March 3rd: 11 days until the day of our Nerd's Birth

Welcome??? Yeah, not so much......

Our nerd never went to preschool (shock! gasp! horror!). When most other children her age were attending preK and developing crucial social skills, she was hanging with her mom, watching children's programming on television--Romper Room and Friends, Paddington Bear, Inspector Gadget, Ryan's Hope, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and All My Children, to name a few (so yah, not all of the programming was technically "children's programming," but whatever. I think she's turned out to be a pretty sensible person in spite of the soaps).

But our nerd also started reading at an early age and she loved to flip through her big brothers' school books. She wore their book bags on her back and dreamt about carrying a pink lunch box to school someday. The thought of kindergarten made her giddy. Going to kindergarten meant that she would be a big kid like her brothers and their friends. She would have homework and summer vacation and books of her own.

So, on the first day of school, our nerd woke up before her mother did and proudly donned her uniform: a round collared shirt in a shade of yellow that seems to have existed only in the '80s, a brown and yellow plaid skirt jumper and a matching brown and yellow crisscross tie with a pearl snap. She sat still as her mother brushed her hair and didn't complain once about it hurting. After her hair was brushed and she'd worn her knee high brown socks and brown loafers, our nerd stood impatiently by the door waiting for her brothers and her mother. She clutched to the pink My Little Pony lunch box that her mother had bought her and a flat, empty book bag hung off her shoulders.

Soon she was walking towards the elementary school, holding onto her mother's long Pakistani shirt (a kameez in Urdu), as was her habit. This time, she thought to herself, instead of dropping Sabahat, Shafaat and Haseeb (Haseeb was her brothers' best friend growing up) off, you get to stay too. Our nerd felt like she was going to spontaneously combust with excitement (or something). The cool fall air nipped her nose and cheeks and the sky was a clear blue. It was an auspicious day for the first day of school.

Being among the first to arrive to school, the nerd's mother--after giving the nerd what I'm sure was great advice and telling her brothers to look after her--led her to where the kindergarten teacher was standing and told her to stand in line. She was the first in line! Wasn't she excited.

And our nerd was, indeed, thrilled.

But then her mother walked away and stood to the side.

Our nerd felt her heart drop to the floor. Her throat started to constrict and her eyes watered as she watched her mother smiling at her encouragingly.

This time, instead of just dropping her brothers and their friend off, she had to stay too and she was no longer happy about it.

Her world collapsing around her, our nerd slowly walked away from what she would very soon realize was a much coveted spot in line and walking to the wall, rested her head against the old bricks and quietly began to cry.

She felt someone touch her back but didn't bother turning around. She knew that this must be her fate and, at the moment, it seemed to be a fate worse than being forced to watch Sesame Street and those annoyingly fake puppets dance and sing and count like idiots. Like, Big Bird was so just a tall freak in a stupid yellow plumaged costume. Ugh (it is safe to guess that our nerd was NOT a fan of Sesame Street).

So, she didn't protest when the old woman with blueish-white hair that looked a lot like giant marshmallows glued to her head, turned the nerd around and, taking her by the hand, walked her back to the line.

Some kid had taken over our nerd's first position in line. While she still cried fat, tragic tears whenever she caught a glimpse of her mother out of the corner of her eye, the nerd also stared at the back of the little girl's head and started to wonder how early she'd have to come in the following day to be first in line.

...and so it began...