New State, New School

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

The 2015-2016 school year has officially started for the Krigsman family! My siblings went to their new schools for the first time today, and it was a big adjustment for everyone.

I've made it pretty clear that we've never moved before. Of course, all of my siblings lived elsewhere before being placed with my family, but none of them had ever gone to school prior to being part of our family. This was a big adjustment for everyone, and while there was a lot of excitement leading up to this morning, there were also a lot of nerves. I thought I would share what I thought were the biggest adjustments for my siblings...

1. The bus stop could be pretty intimidating. We still don't know our neighbors (guess it's not like the movies where the new neighbors are welcomed in with apple pie), so my brother and sister had no one to talk to. I stood with my brother at the bus stop, since my mom had to take the twins to school at the exact same time, but I didn't know how to get my brother to talk to anyone. It was very awkward, and my mom said that it appeared to be the same when she brought my sister to the bus stop. Come on people, doesn't everyone want to be friends with the new kids? Hopefully they'll both have bus buddies by the end of the week.
2. No one knows the layout of the new schools. My mom got to walk in with the twins for their first day, but she said it was insanely confusing, especially because there were so many people walking around and it was mass chaos. You want to look brave for little kids, but geez, sometimes it's just not easy.
3. You can't help but compare everything to your old school. That mass chaos in the elementary school? Wouldn't have happened in our old elementary school. My brother and sister are now on different buses, at different times, but they would have been on the same bus in our old district.
4. Going to school in a different state means that school starts way earlier than it did in our old district. Back in New York, we wouldn't have started school until after Labor Day. The kids barely had a summer because Florida districts start in mid-August.
5. You second-guess everything about the new school year. Alright, hopefully the kids didn't, but my mom and I certainly did after they were gone for the day. Do people down here not care about looking nice for school, even on the first day? I've never seen so many kids in jeans and t-shirts on the first day of school. My sister stuck out in her sundress, but hopefully that didn't resonate with her.
6. No one knows anything about my siblings. The twins' dairy allergies? I don't think my mom has ever worried so much about them going to school before today. She had a letter to the teacher in one of their book bags, they both had their medical bracelets on, and she was drilling the concept of not touching or eating anything that wasn't from their backpacks into their head before we all left the house this morning. Luckily, the girls are pretty used to this by now and didn't eat anything without having my mom check it first after school. Oh, and of course no one knows about the disabilities that my brother and sister have. Speaking of which, I'm not sure if I've ever written specifically about their struggles, so I guess I know what I'm writing about tomorrow! They don't appear to have a disability when you look at them, so it can be hard when they don't know other kids. I'm hoping they find good friends quickly and fit in somewhere in their schools with ease.
7. We're all on new schedules. Back in New York, the high school and middle school bus picked up at the same time, and the elementary bus didn't pick up until about an hour later. Now, my sister is out the door before 6:30am (why is anyone required to be awake and functioning at that hour?!) and then my brother's bus picks up about two hours later at the same time that my mom has to bring the twins to their school... the elementary school doesn't provide busing or something. Or maybe we're just too close to the school so we're considered walkers. I don't know, but when my sister leaves the house, it's pitch black out, which means that my mom is going to probably drive her down the road for a while. And then that means that I have to be awake because the twins and my brother get up obnoxiously early for no particular reason, so I need to be awake because the girls might panic if they can't find my mom. Great....not.
8. There are new mascots down here. That may not seem like that big of a deal, but it really is, especially to kindergarten kids. They just had our old mascot drilled into their brains all year, and now they have a totally different mascot. And by the way, there's not even a district mascot down here. Each school is something totally different. Nothing's ever easy...
9. We're not well-known in the district anymore. Anyone from a large family knows that by the time the last of your siblings are beginning school, your mom knows most of the teachers in the elementary school, you and your siblings have probably shared at least one or two teachers, and you feel like a mini celebrity in any of the schools. Now, no one has any idea who we are, and everyone won't go through each of the schools. My sister's starting in the high school here, my brother's already in middle school, and the twins will be the only family members to go through all three of the schools. I guess this means that I have to show my ID when I pick someone up from school now....
10. I guess this last point is more about me than anyone else, so maybe no one else can relate to it, but it's totally true. I don't know anything about these schools, the people who work here, or the kids who attend classes with my siblings. I feel like I'm no help anymore, like I can't protect my siblings. I mean, yeah, what could I have really done in New York? But I guess I felt like I knew those schools, and they were safe. Of course my siblings would run into an unpleasant student once in a while, or they would encounter that nasty teacher at some point in their school career, but overall the schools were great and I knew that they would be alright. Down here, I don't know anything about the schools. I don't even know where the middle school is, and I only saw the front of the high school once as we happened to drive by it. I feel like I can't do anything for my siblings but listen to their retelling of the day after they come home.

I think that, overall, the first day of school in a new district in a new state went pretty well. Still, I hope that the kids feel much more comfortable over the course of the week, and that everyone finds some new friends soon.

Oh, I should also mention that my mom wanted the title of tonight's post to be "I am a liar" (or something along those lines). But honestly, I am looking forward to spending some one-on-one time with my mom! It just so happened that today we were completely exhausted, so I sat in my bedroom watching, and I'm ashamed to say this, three hours of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix. But now I finished the series (again... I also watched the entire nine seasons over winter break. Yes, I do have a problem and I will be the first to admit that), so maybe tomorrow my mom and I can actually talk and get some stuff done around the house. We'll see. I might fall asleep all day, because boy am I tired!

Thank you so much for your continued support! I look forward to sharing more stories about my experience with foster care, and hopefully hearing from readers who have questions or similar stories to share. I'm always willing to answer questions and hear about other experiences! Please don't forget to like and share my Facebook author page as well!

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Thanks!
Taylor

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