Ballad of the backpack begins.

It’s the night before first grade starts. I guess I’ve lived through multiple (somewhere around 30+) of these nights, but this one is different.

By my front door there’s a Spiderman backpack filled with lined notebooks… clear plastic book covers… pencils…

Everything is still innocent. Everything is still fresh-faced and calm. Bracing for the change.

And 12 hours before school starts, we got our first panicked –

“But I don’t wanna go…”