall).

As a parent, I’m trying to be supportive of my teen during this time of transition, while not getting too ahead of myself with all the big high school moments that are to come in the (not so distant) future.